Beware
MiniMoves.com

Beware of Mini Moves UPDATE (10/24/21)

• Mini Moves admitted to causing all the damage – But still refuse to pay the
  $9,275 insured reimbursement without demanding we sign an onerous legal release that puts us in future jeopardy – we won't.
• Insurance fraud is possible as their own insurance company wants nothing to do
  with the claim according to Mini Moves even though our family paid for full
  replacement value insurance. In other negative reviews of Mini Moves, insurance
  claims were often mentioned as a chief complaint. Worth looking into fraud and
  perhaps a class action lawsuit. We will notify any interested parties looking to join
  such an effort.
• Women, watch out – We are usually the ones hiring moving companies but their
  top executive constantly mansplains and talks down to women making this horror an even more insulting nightmare.
• We've kept our part of the deal – Made every payment on time and even filed an
  initial claim for the purchase value instead of replacement value (to their benefit)
  even though we are entitled to replacement value based on the $834 in extra
  insurance coverage we bought. We will be submitting a "revised" claim based on
  replacement value that we are entitled to as Mini Moves doesn't seem to appreciate that we've been above honorable and expeditious.
• They want us to sign a non-disparagement legal document even though they
  have been the only dishonorable party. We rejected it. Our contract calls for
  reimbursement of damaged goods not removing truthful complaints from websites,
  review sites and consumer groups like The Better Business Bureau. Next up:
  contacting local and national media to cover this consumer outrage that has affected many more people than just our family.

With Mini Moves you can move out any time you like, but you can never get paid for the
damage they leave behind.

Go to BewareMiniMoves.com and read more.

Also see the complaints others have made against Mini Moves on Angi, Yelp, Better Business Bureau and note a paltry 3-star review mostly based on failure to pay
legitimate insurance claims.

If you're new to this horror story, scroll down for more details.

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This website is designed to be a warning to anyone who might hire Chicago-based Mini Moves Inc. to assist in any level of moving of valuable, sentimental or meaningful property.

Our family hired Mini Moves twice – once for our move from Los Angeles in 2008 as well as a more recent 2021 move from Scottsdale, Arizona to our main family home in Southern New Jersey. The first move from California to Arizona was simply flawless. Nothing was broken. The movers were polite, on-time and the prices were fair.

Roll the tape forward 12 years and how things have changed.

We signed a contract with Mini Moves May 28, 2021 to do our move from Scottsdale to South Jersey in the amount of $14,602 which included insurance for broken or lost items.

Here are some details of the transaction:

• MINI MOVES ACCEPTED ALL PACKAGES WITHOUT COMMENT OR COMPLAINT.

• During the loading process, no representative of the company (think: mover, supervisor or anyone from their office) refused any packages or items for any reason including items that they may have deemed not packaged properly.

• The moving truck arrived at our former home in Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale on May 15, 2021. It took a full day to load the truck with all of the items that were going back to New Jersey. Other items were professionally packed by full-time, insured packers earlier in the week.
  
• To reiterate… we paid for full insurance for these items and not one word of concern about packing, fragility or any like matter was voiced before they drove away from Scottsdale.
  
• Upon arrival in New Jersey we oversaw the unpacking process with multiple sets of supervising eyes.
  
• Our imported, Italian desk and credenza were so unique and valued that when it came off the truck a family member walked with the movers as they brought it into the house.  
  
• The $3,500 credenza was dropped and destroyed within two feet of the owner DROPPED WITH OWNER 2 FEET AWAY. The results were a shattered item that isn’t built today, imported from over 7,000 miles away and simply irreplaceable. One of the movers lost control of the item and literally dropped it to its demise. As sad as we are to have this outcome, we of course understand that items break in a move. That’s what we paid insurance for.
  
• Mini Moves determined that the credenza was not fixable but intractably refused to pay the replacement value of $3,500 despite the insurance that we purchased.
  
• On the same day, the movers unloaded a painting (original price $5,600 not taking into account any accrued value over 10 years from a notable, 90-year-old, globally well-known, Santa Monica-based modern artist named Julia Chu). Oddly, the movers started explaining to a family member that the fully packaged (with no visible damage to the box) art was damaged. How they knew this is beyond us other than they were trying to cover up the damage. The painting’s canvas was torn in half thus irreparably damaged. The artist is now retired and a replacement painting would cost anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 according to an L.A.-based art appraiser.
  
• Upon alerting the company, Mini Moves literally refused to pay a dollar for the painting let alone the $5,600 replacement value for the valuable painting even though they clearly damaged the painting.
  
• They argued that we could have the painting “sewn up” which is absolutely absurd to anyone who knows anything about fine art. The painting was torn basically in half.
  
• When trying to follow up, Mini Moves’ insurance company tried to back up this concept of sewing up a fully ripped fine art painting on canvas. We were told that no painters would “take their call” on the matter.
  
• Mini Moves also moved another damaged piece of furniture (a server) that had a marble top and that furniture also had nicks in the wood from the move. They offered to pay $175 as a settlement.
  
• Initially, Mini Moves refused to pay full restitution cost for the credenza and the painting and wanted to get away with the arbitrary $175 amount. We turned it down as unfair and unrealistic considering they did the damage and they had insurance to cover it.
  
• Likely because of our enthusiastic protest over their refusal to use their insurance company - they relented and offered to pay the full replacement value of $3,500 for the credenza and $175 for the server. We respectfully rejected this offer too.
  
• Contingent to their approximately 40 percent of replacement value offer was that we could not share this story on a website like this, to the Better Business Bureau or on any social media. We simply rejected their anemic offer to cover their self-created damage. We also retained our right to pursue legal action which sadly might be the only way to get whole from their reckless and selfish business practices.
  
• It should be noted that at first Mini Moves had their insurance company involved in the negotiations with our family but unilaterally eliminated them deciding to offer a small amount of money to make us go away and not file an insurance claim which is still an option for them.

Allow us to be clear – THIS IS AN INSURANCE SCAM!!!

We paid Mini Moves for an insurance policy to cover any damages/losses of up to $51,000 at a cost to us of $834 with 0 deductible.

In their contract it states:  BY FEDERAL LAW, THIS FORM MUST CONTAIN A FILLED IN ESTIMATE OF THE COST OF A MOVE FOR WHICH THE MOVING COMPANY IS LIABLE FOR THE FULL (REPLACEMENT) VALUE OF YOUR GOODS in the event of loss, or damage to, the goods.