Zippy Shell Reviews

But other than that, it was fine. They picked up on time. They called me before. They delivered it just fine. They didn't leave me the lock. A new kid came on. He didn't. But it's okay. I got on the phone. I made him come back. So, they brought me the lock 'cause I paid for it. I got my lock. And they came and picked it up when they said they would. Then when they came down to South Carolina, they called me to say that it was down here. We set up the time to come pick it up, and they picked it up promptly. And it was fine.

We were scared at first because it looked really small when he pulled up, when he brought it to the house. But once my husband looked inside and we started packing, and you packed it the right way, it was fine. We have more than enough space. They did exactly what they said they were going to do. And I was very skeptical about using a container company 'cause I had never done it before. But I was very happy that we did.

We've had three different drivers, and all of them knew what they were doing. They were obviously well-trained. They seemed happy with the job. They were very happy, very prompt, and immediately took them, even though they were way overweight. The second one was. By about 600 pounds, not egregiously, but it was enough.

However, it took a lot longer than I had assumed it would. In the original quote, it said that it would not be put into storage. That it would be brought directly here from the pickup, the original location. And it took several weeks. There was no explanation as to why it took so long. Then I was charged a monthly storage fee, even though my original quote said no storage. I was a little shocked that I was charged almost $300 to store something that was supposed to be transported and not stored.

They told me that I didn't understand how to read, even though I had the email and highlighted where it very specifically said no storage, and I was told that the fact that anything was stored in the container during transit meant that it was in storage. The person I spoke to over the phone and through email correspondence was absolutely horrible. I paid half up front before they delivered the container to be loaded, and then before they brought it here, I had to pay the remainder, which ended up being several $100 more than the original quote, because they said there was a fuel surcharge. Which, again, in the total cost, you would think that would be included, or that would have been mentioned absolutely anywhere in the quote. If it had said it was going to cost this much plus a fuel surcharge, I would have expected that, and I would have budgeted for that.

My household goods remained in Zippy Shell storage in Orlando for 15 months while my housing was being finalized. My household goods were delivered and unloaded today. Every single box and every single piece of furniture is covered in soot. It's as if my container was sitting next to a chimney. They show pictures online of enclosed containers and trailers; however, that is not what your moving and storage actually is. You wind up with basically what looks like a cage. Deceptive marketing, indeed.

The facility was supposed to be climate controlled. How there is soot all over everything is something I'm still trying to get answers from the company. I got the runaround from customer service and was told I had to file a claim before I could get someone to help me. So, I filed a claim and spoke with a very nice claims rep. She, however, explained that my situation is not really a claim since there isn't anything broken. Well, I don't know if anything is broken because I can't open any of the boxes until they are cleaned. I took several videos and photos and sent them to her directly.

Today is Thursday. She said she will forward it to the appropriate department and that if I don't hear anything by Monday to call her back. No, I'm not waiting 4 more days to get this resolved. Someone needs to call me back by the next day, no later than noon EST. I paid this company nearly $10,000, in total, to move and store my household goods over a 15-month period. Not worth a penny, much less what I paid. I am filing for full reimbursement of the storage as well as professional cleaning and remediation. The photos I'm including are just several examples of the condition and obvious soot. I don't have one cohesive receipt as I paid a deposit, monthly storage + protection insurance, and then the balance when I scheduled delivery.

Me and people packed everything, wrapped everything, got everything done. They loaded it. They didn't bring two. They brought three, but I didn't order three. I only ordered two people. So, the extra guy was the one who worked. The other two guys kind of sat around, were on the phone, and were in my bathroom for over an hour. And the other guy couldn't do anything because he hurt his back. He just stood inside the trailer the whole time.

Then, tipping them, I had to tip everybody. But that one kid, he worked really hard. That one kid that wasn't supposed to be there. I'm glad he was. They did call me before they got there. They showed up relatively on time, which was good. It only took them a couple of hours, but I didn't have that much time left.

The guy who was in the bathroom for over an hour kept giving me some papers to sign. And it was seven pages, itty-bitty, tiny. I said, "Can you read this? Can you see what this says?" And he said, "No." I said, "But you want me to sign it?" I came to this one page, and it had a bunch of numbers on it. I looked at it and said, "I'm not paying anything extra. What I agreed to pay is all I'm going to pay, not one cent more, not a penny more." I wrote across that page, and I crossed out what they were doing, and I wrote on that page that this is a flat fee and I'm not paying more. But they charged me $200 more.

