Description of damages by Padded Wagon

This is a statement from Gail Zawacki regarding Padded Wagon, for purposes of insurance claim, statement to bank for disputed charges, or lawsuit:

In December 2016 I contracted with the Padded Wagon, through their representative William Lockwood, to move my household goods from Oldwick, NJ to Stockton Springs, Maine. To date they have not told me, despite my asking, the name of their insurance carrier. I was never given a copy of a brochure advising me of my rights as I now understand to be required by law.

This site documents damages to the furniture and destination premises in Maine due to the movers’ negligence. None of the damage is related to “PBO” - packed by owner boxed goods. It is all to the furniture the movers were responsible for, the property they delivered to, and services that were not rendered according to prior agreement, which had to be subsequently rectified at additional time and expense.

From the beginning of the move, the transaction was characterized by intimidation, misinformation, deception and unwarranted pressure in the form of threats to delay the move or hold all my life’s possessions hostage.

When the movers arrived to pick up on April 24, 2017 I was informed, for the first time, that it would be 4 to 6 weeks before the contents of my home would be delivered, instead of the 2 or 3 days I expected - which would have left me living in an empty house in Maine without a bed or sufficient clothing, or dishes and simple essentials, for a month or more.

My expectation is corroborated by the prior discussion about including some potted plants. I was told, and agreed that I understood, that they couldn't guarantee they would survive - because they could spend a few DAYS in a warehouse or truck before being dispatched. NOT 4 to 6 weeks, which would absolutely kill them! There would have been no point including them had I been told, which I wasn't, that it could be a month or more that they would sit in an unheated, dark warehouse without water. Yet here they are listed on the original Table of Measurements:

Further, and worse, I was told that because of the delay and transfer, the furniture would consequently be wrapped in paper instead of being protected with blanketing. This sudden controversy necessitated many phone calls between the movers, the company representative William Lockwood, and someone in the office named Aidan - as that was unacceptable and not what I had been led to expect. Some of my furniture is of little value, but a few are valuable antiques. Paper wrapping would not adequately protect it.

As the loading began, without resolving the timing and price, it became apparent that the truck that had been dispatched was not big enough and another would have to be sent the next day. This despite that I had informed the moving company (documented in emails to Lockwood such as:

From: "Wit's End" <witsendnj@yahoo.com>
To: Billy Lockwood <bill@paddedwagon.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2017 1:55 PM
Subject: just a heads up, I decided to bring a sofa and a loveseat, not sure if I already told you about the sofa. So that's a 2nd loveseat altogether.)

and

Billy <bill@paddedwagon.com>

Mar 24 at 12:55 PM

To

Wit's End

Message body

No on the propane tanks!

Email me next week for boxes

Billy

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 24, 2017, at 10:38 AM, Wit's End <witsendnj@yahoo.com> wrote:

Can't remember if I told you that barring some disaster I will be flying home next Friday the 31st. Can we arrange for me to have packing supplies so then I can get started over the weekend? Am I packing lamps/shads or do the movers? Also I am

Pretty sure I want to bring my Weber grill. Do the movers take the propane tanks? Do they need to be in boxes?

Thank you!

Gail

...well in advance that I wanted to add one sofa, a loveseat, and a grill to the shipment. The movers went ahead and loaded the truck without first resolving the timing and pricing issues, thus placing me in an impossible position to dispute their unprecedented changes.

The moving company (“Aidan” over the phone) insisted that the outdoor furniture had not been included on the original estimate, and based on this he said it would require two trucks, or otherwise a tractor trailer, to move my possessions, and cost considerably more than the original quote. It wasn’t until I unpacked in Maine that I found the original Table of Measurements given to me where all of the outdoor furniture WAS listed.

original table of measurements, above, and zoom below

After the second truck departed the next day taking the remaining furniture that had been left behind the previous day, with the dispute over pricing still unresolved, I received a text from Lockwood stating that they would be able to fit everything on one truck after all...

Does this look like a tractor trailer? This is what everything had fit on when it arrived in Maine.

...so I agreed to accept delivery on Saturday based on the assumption we were sticking to the original agreement. He wrote: "Spoke to Aidan, it fits on one truck, cost will be reduced by what he told you".

On Friday morning around 10 am I got a call from the movers asking if they could deliver that day instead, which, since they had already left NY at 5 am, seemed a bit moot. I said it was fine and they arrived in the afternoon. They then demanded more money than the original quote, again, and we had a standoff on that topic that lasted about an hour, with Lockwood absurdly claiming he hadn’t told me in the above text that we had agreed to go back to the original quote - since it all fit on one truck. Finally, after trying to call the police and block them from leaving, I gave in and agreed to pay an extra appx $1600, as they were threatening to return with my things to NY - and they then started to unload.

