I usually do not post reviews, but I feel it is important to warn others so they do not have to go through all the stress I had to. I also have included many things to look for and be aware of if using ANY moving company. Make sure you check out other sites by writing "R & L Moving Systems Inc Reviews" Into google. There are many 1 star ratings out there for this company. Do not be fooled by the BBB rating. Here are my comments on my moving experience with this company moving from a one bedroom apartment in Houston, TX to Maryland:


A Few Notes on the Pick-Up:
• Showed up Late – They came late, without giving us a call, we had to call them asking where they were.
• Small Truck- They showed up in a regular truck you could rent. It was panted solid black with a piece of paper (yes a piece of computer paper) printed with R & L Moving Systems taped (yes taped with regular packing tape) on the side door. It was taped about 20 times over I guess from rain messing it up. It made me slightly nervous, wondering if this was some fake company who was going to steal my things.
• Not trustworthy – I made sure to read all the fine print on the quote email. It said that they would charge to wrap items such as your TV, your mattress, etc. Before paying my deposit, I asked Ray Oren (the owner) about this. He said “OH NO we are going to do that for free for you, don’t worry.” I did not even realize that it was some sort of “deal” to get me to give him my money. On the day of the pick-up, the Forman said that he would be charging extra to wrap those items. We said that Ray told us he would do it for free. And he instantly said “Well you didn’t get it in writing, right here it says you have to pay.” And he indicated the quote email.
• Hidden Fees – They charge $4.00 a roll for tape (it is the crappiest tape you will ever see; they will not let you use your own). The way they “wrap” your furniture is by taking a blanket they taping an entire roll around it, wrapping a million times so they use a TON of tape. They also said that they needed to use a few boxes (I had everything already packed except for furniture items, which I was told would be taken care of free). EACH box would be $12. Luckily I had a few extras from when I was packing.
• Hundreds of $$$ over estimate – I gave the most detailed items list, their estimate underestimates on purpose (I believe) to get you to give your deposit and book them. For instance, if you say you have a couch, they will pick the smallest size couch to calculate the estimate (they charged me by volume).


• Charge you $$$ for empty space – So when you think you are being charged per square foot per item, that is wrong. Each item is going to take much more space than you think. If they wrap the items in blankets that add volume, when they load these items on the truck they leave a ton of space between items and above items. The way they determine the volume is by loading all your things on the truck and then seeing what line it comes to on the inside of the truck. So if there are spaces between the items behind the line it will seem you have more items than you actually do and you could pay hundreds of extra dollars for space that is occupied by air because items were not packed tightly. Also, beware; they put the mattress last, so if you want to see the truck you can not see all the spaces behind it.
• One Positive Note – The only positive thing I can say about my entire move is that the two guys helping the Forman (which were two very young guys, I suspect late teens or early 20’s that did not seem to speak English) were hard working and except for not packing the truck tightly, did a good job.

Damaged Items:
• Solid Wood Bed – The headboard is broke in two. The wood is very thick, so there had to be a lot of force to break this in half. The entire bed is not useable, because the side rails sit into the headboard, which also supports the footboard. BUT I will only be reimbursed 0.60 cents per lb of the headboard only! So what, that is maybe $6-18 dollars for ruining my entire bed? Also, this is the ONLY reason I hired movers to move my things was for safe transfer of my solid wood bedroom set. I looked for several hours trying to find the headboard, but I can not find it anywhere. If I have to buy a new bed (which if I get one similar will cost me over $2000) the wood and style will not match making my entire bedroom set useless.
• Large Dresser – The delivery driver scratched the dresser trying to put the mirror back on. The scratch marks are around 3 feet in length, each. Also there is a chip out of the side of the solid wood dresser, and one of the drawers is broken. There are 5 legs on this dresser, and one is broken off.
• 42” TV- The frame is bent away from the TV and it does not work.
• End Tables – Both have paint scratched off.
• Shelves – Chipped, scratched, missing paint.
• Sofa Chair – The cushion was not delivered. It has four legs, the movers removed all four, threw it in the truck (without packing it), so as one would expect, they lost one and now there are only three! It is now useless.
• Dinning Room Chair – My solid wood dinning room chair was broken in two. The top piece was broken off. 3 out of 4 chairs are chipped up and one is missing some wood at the top. My only explanation is something really heavy must have been ramming into my things repeatedly to have so much solid wood furniture broken.
• Mother’s China – My mother passed away a couple years ago. I have her china, which means a lot to me. The china is smashed even though the box says “fragile”. Many boxes seem to be extremely dented, smashed, and have holes in them. The boxes I used are really thick shipping boxes so this should not happen unless my things were being handled roughly.
• Leather Ottoman – Leather ottoman has only 3 out of the 4 legs, making it entirely useless.
• Dirty Mattress - My mattress came to me dirty, which I do not understand since they were wrapped in blankets, they also ripped a giant hole in it.
• Some items not delivered - Such as a brand new $50 metal shoe rack, some boxes, etc.
• Smashed Boxes – So many boxes were smashed. I have dishes broken, all my collectable statues (which were individually wrapped and packed in a box) were smashed. Appliances had pieces broken off.


