Clark Moving and Storage, Inc

I used Clark Moving and Storage/​Mayflower (in conjunction with Continental Moving in Seattle, WA) to move my mother from Seattle to Rochester. I had read countless horror stories before selecting a moving company, to the point that I was expecting something… many things… to go wrong. We had an absolutely fantastic experience! Mike at Clark coordinated the move, even though it originated in Seattle. Jackie called me every step of the way to update me on arrival times and to see how things were going. The delivery guys who brought the load from Clark to my mother’s new apartment were friendly and professional, taking great care with every item and box, and making sure every item on the inventory was received. The binding estimate was not quite the least expensive of the quotes we received, but it was extremely clear and the final cost didn’t waver. I highly recommend Clark.

The man came to estimate. He was nice. The quote for a 2 bedroom??? $ 1336. No way. I just moved these items professionally two years ago. It didn’t cost more than $ 600 including the tip. I was dumbfounded.
Don’t bother with this place.

I selected Clark Moving/​Mayflower on the advice of my realtor. The estimator came and walked through two houses for an interstate move to combine two households into one, with a side trip to a storage locker. The estimate was clean and clear, and when I decided that a less furniture was coming, the estimate was updated immediately. We packed ourselves. On moving day, a crew came to my house, loaded up the big truck, got a U-​Haul because of space limitations at the other house, and they were done with two houses in four hours.
Space was also limited at the target house, and the crew had to unload the big truck into a U-​Haul twice to get everything moved.
The crew was efficient and friendly, very good to work with. In all that, only one lamp didn’t make it. Amazing!

Our move went well. Staff were professional and made sure all questions were answered. The driver, Tom, that picked up our household goods was great. He coordinated the actual move from our house expertly. We were quite pleased. Unfortunately he was not the driver that delivered our goods. I have had several cross country moves. Clarks did a great job

ummmmm… ha. about this place. BF decided to move home to Chicago in May so I was nominated to be his assistant and schedule some consultations for the movers. I scheduled a couple and he decided to choose Clarke due to the interaction with the Admin/​coordinator and the estimator gentleman. Fast-​forward to the actual move… thats a different story. Here’s the email we sent her in regards to our experience.
Thank you for the follow up. To be honest I’m struggling with my experience. The coordination with you and the gentleman that estimated my move were great. With that said there were many issues the day before and of the move. The day before the lady packed quickly and we questioned the quality. She ended up dropping an Arizona shot glass. I’m not sure if it can even be replaced at this point. She instructed us that she was there to pack the glassware, anything breakable (i.e. pictures) and electronics. The team on moving day would pack the tower speakers and the wardrobe boxes. The next day the moving team arrived around 930am. The main guy, Dave I believe, was very abrasive. I was trying to explain how we packed things (i.e. storage vs. home) and the specific, high value items. He basically cut me off a couple times and told me to leave, he would take care of everything. I asked him about the wardrobe boxes and he said that it should have done the day prior, they didn’t bring any wardrobe boxes. One of the team members had to leave and go get boxes and bubble wrap. My girlfriend ended up packing 3 of the 4 just to save some time on the move. I had to leave so my girlfriend oversaw the move. It appeared to be going ok but there were many (smoke) breaks down by the truck. As for the move, Dave seemed to be numbering (stickers) and inventorying everything. We had the elevator from 10−1pm and the big furniture hadn’t even been touched at that point. Approximately, 230pm Dave started to get calls. He was on the phone for at least 30 minutes. Now had this move been local, fine but we still had a 10 hour drive ahead of us. 30 minutes is a big deal. I returned around 3pm to find a frustrated girlfriend. She has worked in property management 6 years and knows the time it should take to pack/​move a 2 bedroom apartment. The tv crate was too small so they couldn’t even pack my 65″ tv to transport it. He assured me that everything would be fine and no damage would be done but that’s not really the point. They didn’t have tools to dismantle my bedroom furniture therefore had to use my Allen wrenches. I asked a few questions about the move and the packing and basically received a frustrated, «brushed off» response. For example there was a delicate lamp and lamp shade we asked about on several occasions. Dave crammed the shade in a box and said it would be fine. I asked again because we heard a crunch but he insisted it was the bubble wrap, dismissing my concern. Around 4pm we were finally finished everything up. I’m sorry but a 2 bedroom move, with minimal packing required should not take 6.5 hours. It should have been done in about 3 – 4.
As for the post-​move experience, I called a couple days later to get an ETA on the arrival of my things. I had to follow up 2 more times just to get a date. Again I don’t understand why it took 1.5 weeks to move my belongings from Rochester to Chicago area. I understand that your driver was out of the area but either an expectation should have been granted before we left Rochester or some other arrangements should have been made to delivery my belongings quicker. Then to find out on Tuesday that the truck didn’t leave until around 5pm is slightly absurd. The crew arrived around 430pm only to find out that some boxes didn’t have stickers, there were about 10 un-​inventoried boxes, several items had the same tag number (i.e. 48 and 49 were used twice) or the location for each item was not documented on the inventory. Upon unloading the items, we could not locate my toolbox. We had to pull every box out just to identify what it was, if it was inventoried and where it should go. We ended up keeping more boxes at the house just so it wasn’t lost in the storage process. With that said, the IL team was PHENOMENAL. They were understanding and very helpful. They just as frustrated with the lack of preparation, documentation and consideration. They were able unpack ¹⁄₃ of the truck, go though it with me and deliver it to my basement in about 3.5 hours.
The lamp shade was damaged, We still have no idea where the lamp and toolbox are located. We’re crossing our fingers that both are with the storage items. We haven’t unpacked everything that is home but those are the items of concern for now. I’m sure we will have others when we obtain our items from storage or finish unpacking.
Needless to say, we aren’t sure if we will use your services in the future other than obtaining our items from storage.
Regards,

5stars for Michael was great during the walk through. He was prompt & professional. Very thorough & answered all my questions. He was very prompt with mailing me things & getting back to me about anything!
1.5 stars for Randy who owns the tractor, drives the truck & runs the show. We expected them in the morning the 1^st day… but they showed up at 420pm the first night & it was just 2 guys to do the whole job. Took longer than the brokers told us it would, we had to change hotel reservations for a day later & new people moving into our house were upset that we weren’t leaving as planned… anyway, with only 2 guys to do our whole house, packing, loading & driving, what did we expect?! (I honestly expected more help.) Randy didn’t shower or change clothes for the 3 days he worked on our stuff… he was stinky by the end. He also sassed the police who stopped by to say his semi couldn’t be parked on our busy street during rush-​hour. He also made snide remarks about several of our belongings. 4 stars for Bob, who worked hard & steadily the entire time.
BUTTTT… aside from the craziness of the packing/​loading & my husband actually getting out there & helping pack/​carry boxes to help them get done sooner… They wrapped everything in tons of paper & my piano arrived without a scratch in it… a big relief. I’m still unpacking but have seen very little damage (a broken lampshade, bumped table corner) on anything.