NJ Elite Movers

Warning! Scammers! These criminals loaded all of my stuff onto a truck and told me that I had to pay 4 times the amount they quoted IN CASH or they would deliver everything that I own into public storage until I did. I quickly found out that the Better Business Bureau has a long list of unanswered complaints against this company.
This is the absolutely worst choice that you can make in choosing a mover.
LOW-​LIFE SCAMMERS!!!

I am writing this as a service to my fellow Unilocalers. Don’t be an idiot like my husband and I were last May.
So we moved out of our apartment, and were worried about moving our stuff down our five story walk-​up building, like our couch. Not wanting to rely on friends and owe people favors, we looked for a moving company to help us out, one that was affordable. And we also needed our things stored, so finding one that would do both would be like killing two birds with one stone right?
Wrong. We called around, and we knew a lot of moving companies in the city were sketchy. When we found NJ Elite Movers, they quoted us $ 285, and $ 75 for each month of storage. We asked if our stairs would be an extra charge, they said no it was included in the $ 285. They then instructed us to store all of our clothing inside of our dressers, and our supplies inside of our desks. Everything was great, what a deal!
Until they showed up. The «foreman» fast-​talked my husband into signing a contract before he had it completely filled out. It was a total bait-​and-​switch situation. Suddenly, he was angry that we had filled up our dressers with clothing and we had to start buying boxes from him — at $ 35 a pop. Plus the labor was by the hour, so having to stop, empty the dresser and place everything into the box took more time. We should have told them to leave right then and there. During the process, the «foreman» made rude sexist and anti-​semitic comments.
So everything was locked on the truck, and then the bill came. $ 1400 dollars. Along with the expensive cardboard boxes we were tricked into purchasing, we were also charged for 40 rolls of duct tape (the most expensive duct tape I have ever seen) all of the blankets, etc that they used. The worst fee though was the extra $ 850 for our stairs. When we explained to him that when we set up the move they said we would not be charged for the stairs over the phone, he said we had to pay him, he would not take the stuff out of the truck and he would just take it. We tried calling the office, but we were given the runaround, and were continually put on hold so people could talk to a «supervisor» who we were never allowed to speak when we asked. All the while being charged for labor while he sat in the truck with our stuff. And then our stuff drove away. They only take checks or cash as well.
They told us they would e-​mail us with the bill, so with our funds depleted we left the city for the summer hoping that everything would be ok. Months passed and our storage bill never came. We tried calling repeatedly only to be met with the office hanging up, or putting us promptly on hold for long periods of time. We tried contacting their website, but received no response. Throughout the entire month of July no one picked up the phone when we called and it connected us to a nameless voicemail box that would not accept messages because it was full. They claimed they had the wrong e-​mail address (even though they had two e-​mail addresses, a phone number, and a forwarding address, none of which they made any attempt to contact).
Finally, we came back to the city last week and trekked out to the address listed on the website. Their facility is in a creepy old warehouse and they have an office on the third floor. When you knock on the office door no one answers. When you call their number, you always speak to a different person even though it sounds like you’re always talking to the same person. The woman who answers the phone is often very rude and tells you that «YOU JUST DON’T UNDASTAND!» and made no attempt at any recourse that they took our money and our things. It took us which three days of constant calling and a 45 minute phone call to get our bill for the storage unit. The woman on the line could not for some reason send an e-​mail and be on the phone at the same time. Clearly, she created the invoice right then and there. They probably never had any intention of actually billing us — the only reason our things were still there and not sold or pawned was because they are lazy.
Fortunately, we did get our things out. A few boxes appear to be missing, they never mailed us the inventory list as they promised, and some boxes had clearly been ripped open, but for the most part most of our things were still there. The feet of our dressers were completely destroyed. When we called to inform them of these issues, again we were met with complete disregard and were told that a claims form was being sent to our address, which has still yet to arrive. They threw a nasty smelling pillow onto our sofa, hopefully we don’t get bedbugs.
Basically, the moral of the story is if you have to move on a budget, get some friends and do it yourself. If money is not an issue, go with a corporate, national moving service. Avoid NJ Elite Movers like the plague and learn from our stupid mistake and don’t get ripped off.