Some movers were decent, and we took care of them (cash tips, pizza, beer after wards).
One company left some of our baggage on the tarmac during a 3 day deluge. Almost everything was ruined, including our feather-bed comforters from Germany, our photographs, and our other items.
Many movers scratch the crap out of your furniture. All you can do is file a claim when you get your stuff, but the moving companies label EVERYTHING you own as soiled, stained, and scratched as a hedge against any claim you file.
We placed some items in storage before one of our overseas moves. When we finally claimed it upon our return to the states, we discovered the company had looted our belongings. Old computers (I had a 1st generation MAC), china, family heirlooms - all gone.
I even knew one family who lost every single thing they owned. The trucks "disappeared." All they had to their names were what they had in their suitcases.
The military is the largest single customer of domestic moving companies. It sounds like this company was just one of the lousy ones.
We moved from Ft. Polk , LA, to Fitzsimons Army Medical Center when I started my residency; our household goods were over a month late, and the moving company said they had no clue where they were. After weeks of air mattresses and eating at a card table, our stuff was abruptly delivered. I was not very friendly to the driver until he explained that our original driver, his friend, had been murdered at a truck stop in Oklahoma.
That might be a bit dicier now than it was back in the days of expensive film. Nowadays it’s not that safe to assume that the owner hasn’t photo documented the condition of all his furniture before you arrived . . .