Issues I encountered with the delivery:
• No Option of Delivery Time – The delivery driver called the evening before to tell us that he was going to deliver at 7am the next morning. I was under the impression I would get a 24 hour notice and would be able to schedule the delivery time. He said to have him come later it would cost $80.00 per hour. Ray Oren (the owner) assured us that we would be called when the truck left Houston, and everyday we would get an update of where the truck was. We never got any calls, we called numerous times, but the delivery driver would not answer or return our calls. The only way we were able to get an answer out of them was by calling Ray and he would call the driver. This all was especially frustrating because we wanted to go to PA to visit my grandparents over the long (Memorial Day) weekend, but instead we had to stay at home waiting for the delivery since I was told it was coming Friday, then Saturday, and then Monday… and then it did not come until Thursday. Might I add that I they did not call to inform us of these changes, we waited around all day and at night of the day we were promised delivery we would call them and they would say…. Oh we are coming tomorrow. On Monday the delivery driver did not even know who we were and questioned that he promised delivery that day. Are you kidding me? He was only a few miles away the whole weekend. Then on Monday when we called they said the truck broke down and they would not give us any estimate of when it would be fixed. Ray Oren told us when I paid my deposit that it would take only 3 days to be delivered, we waited 14 days, which meant sleeping on the floor for 14 days 
• Never Received Any Calls from the Driver – Ray assured that we would be called when the delivery truck leaves TX, when it is two days away, and 24 hour notice to set up a delivery time. The delivery driver did not give any of those calls, nor did he call to let us know the truck had broken down and that he would yet again not be coming the day we were expecting. He only called us once (a half day before delivery, as mentioned in the previous bullet).
• Left Furniture Scattered – I had tags on the walls indicating where each item should go, but items were just thrown on the floor randomly, such as the dinning room chairs were in the living room and some were on their sides not even standing. I also told them that the floor had to be shampooed so to put the furniture in my office. So after they left I had to move about 10 piece of furniture myself, what was the point of the movers?
• Refused to separate boxes – The boxes were labeled on all 5 sides with the respective room they belonged to. The driver said he would not separate the boxes, and only throw them all in one room, which makes it extremely difficult for me to unpack.
• Did Not Unwrap Items - Items wrapped by R & L workers were supposed to be unwrapped upon delivery (such as the fish tank). They left tape and wrapping on the fish tank, vacuum cleaner, TV, etc; even the area rug was still rolled up and taped!
• Refused to Build Some Items – The delivery driver refused to build my desk (which was disassembled by his workers in Houston) because “it was in too many pieces”. The contract states that anything disassembled by R & L will be reassembled. The desk was only in 3 pieces. He also did not put the stand on the TV. I can not figure out how to put the stand back on. The TV was bought brand new, with the stand on it, so there are no directions for assembly.
• Missing Leg – One leg is missing from the sofa chair. The delivery driver told his worker to go check the truck for the leg and the worker said “Noooo” as if the truck is such a mess he would not be able to find it. The driver had us sign the paperwork, and he said he would go check for the missing leg in the truck. I thought he was coming back after he checked, I thought he would come back for a tip. Next thing we know the truck is driving away. He never came back.
• Left Trash All Over Home – The tape and packing materials were just left all over the floor.

Here is an outline of what we were told about our delivery date (Pick up was the previous Friday):
1. Ray (the owner) told us Friday. Then changed it to Saturday.
2. We called on Saturday wondering what time the delivery would be here since we still had not heard from Alex. He tells us then that he is in South Carolina and that our things will be delivered on Monday (Memorial Day).
3. Monday we call, still not receiving any calls from Alex and again wondering what time that day our things would be delivered. Alex told us Tuesday, at latest Wednesday Morning.
4. Tuesday we call Alex to ask what time he is coming. He does not remember us, and questions that he ever told us that he was coming on Tuesday or Wednesday. Then he says that the truck is broken down (He should have called us to tell that our delivery again be delayed due to the truck breaking down, we would have been more understanding if he did that). We asked what day could we expect him then, and he said he has no idea. We asked for just an estimate (we didn’t know the problem with the truck is it something that takes a day or two to fix or a week?) He refused to give an estimate.
5. Wednesday evening we received a call (The first call the delivery driver had ever made to us) saying he would come at 7 am the next morning (Thursday). We explain that 7 am is a bad time due to our carpets being shampooed at the same time (We could not call the shampoo guy to reschedule because the leasing office scheduled it so we did not have a phone number). If the driver would agree to coming just a little later that would have been perfect. Or he could even come Wednesday night that was fine with us also. He would not do either and said he would charge us $80 an hour if we did not allow the 7am delivery. We could have worked with this, if he had given us 24 hour notice. The shampoo guy showed up while the movers were here, and was nice enough to come back later but the movers were still here, he had an appointment at 10 so had to leave. I felt really bad for wasting his time.