When it hit my bank, I called them. I said, "What was that $200 for?" He said, "Oh, that was extra." I said, "No. We ain't gonna do extra. I don't care if there's extra gas, extra mile. I don't care what it is. This is what I agreed to. And this is what I signed for. And if you don't get it back into my account, then it's gonna be a fraudulent charge against Zippy Shell." We discussed it. He talked to somebody for a minute on the telephone. He got back to me on the phone and said, “Call me back in seven days."

I went with them because they said they could put a container in parallel parking in a New York area that has very limited parking, but then I found out that they need 55 feet of clearance, and they could not really parallel park. The two areas that I gave them for dropping off, after I paid the money and made an account with them, they ended up looking at Google Maps and said that it wasn't possible.

I picked Zippy Shell because they were like, "We deal with people in New York." Like in New York, there's parallel parking all day. But it's very difficult to find 55 feet of clearance for a vehicle. I was just very wary about that. I thought they could drop it off sideways, but no, it needs to be 55 clearance, and it drops it off in the back. I wasn't aware of that. I'm very unhappy with Zippy Shell. I don't know why they're advertising that they can go into rural and small spaces when they basically can't. It's false advertising.

When I originally ordered all the shells, I had ordered them through Zippy Shell. They bought me PACK-RAT shells, and those were the wrong ones for this area that we were located in now, that we were moving to, and that turned into a giant hassle too. After that hassle, I wouldn't refer Zippy Shell like I was referred at first. The drivers were cool. But I think they need more training. The personalities were cool. They were both pretty nice. I got two sets of drivers. The main driver was the same, and his helper was different each time. I had a lot of things that were broken or damaged in the move.

It's not ideal that you get broken furniture and stuff when you're moving across the country. So, I needed to file a claim for that and those kinds of things. It just turned into more of a hassle than it was worth. All my stuff had to be transferred twice. Each shell had to be transferred into a moving truck, which was brought here at that point. So, there wasn't an actual driver. They were subcontract movers is what they were.

I repeatedly called Zippy Shell for help and was placed on hold, transferred from person to person, and left trying to solve a crisis they had created. I was eventually told that my only real option was to purchase a SECOND container. Of course, no smaller container was available. I was told I would have to pay for another large and very expensive container if I wanted the remainder of my belongings moved. Because of this situation, I missed my flight, had additional hotel and transportation expenses, and was forced to leave roughly half of my apartment contents behind until another container could be arranged.

What made this especially upsetting was that I had relied on Zippy Shell's recommendation about what size container I needed. Had I been given accurate information from the beginning, I could have planned and budgeted accordingly instead of being placed in an impossible situation on moving day. The problems did not end there. A significant amount of my property was damaged during the move. I submitted a damage claim for more than $3,000 and repeatedly attempted to obtain assistance and a resolution. The communication and customer service were extremely poor, and my claim was never satisfactorily resolved or even acknowledged by them!

Then, more than two years later, after having no containers or belongings stored with Zippy Shell and no current rental agreement, I suddenly received an email stating that my account was past due by approximately ONE CENT and warning about late fees, termination of my “current rental agreement,” liens against my property, and even the potential sale of belongings supposedly stored in their container. I do not have a container with them. I do not have property stored with them. My move ended more than two years ago. After everything that occurred during my move, receiving this inaccurate and threatening billing notice years later was astonishing.

My experience with Zippy Shell involved misleading information about the container size I needed, being forced into a second expensive container at the last minute, a missed flight and additional expenses, damaged property, an unresolved damage claim, extremely poor communication, and now an erroneous billing notice more than two years later. If you are considering using this company, I would strongly recommend against it.

Where to begin, first off getting ahold of someone is so inconsistent. What's the point of calling in, requesting to be called back, getting said call back AND STILL having to be put on hold for 10 plus minutes. Also I was told that the shell was 15ftx7ftx7ft, I asked the rep if that was the inside dimensions of the inner shell, they confirmed it was. That was 100% incorrect, good misinformation that was passed to me there.

