Dale J. Cook Moving & Storage

Fabulous. They were wonderful. They were clean, polite, careful. They were very nice to deal with. All of the things that are important to us were taken care of carefully.

My Moving Experience With Dale J. Cook in Charleston, SC/Stevens
Worldwide Van Lines in Saginaw, MI
 The person who sold me the experience was cordial and
convincing about what a great company Dale J. Cook would be for my move.  She did convince me that I should pay
them to pack everything of value because they were "professionals" and that I should purchase $600 of insurance,
?just in case.? They would not be considered professionals in anybody's world view! She could not have been more wrong!  Following is list of some of the reasons:
1.   I specifically pointed out to one of the women 2 times that I had 2 shopping bags of Christopher Radco ornaments that had a beginning price of $100 each and that each ornament needed to be wrapped separately and packed securely.  They arrived at my destination in the same shopping bags with absolutely no wrapping dropped into a wardrobe box. 
2.   I have a piece of hand-painted antique slate from the roof of a house in Charleston that was likewise dropped into a wardrobe box together with a heavy camera tripod with no wrapping around it.
3.   HURRY, not care, was the name of the game in packing and loading. I halted one trip down the stairs where a steel bookshelf was being scrapped across the ceiling rather that disassembling it.
4.   I went upstairs at one point of loading to find yellow paint from the wall all over the floor.  The corner of a wall was so smashed in that the repair man they sent over the next morning (before my final walk-through of my buyers) said that it needed the metal corner replaced and at least 2 pieces of sheetrock replaced.  The hole was caused by someone later described to me as ?a guy who sometimes likes to show off? ?dropping? the headboard of my bed into the wall. The Wesley Allen Queen Size Iron Bed now has yellow paint embedded in the headboard! No one mentioned to me prior to my finding it myself that it had been done. 
5.   When they left at the end of the day a blade was hanging off the ceiling fan in the dining room.  Again, no one mentioned that
they had torn up the fan. 
6.   The ceiling all along the stairwell had the paint beaten off of it from all the times boxes and furniture had been scrubbed up against it.
7.   There had been a half dozen cokes in the refrigerator when they arrived.  They were all missing when the moving crew left.  I would have gladly given them one had they asked, but since no one did, in my world that is known as stealing.
8.   An iron quilt rack had for some reason been disassembled for the move.  They couldn?t get it back together, but broke it while attempting. It was left in pieces all across the floor as the last person ran to the truck telling me to ?turn it in.?
9.   I moved into a 4700 square foot, 3-story house. I could not watch and check out every single piece of furniture that was
run off the truck ? again the order of the day was HURRY! I did ask the driver and the receptionist/secretary at Dale J. Cook how long I had to turn in my claim.  Both people told me that I had 9 months.  DO NOT BELIEVE THAT!! In fact, now that I have a claim on a stool that was hidden behind a 3 deep, higher than my head wall of boxes, I am told that I had to turn it in before the driver left!
10.   As I began to unpack boxes, I could not believe my eyes.  I had 4 picture boxes that had 2 or more paintings in them with the front of one jammed up against the back of another without a single piece of paper in between or around them.   Therefore, the screws and hanging wire on one piece scrubbed up against the one behind it the entire move. Needless to say, the frames were destroyed beyond use.  Included in one of those boxes was a piece of artwork that was a mirror surround by pottery.  The  ?mortar? holding the pottery in had been knocked out all around the edges.
11.   We had purchased a signed vase on a trip to Albuquerque.  It was chipped.
12.   A Drexel Heritage lingerie chest has a huge dent in the top edge.  I have inquired of someone who hand built my dining room table and my new cabinets if it could be repaired.  He said that it couldnot be repaired to its original state.
13.   I did have a framed photograph of my mother-in-law with her siblings when she was a child. As they have all passed away, it was priceless to us.  It was displayed on top of my wardrobe in the master bedroom.  It should have been packed by Dale J. Stevens "professionals" and moved here.  After unpacking all of my boxes, it is nowhere to be found.  I reported it to them.  Their only response has been that they don?t know what happened to it! 
14.   It says in their sales packet that they will pay you $100 if they damage your house. They did a lot of damage to my house! They did not pay anything.
 This move cost me almost $12,000 including the $600 for insurance to protect in case they damaged anything. I have lived in 7 states so I?ve moved a lot. I have never in the past allowed the movers to pack my things and have always done it myself.  I
have never had anything broken. Neither have I had my house torn up by other large or small moving companies. I have now turned in my claim for all the damage done and expected to be paid for it.  The ?inspector? they sent over was here with a tiny cheap
camera for all of 10 minutes! After that in depth investigation and with the help of eBaby, this is what I was allowed:
1.Quilt Rack: Claimed $100 ? Allowed $0
Denied liability as it had already been repaired. I did have it welded back together so that I could get my quilts put somewhere, but the repair looks awful and there is no denying that they tore it up!
2. Four framed Paintings that needed custom framing. 
I had already priced it so that I knew the amount to claim. I had claimed $700 to replace them. Allowed for ?repair? $195. Where does one go to get a frame ?repaired??
3. A framed painting that they decided the damage wasn?t done in the move.  Claimed $150 ?Allowed $0
4. On the Framed Mirror they decided, ?the filler for the pottery frame had fallen out. This is not transit related.? Claimed $100 ?
Allowed $0
5. Pottery Vase ? They did ?research? on eBay and found one for $35.99. I had claimed $75.  It probably cost me more than the $35 to ship it, as I didn?t buy it on eBay!
6. The Drexel Heritage Lingerie Chest I had claimed $1880 to replace as I had been told it could not be repaired.  They allowed $150 to repair.
7. The Wesley Allen Bed that had torn up a wall ?was denied because it had many pre-existing paint chips on both the headboard and footboard.?  The bed was distressed! It was a new bed that was in a guest bedroom that had probably not been used more than 25 times! It, however, did not have yellow paint on the white bed until it was dropped on the wall!! They absolutely know they are responsible for it because they had to repair the yellow wall!  Claimed $716 (The store where I purchased it still has it on record where I bought it) Allowed -$0
8. Bar Stool that was hidden behind boxes ?they deny all liability
because I didn?t turn it in at delivery! Claimed $200- Allowed $0
 Apparently they have a list

