Mashav Relocation

If you don’t have time to read the below, please see the bottom line upfront: Between my husband and I, who are both officers in the U.S. Military, we have moved 14 times in the past 15 years, and this move through Mashav Relocation was by far the worst, most unprofessional move we have ever experienced. Based on our experience, we strongly recommend you DO NOT use Mashav Relocation for your move. Their staff was inexperienced and unprofessional, and they ended up charging us an excessive amount more than originally quoted despite their incompetence being the cause of any additional charges. Additionally, when we filed a claim totaling $1500.00 requesting reimbursement for the damage they caused to our home and our belongings, they offered us $15 (+ $50 “in good faith”) and implied we were lying in our claim. We are filing these reviews to hopefully prevent you from making the same mistake we did. I encourage you to read the other reviews that give them 1 star to see that others have dealt with similar issues from Mashav. Our move was scheduled for August 24, 2022, and the movers were supposed to arrive between 0900 and 0930. We chose to pay for movers because this move was a local move not associated with a permanent change of station. Additionally, I was seven (7) months pregnant at the time and my husband and I knew we couldn’t handle it on our own. After speaking with Mashav and providing them a description of our two-bedroom apartment and belongings, they quoted the job at 9.5 hours which included a one-hour transit time between Baltimore and Alexandria. To have the movers pack and deliver our belongings, we were quoted at $239/hour. For context, we were moving from a 500-square foot, two-bedroom apartment to a three-bedroom single-family home. We experienced many problems during the day, which are detailed below. - No labeling of boxes. After 45 minutes of them packing boxes and moving them out of the apartment, we noticed they hadn’t labeled any. When asked about this, the foreman said it’s because they “didn’t bring a marker.” At the end of the day, they said it would be on us to pay for if they had to open the unlabeled boxes to determine where they should go. - Poor and incomplete packing. There was no order to the boxes that were packed, and it took us days to find belongings that had been together in one room. Men’s suits that had been hanging in a closet were crushed at the bottom of boxes and fragile picture frames and art were stuffed into boxes with no padding. Additionally, it took us four days of unpacking to realize that they didn’t pack an entire cabinet full of belongings, and we had to travel to Baltimore to pack the cabinet ourselves. - Lack of professionalism from movers. The foreman kept making unprofessional comments about the amount of belongings we had despite the details of our belongings having been previously provided to Mashav. One of the movers quit by the end of the day, so they had to get two new movers, who appeared to be under the age of 18 years old. They refused to take a check (according to them, they don’t take checks for local moves). The foreman was disrespectful and mocked me after he refused to take another dresser up the stairs. According to the foreman, they had to empty and repack the truck because one of the movers didn’t know what he was doing. They constantly had excuses for not completing the work sufficiently or on time. They quoted us at 9.5 hours and charged us for 12 hours, despite the delays coming in part due to their incompetence. Finally, when moving our belongings into the new house, they ripped out the stairway banister and caused several severe gauges on our walls. - Lack of professionalism from company. We submitted a claim within a week of the move date for the physical damage caused to our home (specifically, ripped out banister and scratches and dents in our walls) and our belongings (broken table and crushed clothing); for the additional charges that resulted from their incompetence; and for the time we had to spend going back to Baltimore to get the remainder of our belongings. We provided a detailed description of all of the damage, receipts where appropriate, and pictures. They denied most of our claims and provided no justification for denying those claims (we asked for $1500 for everything, and they offered $65, saying if we accepted, we could take no further action against them). Additionally, they implied we were lying. We are both officers in the military. I am a practicing attorney. We did not lie about anything. Strongly DO NOT RECOMMEND using them for your move. We will be filing claims with the Better Business Bureau and the Maryland Attorney General’s office as well as this Yelp and Google review.

They were amazing. I can't say enough good things about them. Outstanding customer service, speedy and careful moving out and moving into new place. You won't be sorry if you choose this company.

Best moving experience I have ever had and I have moved at least 10 times in the last 20 years. Roger and his team were on time, super friendly and they worked very very fast. They were absolutely fantastic. I was super stressed and they made the whole moving experience, dare I say enjoyable? I will definitely hire them again for my next move.

The entire transaction was spectacular. From receiving a quote quickly and scheduling the move day with May to receiving a confirmation call from Ron the day before the move to the smoothness of move day. On move day, Brian and his team were on time, efficient and professional. I moved my items from a house to a storage unit. When I am ready to move my items out of storage, I will contact Mashav Relocation again.