Although it should have been quite obvious that, regardless of any disputes, there was no way they could possibly be on the road for 10 hours, unload, and return that same night, that had been their plan. This is a screenshot of my phone calls 4/28. The movers called at 10:45 saying they had left NY at 5 am. They called again at 2:57, as they were coming down the driveway, to be sure they were at the correct address.

Eventually it got dark while they were still nowhere near finished, so they went to a hotel and returned mid-morning on Saturday, to finish unloading mid-afternoon. I signed all the documents they presented because I was one woman alone in an isolated location with three hostile men, who were demanding extra money on top of what I had already been forced to pay, as a so-called “tip” due to their having to finish an "extra" day - and I was consequently unable to inspect the furniture or the floors to determine if there had been damages, until after they left. See the text message after they left, having repeatedly demanded cash or check (which I no longer anything left due to the extra $1600 I had already been forced to pay.)

This is the mover's handwritten address for me to send a "tip" via paypal.

The entire unfortunate transaction was characterized by numerous blatant falsehoods I was told - such as:

1. the outdoor furniture was not on the original list
2. a crate had not been ordered for the glass table top that is now chipped
3. the floors of the house in Maine were scuffed before they got there
4. a chair they mistakenly took to Maine was not marked with a bright red sticker along with 3 others to stay in NJ (which it was) and then refused for over a week to return it
5. the missing nuts and bolts for the desk were missing before they took it from NJ
6. the carved finial on the bedpost was broken before they took it (it most certainly was not)
7. the easel wouldn’t fit up the stairs.

I called the office shortly after the first truck departed my house in NJ when I realized they had taken a dining room chair by mistake, and I was told the best thing would be to let it stay packed, go to Maine, and that they would return it when it got back to NJ. This is the discussion after they returned to NJ:

I was first told my daughter would have to go to Paterson to pick up the chair; she refused to make the trip which would be over 2 hours, and then I was told to call the office the next day.

So, I called Aidan, and he told me that he would NOT return the chair, because it wasn't marked to stay. This flat-out lie was the straw that broke the camel's back, and I called my bank then to dispute the payment. Here is the subsequent exchange with the mover:

I asked the mover whether he had lied to Aidan, or Aidan had lied to me, because the chair still had the red "stay" sticker on it when they brought it to Maine and we all saw it.

I still don't know which of them was lying because I never got an answer, but I attribute the overall problem to the movers being under too much pressure from the company to accomplish a task they aren’t given adequate time and materials and manpower to accomplish, for which they are then forced to extort more money from the homeowner - whose possessions are at risk and have no bargaining power. Although I was assured they would take things apart as needed and put them back together, they weren't allotted sufficient time to do so and as a result, many items were damaged in haste, and because they felt they had to push items through without spending the time to break them down into more manageable sizes.

Assurance from Lockwood that pieces too large to move would be taken apart and reassembled

They also seemed to think I have infinite resources because they were under the impression I had bought the house into which I moved, which isn’t the case. I am renting it, as I cannot afford to buy a house.

Too bad I didn’t read these reviews and the lawsuit filed against them by the state of New Jersey before trusting my possessions and my savings to this corrupt company, which for some mysterious reason according to court records apparently needs a Jaguar to conduct business!

It's almost comical how eerily these complaints echo my own experience - or rather, it would be funny if I wasn't financially and emotionally devastated from living through the con that is the Padded Wagon. Here are some that are publicly accessible:

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/the-padded-wagon-inc/bronx-new-york-10451/the-padded-wagon-inc-thoroughly-corrupt-scamming-lying-moving-company-bronx-new-york-690436

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/the-padded-wagon/nationwide/the-padded-wagon-do-not-use-this-mover-deceptive-scoundrels-new-york-nationwide-1180768

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/the-padded-wagon/bronx-new-york-10451/the-padded-wagon-ripoff-bronx-new-york-195118

They were actually sued by the state of New Jersey for dishonest business practices.

Following is a list describing the damages in detail, with supporting photographic and video evidence, which doesn't include the time lost and emotional trauma I have experienced as a result of their tactics of intimidation and extortion, which rise to the level of criminality:

During the move out, I told the movers that my painting easel could be easily disassembled and reassembled. They did not want to take it apart, even though I pointed out that it would be very difficult to bring up the stairs in Maine. When they arrived to deliver, in the process of trying to get it upstairs in one piece, they broke it apart and pounded it forcefully back together. The movers then claimed it would be impossible to maneuver it up the stairs, and they refused to take the time to disassemble it in order to bring it up, so they left it in the garage.

the easel left in the garage

A few days later on May 5 I hired 2 local handymen and they easily brought it up stairs without even needing to disassemble it.

