Please Boycott Route 66 moving and storage!

Hello everyone,

I am Douglas Panepinto, a veteran who is disabled and medically retired from service on 28 Feb 2003. As with a great many people in our country 2020 has been an especially trying year, what caused me to require moving services was the ending of my nearly 25 year marriage. Now I still care for and love my now ex-wife however after 17 years of helping a disabled veteran and the current trying times she wanted a divorce as she could no longer tolerate the stress of a disabled spouse, the day to day effort's it entails, on top of a rather stressful and horrendous year. I tell you this to set the stage, I did not want to prolong what my wife at the time called emotional suffering so I sought to vacate my home to give her time to decide what she wanted. I also wish to be clear I do not blame her in the least, 25 years ago our marriage was filled with promise and the limited mobility and reduced social life that comes with it was not part of those vows, I will always be thankful for the many years of love and support she provided.

So Route 66 moving and storage, the branch I was dealing with was based out of Miami Florida. This is perhaps one of the highest rated moving companies in the state, I allowed this rating during my rushed timeline to put me at ease. I should have been more diligent and looked deeper. How this company maintains a 4 star plus rating when you look through the reviews past the first page and see a great many 1 star reviews detailing horrid service, poor quotes, damaged items, and no quality customer service interactions with people who had complaints, well I am unsure what to tell you. Just be aware that these negative ratings exist, I do not know if the slew of 5 star ratings are legitimate or not, but the offset the 1 star ratings significantly and will give customers a false sense of security when choosing Route 66 moving and storage. I will be giving them a 1 star myself and linking this blog so the details will be apparent supported by photos for any of you who wish to look a bit deeper.

So my interactions with Route 66 moving and storage began on August 30th, 2020. As I said I picked them because of their 4-star rating. I had already moved out of my home way back in June, initially I stayed with my sister but unfortunately her family suffered a tragic accident and her husband lost a leg in July. Not wanting to continue to ask for help as a disabled vet when her family was facing such significant life changes and tragedy I took a flight to California to stay with an old Army buddy who I have known for 27 years now. Eventually I returned to my home to ship important keepsakes and items to my friends home while my divorce went through and my now Ex-wife decided what she wanted to do. So I planned to return to Florida to do the move in September and then drive with my army buddy back in my car to California.

Wanting to minimize costs but knowing I needed my car, my wheelchair, my electric scooter, my adjustable bed, etc... I spoke on the phone as a new customer with their agent named Gerard. I was incredibly specific during our phone interview wanting an accurate estimate. The divorce was going to strain my funds horribly until I could refinance my home so I had to be certain of my expenditures. The items I wanted to take with me were the following:

1. 2 adjustable twin XL bed frames and mattresses

2. 1 very large 7 piece sectional corner couch (I was very clear it has 7 cushions not the regular 3)

3. 1 large antique dining table with 6 chairs

4. 1 Gun safe

5. 20 boxes of miscellaneous items (glassware, electronics, pictures, documents, etc...)

Gerard quoted me $7.04 per cubic foot, and a total of 456 cubic feet of space required. Gerard generously gave me a $2050.00 discount on services and quoted me a very attractive final price of $2460.76 to do the full service move. All items were to be disassembled, packed, and wrapped. My items were to be insured and full reassembled on the other side of the move. I was very impressed with the digital inventory Gerard described and the app based tracking the company offered so I could literally check on my goods every step of the way as it crossed the country. I was sold and felt very confident. I signed a digital contract (job number R7913855) and scheduled pick-up on 8 September, 2020. If only I knew then what a nightmare this would all become.

So I hopped on a plan and returned to Florida with my now ex-wife's blessing, my Army buddy came with me to help. I went to my sister's and picked up all the goods I had moved there on a trailer back in June and laid them all out on my garage floor in order, most important to least important. All temporary boxes I had used on the trailer were opened and ready for repacking as I understood my "white glove" service would only be insured if the movers packed my goods. I organized the rest of my planned items to be moved so that it would be convenient for the movers on September 8th.

On September 8th the movers arrived and were pleasant and cordial. Some gang tattoo's were present on the worker's faces (writing on their faces and other locations, 4 tear drops from one eye, one even had the notorious gang tattoo XIII on his left cheek in one inch bold text). However I tend to believe on giving people the benefit of the doubt, welcomed them into my home and even provided refreshments during their work.

I asked the boss to review what I had lain out and asked him his estimate if I had an overage. He was very clear that the cost I was quoted per cubic foot would be much higher for anything over the contracted 456 cubic feet, closer to $11 per cubic foot than the quoted $7.04. He told me a single wardrobe box, approximately 2 feet by 2 feet by 4 feet tall was considered 4 to 5 boxes by Route 66 moving and storage. By his estimate then my miscellaneous 20 boxes was closer to 40 boxes. This worried me greatly.

