OK Transfer LLC

Three men did the moving packing and the same crew did the unpacking. They were very polite and worked hard. The final cost was less than the estimate. I have no complaints and will use them again if the need arises.

I am very frustrated by this company's lack of integrity--they do not keep their word. The hourly moving labor was twice the original estimate, and they dropped a piece of furniture down a flight of stairs though improper technique--and refuse to take responsibility. We wanted to use a moving company that offered packing services in addition to moving services for a local move. We asked for an estimate after a word of mouth recommendation and another estimate from another company (which actually came out lower). We chose OK Transfer because we thought we were paying for quality. After Andrea Baum came to our duplex to examine all of our belongings, were given an estimate of packing by 2 packers at 6-7 hours costing $540 (including packing supplies) and moving the following day by 3 movers with a truck for 8 hours at $135/h costing $1080 for a total move cost of $1620. The packers arrived on time and did a good job overall. One packer mostly focused on the kitchen and the other the remainder of the house. We were told that they would leave our beds assembled until the morning of the move so we would have a place to sleep. At lunch, the packers were concerned that they would not finish and wanted us to authorize an additional packer. We did not see that to be necessary given the amount of work left and they did indeed finish on time and at estimate. The following day the movers arrived as scheduled at 8:30. They were annoyed that the beds were not disassembled. They were also annoyed that the electronics were not packed (we intended to and did transfer them ourselves). The 2 loaders were slow to move things to the truck and walked very slowly back into our duplex. The third man focused on organization of the truck. There was only the expected scuffs on walls and floors, but their moving was very slow. It became evident that they were not going to come close to finishing our move that Friday or be anywhere close to the 8 hour estimate. The crew leader said that they would have to stop at dark because it would not be safe to work without proper lighting. They promised to include our beds as the last thing of the load so that we would have a place to sleep at the new house. I asked the crew leader to confirm that the remainder would be moved the next day since they were not done. After a phone call to the office he said that he and the other loader would be back to finish the job the next day. I had to make arrangements for another family member to be present to let them in on Saturday as I had been scheduled to work on Saturday. During the afternoon unload of the truck the least experienced mover (my feeling is that it was one of his first jobs, though I have no firsthand knowledge of his level of experience) used a box dolly (not a furniture dolly with a strap or hand carrying method) to transfer our daughter's nightstand upstairs. Near the top of the stairs the nightstand fell off the box dolly and fell down at least 12 stairs. The immediately evident damage was that one leg of the stand had broken off and stripped all of the screws that secured it. The truck organizing crew member discussed it with me and told me that his partner just hadn't been told not to use a box dolly for a small piece of furniture going up or down stairs. He told me it was common "rookie mistake" that he had made himself in the past, but only "once". The crew leader said that he would bring out some screws to repair the leg the following day when they came back to move the rest of our stuff. The movers worked until 7:30 PM with an hour lunch break and their hourly breaks that had been included in the estimate, but were already significantly over their estimated time and not done. The two movers did return the next day and worked to complete the remainder of the move. While they were working I contacted the office to see how they were going to handle the gross overage for labor. Andrea said that she was surprised to learn that the crew was back at our move. We came to an agreed upon fixed payment amount that was about a 25% overage (I did understand that the estimate was exactly that - an estimate, but I did not feel that they were working at a pace to meet a reasonable estimate for an hourly job). I also informed Andrea about the damaged piece of furniture and she said that she would send out an insurance claim form by mail, which she did. I did not allow the crew to repair it themselves because the damages were more extensive after looking at the nightstand. We were slow to return the form as we were busy with unpacking and many other things. My wife spoke with someone in the office to receive help filling out the claim form, and he informed her that it was clearly their fault, and that we would be receiving a check. We contacted Andrea by email on 10/8/2012 with the scanned claim form and pictures of the other damage that included all three drawers and other small scratches. We did not hear back. I called again on 10/24/2012 (again busy with other things). We made arrangements for them to pick up the nightstand to have it inspected by a furniture repairman as their policy is to repair a piece of furniture as their first method of dealing with damage. We asked that no work be done on the piece until we had been contacted to discuss the situation since they could not tell us if they would give us replacement cost without inspecting it. A structurally damaged and subsequently repaired piece of furniture is clearly not equal to a new one (this nightstand was less than a year old). After I had not heard back about the inspection, I contacted Tony at the office to find out when we would know. He said that he had scheduled the repairman and that he would probably not have the information until the next Monday. The end of that same week I received a call asking when the next week they could drop off our nightstand. I said that I was confused because I thought I wouldn't have the information until Monday. Tony told me that he could fix it earlier and was already repairing the furniture (even though we had NOT been contacted to discuss it). He said that they would bring it out and let us inspect it. I had hoped to negotiate a settlement based on the estimated repair cost if in fact they felt it could be repaired and were not going to simply pay us the replacement cost. They again said their policy was to repair the furniture if possible, and my wife and I did not want to end up with a repaired piece of furniture. The nightstand was delivered and was incompletely repaired (there was still a cracked drawer face with damage to the blind dovetails that allowed the top drawer face to rock. The leg was held on with wood glue and 4 wood staples as the wood had been stripped and screws could not fasten it any longer. The paint touch-up was excellent and cosmetically the damage was essentially invisible, but the structure was still damaged and the bottom drawer no longer had a child safety drawer slide that does not allow the drawer to come out completely when pulled. They have yet to ultimately settle the situation with us. They felt that the repair was adequate.

Rain was forecasted for the day we were scheduled to move and OK Transfer said they would wait until the storm moved out of the area so our belongings would not get wet. At 10am of the scheduled day, in the pouring rain they arrived anyway. The original quote estimated three men and one truck. Seven men and two trucks arrived and began loading regardless of the pouring rain. The quoted price was $1670 which we felt was reasonable, however I had a problem with the number of people quoted and the number that arrived. Our estimator was unavailable so we proceeded with the move. Each hour, the movers took a 10-15 minute smoke break and left cigarette butts in the yard, driveway and street in front of BOTH homes, the one we were leaving and the one we were moving into. The process took two days. On the second day the crew took a break for lunch and upon returning there was a heavy odor of marijuana upon several of the movers. When asked to sign off the move, There was no indication of a lunch break or smoke breaks and the lead person, who was obviously stoned, finally admitted to the lunch break giving us a half hour break on our total hours. After they departed and we began to sort things out, there were many things missing, nothing of any consequential value, but very annoying indeed. There were also broken items and other oddities. When the invoice arrived two days later we were billed over $2700. I called an "owner" who said they would look into our complaints but did not get back to us. I had to call three more times and finally negotiated a settlement of $2500 which was totally a rip off. I would NOT recommend this company to anyone even if moving across the street. ,

Overall, the process went very well. OK arrived promptly at arranged times both for estimates and move date. Employees were courteous and professional in appearance. Everything went as planned. All items arrived in the same condition in which they were packed; none of our belongings were broken or scratched. We would definitely hire OK again.