A friend used ILM and was very happy with them. For me, it was the worst experience I ever had with…read morea company. The question for you, if you are planning to hire them, is: what is the norm for this company?
First, their price for a move from Washington, DC to Netherlands was very high. I could not find a lower one, and went with it. My neighbor then found another company that did the same move (to Barcelona, which is further) for 6k less, and did not have all the problems I had. So, don't be me and get your quotes!!
On the day of the move, movers came on time and worked well. The move was supposed to be completed in two days, but at 9AM on the following, I got a text message from the mover informing me that they would arrive at 11AM. They showed up at 1PM, and the foreman was in an evident state of anxiety and distress, telling me there was no way they could finish that day. I called the agent of ILM, who was surprised to learn about the lateness. The foreman then got really angry at me and told me that I should not have called the company, and that was only going to make things worse. It sounded like a threat to me. He said that someone had sent him somewhere else at 6AM despite the fact that he was scheduled to be at our house. That a co-worker had COVID. That he did not know there was a piano, though it was clearly marked in the packing list.
He and the others started literally throwing stuff in boxes without any evident care. I repeated clearly to the foreman what I had told the agent already. We had a set of plates and trays made by my wife's grandmother, who is now deceased, that mattered to us more than anything else in the world. She was a renowned artist who even came to Washington for an exhibition. My wife and I told him many times that he should pack things carefully, but he was extremely nervous and rude. I could see that he was packing things in a very unsafe way, and called the agent to plead with the company to give them more time to do things well. But the foreman got even more stressed and aggressive when he got a second call from the company. They worked until 8pm, which means 14 hours straight between the two jobs, but could not finish.
They had to come back a third day, which caused a big problem to me as I had a tenant scheduled to move in and needed to clean the house. They again packed furiously and with no regard, because they were again double-booked and probably exhausted. In their hurry they left behind a ton of things and the day after the agent agreed to send the workers to pick them up at the temporary address where I had moved. The foreman went to the old address and became hysterical, accusing my wife to send him to the wrong address out of spite and telling her she had to take the boxes herself to him. Once again, the agent intervened and 2 hours later an angry foreman showed up to pick up the box.
The container was 3 weeks late, which I am ready to give them a pass on, given the chaos the shipping world is in. But they only informed me five days before delivery of this delay, which again caused a lot of inconvenience.
At delivery, we found out the extent of the horror. The company here in NL, Transpack, was the opposite of ILM. They sent six guys, hard workers and in a good mood and willing to help. When they opened the boxes with plates, they called me and told me to take a picture, warning me that a lot would be broken inside. They said they have NEVER seen anything like that. In fact, 70% of the collection of our beloved plates was shattered. Entirely shattered. Dining table was dented, as if something had fallen on it. They placed a sticker on our leather bed with my name on it, ruining the leather. The screws of several pieces of furniture were lost and I had to go buy new ones. And more.
I called the agent, who was mortified. He said this never happens to them, management is very concerned, and they will do everything to rectify. He said to send him, not to the insurance company, the claim, so they could amend things themselves. Two weeks passed, and then a low-level employee wrote to me that they have forwarded my claim to the insurance, but that only a small portion of the damages will likely be paid. I did not expect any better.
I may be the outlier here, but if I were you I would look elsewhere. In my experience, this company overcharges, double-books their employees forcing them to work extremely long hours and has no safety standards for the way they pack things.
