My initial communication with I B.E.L.I.E.V.E Movers was great. I spoke to Pauline (Darnell Banks' wife) regarding moving from West Texas to the Austin area. She asked me only a few questions such as the square footage of the house I was currently residing and the size of the house where the relocation would take place. She asked for me to do a followup email for her records of some of the items I would be moving. On July 10, 2017, I sent her this email ( I took out my address and phone number for privacy):
I will be moving the contents of 2 children's bedrooms (queen sized furniture, toys, and clothes), 1 master bedroom (bed never assembled new), refrigerator that is NIB, washer, dryer, dining room set, NO couches or living room furniture except an area rug.
I will need assistance packing up some larger pictures and 3 TVs. Pictures vary in size. I will send a picture of the pictures (ha ha) in a separate email from my phone.
Right now, the expected closing date is August 3rd. Hopefully I will get confirmation of that soon.
Let me know what other information you might need.
The following day I received a follow up email from her quoting me $2475 for the full move and that included Darnell and two helpers.
Prior to the actual move date, I did a few follow up calls to make sure everything was good.
On August 1, 2017, Darnell showed up with only ONE helper and an extremely small truck. He was shocked to see I had boxes. Yes, BOXES. He stated, "you never said you were moving with boxes." Who the hell doesn't move with boxes? He then proceeded to ask me to find additional workers to help load the truck and call U-Haul to rent an additional truck. Frustrated, I began calling friends/family and anyone I knew to help. Meanwhile I was able to secure a U-Haul last minute. This ended up costing me an additional $600 that was not in the original quote! Plus the cost of me hiring additional labor. So now I'm over $1000 for this move.
Friends and family pulled through to help. Meanwhile, I must also state that he showed up without tools to disassemble the furniture and only a few moving blankets. My furniture is of high quality, he chose to stack chairs on top of each other without any moving blankets. I even questioned his packing. I was feeling anxious and continuously questioning him verbally regarding his packing.
Both trucks were poorly packed. I ended up transporting two cars full of household goods myself to my new home. Upon arrival, my heart sank. All eight of my dining room chairs were severely dented and marred. My Jupe table faired even worse. The brand new entertainment center had a huge chip of wood broken off and the other side had deep gouges. My brand new bedroom nightstand had paint completely rubbed off. Boxes that were labeled "FRAGILE" and "NOTHING ON TOP" were crushed under the weight of 5-6 other boxes inside the house. Crystal, glasses, plates, and pictures were all destroyed.
Once again, he showed up without tools. The bedroom furniture was put back wrong. The box spring mattress was placed upside down! My friend had to advise him on how to do his job numerous times. It was absolutely ridiculous!
I began taking pictures to document. Darnell only accepted that he needed to repair the chairs. He tried to tell me that the other furniture "came like that." No, it was brand new. As in I had not even used it yet!
A week later he showed up at my house to pickup the damaged furniture because he wanted to take it to one of his buddies for repair. There was no way in hell I was going to let that man touch my furniture again!
I received a very reasonable quote from Lee Haywood to repair all the damage to the wooden pieces for $600. (BTW, I would highly recommend Lee Haywood!) Darnell refused to pay that. So I hired an attorney to write him a letter. -actually it ended up being two letters.
After two letters from attorneys, Darnell finally wrote me a check in the amount of $600. While this does not cover all the damage, time, effort, and extra expenses I incurred, I am glad to be done with I B.E.L.I.E.V.E Movers.
I definitely would NOT recommend him to anyone! Save yourself the hassle... read more