I'm a woman in my 20s & this was my first time moving on my own. I learned some very important lessons last month, thanks to Love's.
1. The biggest lesson is to get EVERYTHING in writing. When I spoke to the Love's owner for the first time to get my quote, he assured me there were no hidden/extra fees. I specifically asked about the "long distance fee" b/c all the other companies said anything over 50 miles is considered long distance. The owner told me there would be no extra fees for the distance. He said "we don't have hidden fees or anything like that". I asked about the 1.5 hours it takes to travel between these 2 apartments; he said I would not be charged for those 1.5 hours. I electronically signed a quote and paid it but there was no writing about what we discussed or if extra fees would be added. I ended up being charged for the gas since it was "long distance" AND the time it took to travel. After I reminded him about our conversation, he bumped off 1 hour but left the gas fee and the extra 30 mins.
They asked if I wanted the beds taken apart and put back together (no mention of extra fee) and I said yes. I was using a sling for one of my arms b/c I broke my elbow 6 days before the move so I wouldn't have been able to do it myself anyways! Turns out it cost $75 per bed! And they did not tell me that until the end of the day! And both beds were put together WRONG! With one, it was not a big deal to fix but remember I have no use of one of my arms. The 2nd bed was put together so poorly it took multiple trips to Home Depot to get supplies to fix it, it's such a long story.
Hidden fee #3: The new apartment was on Floor 5 but there's an elevator. They parked in a "moving truck spot" by the building and immediately started unloading the truck. When I arrived a few minutes after them, there were a lot of things out of the truck already and they hadn't even gotten in the building yet. The main issue with this is that the door by this parking spot led to Floor 1 & the elevator doesn't go all the way down to Floor 1. I showed them to park down the block (there was plenty of space for the truck) in front of another door which goes to directly to Floor 2 where they could get on the elevator straight to the unit. They did not want to do the route I was suggesting for whatever reason. We walked around the building a few times and he decided they'll come in on Floor 1, go up 1 flight of stairs, and then take the elevator. No mention that there was a $200 STAIRS FEE. Even though I showed them the route that would've been faster and involved no stairs!! Created more work for his employees, too :(
They reviewed all these fees with me at the end of the day and while I tried to negotiate with some of the things (like the travel time) I felt cornered and unable to argue each charge like I wanted to bc there were 4 men I don't know in my house. Ultimately, I felt taken advantage of because if I had a husband or father there, it would've gone differently.
2. Movers are likely to show up late. Love's clearly has some communication issues within their staff, because the first people to show up did not know that the owner had not arrived with the truck yet. They were about 1 hour late, and the owner was 30 mins behind them because of "truck issues". It was fine, but I got donuts and waters for them to try to start the day off on a good note and it was kinda bad vibes right away.
3. No one cares about your stuff like you do. I appreciated that they wrapped most of our furniture to protect it, but you can tell which ones didn't get wrapped. I attached a photo of my desk here where you can see they didn't put anything on it to protect it and it got marked up bad (at first, they insisted they did not do that until I showed them a picture of what it looked like before). I was able to get the marks out with Clorox wipes and scrubbing really hard but remember I couldn't use one of my elbows and this was just annoying because it was avoidable. 3 coffee mugs and an antique dish from my grandma were completely shattered even though they were packed very tightly in bubble wrap and in a box marked "fragile" everywhere. The owner's response was "we're not liable for damages to anything you packed". Should've had that in writing! Eyeroll. There is also a photo included of the side of my bookshelf that has some weird brown stains/drips on it? This would not come off with wipes and 100% was not there before because that part was protected & against a wall in my old apt.
Overall, this was a crummy experience. I wanted to use a family-operated, small business, because I like to support businesses like that when I can. Next time, I will just pay whatever the real companies are charging because the peace of mind is worth it. I gave 1 star instead of just zero because the workers were very nice, apologetic, and hardworking. They left before I could give them a tip, and I felt bad that they had to do this job. read more