Explanation of how you are reimbursed if they damage items:
• Anthem Claim – They use a third company to decide how much and if you will receive money for damaged items.
• 30-90 Days – Ray Oren (owner) will give you a phone number. You will call this number and they will give you a link to a site where you can file the claim. Here is the link if you want to read up: http://www.mymoveclaim.com/ It says it will take 1 – 3 months for them to get back to you about your claim.
• Only Items you notice before the delivery driver leaves count – In my case the driver was rushing me and I had a guy coming to shampoo so I was trying to hurry. Also they shoved all my things in one room so I could not get to many items. They did not unpack some of the furniture (they were supposed to, such as the TV, the mattress, etc) so I did not notice it was broken until after the fact. You get nothing for those items. You should go through and take all the time you need to inspect EVERY item very carefully make sure everything works and turns on and is not scratched or dented, etc. You must write those items on a tiny space provided on the sheet you sign after they deliver your items. It is VERY important; make sure everything is on there.
• Waste of time – You then must take photos of everything broken and write explanations for each item. You must write a letter to the company and fill out a couple of forms. There is no way to do this online, it all must be snail mailed.
• Not all items covered by insurance – Some furniture, such as pressed wood are not covered by the insurance, so if one of these items breaks, you are out of luck.
• 60 cents per lb – If the item is not able to be repaired, you have written the damage on the form before the driver leaves, and you sent in pictures and filed the claim within the allotted time frame, you will receive a measly 60 cents per lb. Is that even worth your time? So in my case, my sold wood headboard broke, the headboard weighs 10-20 lbs? That means you get $6 – 18 dollars for ruining your entire bed, not to mention the bedroom set (if you are not able to replace that one). If they damage a big TV that weighs 40 lbs, you will get $24! It is pretty ridiculous I think. And you are not the one that determines the weight; Anthem claims estimates the weight, which may be lighter than what it actually weighs.
• Notarized – When you receive your claim back from Anthem, they will tell you how much money you will receive as a lump sum. They do not break it down for you (maybe because they realize how upset you will be if you notice you only get $24 for your big TV). You will then have I believe 90 days to get the form notarized, which in my opinion is a pain.
• YOU PAID MORE TO MOVE THOSE ITEMS! – So, when you get you get the claim back, and they say they will give you $100 for the broken items, that is no where near enough to replace even one item. BUT this is the worst part, I went through and measured ALL my broken items to calculate the square feet I was charged for those broken items… I was charged $500 dollars just for R & L Moving Systems to move those items. So I am not only are all of these items broken and useless, I actually paid R & L Moving Systems to break and move these items for me. I asked Ray Oren if he would at least reimburse me the money I paid for him to move those broken items ($500), I would not have been “happy” but at least I would not be taking action and although it is not my intention (I merely want to give the facts so potential customers can decide for themselves), forcing him to lose customers with my reviews.

I called Ray Oren (The owner) an hour after my things were delivered to explain these issues. He speaks very kindly to you and tries to assure you everything will be fine. He told me he would compensate me for all the issues I had with the delivery driver (and fine the driver for doing these things) and also for the solid wood bed since the claim would not give us much money. He asked that I email him everything we spoke about that day so he could talk to his driver. I sent him a detailed email that day. He then avoided me for almost 3 months. I would send an email with questions asking if he spoke with the driver and asking about the compensation and asking for the number to file a claim for my broken items, his respond would be JUST the phone number, not even his name signed or any answers to my questions. I let him know that if he still did not want to resolve the issue in August (almost 3 months after the move) I would be forced to take action.

CONCLUSION – All in all, R & L Moving Systems Inc, seems to hook their customers with a lower estimate than most moving companies (although I found a lower estimate, but I saw the reviews of the company were bad, so though I would go with R & L), but end up “under estimating” and charging hundreds – thousands extra the day of the move, which gives you no choice but to pay. Ray Oren someone who likes to talk A LOT. He will reassure you in anyway. I wanted to believe everything he said but it seemed he was just saying things make you confident in his company at the time with no intentions of following through (such as when our items would be delivered, that we would receive calls, that I would be reimbursed and given extra compensation for all the damaged items and problems with the move).

TIPS – I only hired this company to move my items for me because I thought it would be much less stress on me, since I was driving across the country with my 3 pets that day, and having just graduated with my MS degree that week. This caused me the most stress I have ever had in my life. What I was originally going to do, was hire movers off of the Uhaul website, to load an Uhaul truck for me. I did this in 2009 and it cost me only $80 for two hours of 3 people loading the truck for me. Then drive the truck yourself, in my case my fiancé would have done it, then hire movers again to unload for you. I am sure the move would have gone smoothly; I would have saved hundreds – thousands of dollars; I would not have had to sleep on the floor for 14 days, I would have had my things instantly. No one is going to take better care of your things than you. Just remember that.

I have had approximately three months to “cool off” so I assure you, everything I have said here are just the facts, and I have said nothing out of anger. I hope this helps and gives you the necessary information to make a good decision.

I have included pictures from the move (with BEFORE pictures of the bed and dresser).