TLDR: I would've spent ~$5K for a national brand to have come, packed my things, and delivered…read morethem. However, I didn't like their deception or how their prices kept changing. I ended up spending ~$5K for this local company to be more deceptive and misleading than the national ones were, extremely unprofessional and inexperienced, and a pain to deal with. I regret the entire process. Find someone else who draws up a contract for the safety of both parties, or who at least knows what they're doing. Oh, and who won't steal/lose your things.
I took a while to write this review because I wanted to have a level head so that I didn't overstate anything. However, 7 weeks out and I can safely say, free from any temper or emotion, that this was the worst moving experience I have ever had. (I suppose I brought this upon myself: he never drew up a contract for me to sign, and everything took place over text message. I should've known better.) I had a contract for $5K for a full-service move from VA to NY with a national company, but decided I'd be more comfortable with a local company. I found Armando and contacted him with very clear requirements: I am looking for a full-service mover. He said his company could do that, so he came over and gave me a price after taking inventory of my things. I cancelled my contract with the national brand. A week later, Armando texted me a price $1000 over what we had discussed. I called him out on it, and he told me we could go back to my original price. When moving day came, he informed me that they would NOT pack my things the way we had discussed - I had to box up everything in my house in an hour. The truck that he had brought to pack my things (18' truck) quickly proved to be too small for my furniture, and wouldn't even have room for the boxes. He brought a second truck, filled that one up too, and assured me that before delivery they would consolidate the boxes into one truck. The day he was supposed to arrive to my new home in NY to deliver my things, he informed me that he ended up needing a larger truck (26') and tried to charge me extra for it. I refused, under the basis that we followed his "professional" opinion for the size of the truck and that it wasn't my fault that he was wildly off in his estimate. When he arrived, he had only brought one person. I was confused until I found out that he had found two local guys here in NY that he paid to help him unload for a couple hours. (Local guys. People he'd never met. In my home.) Any time he was in my presence, he would say rude and disrespectful things about the way the boxes were packed, or how much stuff we had, etc. Not sure how much experience he had, since he needed my help figuring out how to disassemble things (like a floor lamp). The best part: as we were unpacking, we kept noticing things that were missing. At first, I would text him as things came up missing but he's never responded to a single text so I gave up. So far we estimate it's about $500-$600 of things we've noticed are missing/stolen. Was it him? Was it his partner? Was it the two random strangers he invited into my home? Who knows.
The only positive thing I can say about Armando: on delivery day, my street in Brooklyn NY was too narrow for the huge truck he ended up using (it would've been fine with the truck he and I had initially discussed, FYI). He ended up pulling a brilliant maneuver and managed to squeeze into parking up on the sidewalk. That was pretty cool!
