PENA BROTHERS MOVING

Description of Work: I have contracted moves with Pena Brothers Moving several times. I'm an apartment dweller and have had occasion to move 4 times in the last 8yrs. Next month, I'll be relocating in the same building from an upstairs unit to one downstairs. Of course, I'll hire Pena Brothers Moving. They are a family owned business. No fancy uniforms or pretention. By the end of the move, you'll have made new friends. Three men arrive in a clean, well appointed truck and set about their work immediately, taking great care of your belongings. There's no problem with having to estimate numbers of boxes and items or fussing about things that you can't pack in a box... like ironing boards. When you call, they will ask a few simple questions about your move like how big is your home and if there are appliances. They are courteous, professional, and friendly. I highly recommend them.

Description of Work: Pena Brothers were recommended by friends. One used recently, but lives in small apartment. The others used years ago.Called up and gave locations and described our two bedroom two bath house. We admittedly have a large amount of furniture etc.No one ever came by to look at the house or evaluate the situation. Our mistake was hiring the wrong type of movers for our situation.Pena Brothers are discount movers who move "by the hour". I am now convinced this method is only appropriate for those with few possessions or a very short distance to go. We were moving about 20 miles away from our previous home.We were told if we had everything packed in boxes and nothing blocking the furniture, they would have us loaded, moved and unpacked in about four hours.They arrived about 20 minutes late in a box truck I would say was 20-25 feet long. I was expecting an 18 wheeler type truck.I asked them: "Was this was the biggest truck they had"? I was told no, but their other truck was full of furniture.I expressed my doubts that all our possessions would fit in the truck. They assured me everything would fit.At first things went very quickly. As the truck filled up things backed up outside while they attempted to stack things differently to fit everything inside the truck. I began getting agitated at the pace things were moving, because I am "paying by the hour".A phrase that came to haunt me on this experience. Finally, I approached their lead man (who never introduced himself) and asked what was taking so long. He finally admitted everything was not going to fit. We agreed we should move what we had loaded and I asked about making some arrangement to avoid paying for a second trip. He would ask his boss on the way to our new place.They arrived at our new place about an hour after we had arrived and explained they had a blowout. They began unloading and made no mention of calling the boss. I approached the lead man and asked about arrangements to move the rest of our belongings.He said "He barely got a hold of his boss about the blowout". I asked "Will you try calling him now"?He said his phone was dead and we would have to call on our phone and unless he heard from his boss, we would have to pay by the hour for drive time to AND from our old place. I could be wrong but, I sensed he had in fact talked to his boss and was told what to say. I became very angry and thought the whole experience had been a fiasco and was unlikely to get any better. I decided at this point to cut my losses, pay them, and finish the job myself.I wrote a check for $550 for a partial move which is more than a "4 hour" move would have cost.I thought this was a raw deal because of all the time they wasted trying to rearrange everything to get it all to fit in the truck.They took some time off the till because of the blowout, and that may have been unavoidable. Then again it may just as well been because they do a very poor job of maintaining their equipment. I loaded my personal truck with a couple of more loads and then got a friend with a bigger truck and finished the job with another load in each of our trucks. There is little I can think of that is more aggravating than busting your tail moving after you have paid to move. They may do an "OK" job if you have very little stuff and do an excellent job of getting everything boxed up (as we had).Still I would not recommend these guys to ANYONE under ANY circumstances.If ever I move again, I will call a bigger company who will send someone to come out, evaluate, and give me a turnkey price on the move. I think "by the hour movers" have no incentive to do anything other than take their time.