Dale Cook's crew arrived timely, worked extremely hard and efficiently and were very polite and considerate.  The move was accomplished with the utmost care to my belongings.  I definitely use them again if a move was in my future.  Thank you Dale Cook!!

Dale Cook did an absolute stellar job!  I am very particular.  I didn't want anything scratched, broken or lost.  I have had many bad experiences with other movers in the past.  From start to finish, they could not have done a better job, both times I worked with them.  As far as the cost - they actually came in UNDER budget.  The service was beyond our expectations as was their professionalism.  We had ZERO damages.  In addition, they accomodated our schedule and stayed very late to get the job completed.  Their crew and foreman, Michael, were fabulous.  They were very patient when I asked them to move things multiple times, to get the furniture exactly where I wanted it.  They were pleasant 100% of the time. 
I don't know if you can possibly "overwrap", but there were a few things that I wasn't too worried about, and I told them to just throw them on the truck, and they would be fine, but Michael insisted we wrap them anyway.  I have never seen a moving company wrap as thoroughly as they did.  Again, we had no scratches, damages or lost items.  That includes the condition of the home we moved out of and into - no scratches on the walls or floors from moving the larger items.
I would definitely use their company again, and I would recommentd them to anyone looking for a reliable, professional, punctual, responsive, and reasonably priced moving company.

I know they have been in business for a long time, and I hope they stay in business for many more years, because they are the only moving company I would want to use!

A lady came out and gave us an estimate.  My wife and I made sure that we pointed out anything that needed special care or anything extra heavy that may impact the estimate.  We wanted to avoid any surprises on moving day.  Since this was only a local move, the estimator was not concerned about most of it.  She toured the house, writing few notes, and said that our move should be fairly straight forward.  We asked her about ways that we could save money, such as packing stuff ourselves.  She said that packing is priced by box, so the more non-breakable items (such as books, etc) that we pack, the less boxes are required, thus saving us money.  She quoted our entire move to be less than $1900, including the full packing.  
My wife and I decided to borrow boxes from people we know who have recently moved and pack as much as we could ourselves.  We ended up packing the entire kitchen, most of the office, and most of the bathroom and laundry room items.  I even packed many things in the garage.  We were thinking that we should save at least a couple of hundred dollars on the packing.  
When packing day came, 4 guys showed up and began packing.  In the process of disassembling one of the floor lamps, one of the guys broke the part that allows you to screw the glass lamp shade in place.  Otherwise the packing went without incident.  
On moving day, that's when most of the problems occurred.  When they arrived at the new house, they complained that the driveway was too long and that they would have to charge extra man hours because of it.  No mention of such a possibility from the estimate.  My wooden filing cabinet was completely smashed.  The drawers were completely broken.  Our expensive dining room table had a chip in it, and our expensive master bedroom dresser had a chip in it.  I called to make a claim on the damaged items, and Dale J Cook would not do anything about it.  They said that there was a $250 deductible on the insurance (again, that was not mentioned in the estimate) and that the total amount of my damages would fall within the deductible.  
After the heartache with the damage, to add insult to injury, they charged me $2200 for the move, almost $400 OVER the estimate.  I asked how the price was so much after we packed many boxes ourselves.  They said that the driveway was too long for their liking and that our furniture was heavy.
Just a year ago we moved down here from Ohio using a local moving company from Ohio.  All of our stuff arrived in South Carolina without so much as a scratch.  All of the SAME stuff that Dale J Cook moved.  However, Dale J Cook movers couldn't move the stuff practically across the street without complaining the entire time, damaging stuff, and then over charging us.  
We will never use Dale J Cook movers again.

Excellent service every time! Also took great care of family heirlooms while in storage. Excellent packing insured all items arrived in great condition.

Dale Cook Movers demonstrated extremely poor customer service.  I paid $595  to have my possessions safely packed in a POD for storage, but what I received was severely damaged furniture, crushed boxes with damaged stemware and china, cracked vases, scraped appliances and tables, a bed with numerous scrape marks,  gauges and chipped edges on my cherry bedroom furniture and desk, two five ft. scrapes on my bookcase that looked like it had been keyed.  The blankets I provided to be used to cover my expensive Pottery Barn sofa were left in a heap on the floor of the POD.  Dale Cook movers made a fool out of me for trusting them, and I was stuck with a $595 bill and a POD full of my severely damaged possessions.  In addition, Beth Cook was rude and insulting to me in my attempt to settle this issue despite Dale Cook's responsibility for my damages.

It was very bad. They lost a lot of our things. They never inventoried our things so we couldn't claim anything for insurance.

The crew that moved me was fine, but I was not happy with the job the packing guys did.  They broke things and forgot stuff.  The price and the paperwork was fine.  I wouldn't use them again though.

 they snapped the claw feet of two dining room chairs, the back has come off an amoire and we are missing pieces all together.