Overall, we were satisfied with the move and the service received with You Move Me, but there is good and bad with them.
The good:
1. Booking was a breeze. Meagan and Dave were fast and excellent during all our communications, all the way to the final quote and booking.
2. Rick was excellent: friendly, fast and obviously the most experienced mover of our crew by a long shot. He was also very honest, as he quickly informed us of a dent he saw on the basement dry wall (the dent was caused by the movers of the prior owners, not the You Move Me crew).
3. The movers worked hard and had a good attitude, including making efforts to move a large, heavy desk up our narrow stairs (they couldn't, but that wasn't their fault). As far as I could tell they didn’t take any breaks.
4. They were careful with all of our items and placed our boxes/furniture exactly where we asked them to in our new home.
5. They provided all wardrobe boxes we needed free of charge (and we needed a lot since I have a lot clothes).
6. Final bill was fairly close to original estimate.
The bad:
1. Other than the wardrobes, they don’t put anything else in boxes, just moving blankets and bubble wrap. This supposedly saves you money, because they don't force you into purchasing their boxes for mirrors, lamps, TVs, etc. However, since they charge for the bubble wrap, and it seems to take longer to bubble wrap and cover items with blankets than to put them in a box I'm not sure how much money this method actually saves. Also, without boxes the items seemed less protected, so I wouldn't recommend them if you have expensive mirrors, lamps, TVs or other high-end equipment.
2. There were communication issues between management and the moving crew. The day before our move, Nick called me to confirm the time of the move (10am start at our second storage unit), the number of wardrobes needed, and (for the second time) the much touted coffee order. At approximately 10am the next day, I got a second call from the moving crew, asking for the exact same details I had confirmed with Nick the day before. Clearly the moving crew didn’t have the information about the wardrobes and more critically, the time they were supposed to meet us, so my husband ended up waiting 45 minutes for the truck to arrive at the storage unit. They made up for lost time once they actually got moving, but it was a stressful way to start the day. The coffee of course never came, understandably as they were running 45 minutes behind schedule.
3. Besides Rick, the rest of the crew, while pleasant and hard-working, seemed fairly young and inexperienced. I suspect a more seasoned crew would have taken less time to do the move. Again, for moving a 2 bedroom apartment with no high end furniture they did a good enough job, but for a bigger move I don't think this crew arrangement quite works.
4. The first truck was too small for all of our items, even though I gave a pretty close estimate of all of our furniture and the contents of the storage unit. I've moved apartments before – including a move from the U.S. to Canada – and never had this problem. Fortunately a second truck was available, but this shouldn't happen. With the second truck, a 4th mover came as well which was of great help as he was clearly more experienced than the other 2 that came with Rick. In fairness, management suggested a 4th mover close to the day of the move and I chose to stick with 3 (which was the number estimated by all the other moving companies I'd contacted). However, given the relative inexperience of the 2 other movers, I was happy to have a 4th, more experienced mover.
All in all, the move went well, but I was left with the impression that management and personnel at You Move Me is not as experienced as others in the market around the same price range. I think they're great for a smaller apartment or home, but they'd be over their heads for a bigger job. This is not the movers' fault, it's an issue of the crew management puts together. Of our original crew of 3, 2 movers were just too inexperienced to be the only support for the more senior crew member.
