A-Elite Moving Service

The last time we moved, my husband hired some randoms he found on Craig’s List. I was a little apprehensive, but a team of three strong-​looking young men showed up at our apartment right on time, packed our stuff, carefully hauled it up three flights of stairs, took their money and peaced out. Easy as pie.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t find them again when it was time to move my mother-​in-​law, so we called these guys. They showed up an hour and a half late, but eventually did show up and moved her stuff up even more flights of stairs. The lateness was a bummer, but over all they were cheap so we let it go.
Actually, we didn’t let it go — we actually recommended them to several of our friends. And for each of our friends, they showed up late — between and hour and two hours.
So when it was time for us to move again, we called. They said they’d be there at 1, so we assumed they’d show up around 2. When 4pm rolled around and they still weren’t there, we started getting concerned.
Our kid was with a sitter and we didn’t rent a truck, so when these guys were over three hours late we were pretty stuck. My husband actually ended up moving several carloads of stuff on his own so the day wasn’t a total waste, just saving the stuff that didn’t fit in the car for these guys.
3 hours and 10 minutes late, they eventually pulled up and loaded up the truck. Although my stuff did eventually make it into my new house, I was not happy at all with how long it took or with the excise «it’s hard to know how long these things will take» from the guy on the other end of the phone when we called to see what was taking so long.
Apparently at 4 the next customer started calling to see when they were coming for her stuff. Seeing as they left my house at 7pm, I’m sure she’s got a bad review written up in her head as well.
I think these dudes were actually pissed that they didn’t get a tip. Seriously? My husband did most of the work and you were THREE HOURS LATE!
Not recommended.

I’m giving these guys the benefit of the doubt with the 3^rd star, but boy, do I feel rooked and feel like this should probably be a 2 star review. ***Edit*** In retrospect, I was totally p*wned. Two stars it is!
I have a HUGE, amazing, and beautiful mid-​century modern headboard that I love more than any other piece of furniture that I own. It is very dear to me (think Carol and Mike Brady’s bed, but cooler and with bookshelves and built in lights and stuff), and I’ve actually passed on otherwise great places to live as it would not fit into a standard Chicago size bedroom. Yes, I’ve paid higher rent/​lived in less desirable locations because of my headboard — I love it that much.
Fortunately, we now have lots of room at the Crack House. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t fit into my house via any of the doors and had to be hoisted up over the front porch through a second story entrance. I looked up piano movers on Craigslist, figuring if anyone could handle it, piano movers could, and found Keith and A-​Elite Moving Service. Keith was really nice on the phone, quoted a reasonable price ($ 100) and assured me that it would be a piece of cake and would only take a few minutes. I was offered two options — 8pm on a Friday or 7am on a Saturday. Since I typically don’t even fall asleep until 4am or so, I opted for the former.
Keith called on Friday and let me know he was running early, and would 6:30 be ok? Sure, sez I, I just want my headboard safely in the house. He calls back about 7:30 to let me know that one of his guys has had an accident and he’s running late. Sure, sez I, I hope he’s ok, we’ll be up, come when you can. 10:30 rolls around and he calls again. He went to the hospital with his guy, things ran over, he’s going to come at 7am instead and has us blocked for 7am to 8am. Sure, sez I, 7am is rough for us, but you had to take care of your guy, I understand, no worries.
6:15 — phone rings, Keith is almost to our house. 6:30 — he shows up early, husband gets up to deal with it. 6:35, Keith decides the bed is a 3 man job and leaves to go get another one of his guys. 6:55 am, bed is in, and Keith tells us that the job is now $ 180 instead of $ 100 and he will only accept cash. I get out of bed.
I could swear that he took credit cards and he swears he told me cash only. Had I heard «cash only» I would have found someone else — cash is muy tight around my house right now and I’m working on a pretty much credit only basis. I then asked if he would accept a check from my building account (from which I cannot draw cash, but it has more money in it than my personal account). NO, bellows Keith, cash only, I haven’t taken a check in 10 years!!! Then he stated that he was late for his next appointment (even though we were supposedly scheduled for 7−8am) and insists that my husband go with him to get cash.
It was early, we were both exhausted, or we would have argued with him about all of this. It took them exactly 5 minutes to move the bed — if the price was $ 100 with 2 guys, how did it jump $ 80 for 1 more man for, literally, 5 minutes of work? Also, my bed has some freaking gouges on the front of it that were not there before — I’ve been checking that thing daily while waiting for it to come in, and these are definitely from the move today. I honestly feel somewhat used and pushed around.
Keith seems like a nice guy and they got the bed in fast, but if you use them a) get the price in writing first, b) watch them like freaking hawks, and c) make sure you have the full payment in cash.