Careful, communicative, on-time and the price is right. One of our best moving experiences ever. I called them the second time I moved out of New Haven (don't ask) and from the estimate every step of the way they were much better to work with than the folks I worked with (and the folks I decided not to work with) last time around. They packed for us, they dealt with awkward spaces, valuable items, breakable items, half-packed disaster areas, bad weather, family dynamics and all the things that make a move truly special. They ARE experienced, and it shows. I definitely recommend that you give them a call. read more

TEMS were extremely professional, efficient and completed my move on time and on budget. I HIGHLY recommend using them for any move, large or small, if you want trustworthy movers that will take care of your belongings and stick to your moving schedule! read more

I do not recommend this company. For the price, you can get a more reliable and responsive company to do your move. While the two guys that moved my 1 bedroom apartment were very nice, they showed up an hour late. One guy was great in terms of moving things out of the apartment, but the other one was moving quite slow, so it took well over six hours to move my very small one bedroom apt. and I only have five pieces of furniture and had moved all of the dishes myself days earlier. They only accept cash, which seems ridiculous in this day and age. My biggest complaint is that after trying to jam my sofa through the doorway (eventually had to use an alternative route), my sofa was left torn and the door unable to close. When I called and emailed about this it took several days to get a response. I was surprised by the lack of accountability and failure to recognize the urgency of not being able to lock one's front door. The two movers eventually came back and poked around the door making comments that there is no way they could have damaged the door or the frame, even though it closed and locked properly before the move. They were unable to fix it and mentioned having a relative come to see it. I didn't hear back from them for another three days until someone called late a night saying that he would call again to set up a time to fix the door - I never heard from him again. I had to find an independent fix-it person to come in and fix the lock. Go with another company. read more

This review is long overdue, but still relevant. I am currently looking for movers for a move from CT to DC, and I came across Experienced Movers' website. I considered them for a few minutes before I realized that my husband and I used them for a move a few years ago and had a HORRIBLE experience. They did not tell us ahead of time (when we booked them) that they refuse to move musical instruments. In fact, they helped my husband move our things into a storage unit in May of 2009, and moved ALL of our things (which included a piano) with no problems. However, when we hired them again in August of 2009 to move our things out of our storage unit and into our apartment, the two movers who showed up informed us that they would not move our piano NO MATTER WHAT because they were Muslim and don't believe in musical instruments, which left us in a huge bind. How were we supposed to move a piano by ourselves in our car? On top of that, we were charged by the hour for the time they spent arguing with us about the piano and resting (I know they need breaks, but I have used other movers, and this was EXCESSIVE for a tiny one-bedroom apartment move), so the hourly rate came out to be about twice the amount they estimated, and they did not give change, so make sure you have exact cash. Do not trust the estimate at all. They also were not very careful with how they handled our things, but thankfully nothing was badly damaged. So, imagine my surprise when I ran across their website recently and the home page shows two guys moving A PIANO. I know it is standard practice to use stock photos on websites, but this is majorly misleading, especially if they still fail to tell customers ahead of time that they will not move their belongings. read more

I am writing to file a complaint against Experienced Movers. I graduated from Yale School of Management in May of 2009. I hired The Experienced Movers to move my belongings from New Haven, CT into storage, store my belongings for 3 months, then move my belongings to New Yorkon September 1. I paid them $2063.20 for these services, including packing materials. This was more expensive than average, but I was willing to pay up for better service (or so I thought). They stored my furniture without any cover, and a drip on one of my boxes caused a mold growth. The real damage, however, occurred when they moved all of my furniture without wrapping it on the truck. This included placing one of the desks, face down, on the floor of the truck, without wrap--and weighing it down with a piece of glass. The table arrived badly scratched on all surfaces, chipped, with a support rib broken. The rest of my furniture--wooden desks, tables, a white couch, etc--were left to rattle around in the truck, some weighed down by heavy boxes, badly cracking the furniture. Similarly, a second desk, a table, and a dresser all arrived badly scratched and chipped. A valuable antique Korean chest arrived with the clasp missing, and a large crack on the top. Another valuable antique coffee table--worth $2000-- was scratched and two of the supporting legs had large cracks in them. Those cracks have since widened, and one of the legs is in danger of falling off. You may see pictures of my move here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Sarah.Pickard/ExperiencedMoversMoveSeptember12009?feat=directlink I am writing because The Experienced Movers and Storage should not be in business. When I called and complained, they were not apologetic. In fact, one of the drivers yelled back at me for my "attitude" because it was "not his fault". Only when I threatened to to take them to small claims court did they send me a claims form. I have filed a claims for with them, but am not very confident I will see anything rom them. I am writing to protect other consumers from having a similar experience as mine. I am a recent graduate with a number of student loans, left with broken and chipped furniture and little recourse. read more

