I moved locally a 1/1 apartment to a 2/2 condo on 3/6/13. I picked Big Guy movers after researching reviews and rates of Jax moving companiea, they seemed to have a better price and the majority of reviews were positive. The pre-move effort was great, we have several phone conversations about the upcoming move, a few reminders, and I had even identified and requested my movers by name (having seen where certain reviews called some of them out by name). Everything I requested in advanced was promised to me, along with the expectation that a 1/1 apt move wouldn't take very long - 2-4 hours tops.
On the day of the move, they were 1 hour late arriving. They arrived in a smaller truck, and the movers I requested were not the movers I received (nice enough guys, just not the guys I was promised). A series of phone calls began to take place to the owner (Dave) who had always answered his phone before the move ... but the day of the move it was always going to voicemail. He never once answered his phone for me the entire day of the move. That was annoying - but I figured this was his protocol - don't interact with the customer the day of the move - just work with his employees to address any concerns as the day progressed.
Upon seeing the size of the truck, and knowing how much I had to move, I had cautioned the movers that I didn't think they were going to be able to get it all done in one shot (and I was right), but the movers had no other trucks available or options to give me other than they would have to make multiple trips (which extends the time involved). I told them that's fine - make multiple trips if you have to, but don't charge me for the extra time involved. They said that upon arriving for their day another team had taken the "big truck" already, leaving them with this smaller one. The growing concern I had was that the condo I was moving into had a strict 5pm cut-off for movers to complete their work. Knowing this, I had already asked to start the day at 8am sharp ... which in reality started at 9am because they were late in arriving. Now with the smaller truck ... we're looking at well into the afternoon before finishing.
As the move got underway, a few boxes were dropped along the way (they had 1 dolly and 1 roller to work with) - I had lots of boxes and several would fall off the dolly as they tried stacking them 4-5 high on the dolly. A few of the plastic storage bins actually broke from the weight of the boxes on top of them, spilling the contents onto the ground.
As they went to break down my bed, they suddenly realized that there were no tools to work with (someone didn't leave them on the truck). They asked me if I had any to which I replied, yes - but they're all packed up. I had to call my apt complex maintenance man to let us borrow his tools, which wasted more time.
During the move, a large bedroom dresser was damaged. I witnessed it as they were loading it on the truck. They were using a dolly, and attempted to set it down on the truck to maneuver it into a corner. So they set it down onto 2 legs, and as they pushed it up and over, the weight of the dresser broke off the 2 legs of the dresser! This prompted another call I made to the owner, which went to voicemail, but right after leaving a message, the movers got a phone call from the owner asking what happened. Later in the day, the owner stopped by to inspect the damage - but get this - he didn't introduce himself - he just drove up - inspected the dresser - advised his movers - and left. The movers then approached me stating that "they have a great furniture repair guy" that the owner was getting in touch with to fix the dresser, followed by continued apologies for how the move was going.
It took the 2 movers about 4 hours to get as much on the small truck that they could manage, leaving behind several boxes and items they had to return to get. Once at the condo, we had to deal with a freight elevator the whole time (but there were no stairs to deal with). I had labeled each box on its final destination, but at this point, no time was given to that, all boxes found their way into the main living room area, where I had to move them again afterwards. There were several bangs and marks against the walls and frames as furniture was quickly being moved through narrow hallways and corners by a single mover. They were rushing because we were rapidly approaching our 5pm cutoff.
Around 430pm, we made our way back to my apt. to dash-and-grab what we could get on the truck within a 20 minute period in order to rush back to the condo and unload before 5pm. This left me with 2 extra car trips afterwards to get all the little items that were ultimately left behind in the rush job. The final box was moved around 6pm. Being an hour over my alloted move-in time prompted several complaints to follow that I received afterwards, which added insult to injury.
In the end a 2 hr move = 9 hrs! :( read more
