We had a 26 foot U-Haul truck, moving from Salem area to Roseburg. This is a review for unloading labor only, including a piano. Our house is a two story, 4 bedroom house with most of the main living space on the second story.
I'll start out with a pros and cons list:
Pros:
- heather, our main contact was very prompt and answered all our questions as needed on the phone prior to our move.
- we hired 3 labor-only helpers for three hours to unload our truck and they brought 4 helpers, no extra fee
- they showed up at the exact time we agreed upon
- nothing was broken
- they were careful to show us things that had broken before they moved it
- the job was done in 3 hours
Cons:
- they only moved one box at a time, which I found a little surprising as some boxes weren't even that heavy and most were size "small." Granted, they did have to go up a flight of stairs for many of them, but there was also a large number of boxes that all went into the downstairs living room and at the garage. When I asked one of the movers why he didn't use a handtruck or dolly for some of the heavier items or for multiple boxes downstairs, they said they were moving labor only and that WE would need to provide those supplies per MovingLabor.com's policy. I found that surprising because the other moving company we used was also through MovingLabor.com and they provided their own hand trucks and dollies.
- this will be the bulk of my review: I found that they were ill prepared to move any large heavy furniture items, especially a piano. Maybe the early warning sign was how they struggled carrying a king size memory foam mattress up the stairs... They didn't have any proper equipment to move a piano (because apparently WE needed to provide that?!) and yet they charged $200 to do so. If you advertise to move a piano you should know how to professionally move a piano AND provide the equipment, especially when you're charging a fee! We had decided that the best way to move the piano was to go through the back patio and up those stairs. Watching four people struggle up the stairs with one nearly injuring himself and almost knocking the piano down prompted my husband to jump in and help move the piano the rest of the way. It seemed everyone but my husband lifted with their backs instead of their legs. I think the tipping point was really when one of them claimed he was about to pass out and by the looks of it, he really did seem like he might. There was a lot of grunting and shouting, and they were very uncoordinated. Our last movers, which was just two guys due to being short staffed last minute, carefully lifted the piano onto a dolly and rolled it to the truck ramp. If they had brought a dolly, they could have saved their backs from the truck to the stairs and then the deck to the piano location.
I hate giving a sad review, but I cannot recommend BTB moving for any move larger than a studio. Frankly, I don't even think they would have finished the job had they not brought a fourth helper and he was just a teen. And definitely do not hire them to move a piano because they simply are not equipped to do so. read more