7 Jun 2012 · MoveAdvisor
5.0 out of 55.0
First, I am completely unrelated to DuFrane and had never even heard of them before my move. I located them online because I had a grand piano and needed someone who knew how to move it. (Even the big-name companies were reluctant to do this and wanted ME to pay extra to hire a piano mover to load it onto their trucks! It isn't hard to move a grand piano--one guy can do it--but you definitely need to know what you're doing.) Virtually everyone in the company that I had contact with was courteous, professional, and responsive. The front-office woman, Kimberly Gau, was fantastic. Paul (I think that's his name) is one of the owners of the company. He came out to help load the truck, and he definitely knew what he was doing. I felt very confident dealing with him. One thing I didn't realize was that there would be different guys loading the truck from those that drove it cross-country and unloaded it. It was not a flawless move. There WERE a few hitches. Don't expect to move an entire household nearly 2,000 miles in the back of a truck without a problem or two! The guys unloading my stuff were really great, and overall did a wonderful job. It began to rain, though, and they didn't cover some of the wooden furniture, so I had to rub it down fast when it got in the house. They were young men, and I don't think they realized the damage just a little water spot can do. One book in a box got a little waterlogged. The worst thing that happened was that an antique breakfront got seriously splintered and damaged; I'd given instructions on how it was to be moved, but the instructions hadn't gotten passed on. Okay, so this review is sounding like a complaint, right? Well, it's not. There will ALWAYS be problems in a move, whether you do it yourself or hire the best movers in the world. Here's the thing: the company took full responsibility for damaging the breakfront without argument. I found a local furniture repair person who took long months, not weeks, to complete the repair, and they worked with him. They paid him fully. I didn't have any hassles or problems whatsoever regarding this, and now I have the breakfront back, perfectly restored, at no cost to me. The guys who delivered the furniture were so courteous that they even took their shoes off to protect the light-colored carpet every time they came into the house! Amazing! A finicky neighbor started to hassle them, and these young men were completely gracious and courteous, even to the point of painstakingly backing the truck all the way down the street at the neighbor's insistence when they were leaving, rather than going forward around a curve (which they could've done, although it would have clipped a few shrubs). Everything was delivered intact with the exceptions noted above, the piano was set up and arrived in excellent condition, they came to pick up and deliver precisely when they said they would, and my final delivery cost came in UNDER the estimate. DuFrane is not a mega-huge comany, but their fees are competitive. They also move museums, so they know how to be careful. I would definitely use them again and highly recommend them to anyone. .
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