Basic Moving

unknown

Moving day for my 94 year old mother and her 92 year old sister was made easier with Basic Moving. Helen was very pleasant on the phone when scheduling the move and she emailed me promptly with a confirmation and I was called the day before the move with a time. Edwin and 2 others showed up on schedule, they were very professional and courteous. They wrapped everything so perfectly, including a 6 foot mirror, and everything arrived in my home just as it left Brooklyn. They didn't waste any time and therefore the total cost was less than estimated. I would absolutely recommend them to anyone.

Basic Moving came to house to assess property and provide estimate for moving.  We said that a small part of the possessions needed to be moved to an apartment, but the majority would go to a storage facility.  We were promised this was no problem.  Movers came promptly to our home, seemingly packing everything efficiently.  Though head mover said there was an serious under estimate of goods to be moved to the point that I had to provide some of the boxes I purchased for the move. 
We contracted with Wheaton.  The subcontractors were Basic Moving.  Our experience with Basic Moving, and especially with their senior staff, was a nightmare. We have moved multiple times but none came even close to the disaster that moving with Basic Moving was.
The specific problems were multiple. Nailing down a specific delivery date was difficult. They finally gave a "most likely" date, and reiterated that
twice. After pickup we were suddenly contacted to ask whether our items could be delivered 4-5 days later than previously agreed, and they argued that it was in my interest to accept it as we would be paying fewer storage dates. 
They agreed in writing to unload the bulk of the load at storage and to unload  a few boxes at a second stop, our apartment.  A couple of days before the scheduled delivery they refused to honor that agreement, saying that they had a very tight turnaround and wouldn't be able to make a second delivery. They said it wasn't part of the contract, although I had confirmation by email that they would do this.
There was a difference in what they commited to in email and what was in the contract.  They relied on the specific technicals in the contract but the emails constituted a written agreement as well, some of whose provisions they did not honor.
Basic Moving's service was extremely poor, their communication was misleading; they didn't respond to emails or phone calls for days, if at all, hung up on us if we insisted they stick to the commitments they made by email and then blamed us for not responding to their calls or emails. Their inter-communication within the company was clearly insufficient, as one part didn't know what the other was doing or had committed to.
The most disturbing part was when they informed us that they would be arriving and unloading on the very day they had promised in writing by email that the delivery would not occur that day.  Having that commitment, I had made work commitments that entire day. When the senior person at Basic Moving called to say that they would be arriving on the day they had definitely said the delivery wouldn't happen, I told them that was unacceptable given their previous commitment and that I had a full day of work commitments which I could not cancel at such late notice.
 The response of the senior official at Basic Moving was to threaten to impound our belongings in their own storage  facility if payment wasn't made by time certain--that time being the arrival date they unilaterally changed without discussion with us after they had confirmed in writing that arrival would not occur on that date.  Because of his insistence that payment be made by delivery time or the belongings would be sent to their facility and charged numerous extra storage fees, etc, we were left with no option but to pay by credit card and, because of work commitments made when were were promised delivery would not happen on that date, we were not able to be at the storage facility when they unloaded.
I have no interest posting this other than to advise prospective customers considering Basic Moving to proceed with extreme care and caution, so you do not experience the absolute and utter nightmare my experience with them was.  They treated the customer as a hostage, threatening impoundment if their demands were not met.
When I contacted Basic Moving to complain, and asked for reimbursement for the extra expenses I incurred, they referred me to Wheaton.  I did that and provided Wheaton with copies of the emails. Wheaton contacted me promptly and reimbursed me for the additional expenses incurred.  I have no complaints about Wheaton's response.  But Basic Moving's service was terrible.