I did not realize until after they left that when the first movers broke it and then smashed the dowels together, the tray was left hanging out on one side, so I had to have the Maine handyman come back again to set the tray into the grooves where they had been forced apart.

standing in the studio but listing crookedly and non-functional

this is how the tray is supposed to be, on the left side

on the right side, the tray is not set in the notch, requiring the whole thing to be unbolted and reset

One of the big lies was that the floors were already scratched. These photos are from before the move, they are in virtually flawless condition

All the examples of scratches and gouges in the floors because of the move, which are too numerous to include, will require professional refinishing. All three levels of wooden floors and stairways have scratches. I don’t have an estimate but it is going to be extremely expensive because the floors are not all one wood, each section is a different color/species and will have to be re-stained individually. There was ZERO protection put on the wood floors despite promises that they would be covered.

The movers told me that my shipment was rained on while stored on their truck, which was somehow exposed, and they had to repack some boxes. This repacking can be seen in the difference in handwritten labeling. Boxes arrived sodden and dripping anyway, and ruined some linens which have to be replaced because the stains and stench won’t wash out.

Antique carved mahogany four-poster bed was badly damaged. Numerous deep scrapes and scratches and breaks, and a smashed finial dowel. A rail is split and the posts are no longer solid; they wobble. It needs to be completely refurbished - gluing and surface refinishing.

The finials have dowels and sit on the posts - one was snapped off. The movers claimed it was already broken.

That is nonsense, because it wouldn't have sat on the post without falling off unless the finial was intact.

chipped railing

pieces found on the floor

Video of broken posts:

A fabulous oil painting - canvas dented and paint scraped off !!!!!!

upper left hand corner

GROSS negligence

The movers left an outdoor chair, part of a set marked for the second floor, at ground level; I had to pay local handymen carry it up the stairs. This is the 2nd floor deck without the matching chair, which they left on the ground level below.

Antique Martha Washington chair (from late 18th C), scraped on arm.

Handcrafted decoupage table chipped

Part of the brace between the legs for the bird's eye maple dresser was broken off

Bannister pulled away from wall and scraped

Gouges in the walls. Sloppy and wholly unnecessary.

The movers did not want to disassemble the antique architect's desk for the studio even though I was told that they would (it is too large to move in one piece). When it became obvious there was no way it would go upstairs without being disassembled they hastily took it apart in the kitchen. In their rush they dropped nuts and washers and bolts and then claimed they were always missing, but I found 4 on the kitchen floor where they had left them. I had to hire local handymen to come later and put it together as it was wiggling and unstable and unsafe to use. The surface was also scratched.

Mirror frame badly smashed

Stacking bookcase hastily and improperly assembled; had to ask local handymen to set correctly

the middle shelf is off kilter where it sits on the bottom shelf because they didn't bother to align the pieces

Antique washstand severely scraped.

Glass top coffee table chipped. Below is the original estimate specifying it was to have been crated to prevent such damage; it was not. After 60 some years of going from one home to another, now it is messed up because of lousy carelessness. SAD.

Ruts in the lawn. Hurried driving for which I will have to reimburse my landlord to fix.

The movers first said they could not find all the parts in order to assemble the butcher block table. I found one lying outside on the deck; another was on the floor of the truck. When they put it together they left one side higher than the other; I had to ask local handymen to re-assemble it correctly so it would be level and functional.

The way the left it - on one corner the metal frame is below the top of the post, on another they are flush.

Long scratch on the back of a dining room chair, one of a set of 8 pristine carved mahogany Centennials. GRRRRRR.

Sheraton wash stand scraped leg, shelf broken off. Disgraceful.

This antique is from around 1780 and lasted all this time intact and now the Padded Wagon whacks it. SHAME.

The left shelf, intact

The right shelf, incredibly, snapped off

the leg, scraped through the finish into the raw wood.

This small sofa dates from the early 1800’s. It’s disgusting how it is damaged. After I SPECIFICALLY told them not to, I watched the movers pick it up by the delicate carved ram’s head arm pieces. It’s a miracle they didn’t break off. The Padded Wagon brochure says they are specialists in “fine art and antiques”. They are specialists in destroying and disrespecting fine art and antiques.