Don came to my house to provide an estimate. He wrote down a start time of 9 a.m., and assured me that I could firm up the "real" start time a couple of days prior to the move. He quoted an hourly rate, and estimated 9 hours for the move, which included travel time and a charge for gas.
As we moved through the house for the estimate, I tried to ask questions that might affect total cost and my satisfaction with the service in the end, like "will the movers take apart the bed frames?" His response to that was "yes they can. It would be faster if you did it yourself though." I had the understanding that this work was included in my estimate, which had a written guarantee of being within 10%. I felt pretty confident.
3-4 days before the move, I confirmed an 11:00 start time with Don and asked him via email if there was anything I may have forgotten in terms of making the move go smoothly, as far as preparation. His only reminder was not to make the boxes more than 40 lbs.
The morning of the move, the truck pulled up just after 9 a.m. My husband told the driver that was too early and sent them away (We anticipated a delay in getting the key and didn't want to pay for dead time if everything was packed up too early).
When the driver returned at 11:00, he started hassling us right away about not being ready and refusing to start until we agreed that he would take more time than the quote (which obviously meant more money, since we had agreed to an hourly rate.) Admittedly, we were still putting some last minute things in boxes, and we had some awkward items that really didn't make sense to try to box, such as large but lightweight toys, large rolling computer bag, etc. I found him rude and sensed his unwillingness to listen to me as a woman, even though I was the person who had booked and paid the deposit. I did find the movers themselves to be polite, and one in particular was very helpful and kind.
The driver (who identified himself as the owner, Alex eventually) also said we needed to take apart our two tables and the beds ourselves, which was not communicated to me before. Two fewer wardrobe boxes were provided than initially quoted, Although things improved in our relationship over the course of the day, we ended up paying about $300 more than quoted. The total price surprised me because we had gotten rid of some belongings since Don provided the quote, we instructed them at the new home not to do any furniture assembly, and we even had them only carry about 4 dressers into the house, and a few light items (i.e playpen).
After some renovations were finished in our new house, I was displeased upon removing the shrink wrap on several pieces of furniture to discover large nicks and some chunks of wood broken off. Although they got the job done, I don't think I'd hire them again.