Now to the juicy stuff, when they first dropped off the container, the driver put the container on blocks to help level it out, which is fine if you use a few of them, but this person stacked these small wooden blocks of different shapes and sizes, 5 blocks high, making the container VERY unstable, so unstable that the blocks slipped while myself and a mover were in the container, thankfully due to the different shapes and sizes of the blocks, they wedged themselves well enough for the container to not fully fall to the ground and potentially causing us serious injury.

Once the time came for pickup, the first driver couldn't pick up the container due to a car being in the way, which I had concerns about to begin with, which I expressed to the first driver when they dropped it off but he said "it's fine". So the driver had to come back later in the day once the car had moved. Well once the driver came back, they were clear to pick up the container. As they were picking up the container, they improperly installed the balancing bars to pick it up, causing the container to slip and slam into the side of the forks, I saw this and heard all of my stuff inside the container getting shifted and slammed around. Due to that malfunction, it cause the hydraulic motor for the forklift to break, unable to move suspending my container in the air.

The truck was stuck unable to move due to them not being able to operate the hydraulic motor. The truck was stuck blocking a large portion of the parking lot in my apartment complex for 3-4 hours while they were fixing it. During that time, the apartment complex is yelling at me to get my movers out of the way so residents can park, which was crazy that now somehow this was my fault.

Later in the day after the shell was fully gone, I called Zippyshell customer support to tell them all about this issue, to let them know I will be filing a claim and also requesting further financial compensation due to all of these major inconveniences and safety issues, even after all of this and speaking with supervisors, they couldn't offer anything which is crazy because they almost had a lawsuit on their hands from the blocks slipping while we were actively in the shell. During that call. I also provided them the updated delivery address, which was only about a 17 mile distance in difference. That 17 mile change of delivery was going to cost me $67. Unbelievable. THANKFULLY the gracious lady I spoke to was so kind to AT LEAST wave that fee due to all of these very minor issues I've had all day with this move.

A few days after the container was picked up, I called to confirm that it was on the way to its final destination and I was told that no it was not, it was still sitting in the warehouse waiting for me to sign a form stating there were no gypsy moth and lantern flies agreement form for the unit. The rep said they cant move forward with the move until that was signed. Why was that never told to me? Why did I have to find that out ON MY OWN delaying my move! The rep said I should've gotten an email but I checked my inbox and spam folder and nothing. 3 Days after they picked up the container I signed the form, which was a Friday, so now having to wait till the following Monday for my container to start making moves, almost a week delay due to a lack of communication.

Speaking of lack of communication, once the container gets picked up, it gets tossed to the void until it appears at a warehouse at the final destination. During the transit time, I was in contact with the zippyshell team trying to get an updated delivery date, no one will have a solid answer. The original date was supposed to be August 10th. Then I was told the 13th, then back to the 10th, then I was told the 11th. The container did end up getting to the warehouse on the 13th, but now you have to hope they have an opening soon to actually deliver the container to your house. My shell didn't get delivered till the 15th.

The drop off window for the container was 9-12 with pick up later that day 2-4. I had asked for same day pick up, but with those windows, it made it very difficult to arrange when to ask my friends to come help me move. A few days before the move, I decided to call and confirm and it turns out, my building did not have enough clearance for delivery. So, we had to adjust arrangements and I rented a UHaul to pack at my apt and then we drove to the facility to load it in.

When I got the facility, they gave me a container twice as big was what I booked (luckily, still charging for the smaller one) which made it significantly more difficult to plan for the delivery at my new place. I didn't get any kind of confirmation as to when it began the journey across the country and there is no tracking it. They gave an estimate of 8-10 business days. It took 12 business days. They also did not inform me when it was delivered and it took an additional week and a half to get it delivered. I got my container 25 days after packing it. Yes - I was moving cross country, but I was told it would take 2 weeks at most.

They were unable to deliver it into my driveway because there were cars parked across the street and there wasn't enough room. His suggestion was to place it on the non-parking side of a one way street - blocking anything larger than a sedan from passing. I said to place it in some empty parking spots a few houses down. So, unloading was significantly harder because we had to trek everything 5 houses down. I was originally scheduled to get it picked up on a Saturday. I said that I would be done by Friday and it would be easier then because the street would be clear with everyone at work. He said to just call and let them know when I was done. I did and they did not come on Friday. They called on Saturday, when the container was blocked in (I was not given a pick up window). We had to reschedule to the following week where I was able to block off the parking spots in front of the container so there was room.

