Parks Moving & Storage Inc

Excellent service. They were professional in every way. On time, careful, clean, and courteous. Very efficient in the way they worked. Could not have gone any better.

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Very smoothly and professionally from the estimate to the actual moving. Movers were very careful with all of my belongings and were very helpful. The move took less time than estimated and my account was credited as such.

Good, 4 hours and a lot of boxes and furniture. No damage!

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They were good! Overall it went very well, we didn't have one broken item.

Good experience from planning the moving to finish. I was in a hurry moving out of a rental house and into another one, so timing was really crucial. They keep me updated about the schedule. The job was charged hourly rate. The two movers were quick and effective. They ended up using shorter time than planned. Saved me some money.

Parks was hired as a 3rd party contractor to United Van Lanes, whom we hired directly.

Parks' employees were very professional, thorough, and careful with our materials.

They showed up on time and completed the work in a timely fashion.

We asked them to be extra quiet when our daughter was napping, and they finished up the upstairs without waking her up!

They are very through and the items made it safely with no mishaps.

See above.

I initially had a good experience with Parks. They were extremely responsive and handled many last minute changes of mine very well. The driver was excellent and communicated very well though the whole process.

However, I have to downgrade my rating of their service after a very bad experience attempting to make a claim against the property valuation and protection service I purchased from them. For $768, I purchased this service as an insurance against any damages that might be incurred in handling my belongings. When my belongings arrived in Austin, most of them were placed into storage for a few months. The storage facility was packed so tightly (and quickly) that there was no opportunity for anyone to make an inspection for damage. When I finally got a chance to open the storage facility and start unloading it, I found a few items that had damage. I took photos on the spot of everything. The damage wasn't major, just a few items nicked a scratch, some glass broken, some furniture gouged, etc. I prepared a claim for damages, and now Park is denying my ability to file a claim.

I had explicitly asked the Parks salesman upfront how we should handle any damage claims of items placed in storage, since I knew it would be a few months later that we would actually be able to inspect for any damage, and he said all terms and conditions were right there in my bill of lading, not to worry, just file a claim when we had a chance. Well, the bill of lading apparently references a massive set of consumer-unfriendly conditions that are not given to the customer. Apparently, you are just supposed to and quot;knowand quot; these things. This small-print deceptive business practices in action - the thing that moving companies have a bad rap for.

So Parks refuses to address the damages and refuses to even refund the $768 damage protection fee, which I now feel was a complete waste of money. We will now have to go through a legal arbitration process and waste everyone's time and resources.

In six moves (two of them interstate) we have never had furniture damaged until now. What happened was personally devastating to us because it involved both a cherished Ethan Allen dining table that has been with us since the beginning of our marriage (i.e. it’s over 30 years old and part of many happy memories of family gatherings) as well as a chair so brand new that it still has its tags on it. Another piece of furniture was damaged as well. Details/pictures follow.

The dining table was loaded standing on its pedestal, instead of top down or with the legs removed as it has been done previously. Apparently the movers were going to remove the legs on Day 1 (Thursday) but did not because they did not have the proper tool. Apparently they did not on Day 2 (Friday), either. And in their rush to get over to the new house, simply stood it in the van and continued to pack on top of it. The table is, in wording similar to the crew chief himself, ruined. We can never trust a pedestal table resting on four glued-together legs.
A 4-legged silver chest was also damaged--a leg was broken off. The explanation was that it was a cheap material holding the leg to the table, and that ‘these things happen.’ In our experience they do not happen except when there is careless handling.
As for the brand-new recliner, there are two cuts, almost perpendicular to each other. It appears as though a utility blade was being used to cut or open something else while positioned on or against the chair.

