Willamette Express

Williamette express moving moved me to Ocala Florida on August 2023. The move went well. It took 7 days to get my belongings. Everything things are intact. Will recommend this company as I had been using them 4 times in the past. Thank you!

I have had Willamette Express move me 5 times over the last 25 years into homes and second homes. They are amazing. They are on time and on budget every time. And nothing was damaged!!!!

Outstanding

TLDR - Do not use Willamette Express under any circumstances, most especially if Spencer is your estimator/agent. The entire purpose of hiring movers is to reduce stress and give you back time. Willamette Express and Spencer saw that the opposite occurred. My experience with Willamette Express was, without hesitation, the single worst customer experience I have had. We were sent to them through a nation-wide logistics firm. We had the local agent Spencer out to our home to see the site and provide a moving estimate for the home as well as an off-site facility. Our home was on a small access road with wires, so we knew a shuttle truck would be required to get items to the semi and specifically requested it. We paid for packing services as well. We engaged them in March for a move to be executed at the end of May. My move was a 2300 mile move, and I had several questions. Each time I spoke with Spencer, he was dismissive, disengaged, and generally disinterested in offering assistance or reassurance. I asked about the claims process for any damages, if it would be worthwhile to take before photos, etc. His only response was there is a website for any claims. At no point did they reach out to provide updates to schedule, process, arrival, etc. The entire point of packers/movers is to save time and reduce stress when dealing with all the other moving pieces of a cross-country move. Not only did Willamette and Spencer utterly fail at that, they only served to ratchet up and escalate stress and consume more time instead of saving a single second. The day prior to the truck arriving, the packers arrived to pack. They were polite and fast, but it became clear that the speed was due to the atrocious state of the packing. What we did not know is the depth of the failures. One box had (I am not making this up) a pizza stone laying on top of a sledgehammer among a number of other yard tools with absolutely ZERO paper or padding. A computer monitor was packed in a box that wouldn’t even MOSTLY close, and also had zero paper or padding. Several thousand dollars worth of speakers were thrown into a box with ZERO paper or packing. They are, predictably, gouged and cosmetically ruined. The driver called the day before loading to confirm the details. He had not been told about the site. He had not been told about the need for a shuttle truck. He had not been told about the off-site storage. The loaders ended up needing to re-pack several boxes. They would have re-packed several more, but we were not aware of the specific condition of each packed/sealed box until arriving at our new home. Spencer was called on-site to remediate the issue and bring more materials but tried to drop off a couple of boxes and leave. Once forced inside to speak with the driver and myself, he was dismissive, showed no interest in helping, and left as soon as he could. He called back later at my request. I told him the packing situation was being handled by the loaders (NOT Willamette Express associates) but that a significant customer service issue remained. He said, and I quote, "Your feedback is noted and I hope your day gets better." After that, he simply hung up. No apology, no ownership whatsoever. One would think things had reached their zenith, but it seems that despite our selling/offloading several hundred pounds (including a sectional couch) AFTER Spencer provided his estimate, his original 8500 pound estimate was off by over 4000 pounds. I am currently working to address this colossal failure as charges are based on weight and the customer is responsible for actual weight with no deference to the estimated weight. This makes sense presuming you have competent estimators. We had competing bids, and selected this bid based on the cost. This was clearly a predatorial bid attempting to do exactly what happened. We’d pick the lower bid, be locked in, and just eat the difference. As soon as the bid was agreed to, Spencer was a ghost. The nationwide logistics firm has stepped up and offered a resolution to address Willamette’s failures. We paid for a moving service to save time and stress, but Spencer has ensured we have had exponentially greater stress and been saddled with several hours of my time now needing to be devoted to remediating this issue. Between the claims process and ensuring something was done to address the utter failure in execution, I'll still need to spend additional hours, but at least that’s procedural. Do not use Willamette Express. We were directed to them through a quote request via a nationwide moving/shipping firm with whom I worked to reach a very fair outcome given the situation. People rely on these moving services to offer stability and ensure they can continue for all manner of reasons. It is my goal to do what I can to ensure no one has to endure what I've just gone through.

No breakage. Employees courteous, prompt, and effective.

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Was looking for a mover. Called and spoke with Spencer. Sent him a list of items to be moved and he said he would give me an estimate. Waited a week no estimate. Sent followup email. No response. Called and he said he would have it in 1/2 hour. Never heard from him. Obviously business must be too good for that poor level of customer service in the sales stage!

We were able to get a quote over the phone. The quote was accurate and reflected what we actually paid. They were able to schedule the pickup at the time we requested. They were careful with our belongings and no damage was done.

