Accolade Moving & Storage Services

ALERT: This company needs to be sued for the way I was treated. The most unprofessional customer service, absolutely no communication, never showed up on time, charged me $20 a blanket on the move. Hidden fees. What started at a $6,000 for the move cost $12,000 in the end. Spoke down to me. I could go on and on but I am so pissed I can’t write anymore.

Scam alert! Accolade Moving & Storage is not a professional service; they are not accredited by BBB or a member of professional industrial associations. This business is purely profit motivated with well-versed scam operations. Accolade is found non-compliant of federal regulations, from my recent interstate moving, as cited blow: 1. Deceptive Business Practice of False Advertising: Quote from Accolademoving.com home page: “Unpleasant surprises can be stressful, so we would never spring one on you. We value your trust in us, so we’re always upfront about our costs and send you accurate and fair estimates.” It’s very sound but too good to be true. Their scam begins with false advertising and low ball estimate bait from the sales. 2. Not honoring a binding estimate: According to FMCSA, A binding estimate guarantees that customer cannot be required to pay more than the amount on the estimate. However, Accolade did not honor its binding estimate but forcing overcharge (144% of the binding estimate) after loading, and collecting payment under duress by holding household possessions “hostage” en route on the moving day. Furthermore, Accolade is unable to justify the overcharge for any “additional items moved”, with the documented evidence that my moving inventory total is actually less (by 14 counts) than the binding estimate quote total, but refuse to refund. 3. Extensive damages to the contents of the shipment: A total of 17 items (valued several thousands of dollars) were damaged during transport/storage under Accolade moving liability. 4. Extensive delay in damage claim processing: federal regulation requires the mover to provide customer with a disposition within 120 days. However, Accolade was non-responsive until day 230. 5. Not offering a justifiable settlement: It took 7 months to receive a check for less than 10% of my claimed damage value, which was computed on basic valuation per contract terms. Accolade refuses to provide itemized explanations. The insurer is required to issue a clear explanation with the payment by standard, for how the benefit was computed. Financially motivated accounting malpractice cannot be ruled out, since Accolade rejected third-party insurance CSI adjustor proposal and processed this claim internally. Full itemized details are requested to be made transparent. 6. Not providing the availability of a neutral arbitration process: Federal regulation requires interstate movers to provide customer with information regarding their dispute settlement program. Movers must offer a neutral dispute settlement program as a means of settling disputes that may arise concerning loss or damage of customer household goods. However, Accolade refused to comply with this requirement. 7. Willfully violating customer rights with unprofessional conduct and mistreatment: Accolade failed to provide customer rights information required by the FMCSA. Sales had no accountability and disappear completely after collecting deposit. Dispatch was abusive, forcing overcharge and collecting payment under duress by holding household possessions “hostage” en route at customer’s vulnerability. Unprofessional customer service, i.e., not return phone calls, non-responsive to emails, neglect customer requests, willfully delay and manipulate damage claim processing, refuse to provide compliant/neutral arbitration process, and refuse to cooperate in claim settlement. My moving experience was a total dissatisfaction. Federal and State agencies should investigate Accolade Moving for all above wrong doings, taking disciplinary actions for reinforce regulation compliance and customer protection. For customers, moving can be stressful and vulnerable due to situation and time constrains. Be alert for deceptive business practices and fraudulent movers neglecting boundaries of law and extort large sums of money. Don’t tolerate moving scam and act to stop such misconduct. Join to support customer rights, keep home goods safe, and prevent others become victim of moving scam.

I very strongly advise against using this moving company. They did not show up for my scheduled move, did not provide any notice that they were not going to do so, and refused to provide any compensation for the damage their actions caused. I made a reservation and paid a deposit with Accolade on 6/2/20 for a long-distance move. I made the reservation over the phone with Tom Parker, and as is reflected in the Binding Moving Estimate, I stressed that my lease was scheduled to end on Monday, 6/29/20, and that the pickup would need to be completed by then. Tom verbalized understanding and assured me that if the move could not be done on the morning of the 29th then it would be done at an earlier date instead. I was told that Dispatch would call me 1-3 days prior to the move with a time window for pickup. On the evening prior to my scheduled pickup, I was concerned that I had not received the promised call, so I called the provided Dispatch number myself, and after 2 attempts (the first time I got not answer, left a message requesting an urgent call back, and was not called back) I reached someone named Sam who informed me that he was unable to reach the main dispatch office to give me a pickup time window but told me that they had been backed up recently and that there was a possibility that my pickup would be delayed. This was the first I had heard of any such possibility. A followup call (by me) the following morning confirmed that the pickup would likely not be completed until Thursday or Friday of that week, and the dispatch agent suggested that I "try to find someone else" to complete the move. As a result of Accolade's failure to fulfill its agreement and failure to notify me of such with any reasonable advance notice, I was forced to scramble and find an alternative moving company to complete the job on the day my lease was scheduled to end. Due to the last-minute nature of the booking, the most cost-effective alternative I was able to secure was over $2600 in excess of the original estimate provided to me by Accolade for the same job. This doesn’t include the costs I had to incur from negotiating with my landlord to extend my lease by 1 day and expedited cleaning and painting costs, which became necessary since the earliest I was able to secure alternative movers on a last-minute basis was June 30th and a new tenant was scheduled to move in on July 1st. Since then, I’ve followed up with Accolade numerous times via phone and email to try to recoup both my deposit and compensation for the increased cost I had to incur due to having to arrange for movers at the last minute. It is impossible to reach Tom Parker since he is evidently always “not in right now.” Several attempts at reaching someone with authority in the company ended either with me being hung up on, or with a promise that I would be called back the same day to achieve a resolution. In particular, someone named Robert assured me on two separate occasions that he would process my deposit refund immediately and “speak to the higher-ups” about arranging for compensation with a callback the same day. No one from Accolade called me back as promised. Six days after my scheduled pickup date I finally did receive a reply to one of the emails I wrote to Accolade. They said they would “absolutely” refund my deposit but refused to provide any compensation for the damages caused by their failure to show up and failure to notify me in time to arrange for alternative movers. The only explanation given was that “the truck broke down,” which they had not mentioned at any point previous to that email and, even if true, does not excuse their failure to provide me with notification. They have not disputed any of these points and replied only “Sorry we can’t be of any further assistance in this matter.” I still have yet to receive the refund for my deposit. Based on my experience with their dishonesty so far and track record from other online reviewers (they appear to also operate under the aliases “Future Van Lines,” “Trucks on Call,” and “Cross State Movers,” all of which are registered to Schlomo Dostikam at 852 QUINCE ORCHARD DR, STE T-2, GAITHERSBURG MD 20878 and 111 Washington Grove, Washington Grove, MD 20880 and have numerous complaints documenting other unprofessional and scam-like behavior), I anticipate I will have to file a chargeback with my credit card company in order to recover at least that small part of the damages that they caused. Avoid at all costs!

Don’t use this company! Movers arrived with Way to small of a truck for the job and the estimate was 4 hours it took 8 hours because of repacking the tiny truck and then they had to strap 2 mattresses to the back outside of the truck! Then they held my stuff hostage and wanted me to pay before they unloaded the truck! Time wasted cost me money! Their website says accurate estimates and 110% satisfaction that’s a joke when I asked for a 2 hour refund for lost time and aggravation the next day they said sorry you already paid for the service! It didn’t matter that I wasn’t satisfied! Sales will tell you what you want to hear then reality hits! Good luck if you book this company!