Personal Daily Help

I think the other reviewers were very nice in their rankings, especially considering their detailed experience. Unfortunately I don’t plan on giving any extra credit. The text message as described by the previous reviewer is completely accurate. I paid for this service on the Uhaul site and I was eventually contacted by Phil. He sent me a text message that came across as a rant with many things to do and not do as if moving is brain surgery. Most sentences ended in «or the movers will leave.» It was laced with threats, poor spelling, and grammatical errors. After receiving the text I was a nervous wreck. I couldn’t rest well thinking that I might not do something right and these people would just walk off the job after I had already paid. He stated they would arrive early for a walk through… Not only did they not arrive early they were late, costing me about 30 minutes. So the day started out bad, as I was concerned that we would get everything done in the allocated time. When they finally arrived, the «walk through» was very abrupt and dismissive. Apparently he already knew everything there was to know about our home and our stuff. He had no time or desire to hear anything I had to say about how things were organized, which was easily color coordinated with tape. Had he listened he probably would not have had to continue asking me where each piece went at the new house as he pulled every single item off the truck. It completely occupied my time to have to keep directing traffic… even though all he had to do was match the color tape on the box/​furniture to the color tape above the doorways. It pleases me to say that Phil was an arrogant, air headed jackass with absolutely no IQ or professionalism to back up even half of his arrogance. An ape could have done just as well. He was rude to me as well as his partner, even yelling at times. I felt really bad for his partner, who was clearly treated more as a worthless helper than a partner. He was clearly someone that he didn’t know well, possibly a day laborer that he picked up when he was supposed to be arriving for the move. At one point when he raised his voice at me I stepped away to try to find a number to complain. That’s when I discovered that he is a one man operation. He actually answered his phone in the middle of my move. The touted 15 years of experience is simply that this man can’t find anyone else to hire him, therefore he’s a mover operating as his own business — and not doing it well. In addition to being over dramatic, late, rude, inconsiderate, and a moron, he broke several items, refused to move our fish tank even with most of the water removed, and he refused to place furniture items in the appropriate place in the room in which they belonged. After he and his helper left, my husband and I had to rearrange furniture in every room, which we preferred to do rather than continue to have him in our home. Not only should no one ever hire this guy, he should be banned from the moving business altogether and forced to find a new trade which does not involve interaction with human beings. Harsh? Yes. True? YES.

Pros: It was easy to schedule an appt with Phil (this is a one man operation) and he charges what I think is a fair price. He is also a large guy and able to carry heavy loads. He showed up relatively on time (~40 minutes late but I give leeway due to LA traffic). He was also careful with my items to avoid damages.
Cons: Phil did not want to bring a 2^nd person to help and I had to talk with him a long time before he finally agreed. I have some large and fragile items that would have been impossible for any person to move on their own safely and, in the end, he did need the extra person. Once he started working he didn’t want to take any direction regarding moving items from my UBoxes into my storage shed. He seemed a bit out of it and told me that my trying to explain things was distracting and he kept repeating in a frustrated way that he’s been doing this many years. He seemed confused about how to arrange items in the storage shed b/​c he didn’t have all the items in front of him (with UBoxes you have to bring each box separately from the UHaul warehouse so you can only unpack one box at a time). Phil was absolutely terrible at arranging things efficiently in the storage shed. He wasted so much space that in the end he was shoving things in and we barely got the door closed even though square footage-​wise there should have been ample room to spare. In addition, when it seemed there might not be enough room, Phil got frustrated and angry and said he wouldn’t reorganize unless I paid him extra by the hour, saying what he charged originally was only to unpack, not to make sure things fit in the storage unit. This was not acceptable to me b/​c I rented a more than large enough unit. He then actually blamed me for not telling him what was in my UBoxes, after basically telling me to shut up earlier in the process when I was trying to explain these things to him. I tried to end on a good note but Phil left without even saying goodbye. What should have been a relatively easy move turned out to be incredibly stressful and I am now stuck with a storage unit so disorganized that I will have to hire someone else to come and take all the items out and repack them.
Summary: If you just need someone strong to move stuff, Phil would be ok. If you need someone who can think ahead and is able to organize efficiently, Phil is not a good choice. He also gets frustrated very easily.

My experience with Personal Daily HELP was positive.
I was VERY impressed that on my move day they came on time, in fact, Phil and his staff were there before me lol. Greeted me with a smile and a clip board, ready to get the job done.
He is very knowledgeable about moving, — seriously I had a dresser that I paid $$$ for… and have NEVER have been able to get the drawers out without using a screw driver, he was able to show me how this dresser worked in a snap — - (WHO KNEW right)? Moving is not about anything in my opinion but the move. You know? … Dont break my things, …make sure you are on time and… dont waste time when putting things in the house. (He did five minute walkthrough to make sure things were blocked as not to waste time, I loved that) I was nervous… because normally we use friends for moving. BUT Personal Helpers were very HELPFUL (no pun intended) at a stressful time YAAAY… this time and every time after I will use Phil and his staff.
VERY professional in my opinion, ON time, and WORTH every cent!

It all started with a lengthy text message from «Phil» full of grammatical errors and an overuse of «b4» instead of «before.» This should have hinted at the level of professionalism to expect, but we were in for a few surprises. On the plus side, the text message did have some helpful tips to make things go smoother, and outlines payments for additional services and overages which we ended up needing.
We got the impression that the claimed 15 years of moving experience somehow earned these guys a doctorate in Moving Sciences from UCLA. I understand that you move stuff all the time, but guess what? We moved everything into this house, so listening to what we had to say would have been sufficient instead of dismissing helpful information with an arrogant «I’m already there» and «Way ahead of you.» When I said the 36″ wide fridge had a 36.25″ opening to fit through… he already knew! When I said the top of the U-​Haul was wet from the morning dew and offered to dry it off, my offer was dismissed. I’m not sure if the water is, in his professional opinion, the reason the head mover fell off the U-​Haul truck. I only heard it happen while I was under my refrigerator.
Pros
–Overall, we only broke a single wine glass and– truth be told– that glass was unbelievably fragile and all of its siblings had already met their fates long ago.
–They managed to fit all of our stuff into the 14′ U-​Haul truck.
–They moved our couch out of a 2^nd story window.
–They disassembled and moved our refrigerator out of our very tight front entry. Very complicated, no damage to property.
–The secondary mover was very polite.
–They were active the entire time and stayed 45 minutes over the scheduled time (for the specified overage rate).
Cons
–The first thing he told us was there was no way it all was going to fit in a 14′ U-​Haul truck.
–They said they would be 15 minutes early for a walk through. They weren’t, so that 15 minutes came out of our move time.
–I ended up having to assist with the fridge anyway. The second mover and I both ended up cutting ourselves in the poorly executed maneuver.
–To be considered professional, don’t trash talk your previous clients during a job.
–The pre-​move communication was terse and fraught with spelling errors. The tone of the message assumes you are an idiot, which is also how you are treated in person.
–No business email or contact information provided anywhere, just through some U-​Haul provided third party portal.
???
–The head mover fell off the U-​Haul truck while trying to pull a self-​described «Tom Cruise» move to jump off of it. He nearly broke his arm, but toughed through it and finished the job.
Star Allocation
+1 The truck loading worked out.
+1 Nobody died.
+1 Good pace, no wasted time during loading.
–1 Unprofessional written and verbal communication.
–1 Trash talked former clients… to a client.