I placed an ad on Craigslist with a detailed, item by item breakdown of what we needed to move. I stated how many miles we were moving, from a 1 story to a 2 story home, etc.. I received the following response from A Better Move:
"Based on the list you have on craigslist. I would like to quote you at $425.00. That includes the set up of all furniture. Now please keep in mind that this is not just a quote, but your actual price. The price will not go up."
After a few days of emailing back and forth, I called them and set up a time and date. They confirmed my list of items to be moved while on the phone.
The day of the move, 2 guys show up and upon walking into our home one of them states "You sure have a lot of furniture to move". Surprised? It was only the same stuff on the CL ad you responded to, and the items confirmed on the phone.
Midway through the day, their moving truck is filled up. We will have to make a second trip. Fine with me. We get to the destination and start unloading. As we get to the end of the first load, I'm told "This is taking longer than we expected. We need to renegotiate." Really? Hitting us up for more money before finishing the job? Classy.
So, we go back to get the second load. Since it's only half a trailer it's faster. We return to our new home and get everything unloaded near the end of the day.
The last item unloaded is our 1 year old $2400 Samsung refrigerator, now freshly dented in a handful of places. I point out that those dents were not there before, and get told "I'm not sure how that happened". Great.
Then to top it off, we are told a move of this extent should cost way more than $425. I offered them $600 and was told that wasn't enough. I was asked to see my Craigslist ad of the items I listed. I was told that we had a lot of small stuff (boxes). I again offer $600 cash and Charles walks out, gets on the phones and calls someone. I hear our address being told to someone on the phone and he asks how much this job should cost. I also hear mention of calling the Hays county Sherriff.
At this point I pull out my email and ask if the quote for $425 stating the price would never go up was from him or not? I was told to pay whatever I wanted. So I paid $600 cash (keep in mind the quote for $425 and my damaged fridge now). They started to walk away without giving me a receipt. I had to follow them to their moving truck and ask for a receipt again. I was handed a piece of paper and told to write whatever I wanted and they would sign it. I wrote a receipt stating that I paid $600 cash for a moving job I was quoted $425 for. They signed and dated it, and told me that I'd be hearing from them in the future.
My wife and father-in-law were all on hand to witness this.
In the next few days, we found other pieces of furniture with scratches and damage, and a spot on our wall where the paint and texture got hit badly.
My advice? I'll let my 1 star rating speak for itself. read more