Good Team Movers - Do Not Use - Clarification
Amy Mahan
Submitted this review about
Good team movers
Review made Live: 8/25/2011 4:15:00 PM
This is clarification of a previous post, in response to a request for more information.
I would not recommend Good Team Movers under any circumstance. I would recommend visiting www.movingscams.com and compare their articles on moving scams to my personal account with Good Team Movers. Please read the following, account of their pricing strategy, lack of communication and poor service. The end result of hiring Good Team Movers was boxes full of damaged property as well as a queen mattress, 3 book shelves and a dresser being left on an unlocked porch for days until I could find a new set of movers. While I make no claims on the legality of their practices, I genuinely felt mislead through the entire process, and regret not having done my research more carefully.
Pricing: Good Team movers originally quoted me 700 cubic feet at rate of 3.10 per cubic square footage. They said the whole delivery would cost 2226.49, 40% due up front in the form of cash, cashiers check or money order. When they came, they loaded the van first and then after all my cargo was in their possession, they told me that it was really 1200 cubic feet and the new cost would be 4124.48. In the list I had given them to get an estimate I had included an extra couch and a washer and a dryer, all of which I decided not to bring, yet somehow I still had 1200 cubic feet in a one bedroom apartment’s worth of things.
I followed up with the company because I doubted the accuracy of their measurements. The representative sent an email saying that he would personally look at the cargo himself and would fire the driver/mover if he took too much space that was not there. However when I spoke with him on the phone later he said that he had not made it to their facility to check on the size but that he had the driver/mover re-check it.
It is unclear how you can get an honest estimate from a person whose job is at stake based on what that number is. Furthermore, the contract says that this measurement must be done at a third-party public scale and a certified weight certificate must provide. (It was not provided to me).
Communication: The only time at which Good Team Movers communicated effectively was before they had the 350$ deposit. After that point they would promise to call at a certain time but fail to do so. In addition they rarely answered phone calls and even more rarely responded to emails.
When it came to getting an estimated pick up time, I sent several emails with no response. In addition, I called them on several occasions. They would promise to call at a certain time but would not call me back. I would call them and they would tell me once again that they would call at a certain time but did not. Finally, I was told that the movers would come on Sunday, July 24, 2011 and that they would call on Saturday, July 23, 2011 with an estimated time. No one called on Saturday. I called them several times as well as emailing them, and did not get a response until the afternoon. They said that the movers would arrive in the early evening. Later I got a call saying that they were running late and would arrive at 10PM. I agreed that this would be acceptable, but at 9:45 they called again and said it would be closer to midnight and that they would call when they were 30 minutes away. Reluctantly, I agreed that this would be OK. At 12:30 AM they arrived with out the 30 minute warning, and 2 movers started moving me out. It took them until 7:30 AM to finish the job, and at that time they informed me that I owed more money than was originally expected, however because they told this to me at a time before banks were open, this forced to give them 1200 dollars in cash.
While the company representative, ‘Mike’ agreed pretty quickly to recount the space, and “see what I can do about the price”, it was difficult to get an exact amount from him. I emailed them at least three times 4-5 days before the expected arrival as well as calling him on the phone with no answer (during business hours) before I got him to contact me. He still claimed he could not give me a final estimation of the space nor the price. He continued not to respond to my emails with a price until one hour before the driver/mover called me to say he was almost there. In the end he claimed that they had miscounted and now there was only about 1000 cubic feet and that my balance was 1891 (3391 total)$. The driver/mover tried to tell me that he would not be able to unload the truck unless I paid him cash (He repeatedly throughout the day expressed displeasure about the amount of money the company was going to pay him for this job. However I refused, stated that the contract said I could pay with a cashiers check, and then promptly went to the bank to get one made.