I had a horrible experienced moving with Experienced Movers. I had originally had a quote from the owner who visited my apartment and saw what needed to be moved. He estimated it would take 4 hours total for this short move within town. When the movers actually got there a few weeks later they took an immense amount of time. They didn't have good spatial relations and needed help figuring out how to get things out of rooms. They ended up scratching the floors very severely in our old apartment so that we wouldn't get our security deposit back. One of the men decided it was easiest to just push the furniture across the floors instead of picking it up. The men weren't even that strong and struggled with some relatively small pieces of furniture. The job ended up taking 9 hours, which was absolutely ridiculous. A lot of our furniture got scratched, a couch was ripped, and they didn't even have sofa bags or mattress bags to protect our larger items. We paid through the nose for this bad move. Don't put yourself through the same experience. Though the guys themselves were friendly, the service was horrible. read more

Experienced Movers were so professional and helpful during my move last week - I really can't recommend them enough. After a hellish moving experienced last year, I was so relieved to find these guys. I had to change my move date a few different times - and finally landed on a date they were totally booked, but they generously squeezed me in anyway. They were on-time, did not damage any of my stuff, and were the most affordable movers I found in the area. But more then that, they were polite and pleasant throughout the move - not what you usually get from moving companies these days. I can't remember the last time I gave a 5-star Yelp review for anything - so trust me, these guys are the best. (one thing to note: they are cash only, so come prepared) read more

These guys were pretty fantastic--we phoned them very last minute, they showed up and took care of everything, and were extremely POLITE and FRIENDLY the entire time. We stored university stuff over the summer, and then moved everything to Manhattan. They were extremely accommodating in moving things to multiple locations and waiting by as needed. The only drawback is the cash-only policy, which can be a bit tricky. But other than that, I highly recommend them. read more

Hi Andre, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for your services on 2/20/11. The movers arrived on time and were very professional. They did an excellent job with removing the furniture from one apartment to the next without damage. My brother and I were very pleased with the service. I would definitely recommend your services. Thanks again. L.Bass read more

I used this group at the end of last year and I have to say I am completely shocked that they have such a high rating. They were by far the most incompetent people that I've ever dealt with. First they showed up 3 hours late after saying their truck allegedly broke down. To be honest, it sounded like they completely forgot about me. I wonder how often their truck "breaks down". Then when they finally showed up the movers themselves were the laziest people ever. I didnt think it was possible for two men to move so slow. The whole time they were more concerned about talking on the phone than actually getting stuff in the truck. It was blatantly obviousto me that they were trying to milk time. There was a ten minute period at one point between items that they took down. I called Aswad to complain and he belittled me and made me feel like garbage. I was so infuriated by this whole ordeal that I tried to file a complaint with the DOT office. They simply told me that this group does not have a license and wasn't even regulated by their department. So basically, they can get away with whatever they want with zero repercussions. Now my only hope is to pray that the owner will be nice enough to call me back and reimburse me as he should. But I am rather confident that he will not. It was a very awful experience, and I warn others not to use them because they were so lazy, unprofessional, and rude. read more

