The Paxton Companies

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They were very helpful and professional, from the lady who coordinated the move, to the movers themselves. They did a great job and we were glad we went with them. I have already recommended them to others who are about to use their services. Lastly, their prices were competitive compared to a couple other companies we contacted.

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Overall, I have nothing to complain about as move came in below budget and all there were no real problems. However, there seemed to be some disconnect between sales and actual movers.

The packers dropped an expensive piece of furniture by accident.  They  were running up and down the steep stairs carrying my  belongings as they seemed to be wanting to finish faster than it could normally take.  
When I called the lady who came to do the estimate (same as above) to report the accident she simply referred me to the claims department... like destroying a persons property was an everyday occurrence for her. This same lady  hired a "third party" company to remove, transfer and install 3 crystal chandeliers from the TH to our new SFH.   In the end as the "third party company" did not know what to do with the most expensive and heavier one  they told us to hire our own electrician to do the work.  Nevertheless we are being charged 2000.00 for the "work" which consisted in removing one builders lamp from the SFH and removing and crating the 2 smaller chandeliers from the TH in a ton of peanuts. Because of this, the expensive antique crystal chandelier stayed in the TH for another 2 weeks until I could find a suitable, experienced electrician.  Why hire a "third party" that is not qualified to do what was written in the contract? 
I must say that the lady in the Claims Department as well as another lady employee based in the Chicago Office were most sympathetic and did try to provide support and assistance to the best of their abilities. I have emailed the owners of the company stating these same facts and my complaints about the work  performed by their employees  I haven't heard from them yet.  A week ago we received a Target gift card (!)

In needing to hire movers for such a long distance relocation, I was extremely hesitant to go with a large company as I have had bad experiences in the past.  However, I hired Paxton Van Lines based in part on their Angie?s List reviews as well as their reputation with Atlas for how well they care for items.  Unfortunately, this experience has not been a good one.
 
The process started with the quote ? With the inventory I gave over the phone, I was initially quoted at 4,000 lbs.  However, that seemed to be really conservative to me (we were moving from a 2bd/2ba, 1,000 sq. ft condo), so I asked that the estimator come to our storage units to actually see what we had.  Granted, the items in the back of the unit could not be seen from the door, however after the site visit, the estimate was revised to be 5,000 lbs.  I felt more comfortable with that number (better to estimate high and avoid any surprises later), being that we own solid wood furniture and it is heavy.  Fast forward to the day before delivery ? I received a phone call that the estimate was off by 1,800 lbs.  It still baffles me that an estimate can be off by nearly a ton.  That miscalculation cost us an additional $1,100 on top of the revised estimate?s price.
 
I also discussed with the estimator (prior to booking) that I was extremely wary of having our items loaded onto a truck, then unloaded at their facility, and then re-loaded onto the truck that would make the trip to FL.  At first I was told that once items were placed on the truck, they were not taken off.  Later on in the process, I was told that of course they do that, and a direct-load is never guaranteed.  However, to increase the chances of a direct-load, we scheduled the move date nearly a month later and confirmed that our storage facility could accommodate a semi for loading.  Fast forward to the day before loading ? I received a phone call that we would not get a direct-load, and a shuttle truck would be used.  My husband was on site to supervise the loading, and he said that the local VA crew did a good job.  That definitely put my mind at ease that everything would arrive in good shape.
 
Delivery day in FL was a completely different story.  When the doors to the truck were opened, I noticed that our items were in two different places on the truck, and some of them were not wrapped.  As the un-load went on, items for the garage and for the house were stacked on the same hand truck so sorting was nearly impossible.  Boxes clearly marked ?FRAGILE? were under boxes marked "HEAVY", wrought iron patio items were on top of boxes marked ?FRAGILE?, etc.  A box marked ?FRAGILE: ANTIQUE MIRROR? had a hole punched through it.  A box of dinner plates was smashed to such an extent, it was almost folded ? 5 plates out of 12 were broken.  A box clearly marked as containing electronics is so damaged I still can?t figure out what happened to it ? it appears to be crushed/dropped/smashed ? the cardboard is actually soft to the touch.  A box of bed sheets has a 12? gash torn straight through the box, and had they not been in a thick contractor bag inside the box, would have been destroyed.
 
