INCOMPETENTS OR CROOKS? I still can't decide. What is clear is that neither of the choices is what you want from your movers.
I will start with the good: The crew was outstanding both packing and moving. If I had my own moving company I would hire each and every one of them. Professionals and polite.
The bad: I was quoted $1,954.45 for the packing portion of the job by a representative of Ridgewood Moving Services (you can ask her name if you care, this is not personal so I will omit it). The final cost ended up being $3,505. I repeat, THREE THOUSAND, FIVE HUNDRED AND FIVE US DOLLARS. A 79.3% error in the estimate. Even the packers were apologetic and said that this kind of "miss" was ridiculous.
Why the difference in cost? My fault of course. There was one room, size 9x9 which I did not request to be included in the estimate and which I requested to be packed the day of packing (10/6/14). Out of that room, I personally cleared and removed the contents of half the room. The other half was comprised of clothing racks with clothes, which were included in the price of the packing to be done on move date (not on packing date). So we are left with 1/4 of 9x9 room (out of a 3,800 sq.ft. house) which is what Steve Dalzell, General Manager and VP of Operations tells me that accounts for a very large part of the difference between price and estimate. Just to clarify, the contents that were packed were not delicate, hard to pack china , but towels, comforters and bedsheets. Lots of them, but easy to pack.
The ugly: I reported the huge divergence between cost and estimate to the company on 10/7, Mr. Dalzell contacted me that same date and promised to stop y the day of the move (10/8), which he did. He apologized for the mistake but made it clear that it was pretty much my fault for adding a room that was not included originally. I invited him to stop by the house we were moving out from the next day so he could personally see what the size of the room was and that it was physically impossible that its contents represented an 80% increase in cost. He said I should call him to let him know when to meet in the house. I left a message on 10/9 to meet the morning of 10/10, a few hours before our closing. I never heard back from him until I emailed him on 10/12 with pictures of the room in question and the following message:
Steve,
I left you a vmail on Thursday to meet on Friday morning it I neve heard back from youI am attaching pictures of the room that was not included in the estimate. The room is approx 9x9, there is air conditioning system in the middle and I personally emptied and threw away half the contents of the room. You can also see that most of the space is shelving and it was mostly beddings that were packed, lots of boxes because bulky but very easy to pack. The rest was the space I cleaned up ad. The clothing which was part of the estimate and packed by your crew on Wednesday, not on Monday
It should be obvious that this room can not make the 80% difference in estimate vs actual.
As I mentioned before 20% , 30% difference between estimate and actual I a job is understandable. But 80% is simply outrageous.
I hope you make a good long term business was decision and and just pricing accordingly. Please get back to me ASAP.
Regards,
Alex
I finally heard back from Mr. Dalzell today, 10/17. He offered to not pay the commission to the person who made that terribly bad estimate of the cost of the move, thus offering to refund me $175. He offered $175 for a $1600 mistake (I was not expecting a $1,600 refund, maybe split the difference between the quote and the horrible estimate sounded fair to me). I understand missing an estimate by 20%. 30%. Maybe 40%? But 80%??? I wonder how many times they estimated 80% too high and then ended up giving the customer money back.
I do not think that Mr. Dalzell profits in any way from the $1,600 mistake. Thus I have to believe that his inability to offer any discount other than $175 has to be part of the company culture, the owners' view of how to run a business or some other force beyond his control. Ultimately, the question remains the same: INCOMPETENTS OR CROOKS? I am still pondering. I hope you don't have to.
PS: If you are interested in seeing the original documentation related to the case I can make it available to you if you leave me contact information. read more