Blake Enterprises Moving and Storage

They came recommended by a couple friends and started off being easy to work with. We hired them to pack and move us. 2 guys came the day before the move to pack. One left after a couple of hours, and the second left a couple hours later. There was a ton of stuff left unpacked (despite the fact that we only lived in a 1-BR), but we figured they knew what they were doing. They came back at 9:00am the next day to finish packing and move us. They didn't finish packing us until after 7:00pm! They grossly underestimated the amount of time for the packing and should have spent more time the day before and/or brought more than 2 guys. So they didn't leave our house until 11:30pm. And that packing included doing things like just throwing all of my ties in a trash bag. BUT THAT WASN"T EVEN THE WORST OF IT... I had a marble-topped dresser that I'd inherited. The dresser showed up but without the marble top. I called and they said they'd look for it. I called back a couple days later and they said they'd found it in their warehouse. Over the next two weeks, I made repeated calls remaining very patient and flexible, to arrange when they could drop it off. There was one excuse after another -- e.g. it was locked in one guy's trunk and he was out of the country and they didn't have the keys. I actually believed them. It's now 3 MONTHS LATER, I've still never gotten the piece back, and they won't return my calls or emails. I'm not sure what alternatives there are to putting these reviews online. Update 01/13/13: I'll make a very long story short... We hired Blake to move the contents of a 1-bedroom apartment from Cleveland Park to Silver Spring -- about 4 miles. During the move, they managed to lose the marble top to an antique dresser that I'd inherited. I called a day later, and they said that they'd found the piece in the warehouse and promised to courier it over. The courier never showed. Then I got the runaround for months -- they wouldn't return my calls or emails. When I finally got someone on the phone, they told me that Roger and his son had been in a coma for 3 months and the piece was in his car and they didn't have his keys. If somehow it's true about the coma, I really hope Roger and his son are okay. But it's been almost a year now. I should have the marble back. And if they don't have it, I wish they'd just tell me. They could at least have the integrity to return my calls or emails. Aside from taking them to court, which is my next step, the only recourse I have is to warn everyone I can not to use them. Spend the extra $100 and get a company that's responsible and responsive. I've had friends use Blake and have a good experience, but I promise you that if you use Blake and anything goes wrong, welcome to h***.

Stay far, far away from Blake Enterprises! We had contracted them for a move on July 18, 2011. We had an estimate and confirmed contract in hand and I took the extra step of confirming the week before. On Sunday evening at 5:30 I received an e-mail from Tony the "solutions expert" from Blake stating that they were cancelling the move the next day because of warehouse problems, sorry for the inconvienance. I immediately tried to call, no answer, sent e-mails, no reply. Luckily Gentle Giant Movers came through. I have never seen such an unprofessional way to do business and please save yourself the same agony we went through and do not use Blake Enterprises.