At the recommendation of some friends, I hired Experienced Movers to move me from New Haven to Washington, DC. Overall, I'd strongly recommend them, but only if time is not an issue for you. If it is, DO NOT go with them. Because it was, for me, I had to lower the number of stars I gave them. pros: Aswad (the owner of EM) will come with his team to move you himself. He's a very friendly guy who's genuinely a pleasure to talk with. He also returns both calls and emails very promptly, and that's a huge relief when you're stressed out about moving. Moreover, he and his guys are flexible and reasonable when things don't go exactly as planned. I had significantly more boxes (all those books...) than I had anticipated. Aswad charged me a reasonable amount more for the books and didn't complain--he just dealt with the situation and moved on. I very much appreciated this. He also kept in touch by cell phone on the drive down to DC; again, I appreciated this. In a world of deeply unreliable and untrustworthy movers, Experienced Movers and, in particular, its owner, are reliable and trustworthy. cons: I needed to done with my move to DC by 6 pm due to the rules of the building I was moving into. I had written about this to Aswad and told him, more than once, over the phone about it. Perhaps I was overly trusting, but I trusted Aswad to be able to judge withsome accuracy how longthe move would take. This was a mistake. Originally, EM was going to pick up my things at 6 am so that we could make it down to DC in time. The night before we moved the time to7. That was fine, I thought--we'd still make it to DC in time even if the actual moving took 2 hours on both ends. Then, that morning, Aswad called me and moved the time back to 7:45. I got my first inklings that Experienced Movers is not-so-experienced (or good at planning) when he told me, then, that he was printing out Mapquest directions to DC. At 8:15, I called him and he said he was "close"--10 minutes away, apparently there had been traffic. I was obviously not pleased; there is ALWAYS traffic at that time of the morning. Any "experienced mover" would TAKE THAT INTO ACCOUNT. In any event, it was not true, and Aswad et al didn't arrive until 8:45--one hour and 45 minutes late, that is. EM then didn't leave New Haven until 10:30 or so. Now, I have driven between DC and New Haven many times. At 2 in the morning, it can take 5 hours or so, but, during the day, I've found that it typically takes around 7 hours (sometimes a bit more or less). So a 10:30 departure would get us in at 5:30, on average. I reminded Aswad about the 6 pm deadline and also that there would be traffic on the road to DC (as there was to New Haven). Aswad tried to reassure me by telling me that it was an easy drive, there's wouldn't be traffic, etc. ha! It took ME a little under 7 hours to get to DC (and I was the second fastest car on my stretch of the interstate for almost the entire way). It took Aswad 8 hours to get to DC. Not that there were any particular problems, just what you would expect, if you thought to plan in advance. E.g.,his truck couldn't consistently go over 70 mph, and he hadn't known that trucks couldn't go on 295, what he had planned to take to get into town. I understand that these things happen, but it is the job of the mover to plan in advance so they DON'T make a difference. They are not an excuse. Ultimately, I abased myself before the building attendant, apologizing profusely and more or less begging, and they let us move in. Now, though, I've gotten off on a poor start with the building association, and it really is Aswad's fault. What kind of a business person in the US shows up ONE HOUR AND FORTY-FIVE MINUTES LATE to an appointment?! I should note that, in part because of Aswad's obvious lack of experience in moving people to DC, I was pretty impressed by how well things actually did go. DC has complicated streets (especially if you don't even know about the existence of the grid system, which Aswad did not), but EM made it to my place in spite of their problems. Indeed, I would say Aswad's generally laid-back attitude was probably a big help--he didn't really plan much in advance, but because he was competent, he could manage anyway. Ultimately, I would recommend EM for a short move or for a longer move with no time constraints. They really were very reliable and easy to work with. If I hadn'thad the 6 pm deadline, I would have had no complaints. UPDATE: After talking with friends and family, I raised my review of EM to 4 stars rather than 3. Although I generally don't think one should be rewarded for fulfilling basic standards of decency (i.e., EVERYONE should do that), apparently industry custom is to refuse to deliver on a particular date at a particular time, no matter what. Although EM ran late they did deliver on the date I specified, only running a couple hours late, and that is apparently something incredible, for the (terrible) moving industry. read more

I originally had my move scheduled with another company but they called me 5 days before the move saying they had to cancel due to injuries. I obviously freaked out and called every friend I had for recommendations of someone else. Of all the recommendations I got, TEMS was the only company that answered on my first phone call. Aswad was very polite and quickly went over all the details with me and promptly emailed me the contract I needed to sign. On the day of the move, the movers showed up about an hour late, which was actually ok b/c we still had some last minute packing to do. We had 3 guys, one of which was clearly an industry veteran (I think his name was Joe?). He was in charge of the team, and was the most expert packer I've ever seen. The way he fit all my stuff into the truck was like watching a professional Tetris player! The 2 other guys with him definitely didn't have the same level of experience but they certainly had the brawn. One guy wrapped everything in plastic while the others carried everything out. It took a little while to get into everything in the truck, due to stairs/elevator/arranging the truck but once we left and arrived at my new home it took them only 30 minutes to unload. Overall it was a pretty stress-free day. My only complaint is that we had to pay for an extra hour of travel time, which I was not informed of in advance. I would definitely use them again though in my next move. read more

My fiance' and I used The Experienced Movers for our move from Hartford, CT to Omaha, NE. We were always nervous about using movers based on all the horror stories we heard and we consider ourselves lucky to find these guys. Unlike most movers who consolidate your move in a warehouse and give you pickup and dropoff windows, which could be as long as a couple of weeks, these guys simply load your stuff and get going. The owner, Aswad, was great at communicating and was always straight forward with what they could and couldn't do. His team, led by Rob on the day of the move, was very conscientious and careful with our stuff and did a great job packing. They were on time on the day of the move and on the drop off. In fact, they actually accommodated us as we needed an early load on Sunday and an afternoon drop off later that week. What mover can you find that will do that??? Not to mention that on the day of the move, our service elevator broke down and they simply got things done. Overall, a fantastic experience and I highly recommend their services. If possible, try to get Rob to handle the move as I had nothing but a good experience with him and his crew. read more