Each time I had to call them (which was often because there was no communication from their side), it was at least 20-60 minutes of being on hold. The only thing that was ok with the experience was that their customer service reps were friendly. They couldn't do much, but they were friendly. I even got passed along to their resolution department where they put everything on file, but nothing happened.

Also, remember that locked in price? NOPE. I got charged a fuel surcharge, so it ended up being $500 more than I was originally quoted. The original booking agent said that the locked in prices was to avoid fuel fluctuations. Wrong....totally wrong. Do not book them. The service is slow and they charge you more than expected. You're better off choosing one of the more reputable companies even if you have to pay more. Zippy Shell was awful and added so much more stress to my move.

When speaking to the resolution team we were told that they would need to review the phone call recordings before agreeing to a refund to us for the double storage charge for 2 containers AND they were only willing to refund us half of the fuel surcharge fee. That is completely unacceptable. Please be aware that Zippy Shell aka 1800-PACKRAT will not honor their total move price fees, will randomly split up the invoices to aid in confusion, and will add in fees such as a fuel surcharge that they never mention, address, or even feature as a possibility on their website or in any correspondence. Avoid this company at all cost and DO NOT give them access to your credit card.

All of the items are no longer produced by the manufacturers. I will need to buy an entire new set of bar chairs. That is expensive and so far I have found nothing comparable. I will need to replace the other items with much more expensive facsimiles. The pod looked like a garbage dump when the movers opened the gate. It has already cost me considerable time, gas, tire wear, and car wear as I have searched for substitutes for what they destroyed. I have not found suitable substitutes after searching for almost 2 months.

The New York side movers who loaded the to pods were hostile. They ignored my repeated instructions on how to handle my belongings. They ignored the fragile stickers all over many of my boxes. They ignored my instructions as to how I needed the pod to be loaded. The foreperson was very hostile. He put boxes and objects on top of boxes that I had explicitly told him could NOT have anything placed on top of them. I had boxes that I had to create for some of my designs. They absolutely had to be placed as top boxes. I had to repeat myself endlessly and chase after them to repeat the same instructions. The foreperson harshly responded to my instructions by screaming that other people 'pack good' but that I didn't. His accusation had no basis in fact.

Before they left with the second pod, the foreperson demanded that I give him a 5-star review. He bullied me, claiming that it was 'required' of me to give that because his 'boss required it'. I was intimidated and he was aggressively hostile. It was all I had left in me to keep my composure and resist his bullying. I stated that I certainly will not give any review until I see my belongings in pristine condition on the destination side.

One of the people who did loading on the NY side did not even speak English, nodded to me as I gave instructions as if he understood and was complying with my instructions, then proceeded to mishandle my belongings in exactly the ways I had instructed him NOT to do. The Austin side people who unloaded were no better. They spoke no English at all. I managed to communicate only because I speak limited Spanish. It was extremely problematic to get the unload done successfully. They also complained about time when only 1 hr and 20 minutes had passed, when their time commitment was 3 hours.

The company uses third-party vendors who they don't vet. The third-party vendors are questionable. The pod company charges high rates for their service. They avoid accountability by using vendors whom they blame for their failure to keep their promises. The pod company charged $8300 to load and transport 2 pods from Brooklyn to Austin. I consider that to be an out-of-scope number. The moving industry is not regulated and is rife with bad actors. It is a breeding ground for people to get ripped off, charged excessive rates for their belongings to be destroyed. I want a refund of what I paid this company.

The worst part of it? They destroyed my fencing and tore up my landscaping. Dear reader, you may think this could just be a complication of where I live, how my property is situated, or whatnot, it isn't. The first driver we got successfully dropped off the first pod with no issues. The second, however, caused immense damage to my property. The driver that tore up my property refused to talk to us, drove off as soon as they could, and took absolutely no blame for their terrible driving skills.

Okay, fine, that sucks, but what about compensation for what happened? Well, at first Zippy Shell acted like they were going to make good on fixing what they broke. They made us get numerous estimates on fixing the damage, which we did. Upon receiving the estimates, they decided they'd rather squirrel their way out of responsibility rather than pay for their mistakes. They then proceeded to trick us by making us admit there was another vehicle on the property (which apparently could have been the cause of trucker's terrible driving) but I have over seven acres of property and my vehicle was nowhere near where he was operating. Nonetheless, they used this excuse to weasel their way out of paying us for their mistakes.

