Raven Movers and Storage

Avoid by all cost. Very rude. did not show up on time. Called and said my husband cancel it. A mover was on the cell when it was raining and my bed mattress was outside, he said «I can leave now and you can move yourself». Then a driver who looked like just came from Waking dead manage to luck a keys in the moving track. In the end they still got my money for that hour they was trying unlock the truck. My husband was not there and they just took full advantage of mistreating and overcharging me. Call my bedroom set cheap. Brock my bed dresser leg and said it is just cheep stuff anyway.

On short notice, I had to plan a move of only 30 miles. I had accomplished the little stuff but needed some muscle for the sofa, two recliners, two full beds, an elliptical and large TV. The more well known movers, of course, were already booked full. I stumbled upon Raven Movers and Storage and called them. Mr. MacArthur Gardner took my call and we came to an agreement to which I thought was a great price for what I had…$ 340 packing materials included. Great Price! He took my contact info and email and he advised that he would send a confirmation that evening. I never received the confirmation, nor did I receive a phone call/​returning my calls, did not return my emails… what a nightmare! My partner stays calm, I’m wanting to finalize this move and this guy has fallen off the face of the earth. The day before the move no call… I called, no answer. Leaving messages with no return call. It’s the day of the move. In our first and only conversation, it was decided that a 9−11am time frame was good. He’s a no show… I called and left a message that a phone call was needed from him in an allotted time (20 Min) or I would have to make other arrangements. Well what do ya know! He called and said his crew was running late and would be there around 12 noon. OK. WE WAIT! At 2pm I’m foaming at the mouth. 3PM…3:30pm. At 3:45pm we called… Well…hmph… he answered… we called him by name… and with the same voice that we have heard on the answering machine (introducing himself as Mr. Gardner) this voice said Mr. Gardner was not in… could he take a message. At this point, I had taken all I could take. I told him (OK so I bit my tongue) that we were making other plans and his services were no longer needed. He responded, «Didn’t you get a phone call from Christian?» «No. We did not receive any calls from Christian»…at this point I was done. Goodbye! What a uncanny, nightmare this was. This nonsense left us high and dry and the inconvenience and scrambling that night to find help for the move. I wish this experience on nobody. I would go else where for movers… this guy is off a little.

MacArthur Gardner, the owner of Raven Moving and Storage, claimed to be an insured mover, but failed to provide a certificate of insurance. His staff showed up three hours late of his scheduled time, and only after multiple calls complaining that a crew had not yet arrived. It was clear that his company had received a larger job and they had no intentions of performing our scheduled move.
When the movers did arrive, they brought a truck that was too small for our items. This required two trips. On our way during the second trip, I rode with the movers to provide directions. They ran out of gas, requiring me to steer the truck while they pushed. I later learned that the «movers» were day laborers that MacArthur hired earlier that day and had no previous experience.
Once the move was finally completed, we discovered significant damage to several of our items. I immediately sent MacArthur an email detailing the damages and estimated costs. I offered to settle this outside of insurance or to deal with his insurance company directly. I never received a response to my email, though he confirmed he received it over the phone. Over the next 4 months, I called weekly requested a status of my claim. He refused to send me insurance information.
Each time I called, he promised to send me a check for the damages, which I never received. Additionally, he offered to meet me twice to hand over a cashier’s check, but did not show up for either appointment.
Also, ahead of the move, we were promised a «moving kit» with boxes and packing materials. We ended up purchasing our own materials and made them deduct the costs from our bill — which was also way over the original estimate.
Bottom line, Raven Moving and Storage is extremely unprofessional and makes false claims about their insurance procedures. Do not use their services under any circumstances.