Customer Service: Moving Coordinator: not there when needed. We contacted him early in the morning several days before the move to inform him that we had changed our minds about moving the plasma TV ourselves. He said he couldn’t help us, that we’d have to talk to the estimator about that. I re-contacted the coordinator at 4:45 to let him know I’d not heard from the estimator. . Apparently Scott(the so-called coordinator) thought that all he had to do was leave Jeff(the estimator) a message, and not follow up with either Jeff or us. On Wednesday we did receive a message from Scott that he had gotten a crate and that it would be there for the move. The packing crate never did turn up, and our plasma TV was transported between a mattress and box spring, carried into and out of the houses without being boxed at all—just covered by a pad. Also, when the difficulties arose on Friday afternoon, I was told that Scott had left for the day already. We can understand someone taking time off, but not the fact that he did not tell us he’d not be here for the finish of the move and without giving us the name and number of someone who would be filling in for him. Crew Chief: communication and coordination skills lacking. Poor judgment on loading the van. Not one to admit mistakes or apologize. We cannot entirely blame Bill for all that happened to us and our possessions. He was working at least one person short, and sometimes two short. However, he could have called in much, much earlier for help. Additionally, it appears that he made a strategic error in leaving Thursday with a truck that could have held more. He told us as much at the destination. He said there was not very much left, so he didn’t see ‘cramming’ the first load and then having a very light second load. As it turned out, they definitely needed to have filled the van much more completely the first day. (See particulars below.) Also, he could have communicated much, much better to us. He would decide to move an object such as a bed or table without letting us know or asking us to please removed the items on them first. As an example: one such incident had to do with stripping a bed that was being used as a holding/packing surface by us. Everything was simply dumped on the floor, including a pair of prescription sunglasses that were hidden underneath the pile of bedding. One misstep and the expensive glasses would have been broken. On Friday, he told us that he’d finish doing x-y-z, and then go to the new house. Apparently he did not make clear that that would happen in a matter of minutes, and with the result that multiple items were left behind, and the front storm door still propped open. We were still working ourselves, and expecting that they were, too. If we were still at the old place, how did Bill plan to start work in the new place? How long might he have sat there if we did not drop what we were doing to race over there, taken completely off-guard? As it was, he and his crew left behind many things, including but not limited to and middot; the huge box of trash (which as of Monday morning is still sitting in the yard between our old house and our neighbor's;and middot; the concrete, two-piece bird bath and middot;and a heavy a statue of Saint Francis and middot; many yard implements and middot; a bicycle Our brother-in-law was pressed into emergency service, since we had to have EVERYTHING gone by midnight. He brought his pick-up truck and packed two very full loads into it. We brought things over by car as well. How could Bill have determined the house was empty and it was time to move to destination when so much was still on site at the old house? And finally, Bill closed the job and left without ever apologizing for any damages, for his own personal behavior (screaming at my husband for one thing, and walking away from the job temporarily for another), for the move taking so long and for it being so incomplete.

I highly recommend them and the guys were very cordial and efficient. The price was good. They cover everything, even on the inside of the house. They put down padding on your walls and everything so there is never a mark on my stuff. They have moved me twice. They do a lot of odd jobs; as far as if you need muscle to help move things within your home. I think they have been very good about that.

The two guys who came were professional and courteous. They treated me and my belongings with respect and were extremely careful. I am very satisfied and highly recommend them.

This is the second time I have used Parks Moving. The first time was in 3/09 when my mother moved from her house. Same routine, with Gary coming to the house and doing a thorough review of the job being requested, amount of furniture, distance to move, time involved. That move went off without a hitch, and they even finished up earlier than estimate and knocked several hundred dollars off the original estimate, with the final cost being approximately $1250. This time (in 2/10) Gary's review of the apartment took about 20 minutes, we were provided with a written estimate for approximately $565, which I found to be very fair given the professional treatment I knew I would/should be receiving. The movers appeared on time on 2/5/10 and got right to work. They finished right at the estimated time and cleaned up after themselves. I followed them to the storage unit, where they unloaded the truck in less than 30 minutes. The movers were very polite and professional.

The move went well. Gary estimated. Valerie, of Customer Service, was available throughout the move. All crews were efficient, pleasant, and very careful packing, moving us out, moving us in, and subsequently carting away the many cartons. The job came in substantially under the estimate.

I obtained 3 estimates prior to moving. Parks Moving and Storage was in the middle in terms of weight and price. Originally, I had asked for 2 estimates - One having Parks take furniture and boxes and one having the movers take only the furniture. The person who provided the estimate discouraged me from this approach and provided only a single estimate. The day of the move (approximately 6-weeks later), the movers showed up on time. While they were covering the floors and preparing to begin the move, I received a call from the person who provided the estimate saying they were not expecting to move boxes that day - only furniture. After arguing back and forth over whether the boxes were included as part of the estimate, I decided, reluctantly, to move forward with the move - with the understanding it might take additional time (billing was by the hour). Parks did a nice job with the move. The movers were very gentle with our furniture and our home. They covered our flooring on both ends of the move and did not hit any walls with the furniture. The guys were professional and friendly and nothing was broken. The move ended up take 9.5 hours (30-minutes longer than the estimate). We would use them again, but would get more details of the estimate in writing to avoid last minute surprises.

They were so careful with all of our belongings. I liked that nothing was broke during the move. Nick was in charge of the crew and he made sure everything was done to perfection. We also had to reschedule the move and they were very good about getting us moved when we had changed the time.

RELOCATION CONSULTANT CAME TO OUR HOUSE AND VIEWED CONTENTS AND HOME LAYOUT. HE PROVIDED AN ESTIMATE FOR 8 HOURS. BECAUSE MOVE WAS LOCAL, WE TRANSPORTED ABOUT 15% OF HOME CONTENTS (FRAGILE ITEMS) ON OUR OWN BEFORE MOVING DAY. THE ACTUAL MOVE TOOK MUCH LONGER THAN ESTIMATE (12 HOURS). FOLLOW UP RESPONSE FROM ESTIMATOR WAS ''OH WELL.'' THE MOVING CREW (JUSTIN, JEREMY, BENJAMIN AND NICK) WAS PROFESSIONAL AND CAREFUL. TO DATE, NO ITEMS UNPACKED WERE DAMAGED IN MOVE. THE CREW DID GET LOST WHEN TRAVELING TO THE NEW HOUSE, DESPITE HAVING DIRECTIONS. WOULD NOT HIRE COMPANY AGAIN BASED ON POORLY PREPARED ESTIMATE.