Moves by Doug

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The ultimate problem was with the men who did the moving. They were careless in dropping boxes and tables and we are still finding damage as we open boxes. Our kitchen table ended up with a broken leg as well as another cabinet. The front door was dented by the movers as well. Doug had the table repaired, but nothing else. Frankly, we just did want to deal with the company any more. This was not a good situation.

We hired moves by Doug to move our 1700 3 bedroom house. I'm not sure where to even begin so i'll just start at the beginning. I'd like to encourage you to read to the end if you are thinking about using these folks and draw your own conclusion.

Moves by Doug was scheduled to start our move at 10:00 AM, but as time passed it became apparent that they were not showing up. At 10:20 AM my family were all excited to start the move so we went ahead and called Doug directly to ask if they would be arriving soon. I asked Doug are you guys going to be coming soon? His response was and quot;Oh I didn't want to start your move to early because i'd get done before your closing at 3:00 PMand quot;. This wouldn't have been a problem, but no one called us to reschedule or to even let us know there was a change of plans. Moves by Doug arrived a little before 12:00 in the afternoon and I was pretty annoyed at this point. I probably should have called it off by now since that is a big red flag to me, but I had to be moved and I could not find anyone that could come out the same day.
So the work proceeded. For the most part I was satisfied with the first part of the move other than the fact that they were late. They seemed to be taking care not to damage things and moving quickly enough. There were some professionalism issues that were immediately apparent. I don't like that the movers were taking frequent breaks covered in sweat in the nursery glider chair. It's all cloth and soaked up so much sweat...it is absolutely gross, but we did not realize until it made it to our house that was the and quot;breakand quot; chair. I stopped counting after finding around 30 cigarette butts laying on the ground. Also they only brought one truck so after the first was loaded it took a while for the other truck to get there to continue the load. Smoke breaks were very frequent. I saw a couple of gentlemen break every 20 minutes or so for a cigarette. As the day went on the 3 men working (Doug had left by this point) continued to get slower and slower.
Finally at a little after 4:00 PM we were ready to start heading over to the new house. The movers asked if we'd mind if they stopped to grab a gatorade or a drink and we said that wasn't a problem we'd meet them there in a few minutes. It took them 45 minutes to go 6 miles including their drink break. The unload started off OK. You could tell by this point the movers were pretty exhausted and were having a hard time staying motivated so I jumped in and started helping them on where to take things. They did well for the next half hour while i stood there telling them where to take the items, but then came to an abrupt stop. I couldn't find two of the movers. Only one man was working at this point and we still had 2/3rds of a large truck to unload (almost 5:00PM at night). I glanced around and I saw the other 2 gentlemen having another smoke break behind their truck and messing with their phones. I lost count on how many breaks were taken and I do understand people need breaks but they were so frequent that it became really ridiculous. I motioned for the other two guys to come back so we could get to work. I hopped on their truck and started staging the boxes to try and get things moving again. Work continued again for a little while, but way to slowly.
The moving crew had completely lost their gas. At this point all the movers have started complaining that they won't get paid for the extra hours they are working. Yes you heard right. In front of the customers they are whining and complaining that their boss isn't going to pay them. I said that's absurd is that how it normally is? One of the movers said it happens all the time (that they dont get paid for extra hours worked even if the job is misquoted on hours). So then the next question was how frequently are jobs misquoted? The answer: all the time. Do the math here folks, but this isn't right.
Everything was moved inside by about 9:30 PM and the movers are desperately trying to put together the furniture at this point. They got our children's bunk beds about 75% done, and forgot to finish the dresser / armoire in the master bedroom. I should have seen this. After such a long ordeal and the move taking twice as long I was exhausted and missed it on my walkthrough.
The most important thing to me was that our items arrive good condition and with little to no damage on them. Unfortunately moves by Doug was not able to and quot;deliverand quot; on this either. I asked Doug when we first met him on his initial quote / walkthrough of our house if he was insured. His answer was yep sure am, but honestly things are so rarely damaged that I'd probably just pay for the item out of pocket. Well here's our list of damaged items:

• Dented Washer - barrel hits it and makes loud noise occasionally (less than 2 years old)
• Broken Porch Swing - Bottom support beam crushed and splintered
• Broken changing table - Wood broken and split
• Damaged couch - I literally watched the mover drop this straight backwards off the truck on accident
• Nursery chair - just nasty
• There are more things, but they are small and inconsequential. My big complaint is the furniture that is damaged.

Being that Doug seemed like an easy going guy that wouldn't be a problem to work with I asked my wife to call him now that we've got everything unpacked and surveyed the damage to these items. Doug blamed his crew and also said he had fired every one of them. My wife politely told Doug that he is responsible even if his crew did the damage. His response was shocking. He literally yelled at my wife and told her that he lost money on this job (as if that was our fault). After he lost control of his temper he hung up on my wife.
Folks I think you can draw your own conclusions here. Maybe Moves by Doug hit a rough patch and are having a hard time. Maybe it was an off day. I can't really give you an answer to that. All I can do is reluctantly tell you my story and hope it saves some people the frustration and stress that this certainly caused me and my family. I have never left what might be considered a negative review, but after the way Doug spoke to my wife I can't make excuses for the man or his business any more. The price was right, but I would have gladly paid twice as much for more movers and better professionalism. I've been self employed myself for almost 8 years now, and let me tell you this is not how you stay in business and keep customers. Doug you are a nice guy and I like you as a person, but you guys have a lot of work to do on your business (and customer service skills).
Thanks for reading.

THANKS DOUG! I really do appreciate it.
This is the second time Moves by Doug has moved me. The first time was in February, 2012. That was an excellent experience. Doug and an assistant moved me from one apartment into a different apartment two and one half years ago.
The move recent move Doug was not on the crew. Doug sent two young men. The following is a summary:
1). They were polite and had good manners.
2). They worked hard.
3). Overall, the move was a really good experience.
I hope you do really well in business. I am happy to recommend you to my family and friends.
Thanks again Doug!

They did an awesome job. We had a 28' truck that was loaded from floor to ceiling. Doug and his two guys not only unloaded the whole truck within the 4 hours he said he thought it would take but they asked where things should go and took them there and asked where in the rooms or in the garage I wanted them placed and did it very politely and very considerately! After everything was unloaded they even came in to make sure things were where I wanted them and were arranged so I could move around in a house full of furniture and boxes. They kept working till everything was done and only took 1 or 2 breaks in spite of how heavy things were and how much stuff there was. I would highly recommend Doug and would use him again in a heartbeat although the move from IL to TN was hopefully my last move for some time!!!

Doug and his helper did an excellent job of moving my furniture and boxes. They work on a per hour basis and completed the job in an efficient and timely manner. I asked if they could try to fit my items into two moving containers (relocubes) instead of three to save some money. Doug worked hard to safely fit all of my items into two cubes. It was clear that he had a high level of expertise in how to maximize space in a container. I would recommend Moves by Doug to anyone who needs a good mover at an excellent price.

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I like him. We are going to move again into a house that we bought and we are going to use him. He is very good. His prices are good. He is great. I liked how he handled the furniture. I had an appointment yesterday but I had to change everything. He moved us completely last February. It was him and another person that moved us; he has a team for a bigger jobs. I have recommended him. He goes above and beyond. He went above and beyond. He moved a bedroom set that needed to be done right away and he went and got it.