So I purposefully left the following behind all of which was on the original quote. 1 twin XL adjustable frame and mattress, the antique dining table and 6 chairs, and the gun safe were all removed from the items I would be having packed. The size of these items alone should have easily made up for the increased boxes, however I was still concerned. To make the move beneficial I needed one of those twin xl bed frames and mattresses and the custom couch. Taking them were not only necessary for my comfort due to my disability but the couch alone cost about $4,0000. One adjustable bed and the expensive mattress cost over $2,500. So taking them along with my keepsakes would make it financially worth it. Still worried, I gave the movers a very specific load order, Load the couch and bed first, load all my wedding crystal and china next followed by electronics and finally the items laid out in the garage. I specifically showed them all boxes were opened and needed to be repacked. Further I said as soon as I reach my planned 456 cubic foot limit to stop and let me know. The last things to be loaded was supposed to be the least important boxes, papers, pictures, etc... Things I had planned if necessary to easily load up in my car or at worst load up in a small U-Haul trailer to take back on my drive back to California.

I carefully watched them move the bed out of my bedroom, and at the same time watched them wrap up my couch. All appeared to be going as planned. So when I was asked to go over paperwork with the lead mover, I thought nothing of it. BIG MISTAKE! ALWAYS WATCH THEM!

As expected I was eventually notified they reached the 456 cubic foot limit. Imagine my utter horror when I saw my bed and adjustable frame sitting in the front game room. The movers had not loaded it as asked they wrapped it and changed the room it was in. They loaded every box and item inside the home and in the garage and left out literally the most important item to a disabled veteran. Upset I asked them to undo their mistake, pull the last boxes off as I had wanted and put the bed on as I originally asked. At this point the extortion began.

I was walked out to the truck and shown cameras at the loading doors. One would think this is for your protection as a customer, this is not so. They said sorry for the mistake but if they pull anything off I had to pay them to do so, and that the company knows and that is why the cameras were there. So now I had 3 choices, leave the $2,500 bed set behind with the one I was already leaving behind, pay a few hundred to have them pull boxes off that never should have been loaded, or I could pay for about 100 cubic feet of additional space to put my much needed bed on. By the way remember the increased rate per cubic foot I was now being charged if I took the bed. So now my estimated move price of $2,460.76 was now suddenly jacked up past $3,600 and by the way I have to pay half that immediately as in right that moment. Angered I sent my friend to get the USPS money order, and I was forced to sit down and rewrite new contracts all to get my bed on the truck. (I later learned of a news expose' about such underhanded business practices suddenly being commonly done during this trying time of Covid19.) MOVERS BEWARE ROUTE 66 MOVING AND STORAGE DOES THIS VERY THING, do not trust their estimates, I have since found numerous 1 star rating reviews buried on yelp and other sites citing this very complaint.

While my friend got this extortion money I maintained my calm and offered the movers places to sit in my home and more refreshments. Within 20 minutes my friend was back, the new forced contracts were signed. My bed finally loaded. To say I was unhappy is an understatement but as we say in the military I just had to "drive on" and keep moving forward. After the movers left I cleaned up some mess and that is when I noticed my first damaged item. The mover who sat in my overstuffed lazy-boy had ripped the metal arm off the chair used to recline it. The metal bar was literally broken in half and the handle shoved back in place to hide the damage, only when I finally went to sit down and the recline handle flopped uselessly to the ground did I know what happened.

The very next day I was contacted by Route 66, they were regretfully informing me that their app based tracking services of my move were unfortunately unavailable due to technical issues. But rest assured I would be e-mailed my driver's name and contact phone number, more on this later. Upset I described the bad estimate, how I felt extorted, and told them of my broken Lazy-boy. I was instructed to write a detailed e-mail to their customer service and that rest assured I would be contacted right away to deal with these complaints. I was further stunned to discover the mover added 30 days of storage to the new contract I was forced to sign that day in my home! I immediately canceled this storage but saw no change in price, they assured me it was free 30 days of storage and that I should trust them. I took pictures and finished my move arriving back in California 18 September. No call was ever returned. No reply to my initial e-mail's ever happened. Further no e-mail arrived by this point telling me who my driver was.

On September 18th, 2020, I again wrote an e-mail to route 66 moving and storage (info@route66movingandstorage.com) It was highly detailed and included the photo's of the broken Lazy-boy metal handle, this was my 3rd attempt of trying to get any response back on my complaints. I still now had another expected $800 to pay on delivery and I felt at the very minimum paying an increased price per cubic foot was completely unfair considering all that occurred. Again, NO RESPONSES.

Later that same day I did get a mail saying my driver was named Clive and I was given his phone number. My goods were now expected to arrive between 25 September and 2 October. Quite a big window, so on the 24th of September I called Clive to ask where he was at and when I could expect delivery. Imagine my surprise to be told that Clive did not work for or with Route 66 moving and storage and that he did not have my goods and never had.

