We hired Eko Movers because it had great reviews on Angie's List to move us from Richmond, IN to Chicago, IL. One of their reps, a very personable young man, came to our house to estimate the move. He walked through the house and took inventory. We received a fixed bid of $3,447 for a 26' foot truck and we accepted. Eko knew that we had a piano that we would have a professional set up for moving and all they had to do was to load and unload it. We also eliminated two twin beds, our gardening items, and numerous household items between the estimate and the move. We, ourselves, moved a pool table, lamps, artwork, shelving, and other items ahead of time.
Moving day came. Eko showed up, to our surprise, with two trucks - the 26' foot truck and an additional 17' truck and a crew of 3 extra men - we had not asked for a second truck and when we asked why, the responded, "in case". They loaded our belongings into the 26' foot truck - the crew was excellent and courteous. They got to a point where they didn't think that all of our furniture would fit and suggested using the second truck - something we did not expect. Our hands were tied at that point; the remaining items - 3 chairs would not fit. I called Randy, the manager, to find out the additional cost and he quoted $1,933, which seemed extremely high (especially when it wasn't on the initial estimate). So I rented a U-Haul (only a 20' foot truck was available) for the remaining items - 3 chairs - at a cost of $329. The movers took off and we went to get a bite to eat when we received a call from Randy saying that the 26' truck was over weight by 700 pounds and that would not work so we met the movers back at our house. The movers suggested moving our piano out (it was near the truck door and weighed about 500 lbs.) along with a few other items into the U-Haul we rented. We moved it with a couple of other items. We were concerned about the piano and they strapped in the piano and said the piano was safe and left.
We drove the U-Haul to Chicago the next day and arrived at the storage unit where we were storing our belongings. When we opened the U-Haul door we found the piano had fallen on its side, breaking another box. I called Randy and he understood, but offered no relief because we rented the truck and drove it, making us responsible since the piano had been moved to our truck and driven by us - they weren't responsible even though it was their choice to move the piano onto the U-Haul truck.
The following day, we were at our storage unit at 9:00 am and waited for the movers. Time passed and no movers. We finally got ahold of them around 10:30 am and found out that they had left Cincinnati at 8:00 am or so to drive to Chicago - at least a 6-hour drive. They finally arrived at 4:00 pm - we wasted the entire day waiting for them. The dock bay doors closed at 5:30 pm, so we had them quickly unload the piano and other items from the U-Haul -because the truck had to be returned by 5:30. It took about 45 minutes and I was able to return the U-Haul truck. They then went to unload the 26' foot truck. We were still working on unloading at 9:00 pm when the storage announced that it was closing at 10:00, so the crew worked faster (they had worked without stopping since they arrived). They were tired from driving and now with the time pressure made it harder for them causing them to drop a box of "Reidel" crystal glasses that shattered.
We worked like crazy until about a minute before 10:00 ensuring that, at least, the heavy furniture was off the truck and stored. We had large rugs, boxes, and a number of other items still in the bay, unloaded from the truck, but not stored. We had no choice but to leave. My wife, son, and I returned (no choice) at 6:00 am on Sunday to finish storing our items - it took until 8:30 to finish.
The crews that were sent were very good - Aaron, Devin, and the other guys we have nothing but good to say about them. as far as the management, "Randy", we are not happy:
* They underestimated our move and needed an additional truck at $1,933 - more than 50% increase from the estimated fixed $3,447. Surprising us with that on moving day is irresponsible of management. The estimator said that one truck would work, so that's what we went with.
* Sending our truck from Cincinnati to Chicago on the day of the move was irresponsible - it's normally a 6-hour drive, but on July 4th weekend, it took them 8 hours making our move-in wait until 4:00 pm. They had to unload and move our items into storage - storage closed at 10:00 leaving me to finish their job. They then had to drive back to Cincinnati - after driving and working 14 hours - dangerous and irresponsible of management.
* We found a number of items had been damaged because of they way they were crammed into the truck.
* The inside of their truck and the moving pads were filthy read more