This was a pretty horrifying experience, particularly since the reviews here were great and things started off well. John was exceedingly polite and pleasant on the phone during our initial conversation and in subsequent texts confirming the Uhaul reservation (which we had to make - he has no truck) the day before. On the actual day, everything was off and got increasingly worse as the night wore on:
1) John had promised that including himself, there would be four men working for three hours, at a rate of $340 for the first three hours and $125 for each subsequent hour. John only showed up with two additional men. They spent a superfluous amount of time wrapping things in shrinkwrap that we said we didn't want wrapped, and trying to grab smaller items into the truck when we clearly said we didn't want help with anything but the bulky stuff. This seemed intentional, so as to drag out the time. Later, when he tried to say he would do my a solid by not charging us extra for starting "thirty minutes late," I had to bite my tongue. (This made no sense - we had agreed to start at the Uhaul site and since he's done this before, he should have known that it would take time to check in, process my husband's ID, get keys, etc.)
2) John kept insisting to my husband that he wanted to drive the truck, even though my husband was the one who had to reserve it in his name. My husband had to be firm with him and explain that that was a liability. When the truck arrived at our new home, John jumped into the drivers seat after my husband exited and re-parked it, backing two tire holes into our lawn. (Even his assistants were ragging on him for this move. I felt sorry for both of them the whole time - they kept squabbling in front of us because John wasn't moving very much.)
3) John showed up with a NASTY cough - you could hear the phlegm rattling in his chest, no joke - and proceeded to cough on EVERY INCH of both our old and new homes. He coughed on the furniture, on my freshly scrubbed island countertop, on my cell phone when I pulled it out, etc. I felt bad that he was sick but would have appreciated that he cover his mouth at the very least! I'm hoping because he was sick, this was the reason he appeared kind of out of it. He also showed up with a ton of clear tape wrapped around his thumb and asked my husband for more so he could rewrap it. He had injured it somehow and kept messing with the tape while eating a piece of pizza he'd brought with him, and was smearing sauce around. Suffice to say, this was pretty gross to witness.
4)John sat in the UHaul on our couch, laughing and playing on his phone for twenty minutes while his men moved as fast as they could. He held up the process so much that my husband and brothers stopped moving everything else and started moving the heavy stuff John was paid to love themselves. This was really frustrating. His assistants were struggling to carry one large item upstairs alone and my husband jumped in as John continued to sit in the truck, coughing and ignoring everyone. Later, he walked in and shouted "This house is HELLA nice!" He also told my husband that he recently helped a neighbor move. Unfortunately for John, we had met said neighbor earlier in the week when we first got the keys to the house, and they informed us they have lived here 12 years. Unprofessional and concerning to say the least.
5) When it came time to pay, John tacked on $50 to my bill, because "I'm ignoring that we started half an hour late" (see above) and adding "that ain't me to not be fair to you." He explained that because we went over 15 minutes, he felt $390 was fair. John made me nervous, so I actually rounded it up to $400 to be nice, even though the entire night was a joke. When I ripped out the check, he held it up and said "What the heII is this sh*t? The bank won't cash this if it's jagged." The check wasn't jagged, just not perfectly evenly ripped out. I opened my wallet to redo it, because he was insisting, and that's when John pulled out his cell phone and started to zoom his camera at my license in my wallet. I told him to stop and he freaked out, saying he only needed it because other people had "screwed" him over for "$3000 jobs" in the past and without a DL number, he wouldn't be able to fight it. I told him absolutely not, as I had no way of knowing if my info would stay safe in his phone, and that he obviously has my number and address if there's an issue. This made me very nervous, and I hope to warn anyone else working with him that he never talks about wanting to do this, and was going to snap my photo without my consent.
Just writing this review feels like a risk, but I want to have it out there in case someone else gets mislead by the positive reviews. John was actually showing me his Yelp reviews during the move (instead of actually moving furniture) and I do worry about recourse or retaliation. However, his lack of professionalism and honesty have earned him this review. read more