NYcityVAN

Everything about this move was terrible. I hired NYCityVan after reading their reviews on Yelp and a glowing recommendation from New York magazine. They were more expensive than other movers, but I felt okay about the expensive because I had several very nice pieces of antique furniture, and they promised white-glove service. That was not what they provided at all. The movers showed up late, clearly exhausted from their previous job, and looking like they were fresh off the bus from Rikers. The first thing they said upon arriving was "I don't think we'll finish today." Unfortunately, that was not an option. They then called their boss and told him they we hadn't even started packing, and they wouldn't finish. I had spent all week packing, and only a few items remained to be packed. Unfortunately, they didn't bring any packing materials to wrap furniture and the like even though I was assured that they would. When they finally got started, two guys did all the moving and one guy essentially just walked around "supervising." I'm not sure what his role was supposed to be. Not surprisingly, we were not done by 5 pm as my building required. Ultimately we were allowed to keep moving, and the company sent another crew around 7 pm to finish up. It took 6 men about 5 hours to empty a studio apartment. The fun really started when we arrived at the new apartment. Every piece of furniture that they unpacked was damaged. They had apparently stacked boxes, lamps, and artwork directly on top of the furniture,. When confronted with the damage they said things like "Man, that thing was like 400 lbs. You should try to move it without scratching it" and "Oh, come on, that's not even that bad" and "You didn't tell us not to stack things on the furniture." They left the box springs for my mattress at the old apartment and had to retrieve it at 10pm. They repeatedly used the new building's elevator despite instructions to the contrary. They slammed doors, prompting my new neighbors to complain (it was at this point about 9:30 pm), and damaged recently refinished hard wood floors after I specifically warned them about the floors. I have moved in New York several times, and this is by far the worst experience that I've ever had.

I initially contacted NYCityVan about moving services, and the owner/manager Paul Kennedy referred me to their associated Handyman service, NYCityStuff. The rates on both services were very competitive, and given their reputation (Best of NY according to NY Magazine) and positive reviews I was excited to retain them for both my move and some painting work at my new place. Unfortunately neither experience lived up to it's billing. And the blatant dishonesty of one of their employees is prompting me to submit this report. First the positive: I was pretty happy on balance with the moving service. They arrived on time, worked hard in tough conditions, and were generally agreeable and competent. As I said before their rates were excellent. They did however have one major screw-up. When moving an antique dining room table, the head moved tried to tip it up on one side putting all the weight onto two legs. You can imagine the result: one leg snapped entirely. The worker was apologetic and given my overall satisfaction I didn't bring this up to management. (I did take $90 out of their tip, to cover damage/inconvenience). Still even with this hiccup on balance the move went smoothly. I wish I could say the same about the painting. The painter they set me up with was Seth Zezoff, and his conduct and work was totally unacceptable. Seth had me purchase the materials for the job at $120 for 3 gallons of contractor-grade paint. His initial estimate was for $480, but 2 hours after starting he told me he would require an additional visit b/c he didn't have paint to touch-up molding that had to be removed. I told him there was touch-up paint in the closet, and he told me it wouldn't work. I later realized he had never opened it to check. He gave me a line about "company time" costing another $500, but he could do it on his own for $300. I talked him down to $200 and agreed. He came back for round 2 and I paid him the balance. But when I went to review the work, I noticed paint chips on the heating vent, exactly the condition I had retained him to fix. When I looked into the vents with a flashlight, it was clear that he hadn't scraped at all. After some useless back-and-forth with Seth, I contacted management about my displeasure. I provided them pictures of the work, which they agreed was unacceptable. To their credit, they refunded the labor costs I had paid them. But I'm still out $140 in materials, and the worst part is I'm convinced Seth stole $60 worth of the paint. Throughout the process he lied to both me and his managers on several occasions, and of course no-showed on the repeat appointment to fix his shoddy work. He's pretty much a caricature of a sleazy, dishonest contractor. I'd warn anyone considering retaining these guys for handyman services to avoid working with Seth, and supervising whoever they do send over pretty closely.

The experience was fine. The best part of it was that they quoted up front. They are very easy to deal with administratively. I would hire them again in the future.

NYcitySTUFF was just great. I had a very quick response to my initial inquiry, and the work was scheduled quickly. Cost was reasonable. Some of the best things about the job were that they were punctual, and extremely efficient. There were no idle moments, and nothing was mysteriously left undone. I was particularly impressed that the work I requested required some creativity to accomplish, and I was so happy with the results that I couldn't have wished for better. And the apartment was so clean after they left, one would never even know that someone had been doing any work at all!

I found this company on the internet, knew nothing about them, but after speaking with the owner and explaining my needs, I felt he was honestly advising me. We set up a date, and even though it had snowed the night before, and the streets were slippery, George turned up right on time. I was prepared to help him carry out the boxes, but he insisted on doing all the heavy lifting himself. After the van was packed, I met him at the storage facility. He packed my storage space very efficiently (much better than I might have done) and then went on to other jobs NYCityVan had for him.