Moishe’s Moving Systems

Whatever you do, avoid avoid avoid this company! I made the disastrous decision to hire Moishe’s to move my home from Chicago to Boston several years ago. Moishe’s LOST into thin air, not just one, but SEVERAL of my boxes, including a critical box that contained an irreplaceable collection of family photos and heirlooms. Adding insult to injury, several items of furniture arrived with mold on them and had to be cleaned or discarded. The move was an unbelievable catastrophe. Moishe’s had no labeling or tracking or quality-​control systems in place, none at all. Years later, I am still furious at them, and I will never be able bring back the photos and other memories that Moishe’s callously and negligently lost.

This is less about the Moishe’s team in Chicago than the long distance haulers.
Used Moishe’s for a move from NYC to Chicago. It was absolutely fantastic. They moved my stuff from my Chicago apartment and into storage last year. The team in Chicago was almost as solid as NY. I was pleasantly surprised at how communicative Pavel and his team were the whole team.
As I’ve learned from moving to LA, every portion of service goes down the further west from NYC you go. The second portion took significantly longer than expected, they lost my bed for an extra 5 days, had a coordinator threaten me in email as well as a couch damaged. Essentially ²⁄₃ major items didn’t fare well.
Pavel and team did everything in his power and things happen but they have seemed less than interested in making it right since this happened.
I’d recommend them for local moves in NYC and regional. Beyond that, skip it and go with a truly national company.

I had the most bizarre experience with Moishes this past week. I am making a long distance move from Chicago to NYC. Having used Moishes twice before (when living in NYC), I decided to go with them again because they had done a satisfactory job before. So I spoke to one of their moving consultants on the phone, very nice lady, got everything squared away for a move in ten days… or so I thought. After signing the contract, I woke up one week from my move to an email saying that a mistake had been made and that Moishes no longer served the Chicago area.
…Um what?
After emailing them back, the woman apologized and claimed it was her fault since it was her first long distance move, but that they could still move me for twice the amount I had signed for ($ 3000 vs the original $ 1500 quote since they had to drive from NYC to Chicago and then back again). This strikes me as very bizarre. One would think the most basic information, which direction the company operates in, is known by their moving specialists. Second, even if she didn’t know, the dispatchers she spoke to numerous times when she put me on hold should have told her something. Thirdly, their computer systems should have notified her. In my mind, this was just a way for them to back out of the move.
Is there a chance this was an honest mistake? Maybe. But in my mind, as a service company they should have offered to honor the original quote they gave me since the mess up was completely their fault. Unless of course they were lying…
In good news, at least she told me a week in advance. Would have been a lot worse if the movers had shown up at my door and demanded $ 3000. Still very frustrating and bizarre though, especially since I’ve seen other reviews about moves from Chicago to NYC…

I used Moishe’s 4 times (5 if you include a move for my mother-​in-​law who we lived near), and they were BEYOND PERFECT. Every time they came in far below time and saved me hundreds of dollars. They listened, too, and when I had particular concerns they always accommodated me and then some. They were courteous over the phone, respectful in person, and never took a break. They even turned down water. I kept coming back to them move after move for 7 years and I never had one problem. I had so much cash left over that I would heap a huge tip on them, then still pocket enough to be under budget.
My last move was a very important one, my first across the country. We used a separate service for the long haul, but Moishe’s took our things to the trailer terminal. We were being charged by the foot when using the trailers of this other company, and Moishe’s movers worked like Tetris champions on cocaine to fit everything we owned where there was the tiniest molecule of air. We were so relieved and so pleased. We wish we could continue to use them, and will always recommend our friends do so.
Reading some of the negative reviews, I am reminded of what a foul, torpid race of monkey-​slugs we humans can be. This is just ol’ Dan’s take on things, but if you don’t wrap your own furniture and put your own items in boxes you are a grade-​A imbecile. Sure it’s a service movers provide, but you are hiring movers. They move. They sweat, and their bodies pump adrenaline through their veins. Their bodies become machines. Do you really want one of these beautiful land-​sharks to tape a blanket around your Precious Moments figurines? Slap the love letters you wrote to your baby-​sitter into a box you dragged out of an alley 8 minutes before the movers arrived? When movers arrive you should be ready for strangers to grab your things in their mitts, pack them into a truck like a 19^th century Manhattan fish monger cramming a tuna into half a page of Sunday woodcut politically illustrative funny papers.
If you need movers, hire Moishe’s. If you need your daddy to properly pad your frighteningly heavy Kindle then please head to Englewood on Chicago’s South Side where H. H. Holmes buried all the dolts who were stupid enough to wander into his murder castle and start digging your own grave.

