Never usa Atlas/JBL
Robin Lance
Submitted this review about
Atlas
Review made Live: 6/22/2009 5:06:00 PM
I just finished a cross-country move with Atlas/JBL. It was terrible from the first moment, and just got worse from there. If you POSSIBLY can, save yourself the trouble, the money, the aggravation and move yourself. I would have been happier had I done it myself (with only local help) and could have saved myself around $5000.
First off, my driver was instantly aggravated the moment he walked in my door and saw that my house wasn't "packed up" and ready to go. True, my computer station, TV, coffee maker, and beds weren't packed, but what are you supposed to do the night before a move? Spend more money on staying in a hotel? No way! And every other LOCAL move I've done, the stuff gets packed in the first hour the movers get there. The Atlas/JBL guy spent a couple of hours whining, complaining, griping, and calling his office to say that we weren't ready.
(When I booked my move, I told the agent that I was very familiar with hiring local movers and paying professionals to move me across town... but that this was my first cross-country move. Apparently he didn't hear that part or didn't care. You need to do things ENTIRELY different for a cross-country move.)
I finally had to sign a paper saying that the original estimate was now no longer valid because I wasn't ready to go and that they would have to hire local "packers." I wasn't too shocked by this, figuring that they'd have some scam in place to get them out of their original estimate... but it was sooooo aggravating to have to deal with people who expect you to "know" how to move, but won't tell you what to do.
Here's what you should know about a CROSS-COUNTRY move:
Pack EVERYTHING ahead of time. You can't leave out a bag of trash, a coffee cup, a remote control, or a laptop unless you're planning on moving it yourself. If they touch something to "pack" it rather than "load" it, you've voided your estimate.
Pack EVERYTHING ahead of time. And I mean EVERYTHING. They wanted the couch cushions cocooned in shrink wrap, the artwork preserved as if they were originals, and the glass floating on a layer of foam peanuts at least 5" thick. Glass tables or glass shelves (inside buffets or credenzas) put these people in a packing frenzy.
Don't be surprised when (unlike a local move) they have to tag everything with a bar-coded sticker. This took our driver HOURS. He kept saying that it's HIS personal truck and if anything is lost or broken it comes out of HIS pocket. That's fine... but if you're expecting guys to come in and start busting butt to get stuff in the truck right away, don't hire Atlas/JBL. You're paying by WEIGHT not by the hour, so don't be surprised when things go slow.
I told the driver, the booking agent, and anyone else who would listen, that the truck would be delivered to Texas the next week, and I would NOT be able to meet it. I gave them the address and my brother-in-law's information for him to receive the truck. I gave them the dates that I would be driving. But, after giving them my credit card number to BOOK the truck, they arrived at the destination and WOULD NOT start unloading until I faxed them another credit card approval with the exact amount on it.
Of course by this point I was driving across West Texas with NO cell signal, NO Kinko's, NO Fedex and no way to fax or email. It was almost hilarious how many messages I got on my cell phone. They threatened to charge me a storage fee and told me how many dire circumstances were going to happen if I didn't give them their money. But when I finally got a signal, received all the messages, and called in to the office on the 800 number, the ONLY guy who could take my credit card number had left the office.
At 3:00pm.
So much for it being a dire emergency.
I don't know why they didn't mention any of this ahead of time... there are a million ways around that kind of problem if they would have told me about it before. The guy that I spoke to, Jeff, told me repeatedly how he'd been doing this for 19 years. But I have to say, I was shocked that someone could make that many stupid mistakes... not give ANY communication or information to their client, and still be in business after 19 years.
In the end, they went from an initial estimate of 13,000 lbs of weight for $6000 to a total of 16,000 lbs of weight for a final cost of $8400.
Like I said, I've hired local movers before and they bust their butt trying to get you packed, in the truck, out of the truck and unloaded as fast as possible because you're paying by the hour. I should have hired local guys to load a truck, driven it across myself (I already had to drive my car 1600 miles anyway) and then paid another local set of guys to unload it for me.
I did overhear the Atlas/JBL guys saying that all moving "companies" are really just independent owner/operators of 18-wheelers. When my brother-in-law received the truck, he said the driver picked up locals in the closest town from another moving company... so they're all freelance anyway. The only true moving "company" is Graebel... a family owned business.
Since my items went directly into storage in my brother-in-law's garage, I have no idea yet if anything is missing or damaged. I do think I've noticed a chair or two in the "jumble" that aren't mine.
Next time, I'll move it myself, or sell it all and use the $8400 to buy new stuff when I get there. It would have been a lot less aggravating and probably a lot more fun.
Either way, I will NEVER HIRE Atlas/JBL again.
