We contracted with We Haul for a long distance move from Metairie to another state. The website…read moreadvertises for long distance moves, and we opted to support a local business. Unfortunately, everything went downhill starting from day 1.
The first day was for wrapping and disassembling furniture. Brandon was running about an hour late and called us to apologize, saying that he was on his way. He then showed up an additional 2 hours later without any communication or explanation. Nothing in New Orleans is that far away... The next day was the actual loading day. A couple of the crew showed up independently at our house on time, but there was no moving truck. Allegedly, Brandon was picking up the truck and would be there "soon". In the meanwhile, the crew shuffled a few boxes around but couldn't start loading due to the absence of a truck. Brandon eventually appeared with a moving truck over 2 hours late. The team loading the truck was overall hard working, though oddly, one barely spoke English and we learned later that he was picked up that day from a local hardware store, ie, not a regular company employee. In general, there was an overall lack of care with loading our belongings. A desk was dropped, denting the wall on the way out... numerous scrapes on the walls and floor...a door stopper kicked out of the baseboard. Ugh. In the end, everything fit into the truck, but our belongings were seemingly packed into the truck at random without organization. Plus, there was a general paucity of wrapping and moving pad use. But hey, we got everything loaded. We figured the worst is over, right?
Wrong. We packed GPS trackers in our boxes. The drive from Metairie to our destination would be about 13 hours and we contracted with Brandon to arrive 3 days after loading. However, as the days ticked by, we noticed that the truck was still in New Orleans. In fact, he was driving the truck (with our belongings banging around inside!) all around New Orleans. Not sure if he was doing more jobs or just joy riding? Eventually, on the day before the projected move-in day, we called Brandon to ask when he was going to depart. He stated that he was starting the drive, would drive through the night, and would make it to us the next day. He also told us that he had a crew of 2 with him (3 people total with Brandon). Using GPS tracking, we saw that he didn't actually leave New Orleans until that evening, meaning that he literally would have to drive through the night to make it to us. Needless to say, that didn't happen. He stopped along the way to sleep (we had to book an extra hotel night), and ultimately stopped again on the way to sleep (we had to book another extra hotel night). He told us multiple times that he was going to drive hard and make it to us soon, but due to the GPS tracker, we knew that there was no way he would make his planned moving day deadline. If it wasn't for the GPS trackers, we would have thought he was scamming us and running off with our belongings.
Fast forward to move-in day (2 days late). Brandon hired 2 local day movers to help with the unload. I have no idea what happened to the 2 crew members that were allegedly with him at the start of the drive. Together, they started unloading, but I guess he noticed that more crew were needed. So, the local day movers called some friends (not professional movers), and there was ultimately a team of 6 people unloading. Again, they got the job done and unloaded, but it was entirely unprofessional. Scuffed walls/floors and dropped furniture were commonplace. Due to the insufficient furniture wrapping, disorganized loading at the start, the excess banging around in the truck, and the unprofessional unloading, we had several pieces of furniture in bad shape. Severely damaged boxes, leather couch with striking scratches and tears, holes in office chairs, badly scraped dining table and chairs, broken mirror, shattered bookcase, nonfunctional oscillating fan... the list is endless. In discussion with Brandon, we worked out the extra costs with the final payment, but finances aside, we were mentally over the experience and would really have just preferred to have our belongings arrive intact and on time.
Moving is inherently a stressful experience, and unfortunately, We Haul amplified our stress tenfold. Buyer beware indeed.
TL;DR: Not recommended.