Ayer Moving & Storage Co Inc

I have mixed feelings about the experience. The guy who gave the initial quote was very nice and took care in providing his estimate. The actual price ended up being about 30% higher but I'm not surprised because I think it was easy to underestimate how much we had with the layout of our house. The reason I'm somewhat unhappy with the move is that the three guys who moved our stuff just made my uncomfortable. They were complaining that the company told them it was an easier move than it ended up being and that it being on a weekend was robbing them of time with their children, which put me in an awkward position. I'm sorry? I'm not really sure how to respond to that when we're in the middle of a move. One of the 3 guys not complaining was actually drinking. He was drinking nips of Black Velvet in a soda throughout the day. That was pretty unprofessional. Our things got to our new house unscathed, but that experience with the drinking and complaining really put me off. I always got the impression from their complaints that they were really underpaid by the company. Maybe the quality of the help would improve if the company were to increase the wages. Just a suggestion.

Went well.

Fantastic. These guys were amazing - efficient, hard working and very professional. Ask for victor - he was our head mover and was phenomenal.

2 employees from Ayer M&S walked through our home and gave us an estimate of how long the move would take and how many men needed. The original quote was 3 men for 6 hours. I explained that I needed to be out of the home that day as we were closing on it. I did reply back that I only had enough funding for 5 hours. As time went on we had morethings to move and I communicated this to Tim on 6/20. Arrival: The crew arrived 1 hour late. I had filled the garage with all of the boxes that I wanted them to put on the truck and instructed them to move all of the large items on the truck and all of the boxes, totes, bags in the garage. We had some trash bags full of clothes and other things in the garage, maybe another filled with yard toys. At no time during the loading process did any of the movers indicate that the trash bags were an issue when loading the truck. We made many trips in our own vehicles during the move process and would have been able to take any trash bags that would have been an issue. It was during the load in process that I realized the crew had no experience moving as they has already dropped several boxes and broken a glass lamp by tripping over it in the truck. When 12:00pm came around they had the truck packed with only half of the items and there was a lot of empty space on the truck, but the driver said that he would come back for a second load. Incompetent employees/management: The crew members stated that is was too hot and they wanted to go home early and it is my belief that they purposely did not take all of the items in the first load as they thought was would just cut them loose and they could go home early that day. The crew did not measure any doors, had no knowledge of how to use a tape measure or angle furniture through doorways to make it fit. I had to coach them on how to do that. The crew members arrived to the job with no food or water on a very hot day. I went out to buy them water so that they would not dehydrate. It was not until the job was past 5 hours that a supervisor from their company came to bring them something to drink. When the 5 hours were up Ayer Moving and storage called and tried to remove the crew even though they had only completed 40% of the job that was estimated and book. The time was completed, but not the amount of work that was agreed upon being completed. I argued with the company to have the crew stay until completion. The entire job took the crew 10.5 hours. Keep in mind that there was Kate (my Wife), my brother and myself, who were constantly making trips back and forth, and the three movers so 6 people total and the move was only approx. 1 mile away and it took 10.5 hours vs the estimated 6 that Ayer M&S quoted. Damages: because of no knowledge of how to lift heavy furniture, pack a truck properly, use a tape measure or follow instructions several items were damaged. The list of items include; 2 glass bowls, 2 wine glasses, a butter dish, scuff marks and severe gouges on doorways, broken lamp, damaged 300 lb desk, damages oak dining table, gouges on new hardwood floor, tear in couch fabric. I have pictures of damage and I personally walked their rep Tim through my home to show damages. The only thing they said they would pay for was $90.00 for the desk (I?m not sure how they came to that number). The other damages they said in writing that we should have the builder of our house fix, but originally told me a man named ?Phil? would fix them. No one ever came over. Added time: I asked them to reimburse me for the extra time that the move took due to lack of experience, extra breaks, and not packing the truck full on the first run. Their response was that; ?it was hot that day, they have been super busy and short staffed, we had trash bags full of items which caused damages because they stacked things on top of them. So because of this they would not pay me any money back.