This seems like a case of insufficient leverage and negotiation. This is of course easy to say after the problem is described. Freelancers and small companies need to be really good at negotiation or accept that they will have a higher risk of losing a lot of money, time and energy on somewhat unnecessary fuck-ups.

Most of the moving I have personally done was with people that someone knew and it worked out reasonably well. We have done most of the packing and these guys have mostly just done the loading/ unloading. The only other thing was taking apart and putting together the bed, table etc. This worked well enough even between Zurich and Prague and cost slightly over $1,000.