18 Jun 2012 · MoveAdvisor
2.0 out of 52.0
I encourage anyone who is thinking of using Moving Ahead to read this entirely, and take this into consideration. This is solely my side of the story, and is written with my opinions in mind.
I was recommended to Moving Ahead from my employer, who does quite a bit of business with Moving Ahead. I decided to use them because of this recommendation.
Joe from Moving Ahead came out on a Tuesday or Wednesday, about a week and a half before my scheduled move. Joe was very nice, and surveyed my entire apartment, looking through cabinets and everything. He gave me a quote which was very reasonable, including the movers to do all the packing. I said I would contact him back to book the move. I called him back a day or two later, after receiving the quote, to discuss some discrepancies and possible issues I may have. As I received a quote from another company with a guaranteed price, I asked Joe if this price would be guaranteed. He told me that he saw no way this move would go over the quote, and estimated the move to actually be cheaper and less time because I had 4 guys doing the move. He guaranteed (key word here) it wouldn't go over that price. I had to call back a week later and give a credit card number for deposit. Speaking to the gentleman who took the payment, he said he was going to authorize $1300 on my credit card (which was more then $300 more than the quoted move). I asked the gentleman why so much, as I was given a guaranteed price by Joe. He said they never do guaranteed prices, and he doesn't understand how I was given one. He passed the phone to Joe, who again guaranteed me this move will not go over the estimate (infront of the guy who just told me they don't do guaranteed prices). "There's no way in hell it's going over that price". Flashing red lights should have went off in my head at that point.
The day of the move, the movers came right on time, and began to work quickly. As my apartment had an upstairs (2 family home, we're on the 2nd floor and have the attic), the movers weren't told by Joe that they were moving stuff up there. In any case, they kept working. At around 11:30am/12pm (move started at 9am, and was a 4 1/2hr move) Joe shows up saying that the move was going to take extra time. I was fine with the move going over, I was not fine with paying more. Joe told me there was some kind of miscalculation with the amount of boxes and time needed to pack the kitchen. Mind you, this was just regular dish sets, etc, for maybe 6 people. He estimated 2 boxes, and it took 7, and the extra time. I was also told that I had made the movers do more work, because I asked them to pack things that were not included in the move (which was false). He offered at most $10 off for each additional box that was used, but nothing for labor. Anyway, he ended up leaving saying there was nothing more that could be done. I ended up calling the office, who directed me to Joe, and told me he would call me.
Joe calls me, and I explain that this is clearly not my fault. I am not the expert, I don't know how many boxes are needed to do a move. He came, and surveyed the area. To me, this is the fault of the estimator. He told me that this was just that, an estimate, and nothing could be done to compensate me. I tried to explain that when you use a word like *GUARANTEE*, this is no longer an estimate. Joe then told me that because he sees this being a problem, the guys wont unload the truck unless I authorize another *$500* on my credit card, or pay the movers in *CASH*. At this point, the truck was already fully loaded with all my stuff (minus my bathroom, which was included in the estimate, but I didn't want to waste anymore time), and the guys were waiting to leave. I had to call the owner, I believe his name was John.
As soon as the gentleman at the front desk gave the phone to the owner John, John begans literally hammering me in a rather loud tone. "Joe told me that you're going to smear my name with your employer, if you do this I'm going to sue you for defamation of character", etc etc. At this point, I was not yelling or screaming at John, so didn't understand why I was getting this from him. As well, any conversations I had with Joe or John was IN FRONT of THEIR movers. I had explained this to John, and denied Joe's claims, and asked him before calling me a liar to please speak with the movers so they could tell him what they heard. In any case, through the entire conversation, I remained calm and cool. After about 15 minutes of trying to plead my case to him, and having him really defame me (ironically enough) by calling me a liar, he calmed down. He didn't apologize, but said maybe he shouldn't have jumped the gun. He offered me what I thought was 20% off the extra labor and materials. This was a fine resolution to me, and was all that I was looking for.
The movers moved everything to the new place, and even got a rather large couch, which I thought wouldn't make it down the stairs, down with no issues. All of my items up until now (haven't finished going through everything) are in tact and fine. At the end of the move, going over the bill and signing the paperwork, the 20% was actually off the entire move, and brought the entire move about $10 over the estimate. So what was all the aggravation and yelling for guys?
The movers were AMAZING. Extremely friendly, courteous, and professional. They did not slouch around or sand bag at all. They worked at a very fast pace, wrapped everything they moved, and handled everything with EXTREME care.
I can understand the owner John becoming upset and irate at what the sales person Joe told him. However, before jumping down someones throat, I'd expect a business owner to hear both sides of the story, and then come to a conclusion. Again, while he didn't apologize, he rethought the situation, and in my opinion, made the right decision.
I need to use movers again in the near future. I am very skeptical of using Moving Ahead strictly because of their management and sales people, NOT because of their MOVERS. If I didn't have to deal with the office at all, I would use them and recommend them for ANYONE who is moving. The aggravation I had to go through, on top of the stress of moving already, was rediculous. Keep in mind, they ended up taking 20% off the entire bill, which kept it around $10 of the original estimate, so this was just added aggravation for no reason at all. Ironically enough, the same day we moved, we saw a rival company's truck driving down the road, and the truck doors were all open, and the truck was fully loaded.
While unpacking things, I found out how we went from 2 boxes to 7 boxes. The gentleman packing the kitchen took his time, and wrapped everything with maybe 2-3 pieces of wrapping paper per item. I appreciate this, and rather someone be careful with my things. However, he also did this to things like 3 plastic cups, a fork, extremely small perfume bottles, etc. He also packed about 5-6 pieces of wrapping paper on the top and bottom of the items in the box, and in the middle. The extra padding took up almost 30% of the box easily.
I'm giving them 2 stars because of the aggravation and because of the way they handled the situation. I felt, in my opinion, that it was handled extremely poorly. Again, the movers deserve 5 out of stars, definitely. If you're going to use this company, make sure you get everything in writing. Do not accept verbal "guarantees" or "promises".
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