So, you may wonder? What can you do in a situation like this? The answer is pretty simple. Nothing. If you've made it this far, here's some advice. Video record every interaction you have with ANY moving place. Be sure you don't have a vehicle ANYWHERE on your property, it doesn't matter if it's out of the way. And the best advice of all I can provide, DO NOT EVER PURCHASE ZIPPY SHELL'S SERVICES!

When the container arrived, it looked like a beat-up practice unit, covered in dents and holes that made me question whether it was even safe for long-distance transport. When the door was opened, there was a severely damaged wire cage inside, with wires sticking out everywhere, exactly the kind of thing that would scratch or damage belongings. The container itself was full of dirt, trash, and was wet from the rain, which is completely unacceptable for something meant to protect personal items.

Only at “cage” drop off did I learn that they planned to haul the container two hours south, unwrap and re-wrap everything at a separate facility, and then ship it 1,500 miles, something they never mentioned in the quoting process. In short, the process was misrepresented from the start, and I feel I was blatantly lied to just to get my contract.

The driver called and said he was on his way, when he arrived he had another container on a trailer and our container on the truck so he had to disconnect the trailer and he started to unload our container when I noticed it was backwards on the truck so the driver had to go to a nearby parking lot and turn the container the deliver it to me. At that point I noticed the side of the container had a dent that wasn’t there when I loaded it. Felt bad for the driver, but the communication with everyone involved was subpar at best.

Now I have damaged furniture with nicks and damage to our hutch, which now they say, "it was caused by the moving and normal shifting during delivery". Part of their shipping clause you don't see until they get your order. It's apparent the moving truck they use was not meant for long hauls. Next time I move it will not be with Zippy Shell. United Van Line uses a better long haul truck and take more care and without any damage for a longer haul.

Once the crate arrived at the location there was no way that all my belongs would fit in the mesh metal crate. I was very specific that I was moving 3 rooms. Impossible that it would ever work without it ruining my furniture. It was so disappointing as I flew from NJ to FL to pack up, When I called them to inform them that the gentlemen from the 3rd party company said my items would not fit. They said, "Ok we will cancel but still charge $640." This was outrageous. I write this review so others will be careful. It is heartbreaking that they are not the type of company that care for their customers. A great lack of truthfulness and customer service. I asked many questions and received false answers. I am waiting for them to review the recording to see that I was lied to and should get my money back. Anything to close the deal and then they keep your money.

Two weeks later when we arrived in Arizona our Zippy Shell arrived and to our horror every single piece of furniture was damaged in one form or another. The third party movers did not use any of the moving blankets we provided. There were gouges and gashes on my dining set, by end tables, my bedroom dresser etc. Our bedset was ripped apart and hardware missing. I was in tears. The men who unloaded our trailer even commented they never saw such disregard for someone else's belongings.

Believing that we were at least covered since we purchased insurance, we filed a claim. Our Claim was denied. We were told the insurance did not cover the failure to properly load the trailer. Are you kidding me? We used their third party sub contractor. I thought this has to be a misunderstanding so we appealed the denial. Three weeks later our appeal was again denied. No one will return my messages or call me back to explain why they are not responsible for their subcontractor.

They are cowards. They sent both denial letters after the close of business and then will not return your calls or speak to you. I have submitted a claim to the BBB. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY, After looking at their profile you cannot leave a review for them on their own website, Google or Facebook. Thank goodness for Yelp. I am only providing a few photos and hope I prevent someone else from ever having to go through this. We paid $4000 for this, the replacement value is $11,000. Don't let this happen to you.

Now I am trying to schedule the delivery of them and I have been waiting 4 hours for a call back. I called Pack Rat, since that is where the pods came from, but they can't help me because it is a different software. Customer service is very polite and helpful when I call except for the manager I talked to about the refund but that is the only nice thing I have to say.

A1 Transfer Moving & Storage of San Francisco was subcontracted by, Pack Rats/Zippy Shell, to unload my container and bring my furniture into a bedroom. While unloading my furniture, THEY WENT INTO A CLOSED CLOSET (not part of the move) AND RIFLED THROUGH A DRAWER and STOLE my jewelry! DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! What type of employee screening is required by Zippy Movers for their subcontractors? Zippy Shell will assume no responsibility for the felony committed by their subcontractors.