A Local Moving Company to Avoid: H&S Movers

This year I spent Halloween packing up my Park Slope apartment and moving it into another Park Slope apartment. For the first time, I hired movers to help with the relocation process. Normally I'd enlist friends to help awkwardly maneuver my heavy couch up three flights of stairs, but I've moved 7 times in the past 6 years, and thus have exhausted all of those favors. I'd also broken my toe a few days earlier, thanks to unreliable depth perception and an especially dense coffee table leg. I needed some outside help.

When it came time to choose a moving company, I immediately looked up a great post that FiPS writer Ninedaves wrote about the highest-rated moving companies in New York City. You guys chimed in and recommended your favorites as well. I read, absorbed and then completely ignored all of your presumably great suggestions. Instead of choosing the highest-rated moving company, I chose the cheapest, and they were AWWW-FUL. I realize in choosing low cost over quality I absolutely fucked myself. I get that. But in the event that you're reading this post while packing your wine glasses into an empty Fresh Direct box, I'm here to tell you what to expect should you choose this particular moving company.

Because I'd booked my moving van through U-Haul, I hired movers through their Moving Helpers page. This is where I found H&S Movers, which was pushed to the top of the list after I checked "lowest price" from the dropdown menu. For $134 I could get two movers for three hours. They'd show up at my old place and would leave from the new apartment once the job was finished. 

I skimmed the first few reviews on the page: "The movers were very nice and efficient," one read. "I wasn't sure all of my stuff would fit in the truck-- but they got it all in, and securely!" Another read, "The movers were Professional and did a good job."

OK, I thought. Sold.

Here's what I got:

* One mover showed up almost an hour late. The second showed up 2 1/2 hours late. This entire time I was unable to get the owner of the company on the phone, who assured me when I booked the job that I could call his cell phone should there be any issues on the day of the move. Because I only had the van booked for four hours, I couldn't wait for the lost movers to find their way, especially when they weren't sure how long it would take for them to arrive. I called my boyfriend over. He and I ended up moving a lot of the stuff ourselves which, again, wouldn't have been so bad except that A) I'd already fully pre-paid for movers to do it for me and B) had a broken toe.

* When the job was finished, I asked one of the moving helpers to get his boss on the phone. This is how I finally got ahold of the man I booked the job with. I said I wanted some of my money back because the movers showed up so late. He apologized and said that we could surely work something out. Then he ignored my phone calls and voicemails for a week. I wrote an email to the company that outsources the work to see if they could help, and headed over to H&S Mover's review page to purge my negative thoughts. Here's where I scrolled down and read reviews that I hadn't previously seen. Turns out they're very defensive when it comes to customer service:

* Moving Helpers, the company that outsources the jobs to H&S, responded to my email. They CC'd H&S movers and said that if this issue couldn't be worked out they'd consider canceling their partnership with them. H&S finally phoned and agreed to give me half my money back (this was after they tried to cut the half IN HALF AGAIN). They promised to promptly put a check in the mail. 

* Ten days later I hadn't received anything, so I emailed H&S Movers to follow up:

Here's how they responded:

Oh, H&S Movers. You sure do know how to charm a lady. 

I eventually did get the check. It wasn't wort the hassle, though. Nor the toe pain. I'm not nominating these guys as the worst moving company because the movers were late (they were actually quite nice), or because of the company's bad reviews (especially since not all were bad). I nominate them because of the way they chose to deal with my situation in the aftermath: ignored calls, rude emails, excessive exclamation points.

When it comes time to choose a moving company, if you're smarter than me (which surely, most of you are), splurge a little. I like to think that in this comically expensive city, there are still good deals out there (hello, Song?). H&S Movers, unfortunately, is not one of them.

Comments

[Anonymous]

Way too late but this is what credit cards were designed for. "Hello Visa, this company promised me a service and then didn't provide it. Please reverse all the charges." (which then sticks them with %5 processing fees) You'll be surprised at how many times a day they want to talk to you then.