I can’t say enough good things about Moishe’s. I have used them 5 times. Every time they come in under budget. They are so fast and efficient. They never grumble. I’ve never had a broken item. The last move was from a high rise building and into a UPack trailer. They packed the trailer so efficiently, we saved $ 200 on the trailer bill. I would recommend them to anyone.

I’ve used Moishe’s movers for my last 3 moves and they were great. This is the only moving company who have been consistent on price & the time it would take to move. I would suggest using 3 guys and paying extra because it cut down on my time quite a bit. I’m also a professional at moving so my mattresses were wrapped, boxes sealed and ready to go.
Another reason why I always use 3 guys is because they always put my bed together for me at my new location. The other 2 are carrying thing in while this is being done. I feel bad because I have spoken to the owner after every move praising their service and he asked me after my last move 2yrs ago to write a review. I forgot but remembered because I will be moving again this summer & will be using Moishes. After reading the reviews from 2008, I think my experience was way better & I’ve been using them since 2006.
My personal suggestion when moving is to contact the manager & somehow let them know you are a Unilocaler. I told the owner after the fact but if they care about reviews they will probably take care of you. He definitely cares about reviews.

During my short life I had to move several times and every time when I thought about moving I had chills. I hate doing this! Well, I should say I hated this until I used Moishe’s Moving service. They are GREAT ! Everything was wrapped and packed perfectly so no damages at all! I was pleasantly surprised. They have arrived at a scheduled time and worked very efficiently and fast. If whenever I will have to move again I will definitely use their service!

Moishe’s is an excellent mover and was recommended to me as highly as any other mover by the Illinois Movers’ and Warehousemen’s Association, a reputable and reliable association which I also highly recommend.
My experience with Moishe’s following this referral has been nothing but satisfactory. Especially for someone like myself, I need a flexible mover and they have been just that. Their quoting was reasonable and again, *flexible* … I asked for four different quotes and was given all four without any question. The quote wound up being a not-​to-​exceed quote and Moishe’s stuck to their word. My move is a 1,500 mile-​one, so especially for inter-​state movers, this mover is highly recommended. Their free month’s worth of storage is not one that is offered by many of their competitors and is indeed a very useful service.
I not only recommend Moishe’s, but will be sure to use them again in whatever other inter-​state move I may have to undertake in the future.

I recently moved from Chicago to New York City! I was so worried about all of my belongings staying in perfect condition and having to buy boxes and I have no idea how to properly pack an HDTV. But, my friend had told me about Moishe’s and how her and her husband just used them to move from NYC to Westchester. Her husband was hesitant at first about using movers because he is annal and wanted to try to move them himself! But he gave in, and they were so thrilled with the professionalism and easy of using Moishe’s. Needless to say I had the same experience. Moishe’s movers made my move stress free and I have so many other things to deal with so this really helped me keep my cool during the relocation process. Please do not think you can rent a truck and call your friends for a huge favor and have the same results as using Moishe’s!