As you can see from my prior reviews, I rarely if ever have criticism for a company. This is one case however I cannot ignore.
Someone was storing some furniture where I live and raven movers was hired to come at 9:45am to move three rooms of furniture. At 9am they called to say they took another job first and it was running late, so could they get someone to put a deposit on another truck so they could rent it and do the move sooner. The decision was made to wait for the original truck whose ETA was 11am.
By 12:30pm, there was still no word as to when this truck would arrive. Phone calls were made to the numbers of both the driver and the owner and no one picked up the phone.
To try and move so much furniture on a Saturday not knowing when or f the company is coming is very stressful. Using Unilocal,I found a different company who was not only willing to work with the tight schedule, but who kept calling periodically to reassure us that they were on their way. (You will see my glowing review of their efforts later on).
As for Raven Movers-​they never bothered to return the calls or to show up. I found them completely unprofessional in this regard and am sad to say that if this is how they conduct their business, they definitely need to find a new means of employment.

My girlfriend and I were moved by Raven Movers last week. This was the third time we had used them. The first two experiences were mostly trouble free but this latest one was not. The first two moves that we used Raven for were within the same apartment building and ended up being very quick, easy, and reasonably priced. The third and latest was from one apartment building to another, about a mile away.
We orally received a quote that stated the move would cost $ 120 per hour for one truck and three movers and should take no longer than 3 hours. There was no mention of any minimums, and it was stated that travel was included in the hourly rate. We were given a range that a typical move like ours should cost. The day before the move, MacArthur (the supposed owner who runs the business via cell phone) called us to ask if it would be okay that they come at 9am instead of the planned window from 9:30−10am, which was fine with us, but they did not actually show up until 10am the next morning (which is surprising for an Arlington based company because that is where we were). Additionally, we did not receive a «moving kit» that Raven Moving advertises to its customers.
At first, the moving went very quicly, with most boxes being cleared out in the first half hour or so. However, things then began to slow down considerably. Once arriving at the new apartment, we went down to the loading dock to see if we could lend a hand and speed things up a bit and we found two of the movers (the third having disappeared for most of the day) eating lunch in the truck. Now I have no issue whatsoever with people eating lunch but I do object when it is done on my time and my dime (I don’t get paid to eat lunch at my job) and when we were running over the time that we had the building’s loading dock booked for.
The real problem came when they were all done and we were presented with the bill for $ 500+, well over the range that we were quoted. We were prepared to pay $ 360, for 3 hours time at $ 120 per hour (yes, even including their lunch break), but the bill was for 4 hours time, tape (even though we had made our own available so we would not have to pay for theirs), and other unidentified expenses to reach a total well over $ 500. We immediately called MacArthur, who stated that we were being billed for three hours working time as well as an hour travel time. There are two things that baffle me about that: (1) Raven Moving is an Arlington based business and there are no 2 points in Arlington that are an hour away from each other and (2) we were told in our quote that travel time was included in the price we were quoted. MacArthur also stated that he had done us a favor as repeat customers by allowing us to book a three hour job when there is normally a four hour minimum. How are we receiving a break if you’re trying to charge us for four hours anyway? He and my girlfriend eventually reached a compromise of 3.5 hours worth of charges, but I believe that we greatly overpaid for the service and time we received.
Perhaps the shadiest element of all was when my girlfriend was on the phone with MacArthur to complain about the inflated bill, one of the workers had disappeared but I could have sworn that I actually heard him in the cab of the truck arguing with my girlfriend on the phone! So while I have no solid evidence of this, I highly suspect that one of the actual movers who calls himself as Quinton is doubling as MacArthur.
So, in the end, we were hoping for a smooth and speedy move like we had experienced with Raven Moving in the past but instead we were gouged and forced to pay more than we were expecting. We had gotten other quotes from other companies that were cheaper but, because Raven was a known commodity to us, we went with them. We won’t be making that mistake again. I will rate them as three stars here on Unilocal because of the first two moves. Had this been a review solely based on this move, I certainly would not rate them so high.
Oh and on a final note, their website and their page here on Unilocal both state that every move gets a free «moving kit». We never received one.