The hours movers arrived on time having called the night before to confirm the move and arrival time. After reviewing the unusual loading requirements for this move, the team loaded the donation items - about 30 large boxes, large wood cabinet, dining table, chairs, and misc household/office items - then the furniture that was to be relocated to the new residence in about 2.5 (2 bedroom apartment). The next stop was a bit tricky as they had to coordinate the off-loading of the items to the new residence, relocate 2 pieces of furniture within the new residence, and load several very large pieces of furniture for donation, along with 20 large boxes. The moving team coordinated this efficiently. Once all items were in their proper location, the team accompanied us to the donation location where they off loaded all donation items and placed at the direction of the receiving team. From start to finish, including drive time, was 5.75 hours. The two residences were close by (about 10 minutes), however, the donation location was about 20 minutes away. We could not have asked for a better moving experience from Mashav Relocation Services. The office personnel (Karen) who worked with us to make sure we had the right number of movers for the job, to the 4-man moving team made this a relatively uncomplicated day in spite of the steady rain. Our belongings were well wrapped, taped, and handled carefully as they were loaded/off loaded. Recommendation - if you can, please send photos to the office to ensure you have the right team for your move. Doing so made a HUGE difference in how smoothly this move transpired as opposed to the original move-ins at both residences 5 years before.

Great they went right to work very friendly waited no time. Was very surprised how fast they worked.

They did a great job all during a tropical storm.

What started as a friendly economical arrangement turned into a disaster. My daughter lived in Washington D.C. but was moving to NYC to start law school. We were purchasing a cooperative apartment in NYC for her to reside in. We expected to close on the purchase in mid-August, so my daughter arranged with the movers to have her things stored until it was possible to schedule delivery. Mashav did not charge an additional cost for the storage. Unfortunately, there was an unexpected delay in closing, which did not occur until early Sept. Once we were ready to move from storage to the destination address, we informed Mashav and also let them know that we had to coordinate the timing of the move with building's service elevator availability and had to arrange the move approximately a week in advance. (This is a cooperative apartment building and we have to comply with the many rules and regulations of the Board of Directors, which I explained to various Mashav personnel several times). Out of nowhere, I was told that we would have to pay about $800.00 extra in order to schedule a move on a specific date! My daughter told me that Mashav had NEVER informed her of this extra charge, and there certainly was no indication of this on the estimated invoice or the final invoice. In order to avoid this charge, we were told we would have to wait until the movers were in the Manhattan area. So, having no other choice, we did. The first attempted move was a mess, because both Ran Shany of Mashav and I had a misunderstanding about the date (each of us was ambiguous as to which Wednesday was intended and Mashav never informed me that they did not work on the Jewish holidays), and the building was not available for a move on the day the movers came. I agree that I was partially at fault for this. I was told that in order to get the furniture etc. back in storage and moved a second time I would have to pay a flat additional $1,500. I agreed to pay this, having no other choice. In subsequent conversations and emails with Ran and Mike Hodara (the Mashav dispatcher) we discussed this additional cost. Mike sent me a revised invoice on September 18 which showed that the $1,500 was added to the initial total charge of $1,900 to arrive at a "FINAL TOTAL" (words on their invoice) of $3,456, less my daughter’s initial deposit of $907, leaving a balance due of $2,407. So we were finally able to reschedule the move at a time when I was told the movers would be in Manhattan, on Wednesday, Oct. 3. I called Mike Hodara the day before to confirm the move and ask him again for the amount that would be due as I needed to pay with cash or a bank check. Then out of nowhere and for the first time, he tells me that the final cost was $300 more! What? He said the additional amount was because of the move! Huh? I thought that was covered by the $1,500 extra. But my daughter was desperate for her furniture and I wasn’t about to cancel the move and let Mashav hold her things hostage. I told him I already had gotten a bank check for $2,400 and the bank was now closed. He told me that they would make an exception and accept a regular check for the remaining $300. Now the move. On Oct. 3, I brought with me a bank check for $2,400 and cash in the amount of $300. When the movers (not from Mashav but from a storage facility in New Jersey) arrived I was told that the amount due was $2,813! Certainly not what Mike told me the day before. I realized that I had no choice but to agree to pay the difference to these movers in order for my daughter to get her things. So I offered them a regular check for the remaining $113 (which Mike had told me would be OK up to $300), but they refused it, saying it had to be cash. I got upset and they called their boss (again, not Mashav) who, after several calls back and forth, finally agreed to accept a check, as Mike had promised me. But no happy ending. My daughter has a platform bed with drawers that the Mashav movers had disassembled in D.C. The actual NJ mover guys tried their best but found it impossible to assemble the drawers under the bed. My husband, who is very handy with things like that, assisted and the three of them still could not figure it out. I called Mashav and Mike told me the original Mashav mover “didn’t remember” how the bed was put together. Mashav knew all along that the items were going to be stored and that there would be a time lapse between the move from D.C. to the move to NYC, so I don’t regard that as an acceptable response. He also suggested that we either look at the original assembly instructions or contact the place where my daughter had purchased the bed several years earlier! That was in March 2013! Also an unacceptable response. But what could we do? We had no choice but to leave the bed assembly unfinished. I thought the NJ movers were terrific, they tried really hard and for a long while and were totally professional. They had nothing to do with the bed assembly problem and I don’t blame them one bit for not being able to do it. The problem is that the movers who disassembled the bed were different from the ones who had to reassemble it. This would have been a problem whether the move took place in mid-August as originally hoped or any time thereafter. Bottom line is that we had to pay a totally unexpected additional $400 for a move that could not be completed satisfactorily. Mashav Relocation should not be trusted. Their personnel (and I spoke with many of them) were singularly unhelpful and misleading. The entire process turned out to be wholly unethical and a “contract of adhesion” as per the lawyers, as at each step we had no choice but to pay the additional amounts in order to get my daughter’s possessions. Mashav never informed my daughter that an additional significant cost would be required in order to schedule a move on a specific date. The original estimate for the job did not indicate that any additional charge was necessary to complete the move. The “FINAL TOTAL” given us on Sept 18 did not reflect any such additional charge either. Wouldn’t most people normally expect that the cost of a move as reflected in both the mover’s estimate and the final invoice would necessarily include not only the cost of the move from the old residence but also the cost of the move to the new one? In our case, we actually paid Mashav an additional $1,500 to account for the first aborted move to NYC and the fact that it would be necessary to reschedule the move there! (We had no choice as to that cost either, as the alternative to not paying would be for the movers to leave my daughter’s things on the sidewalk). I have moved many, many times in my life but have never had this kind of negative experience, ever. Please adjust your ratings accordingly.