We used this company on our recent move from Washington DC to Norwalk, Ct. We were extremely impressed with the entire service from beginning to end. Booking was easily done online, the rates were great, and the movers were courteous and amazingly efficient. I was rather stunned at how quickly they packed up and loaded our apartment. Also, it was a huge positive to have the entire move finished within the same day. I would highly recommend TEMS as they exceeded all my expectations for the moving experience! read more

Wow, what a bizarre experience. First the good: they broke nothing. That's good. Now the bad: pretty much everything else. Their estimate was very much lower than the actual cost and this was perhaps to be expected because they severely underestimated the time it would take them (the actual price came in at almost double the quoted price). Why? Well, because I happened to be moving during Ramadan and the movers refused to eat or drink anything. Also, it was the middle of summer so we were terrified of them getting heat stroke or becoming dehydrated, as they in fact did. They ended up hiring random people OFF OF THE STREET to come and help them move our stuff as they tried to recover. Of course, it's unclear how insurance is to work when you are grabbing the guy in front of the liquor store to come and help. Also, the movers got into shouting matches w/ each other over whether to do this and one may have quit or been fired mid-move (that one movers also packed the boxes so tight that we couldn't pick them up--his colleagues were at least pissed about that too). I understand wanting to observe one's religious holiday but if you want to do that, then you presumably cannot also work as movers when observing the holiday means you can't do your job (or can't do it anywhere near the quoted price). And, um, the small proviso that they won't move religious artifacts? Yeah they aren't referring to your Dead Sea Scrolls or fancy jewel encrusted bible. They were extremely dogmatic about this and wouldn't even move some stupid tins that had Christmas wreaths on them (I'm not even Christian!). Our wine glasses? They asked if they were ceremonial. We said 'sometimes'. They wouldn't move it. We scurried to hide our books which were tangentially related to religion (e.g., art historical books on religion). They said they wouldn't move musical instruments (I thought it was because of liability) but nope it was a religious thing. They wouldn't even move my guitar pics, which I had in a separate tin. Yeesh. My car ended up being so filled with things they wouldn't move we had to throw some stuff away as we didn't have the chance to drive back twice. Oh and they also lectured us about religion and atheism. We had the radio tuned to NPR, which turned out to be a terrible idea. After the lecture we turned the radio off and spent two days with these guys in steely super awkward silence. Always a good idea to add unnecessary stress to the super stressful move. Good times. In sum, don't use these guys if you aren't ready to put up w/ a lot of unexpected malarkey. And definitely don't do it during Ramadan. read more

Despite a previous positive experience unloading a moving truck, I was extremely disappointed in their moving services. While the movers were polite, that is the only positive thing I can say about this company. *The in-home estimate was rescheduled twice (the first time was a no-show). *They were late arriving to the move by about an hour and did not bother to call and inform me of the delay. (I called them after half an hour to make sure I had the date right only to be told they were stuck in traffic.) *They went over their estimated moving time by about 3 hours (luckily our landlord was understanding). *They left items behind on the back stairwell of my old apartment building. *They couldn't fit everything in the truck, despite doing an in-home walk-through prior to the move. We had about 2 car loads of stuff that we had to move ourselves. *They damaged furniture (broke a piece of a couch frame, scratched the top of desks, broke a light bulb - which I had previously offered to remove but was told it would be fine - and chipped a night stand) in addition to water damage on the items they left behind. *Most annoyingly, they do not honor their claims process. It took numerous emails and phone calls to get to a point where they would process my claim. They finally agreed to pay in Oct. It's Dec. now, and I have received no reimbursement. They have stopped responding to my emails and do not answer phone calls from my cell phone number. If you care about what you are moving, punctuality, or customer service, look elsewhere. read more

I used The Experienced Movers for a move for my elderly mother. I hired them at the last minute after another mover fell through. The team Aswad, Abdul and Joe were very professional,kind, courteous and patient. My mother moved from a second floor walk up. Not one time did they complain or get irritated. In fact, they maintained a smile throughout this strenuous process. They were efficient and hsndled each item with care. I would definitely recommend this company. In addition, the rates were very good. read more

I employed TEMS to move me out of a 3rd floor apartment, with some large and heavy stuff. The movers were prompt, efficient, and friendly - and the cost was reasonable. I would recommend these folks to anyone moving to - our from - the New Haven area. read more