I've moved a few times now in the Seattle area and CSM has been the smoothest.
It's a small thing, but the initial highlight was Malcolm emailing me a few days before the move to confirm the timing. I was actually about to call CSM the same evening to confirm, and he beat me to it. I appreciate the diligence.
My wife and I ended up *mostly* packing our own stuff, but still had ~5-6 boxes of assorted junk in closets and also needed help with furniture, TVs, fragile glass shelves, pictures, etc. This was not an issue - the crew was happy to load the boxes we packed and had all my random junk packed into new boxes before I knew it.
Our movers (Johnny, Ethan, and Josh) were speedy, polite, and a lot of fun. They clearly enjoy their job and worked well together with joking and good-natured banter which had me laughing along with them throughout the morning. They were also respectful of our space, going out of their way to ask permission to use the restroom in both the apartment and the new house.
The crew emptied my apartment of our pre-packed boxes so quickly it was breath-taking, and got our furniture wrapped in blankets just as quickly. All told it took maybe ~3 hours to load a (very crowded) 1000sqft apartment.
They got to our house very quickly and performed some minor wizardry getting the moving truck onto our small driveway after a tight turn onto the private road we share with a few other houses. I had been stressing about where they'd put the truck - for no reason, it turns out, because they managed just fine.
The crew unloaded in maybe 60-90 minutes and were very patient with our uncertainty of where to put certain boxes and pieces of furniture. We asked them to switch the rooms of a dresser and a desk and they did so cheerfully and without complaining. They even set up my bed frame and mattress/box spring in the master bedroom, which is a first for my moves (I usually end up re-assembling the frame myself). They also set up my glass entertainment center (removable shelves), when in the past I've had to put the shelves back in myself. One of the guys was concerned because one of the shelves seemed loose and went out of his way to let me know, which was appreciated - turns out that the securing bolt had just fallen on the floor nearby and been missed.
The move had a few minor hiccups but the way the CSM crew addressed them helps earn the 5 stars. Early on in the move, we had some trouble figuring out how to detach a hutch from the top of my wife's desk. Johnny asked me whether I knew how it was attached, and neither of us could figured out how to unscrew it. He asked if it was alright if they just wrapped it up as-is and moved it carefully, and I said sure. Naturally, about 30 minutes later, he called me into the hallway to let me know that the hutch had snapped off of the desk while they waited for an elevator and that they would make it right. A few hours later, when unloading, Johnny let me know he had talked to his boss and that they wanted to comp me a specific dollar figure for the damage, and that if that didn't make the problem whole that I could feel free to call and talk to them about it after the move and they would make it right.
I was entirely satisfied with the proposed resolution, and it was about half the price of the cheap desk, and CSM had carefully placed the broken hutch back on top of the desk anyway so it was still functional as long as we didn't move it too much.
I would call that going above and beyond with rectifying a mistake with integrity, and great customer service. I did not feel the need to call in afterwards.
The second "hiccup" is that the crew was about ten minutes late. This didn't bug me much because (sadly?) I'm used to it. However, when it came time to pay, Johnny noted on the form that the move hadn't started until 8:15 and they were not billing me for the lost time, and that he wanted to apologize for the tardiness. I had completely forgotten that 5 hours ago they had been just a little late (we finished ahead of when I expected, anyway, even with the short delay), and I was impressed with the honesty. I would not have been shocked if another company had just claimed the move started as scheduled and left it up to me to deal with it.
CSM is clearly a company that puts a premium on customer satisfaction and doing business with integrity. There are cheaper movers in Seattle but at least one of those other companies has damaged my property before and not made any effort to let me know about it - accidents happen, and CSM went out of their way to point it out, apologize, and make sure I was satisfied with the resolution.
Moving can suck, but CSM will make sure you do it quickly and with a friendly, helpful crew. read more