Horrible experience with this moving company. The head guy in charge ,Spencer, came out to do an estimate and told me that Oregon law states that you cant go above 10 percent of the estimate. Day of moving they tried to charge me 500 dollars more because he underestimated the time it would take the movers by 4 hours!!! It took them 10 hours to move 1200 square feet!!! The movers were fine, they agreed with me that he does this to everyone, underestimates time and then tries to charge you an arm and leg after. Do not go with them, totally unprofessional and scams people.

tHE MOVING DAY, TWO MOVERS ARRIVED. iT TOOK ALL DAY. nOT EVERYTHING COULD BE MOVED BECAUSE THE TRUCK WAS FULL. tHE MOVERS WERE GREAT AND VERY PROFESSIONAL.

The two movers showed up exactly when promised and transported all of our furniture and reassembled at our new home. They were very careful with our belongings, nothing was damaged.

This was an OUTSTANDING move. The crew was punctual and courteous and worked their hearts out. We have never seen movers work this hard or this carefully. Nothing was broken or damaged. The crew chief provided an excellent blend of supervising, leading and working with the men - AN OUTSTANDING JOB!

We were happy they could fit our move in quickly the day we wanted it. And they were very helpful.

They got MOST of my belongings onto the truck. I had to take 5 carloads and 4 pickup loads (about 25% was stuff that COULDN'T go on their truck...propane tanks, firearms, etc.). Besides sending a too small truck, it seemed the loading took longer than necessary. At the new location, most everything was to be moved into the garage for temporary storage, which meant limited space. The crew began by stacking large furniture items in front of shelving, before stacking boxes on shelves! On the up side, nothing was damaged or lost!

Willamette Express Ltd. made an appointment to meet us. I called them before the date and asked that they call and confirm because I did not want to meet them Saturday morning unless they would be there. They did call back, but not until Friday night. They told ROWA (right of way associates) that they had called us during the day on Friday (not true). I have cell phone records stating otherwise. So they show up and charge us 250.00 for a missed appointment. We tried to resolve it with them but they would simply not listen. Then we re-scheduled and they moved our belongings. The head mover at the site told us we can leave what we dont want behind because the building is getting demo'd. Now we have to go back and get the rest of our things because that was not true. We called Willamette Express and they said they are not responsible for what a laborer told us. They said they are not legally responsible for their employees. Just a word of warning...

I moved from a 2,300 square foot house and was quoted around $800.00 from Van and I also received a flyer in the mail stating the same. I moved less than two miles. They did not have to do any packing just move my belongings. The one day move turned into 2 days. Rather than pack the truck full they made multiple trips each day. They sent three movers, two of them were great the third one just roamed around. I called Van and voiced my concern over the amount of the bill, the fact that I paid for a mover who did very little and also the fact that I had to pay for travel time from the time they left their shop until they got to my home and then at the end of the day, pay them travel time to their shop. I was not told of this up front. Van was to look into it and call me back in two days. After no return call I called and talked to Bob the general manager. He was going to talk to his movers and get back to me. It has been a month and a half and I have yet to hear from him.

CALLED COMPANY 2 WEEKS PRIOR TO MOVE TO RESERVE THE DATE AND GET AN ESTIMATE. COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE WAS BUSINESS LIKE, ANSWERED ALL MY QUESTIONS, AND GAVE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION THAT I FORGET TO ASK ABOUT. THE DAY PRIOR TO THE MOVE HE CALLED AGAIN TO CONFIRM THE TIME, AND DETAILS REGARDING THE MOVE. HE CALLED BOTH CONTACT NUMBERS I GAVE HIM. LARRY, AND JESUS WERE THE EMPLOYEES WHO DID THE ACTUAL MOVE. THEY ARRIVED ON TIME, WERE COURTEOUS, FRIENDLY, EFFICIENT, AND POLITE, ESPECIALLY TO MY ELDERLY MOTHER. THE MOVE WAS COMPLETED ON TIME, AND ON BUDGET ACCORDING TO THE ORIGINAL ESTIMATE GIVEN. THIS COMPANY BASICALLY DOES ONLY LOCAL MOVES, BUT DOES GO AS FAR AS SEATTLE. BASED ON THIS EXPERIENCE I WOULD USE THIS COMPANY AGAIN, AND RECOMMEND IT TO FRIENDS, AND FAMILY.

IT WAS ABOUT AVERAGE. I USED TO DO THIS TYPE OF WORK, SO IT'S HARD FOR ME TO SAY. THEY WERE JUST NOT AS CAREFUL AND CONSCIENTIOUS AS I WOULD HAVE LIKED. THEY'RE AVERAGE.