Very upset yet again I spent numerous time texting, calling and e-mailing route 66 trying to locate my goods. By now the number of calls I had made were about 10 and about 5 to 6 e-mails. I got no responses from any e-mail and of those 10 calls only like 3 did I manage to speak to an actual live person. As mentioned above I was promised a call back on 2 occasions which never happened. Finally I got a hold of an agent who had no clue where my things were or who was driving them but again I was assured I would be called back immediately once she found out. During this call it is important I point out the agent CONFIRMED receipt of my detailed e-mail with photo's of my original complaint of service and broken furniture. No call back ever occurred, either for my complaint nor was I ever told where my stuff was or who the driver was.

The morning of October 3rd I got a call from a 3rd party mover who asked if I could receive my goods. I was relieved to finally hear from anyone. The delivery mover let me know he just got the work order to pick my stuff up that morning from a storage facility and that he himself did not work for route 66. At this point I did not care I was simply happy my stuff was located. By now it had been about 25 days since my items were picked up, since I was extorted, since they broke my Lazy-boy all with zero return communication. So my things were delivered that morning. The contractor had NO itemized list of my items, he had a bunch of barcode stickers on boxes, no inventory and no way to read the bar codes. They unloaded the items swiftly and were very nice. I wish I remembered their company name as I would recommend them now.

Unfortunately the damage was now starting to become apparent.

The couch legs were broken, the packing movers were too lazy to unscrew them so 2 legs arrived snapped. The bed remote is missing, I have an adjustable bed I cannot use, a replacement is $135, all the Serta phone apps do not seem to work. But more was still to come, the big Wardrobe boxes were taken off the truck and behind them imagine my surprise to see the movers who packed my goods simply resealed half my goods from my garage in those boxes I had opened for them. They did not repack a single thing, they hid this behind what they were forced to pack in the house (china and crystal). Now I know why my bed was not loaded they needed those boxes to hide their lazy work. These resealed boxes had NO PACKING PAPER at all, it resulted in shattered picture frames, broken European steins I collected during my service, I had 3 boxes of collectible DC and Marvel comics, comics I had been caring for the past 40 years these boxes where not padded and worse like make boxes crushed and damaged. I opened the official route 66 wardrobe boxes to see some paper on top and for the great majority of things just tossed in haphazardly. Damaged electronics, more broken items, etc... Who the hell puts a microwave in a box with European crystal glassware and china? Who dump an unseal case of collectible magic cards (over a thousand of them) diagonally on it's side so all the cards fall out and get scuffed and damaged during transit. Who loses an entire box, what else is missing I am unsure as I only now have 1 of 4 speaker stands that were packed in my home back in Florida.

Yes that is authentic European Crystal supporting a microwave...

An entire desktop computer was sitting unwrapped on top of all this, still unsure if it works.

The broken wooden AT-AT a gift from my son and my favorite Christmas ornament both broken.

Yes that is a flat screen Hi-Resolution computer monitor lying unwrapped on it's side

Just one of 3 Broken legs

I again called and e-mailed them. I took pictures, I e-mailed a detailed story just like what you see above, I included all the pictures I will link to this blog. Again no responses, no help. Many automated answering services which then disconnect you when you get transferred, and long wait times... By October 15th I had managed to speak to one last route 66 moving and storage agent live. They again verified both my OLD complaint and my new complaint were received using the e-mail address I listed above. I was again informed that this was their ONLY customer complaint contact route. This agent then assured me he would send me papers to file a claim for damages, again I was put on hold... and after 15 minutes of music I was disconnected yet again.

NO CLAIMS PAPERWORK EVER ARRIVED. No replies ever occurred to any customer complaint e-mail, not even a simply courtesy reply of your complaint was received. Route 66 used a very poor estimate by Gerard, made me abandon more than half my furniture, and still up charged me by about 50%, My furniture was broken in Florida and the damage hidden, My goods were both lost and damaged upon arrival, I cannot even begin to estimate the losses of my collectibles, I am not talking a scratched cover here or bent page, I am talking pages ripped out from the damage to the boxes and the zero packing padding used when they resealed boxes that should have been repacked. Top it all off by being ignored for about 44 days now and this is what Rout 66 moving and Storage "white glove service" gets you. USE them at your own risk, if nothing happened to your goods you were simply lucky, customer service does not exist with this company. Paying on claims does not happen with this company. The are polite, assure you of services they do not provide, charge you for services they do not do, and smile at you while they extort a disabled veteran $1200 for his bed.

If you read this far I beg you and certainly all my fellow veterans out there, BEWARE of using Route 66 moving and storage. I ask you to boycott them, they are dishonest and care not at all about you or your beloved keepsakes. If Route 66 Moving and Storage ever contacts me to rectify matters I will post a blog update to let you know. And yes I did tell Route 66 via phone and email I would be doing this very thing, posting a site, asking for veteran and regular citizen support to boycott them, I even gave them a week to reply.

Their response was as expected... No response at all.

Protect yourself, avoid my mistake, READ ALL BAD reviews to know what your are getting in to, Yelp 4 and 5 star ratings are no protection at all.

Sincerely,

Douglas Panepinto

US Army, (SGT.) retired