With delivery being only a week ago, we have not unpacked everything yet.  I am hoping that there won?t be any other surprises as we get further in.  There were other administrative hiccups along the way as well (communication wasn?t the best), which I would have gladly overlooked had our things been delivered in good shape.  I have contacted the estimator already about the initial damage, and have been directed to fill out the claim form online.  That is all well and good, but it is totally obvious that our things were not cared for at all, and I am wondering if I even want to attempt to take on the headache of going through the claims process at this point.
 
All in all, a very frustrating and disappointing experience.  Paxton may be great for local DC/VA/MD moves, but not for long distance.

Paxton was our vendor of choice after receiving their quote along with two others.  Not only were they competitive on price, but they were able to meet our requirements - four men instead of three, a request for one specific foreman (based on a friend's moving experience), full-time employed moving team, etc.  The team arrived on time, requested a walk through of the property with me, and got down to business.  They made pretty quick work of emptying our two-story home in 3.5 hours.  Granted I did empty about 90% of our basement-stored items up to the first floor the night before, but I was motivated to do so because we went with an hourly contract.  There was minor damage to some of the stair moldings after my instructions weren't followed for one particularly heavy piece of furniture, which I had to repair (They offered, but I had the materials already and no time to wait for someone else to fix what was a 10-minute job.).  Other than that the move out went well.  Two days later our belongings arrived on time at our new home.  After the walk through, they laid down brown "butcher" paper and cardboard to protect our hardwood floors and wall-to-wall carpeting up the stairs, which I greatly appreciated.  The move in took about 2.75 hours, which brought the move out/move in hourly total to about 6.25 hours, or 2.75 hours under their estimate.
I would recommend Paxton.

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They were great! We had very few issues with them. The workers did a good job and were very considerate. They handled our things carefully. They had to transfer us into storage and then after a few weeks move us out of the storage again. So they have been very helpful during the whole process of us moving to another place.

They were excellent. I had used them before. The move occurred over a period of two days. The move itself was very efficient. Julia came to the house to assist me and she was excellent. It was raining one of the days we moved so there were footprints on the rug. They stood behind their quality of work and cleaned the carpet for us.

It was about $5000 to $6000.  My overall experience was excellent.  The punctuality and responsiveness was excellent.  The price was excellent.  The quality of service was excellent.  The professionalism was excellent.

They are excellent. They even moved my car for me. Nothing broke and nothing was missing. They were exceptional. When they moved things in they made sure they didn't get anything on my carpet. They took care of my furniture.

They broke few things but I?m not sure who broke that; it?s hard to blame them. They were pretty much on time. The people who came to unpack the things were on time. They were very efficient. I can rate them very highly. They came to remove the packing materials two weeks later. Those guys were also very efficient. I don?t have any complains about them. I would probably not use them in the future.

It went perfectly well. The peson in charge of the paking was very careful and professional and in a few instances, had the crew do over some things that he didn't find to his satisfaction. He has been with the company for a long time, knows his business very well, and it shows.

We have always had good interactions with them. I have referred them to about 20 different clients, and all of them had positive feedback. They are a little pricey, but they do good work.

Everything went as planned, and they were above and beyond great -- I've used Paxton before for a local DC move, but this was interstate, and I would definitely use them again, they were great!!!!

I called Linda at Paxton to receive an estimate of how much it would cost to move. They sent someone out a couple of days later to estimate everything. The estimate was a bit higher than I expected and higher than a competitor; however, the competitor's estimate was based off of my own information, so I asked them to reestimate with that information (to their credit, the job was a bit difficult to estimate because some of the items in the apartment were my roommate's, and some I was selling). The new estimate was in line with the competitor's, and I went with Paxton because I'd heard much better things about them. The day before the scheduled move, two packers came to pack up everything that I hadn't packed myself. They worked quickly and used lots of protective materials (good for the move, bad for unpacking...). My only complaint in that regard was that they tried to count boxes that I had already packed because they added additional paper to them. But that was resolved quickly with a phone call to Linda. The next day, the movers came. Three men loaded up my old apartment (with an elevator), drove to my new apartment (no elevator and on the third floor), and unloaded everything, including some larger pieces of furniture and heavy items such as a grill and 50-lbs dumbbells. They did a fantastic job, even hauling the grill up an additional flight of stairs to my rooftop terrace. They completed the move in less than the estimated time, taking around 5 hours total.

Great.