Slow, inefficient, unprofessional move, with poor preparation, communication, and solutions to problems presented during the move.
Keelah
Submitted this review about
EZ Movers
Review made Live: 6/20/2013 8:51:00 PM
To start, the move was scheduled to begin at 9 AM on Monday June 3, 2013. This time was scheduled well in advance and yet the movers did not arrive at the first location until 9:30 AM, apparently due to traffic. If traffic time is not taken into consideration as part of the travel time to a location, then a start time of 9AM should not have been agreed to by all parties involved. After explaining exactly what needed to be moved, and to which location the foreman actually had the start time of the move at 9:45 AM
The estimate - After sending the information online about which items were going to be moved, an estimate was sent back to me at the minimum level, 2 and a half to 3 hours. According to EZ Movers employees, I did not have much to move. I spoke with employees (specifically Denise) multiple times during the week leading up to the move and added a fourth stop to the move and again explaining exact items being moved, including the small piano and where they were going. Again the 2-3 hour estimate was quoted to me. I actually thought it could be a bit of a low estimate and figured it could go as long as 3-4 hours and then planned my budget accordingly. When the foreman arrived, and looked things he then changed the estimate from 2-3 hours, to 7 hours. For some reason he did not have the 4th stop on his itinerary list, even though EZ Movers were notified of this ahead of time. That is a four hour discrepancy. Of course the final move took over eight hours. The only differences in the original itinerary was taking a dining room table, a flatscreen TV, and one barstool off of the list, and adding a small desk, 2 office chairs and a small plastic storage container, none of which were large or heavy. I also had an elliptical which was not an option on the estimate but I had mentioned over the phone. I felt the foreman’s 7 hour estimate was high and told him so. At this point I felt pressured to continue with the move, both by the foreman and by external pressures, as I had planned it out ahead of time with my old building on Van Buren, my new building on Sheridan, and would have been fined to change everything at literally the last minute. The foreman said we could spend time talking about it or he can just start the move, but his clock would be running either way.
Communication - There was a definite communication issue on all levels of this move, from the employees who gave my original estimate, to the foreman, to his employees working under his direction. The differing items and fourth stop missing from his itinerary were just the start. Next, all the items that were to be moved to the second stop were clearly marked with purple papers and the #2 written on them. The only item (a loveseat) going to the third stop was marked with blue paper and the #3 clearly written on it. Time was wasted having to explain this multiple times to all the employees, two of which did not speak very good english. I don’t have a problem with them not speaking english well in and of itself, if the foreman can accurately and adequately explain to them what needs to be done. He did not communicate this information to them, leaving it to me to explain to them multiple times, in order to make sure they understood. No boxes were scheduled to be moved, only furniture, yet I found employees taping up or moving boxes and had to explain multiple times not to do that. At one point one of the younger employees was asked to move the loveseat out of the apartment while there was still a dresser in the hallway. The employee expressed that they should get the dresser out of the way first to give them more room, but the foreman insisted they move the loveseat right away, and they had to lift the loveseat much higher to get it over the dresser, and out of the apartment. This took more time and effort than was necessary. The dresser meanwhile, was slated to go to the final destination of the move, and the couch was to go to the second to last stop. Logically, it needed to go on the truck after the dresser anyway. The foreman did not appear to advise, listen or take positive advice from his employees that could have made the move more smooth and efficient for all involved. Throughout the move only one mover showed a sense of urgency and repeatedly told the newer men to hurry up that they were wasting time. He was also the only mover who apologized to be about the delays in the move and the damage done to my furniture. He apologized saying that the move could have been done in half the time without all the inefficiencies, communication, and lack of urgency by the other movers. The foreman didn’t have a sense of urgency at all throughout the move, as he would be paid on an hourly basis. At the final destination, the large desk did not fit easily through the doorway, so one of the younger movers asked the foreman for help and the foreman basically said: no, figure it out, I’m busy. He was, at the time, arguing with me about changing the end time and could have taken the time to advise the younger mover on how to get the desk through the doorway. The younger guy asked again for help and the foreman finally went over there and said to take the door off then came back to criticize me about the end time and how I needed to pay for the thirty minute break. Finally the manager at EZ Movers said to keep the original end time so the foreman finally wanted to hurry up and get everything moved in as he wasn’t getting paid. He told the younger mover that he was taking the door off incorrectly, and that he should remove the hinges, to which the younger mover was eventually able to figure it out and get the desk through. This had wasted another 20 minutes as the foreman could have listened to him the first time he had asked for help, and showed him how to take the door off properly.