it was great - they were professional and timely!

We had the same crew loading us up in Baltimore and unloading in Vermont. They did a great job. Nothing was lost or broken. and they were a pleasure to deal with. If you use their service, ask for Carlos, Roger, and Alex. One of the guys (Carlos, I think) was a genius at loading and getting everything to fit into the truck. The whole process of relocating was stressful, but the anticipated problems of using movers was thankfully not realized as Mashev really took great care of us!

Our move went very smoothly. The original estimate was very competitive and easy to understand. Their team arrived on time and got right to work. All of our furniture was carefully wrapped before being loaded. The team was professional, helpful and pleasant. The move was completed on time and within budget. There were no problems, no issues, and no damage.

I was very impressed with the service I received from my team of 4 movers and everyone I dealt with from the office. The crew was respectful of my home and my belongings and worked very hard to make sure that the move was efficient. Roger, the foreman eased my anxiety about the move and was communicative throughout. I'd absolutely hire this crew again!

Moving can be stressful but if you hire the right mover, like I did, you can bring the stress level wa-a-ay down. The 3 man crew came early and were friendly, professional and efficient. However, there is a 3% transaction fee if you use a credit or debit card.

It went very well. The 4 man crew was very nice and helpful.

The move went very well. Mashav's team arrived right on time, began work immediately, and continued working until the move was done. The guys didn't drag their feet at all -- they worked hard and got the job done right and within the time frame estimated. I was very happy.

Mine was the easy one. three guys and a truck. I sold my house and moved out. Most of my stuff was junk and they left it by the curb. Nothing was damaged, but even if it had been I would not have noticed (or cared). But the movers were very polite and efficient and had a stock answer for every request, "No problem". It just got done the way I wanted. But no good deed goes unpunished. They had to move my girlfriend in a month later. Different crew. Four guys and a larger truck. She had top-rated, high-end, brand-name furniture: good stuff. Lots of glass and mirrors and she stays up nights worrying about it getting nicks. Big, expensive armoire going up narrow, winding stairs. When it was all over - two very minor nicks that will be covered up with a stain pen. Very efficient. Always moving. No wasted time. And just nice, polite guys.

Outstanding. Couldn't have asked for a better move. Went a bit past the time originally estimated but it was a complete move and that didn't surprise me. Roger, the on site supervisor, was terrific, and he and his men were total professionals and a pleasure to work with. Would definitely go to Mashav for any future relocation needs.

Excellent. Outstanding. OMG - Just wonderful!

Went well, had 3 movers and large truck for 6 1/2 hours. Showed up on time, disassembled furniture, taped up boxes and securely moved everything. Reassembled furniture and finished on time.

They were prompt and professional and had the best price. It was a very good team of 4 that worked well together. Rodger supervised and provided us with great customer service. They all were very careful and asked questions to ensure items were placed in the right location. We only moved 3 miles away to a larger house. As promised, they did this in one trip and it took only 7 hours. Previous moves for us have taken 12 or more hours. I would definitely recommend Mashav to anyone wanting to move.

Very well. They were very efficient

They were late due to other job. Taking too long, due to packing otherwise, very good work.

The crew was great! They worked hard & efficiently. They were also very nice & professional.

Superb service. The men were courteous, fast and efficient. Excellent experience.

Very well-5 movers showed up and moved everything fast! They were gentle with our furniture-wrapper very well. Everything we expected and still can hare dinner at a reasonable hour.