There appeared to be a myriad of issues with this company, 1) Lack of communication with the customer 2) Disagreements between the driver and the manager, and 3) An inability to estimate time accurately
Service: Perhaps the pricing and communication could be overlooked if there service had been more effective. 1) They did not send enough movers. 2) The movers were not fast or particularly hospitable and left trash from their packing materials everywhere 3) There was substantial damage to both boxes and major furniture. 4) They ended up deciding that they just could not get my large items up to the third floor and abandoned them down below
On the pick up they did send two movers, which worked OK though took 7 hours to do. However, on the delivery they only sent one driver/mover. He was expected to deliver a one bedroom apartments worth of stuff himself, including a dresser, queen bed, sofa and loveseat. He called told me that he tried asking the manager “Mike” for an extra helper, and even admitted to me verbally that he was taking his time in hopes that Mike would send him someone. He eventually asked me where Home Depot was and went in search of a day laborer, unsuccessfully. On the pick up they left trash from boxes, tape and other packing material they brought strewn about the floor, and on the delivery he even left all of their packing blankets as well as other trash everywhere as well.
The furniture he did bring up was severely damaged. My wardrobe boxes were crushed and one of them even turned upside down (defeating the purpose of buying these more expensive boxes). A couple brand new boxes (that I purchased from Home Depot) had gaping wholes in them. In addition there were several others that were severely deformed. Not surprisingly, many things were broken, warped or cracked. Including a large framed art (with sharp broken glass shards), a paper shredder, about 4 (well-wrapped) wine glasses, a scuffed up large dry erase board and warped DVDs. During the delivery he even dropped my desk top down the stairwell, damaging both the desktop and the stairwell. While some broken items may be expected with any moving company, the exterior of these boxes suggests negligent handling.
After spending all day moving, he finally decided that he could not get the bed, sofa, loveseat, or three shelves up the stairwell. My landlords, who live on the first floor had told the mover that the larger items needed to be hoisted up through the balcony. They even provided him with materials to do the job, but told him that he would need at least 2-3 more people to help. After looking at the stairwell and through my apartment, he just smiled and boasted about all the difficult moves he had done by himself. According to the movers accounts, he first tried calling ‘Mike’ to get more helpers (unsuccessfully). After failing to find any day laborers at Home Depot, he found someone when he went to lunch (I do not know who this person was or where he found him). Between the two of them they could not get the loveseat up. At this point the mover offered me a 150$ discount verbally if I would be responsible for the large items. Since I was unsure how a 140 lb woman in a strange new city is going to get large items up a balcony, I declined.
Then ‘Mike’ called me and informed me that they were not legally bound to get my large items in my apartment if they wouldn’t go up the stairwell, that they would not hoist items up and that they could 1) Leave the items at the front door or 2) I could pay (additional to the 3391) for extra movers and a crane to get my items in the balcony as well as overnight storage. (Somehow that 150$ discount disappeared). This was at 5:30 PM, after business hours and after 7 hours that the mover was on the premises that they informed me that they couldn’t do the job putting me in the predicament of paying large sums of money or having my stuff left on the front porch. In the end my landlords were gracious enough to let my stuff stay on a front porch with screened windows and doors, but no locks until I could call a company that does hoisting.
Once the driver/mover realized that he didn’t have to bring up everything. Two of the bookshelves that he had originally said that he could get through the stairwell were left on the front porch and while he got the kitchen table up the stairwell, he did not reassemble the legs and in fact he left it wrapped up in one of their moving blankets.
The mover made a few comments such as “Money Talks” and “You get what you pay for”. He informed me that he as worked with multiple companies and that their practices are all the same. Furthermore that he has had a lot of unsatisfied customers. When I told him that I had had a much better experience on my last long distance move, he said that if you go with a “professional” moving company you get the service but pay the price.
Summary: While I make no claims on the legality of their practices, I genuinely felt mislead through the entire process, and regret not having done my research more carefully. If you have read all the way through this, and are still considering Good Team Movers, all I suggest is that you do your research on the options out there…there are many and not all of them have this type of service.