Inefficiency and time wasting - The truck that was originally provided for the move had to be switched out, after they had already spent the time to back it into the lot at the Van Buren location. Apparently this was due to the foreman not reading the itinerary ahead of time and seeing that a piano needed to be moved. I explained to the foreman that it was an electric upright piano that wasn’t really heavy so they could use the current truck but he insisted that they needed the new truck to lift it. After the foreman started the clock on the move at 9:45AM, it took until 11AM for the second truck to arrive and be parked and setup ready for the move. During the interim, two of the four employees proceeded to continue wrapping and moving a few items outside, while the other two employees stayed outside to help get one truck out and the other truck into the lot. As for the rest of their equipment, they came with one cart with handles, and other small, wooden floor carts. The cart with the handles had a broken tire and was unusable and I had to lend them one of my own carts to expedite things. The wooden, carts that just go under items to roll them were not used effectively and items fell off multiple times, wasting time and causing damage. Next, I was told by the foreman to write down any items that should not be wrapped up and then sign that I would take liability for anything that may get broken due to not wrapping. I was told that this would help save time and yet they ended up wrapping the TV stand anyways, even though it was on the list to not wrap, and it still ended up getting broken. This did not save any time. There were several other items I noted didn’t need to be wrapped in order to cut down on time, but ended up getting wrapped by the employees because the foreman did not tell them not to do so, which again caused a slow-up on the move time. I was told it was okay if I used a little of the bubble wrap to wrap my 3 small paintings to help save time, which I did, and then personally took them to the truck. Then at the final destination, I personally unloaded the paintings and brought them upstairs. At the end of the day the foreman tried to say these was added items not on the itinerary, yet neither he nor his employees touched them at all. Throughout the move I helped with bringing items down to the truck and upstairs to the apartment. Basically I was told that I could help them to make it quicker, which I did, then told at the end by the foreman that I was not a help at all, and that it was part of the reason I was being charged more time and money. At the second stop, the storage facility, I had to rent a cart for the movers to use because they were having difficulty using the equipment they had and it was taking them extra time to use it. Then we sat for 30 minutes, blocking other drivers, while they took out the loveseat and put it towards the front for the next stop. I had clearly labeled and said several times that this was going to the 3rd stop so it should have been towards the back of the truck already. One of the movers said that they had forgotten it was going to the next stop so had put other items in front of it. Once arriving at the 3rd stop, time was spent pulling the truck in then pulling the truck out and re-backing into the loading zone which I had specified had to be done from the get-go. Then again using the little carts wasted more time than just carrying the loveseat and electric piano which by their accounts were not heavy. Two of them were able to carry both items easily. At the final stop, everyone just quit moving altogether for thirty minutes without notifying me. The foreman later said this was because I called the company to complain about the time and that they would leave my furniture out in the hall if I didn’t agree to pay an additional hour for them to move everything in. I had already previously agreed to an end time with the foreman so I do not understand why he would then change that end time again and penalize me for the movers taking a thirty minute break. The movers didn’t even bother to take out furniture from the elevator so my items were going up and down while my neighbors were blocked in by the furniture. This is a fire hazard and could result in a fine from the building. Then the manager at EZ Movers told the foreman to keep the initial end time, which seemed to anger the foreman. He cursed and told the movers to just dump everything in the apartment and not bother putting it in the room it was supposed to go.
Usually I am not a person to complain. Generally, if there is a minor service issue or I am forced to spend a few extra dollars, I will let it slide and go on about my business. This experience with EZ Movers was far beyond anything I’d experienced before. The glaring issues in poor estimation, slow and inefficient movers and general rudeness and lack of caring by the employees involved was unacceptable. As I stated earlier, one of your own employees apologized for the issues and agreed that the estimate should not have been that far off from the final move time. The foreman, on the other hand, showed a lack of caring and leadership that was necessary to effectively make this job go smoothly. Instead of making my move easier, quicker, and less stressful (reasons that are generally used when deciding to hire movers), it became just the opposite. I just went back to your website and got a new estimate with every single item that was moved (including the two boxes which I told them not to move), with as accurate as possible dimensions and every stop that we made. This final estimate was 636 cubic feet which is far less than the 1000 cubic feet quoted to me by the foreman. The time estimate is 3.75 hours, and total cost of $598.5. I feel this is a direct deception that lured me in to hire EZ Movers, only to have charges skyrocket when it was too late to change the plans. The low price and estimated amount of time was what caused me to choose EZ Movers over other companies that I got quotes from. I made my plans based on your information and budgeted accordingly, and could not afford to have charges balloon to such epic proportions. Because of this, I had to borrow money to be able to afford the first months rent at my apartent. Also due to the direct action of the movers, I’m not yet sure if I will have extra fines from my building for potential fire hazards or continuing to use the elevator for times outside of when I had it booked for use.
