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| - For reference, my move was local. Moving from my apt in downtown Cleveland to a townhouse in nearby Lakewood (10 min drive). The move consisted only of my large pieces of furniture. No boxes or other items. I had already packed and taken over everything else.
All in all Moving Ahead Services was very professional. The movers arrived on time within the hour window and made a call ahead of time to let me know their ETA. Even with all the difficulty of getting around downtown, they did not have any difficulty maneuvering the truck into the ideal spot for this move. The move took 3 hrs, and for the most part, the movers were quick, efficient, and certainly made an effort. All the necessary equipment was brought for the move. Additionally, the three movers were courteous and friendly.
The primary reason for my 2-star review is due to the lack of care given to prevent damage to my furniture. Most of the furniture I own is solid wood and is built like a rock. I do not buy from Ikea and only have a few pieces of furniture made from laminated wood (which I would fully expect to have damaged from any move). It should also be noted that I fully wrapped and prepared most of the furniture in this move in order to prevent damage. Including felt covers, corner protectors, and plastic wrap. However, despite this preparation, damage still occurred despite my own personal efforts. The movers managed to damage two pieces of solid-wood furniture and my LCD TV which I found could have been easily avoided by just a little preparation.
I am under the impression that the damage occurred due to two reasons:
1. The movers did not wrap any of the furniture in blankets prior to removal from my apt
2. The movers attempted to move multiple pieces at once instead of one at a time
In any prior move I have made, the movers always completely prewrapped each piece of furniture with blankets for protection during the entire process. The movers with this service only covered the furniture once it was on the truck (after the damage had occurred). Additionally, the movers attempted to stack multiple pieces of furniture during removal from the apt, which I believe contributed to the incident where the damage occurred. It was too much furniture for them to handle at once. At one point, one of the movers was tasked with taking out a large desk by himself, with no help or spotters. I am confident that these factors directly led to two pieces of solid wood furniture being damaged to the point that I now require professional repair in order to save the pieces. Even my LCD tv was taken out without any protection. As such, the front facing frame of the television was scratched up.
If you decide to hire this company and you care about your furniture, I would highly suggest you confirm that moving blankets be used prior to removal from your home. I would also suggest you request that the movers take the larger pieces out one at a time.
I am in the process of filing a claim to gain back some of the cost to fix the pieces which were damaged. I will update this review once the process is completed.
UPDATE:
Within a few weeks of the move, I submitted a damage claim to Moving Ahead Services. After a little back and forth on the details, we were able to come to an agreement on a suitable payment to cover some of the damage caused. Moving Ahead Services took complete responsibility for the damage to my furniture and was very polite and professional during the claims process.
While MAS was professional and easy to work with, the significant time and energy I have had to put into the damage claim and furniture repair process added significant stress on my life, when the move itself had contributed enough already. As such, I have upgraded my review from 2 to 3 stars. I can recommend MAS as a very professional mover, as the other reviews have stated, but I certainly feel as though I had some bad luck with the particular crew which was assigned to my move. The owner has indicated in the comment that this issue has been addressed to the crew to resolve this issue. Its a good sign that a company is both willing to admit fault as well as work to continuously improve its operations.
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