“Best Choice” is the wrong choice for moving services. The company called me the night before my move to inform me that they would have to push back the moving start time as one of their trucks was involved in an accident. They did not, however, tell me that they had contracted out to another DC-based moving company to move me. I had chosen Best Choice because I had researched them—they were bonded—and they were inexpensive for the type of moving services I needed. I was moving only furniture from a one bedroom apartment into a condo about 15 minutes away. No packing was required. I was wary of the hidden charges and called Best Choice on at least two separate occasions to clarify the wrapping/packaging charges in the fine print. I decided to box up a couple of items myself. The only additional wrapping I needed from them was for a television and two paintings. The quote I was received from Best Choice was $361. The movers (who ended up being “DC Movers” and NOT “Best Choice”) showed up with a small UHAUL truck. Because protective covering for furniture was supposedly included in the price, I did not think it odd that they shrink wrapped all the sofas. The move took much longer than I thought (5.5 hours for three men), and I was slapped with a bill for $922.76 – almost three times as much as the quote. This did not include a tip. The price included a charge of $253.03 just for packing/wrapping – which was only given to me after everything was moved in and they were about to leave. It turns out they charged me for every bit of shrink wrap on the sofas and tape, not to mention odd items they boxed (not at my request) such as a wet/dry vac. They did not tell me about these charges in advance of the move. I was stunned and upset – in retrospect I should not have given them my credit card as I had no recourse. I naively thought I could straighten it out with the company (little did I know I was dealing with two moving companies). Apart from the outrageous bill, Best Choice’s behavior was dishonest and unethical given that they sent strangers to move me. I had some back-and-forth with Best Choice and got the runaround for several weeks (even months). After being more forceful, the manager finally got back to me stating he would reimburse me for only the difference in price of packing materials between Best Choice Moving & Storage and DC Movers, and the difference in the price of fuel. This amounted to peanuts and I didn’t accept this. Needless to say but I learned a big lesson and hope this word of caution helps someone else.
