The Moving Guides

We needed some movers to help with loading the the u-​haul. This company has 2 locations on Unilocal,and unfortunately, I thought I was dealing with the other location. Communication was a key (problematic) issue. When verifying via email, the company lacked clarity and details to give us confidence that they would be there. By this time, it was too late for us to hire another company (all were booked). I called the night before, and spoke with Marcus, because U-​haul delayed the time for us to pick up our truck. Marcus ensured me they would be there and would call 30 min prior to arrival. They did call at 10 am, to ask how close the metro station was to us, and said they had car trouble. One of our friends said to have them call when they arrived, and he would pick them up. An hour later, still no call, I tried to call them back and received the man’s daughter-​in-​law. No one answered the company phone. 30 min after that, the movers finally called and we were pretty much done, so I told them not to come. They were more than an hour late and didn’t have the furniture dolly that was part of our reservation. Our move was performed by friends and family. After reading a previous review, I see the «car trouble» excuse is a recurring theme. The loading took significantly longer because of this. Please do not use this company, if I could give ½ star rating or zero, that would be more accurate.

Tony and Chris from The Moving Guides provided top-​notch moving services for my girlfriend and I. They arrived on time, worked diligently to load our items, and unpacked everything into our new apartment with equal organization and effort. They refused to let my girlfriend help with anything heavy, as I mentioned she has a bad back, and I really appreciated the consideration there. They even worked an extended period to get the job done, including giving us one hour’s time since we bought them lunch. Thanks again to Tony and Chris for making it such an easy move!

Due to life circumstances, I unexpectedly needed to move, fast. I hired The Moving Guides, whom I found via
. We worked out all the plans on the phone in advance, right down to reserving the freight elevator in my apartment, and the person I spoke to was very helpful and knowledgeable.
Except…the morning I was scheduled to move, The Moving Guides did not show up. I waited for half an hour or so, and then called the proprietor, «Tony.» He was still asleep when I called, and he had no idea that his movers were even working that day. He said he would call them and get back to me.
He didn’t get back to me. Half an hour later I called him again. He said the movers were having «car trouble» and would call me. I asked if I could have their number instead so I could call them. He declined to provide it.
An hour later, nobody had called. I tried calling Tony a third time, but he just quit taking my calls.
It’s bad enough that the Moving Guides didn’t show. But let’s suppose the movers actually had some emergency, or their car really broke down. Even worse is that they did not bother calling to let me know they weren’t planning on showing up, so that I could hire someone else. There was no communication at all between the movers and their supervisor. Nobody from the company ever contacted me afterward to apologize or explain.
This company was cheap – and my experience with them reflected that. Instead of making moving smooth, the Moving Guides made what was already a difficult and stressful time in my life that much more difficult. I spent a whole day sitting in my packed apartment, ready to go, wondering when they’d show up and trying to call them. In the end I had to hire somebody else and reschedule. I’m just glad I left a few days between my move and the end of my lease.
PS – I hired this company in part because I read two positive reviews on Google:
[Update: These reviews appear to have been deleted]
Only after my really bad experience did I realize that both of those reviews were written in the same style, with the same smilies, exclamation points after every sentence, and capitalization. Also, what customer spouts soundbites like «a quick plan assessing goals and needs?» Note also how many of the positive reviews on Unilocal are filtered, or from people who have only done one review and then mysteriously disappeared from Unilocal.Be very skeptical.

These guys were AMAZING! The man I talked to to set up the move, Carter, was really friendly and professional. The price was great, especially considering how expensive a lot of other companies were.
My husband and I were moving from our townhouse in Fairfax to another townhouse in Springfield, and we rented the moving van ourselves with some moving blankets. We originally hired the two-​man crew for two hours, and were told upon hiring them that if we went over that two hour contract time, we would just need to pay them the same hourly rate for the additional time– no extra charges or penalties or anything, which is a darn good thing because we went an extra two hours over. I was never so happy in my life to pay that extra hundred bucks for their time and effort.
The crew was scheduled to show up at 10:00 a.m., and at EXACTLY 10:00, my phone rang and the man on the other end said «we’re the moving crew, and we’re outside your house.» And there they were– two of the fastest, most efficient, and most courteous gentlemen I have ever had the pleasure of working with. One of them even knew what kind of dogs we had! (I don’t trust people who don’t like dogs.)
They were completely no-​nonsense, and packed everything very effectively into the moving van. Nothing came out broken, nothing was damaged, and they were really nice about communicating what they needed to pack first, last, and how they were planning to go about loading everything.
The guys followed us to the new house and unloaded everything really fast, and again, were very receptive to our instructions on where everything needed to go.
At the end of the move, I spoke to Carter one more time to finalize the charges. He knew we had gone two hours past the original contract time, and his first question was to make sure that it wasn’t because the crew had been delaying us or anything. I told him absolutely not– it was my husband and me who had miscalculated, but it was really nice that he was cognizant of the value of our time. I suppose that might be an issue with OTHER companies; not these people!
Best. Money. We. Have. Ever. Spent.