I didn’t feel motivated to write a review of my March 2008 Moishe’s move until I had to start searching for yet another mover for my next move; I realized THE PEOPLE NEED MY REVIEW! So here it is, as concisely as possible–
Four guys from Moishe’s showed up 3 HOURS LATE to begin our move. This left my roommate and I shivering in our apartment, since we had had the heat turned off. This sucked.
The guys were nice and jovial enough. They were Polish, and one of the movers spoke enough English so communication wasn’t a problem.
The move itself was fine… once they finally arrived. The guys packed and wrapped all our belongings up very well (**perhaps too well, since we ended up having to pay for all the damn packing materials they used**). Only a few things scratched and a cracked lampshade.
THE BILL. Dun dun dun. They gave us an estimate of $ 500 for our 2-​bedroom apartment. The total cost came to $ 980 (the move + a $ 100 tip for the movers). THAT IS PREPOSTEROUS. Needless to say, that pricetag kinda shocked us. If I recall correctly, we were also charged because the move ran into nighttime hours – which all could have been avoided had the moving team showed up at their scheduled time.
Now that I’m preparing for my next move, a long-​distance one from Chicago to DC, I’m definitely not considering Moishe’s as a candidate.

Yes indeed, this was the worst moving experience of my life. I was moving into my brother’s place and he was moving into a new place. The guys at Moishe’s arranged for two groups of movers. Based upon my place (2 bd 2 ba) and my brother’s (3 bd 3 ba) we figured starting at 9 we should be done no later than 6 hours. I was in charge of my brother’s place and my husband in charge of ours.
First the guys were late to our place, by 45 minutes. The guys at my brother’s place took a lunch without even telling us when they were supposed to be following us on to the new place. No apologies, just a lot of broken English and run around talk from Paul at the office telling me that everything would be taken care of and not to worry. They complained, moved things one at a time, didn’t know the meaning of the word «hustle» and took frequent smoke breaks. By the time my brother’s place was finished it was 700 plus tip (there was one guy who was decent although we foolishly tipped them all because we know they were being paid crap by the hour which is why it took so long). They did a rotten job with some things (throwing workout machines and their weights in the garage, not even stacking them up) but at least they were done.
Then I headed to my place. They’d been there since 9:45. It was now after 3. They had moved NOT ONE piece of furniture onto the truck. The guard at my building said it was the worst display of movers he had ever seen. When I pulled up I saw two of them sitting on the truck smoking and walked past a third carrying ONE box. There was another one upstairs taping up furniture. I called at yelled at Moishe’s and Paul told me it would all be taken care of and that they would make sure I would be happy and he would tell them to get a move on.
Granted, I had a lot of boxes, (around 90) but over 5 hours to move 90 boxes? Most of them were those office depot type boxes. Everything was taped and labeled — even labeled with color coded paper for where they should be moved to in the new place (basement/​office/​bd/​kitchen/​main, etc.). Never mind they didn’t speak English, I used COLOR CODED paper to direct them and things were still a mess. We did not have that much in the way of furniture, though there were some bulky items like a 125 gallon fish tank (which I had told them about in advance). I left specific instructions for them to move the file cabinets as they were and even taped them myself. How hard could it be to put them on a dolly and move them in their whole form? Nope, not my guys. They really like boxes. They took all of my files and dumped them in gigantic boxes and continued dumping things on top of the files. One of the boxes had some client files all out of the jackets and loose, a lamp, and just to make things extra sweet, an open container of sugar which sprinkled all over everything.
They took the liberty of using my husband’s dolly which never made it to our place. They said they left it in the hall, but no one ever found it (I’m friends with the guards and they never saw it). A small boom box is missing, things were scratched, banged, broken… thank goodness we had already moved about 30 boxes on our own containing all of our dishes, glassware, bottles, kitchen items… and anything with meaning… wait a minute — that means it took them 5 hours to move 60 boxes???
I’m going to have to stop this review as my blood is boiling just remembering it. I had conveniently blocked it out for the past several months. I will say this, it was pouring rain and was a rotten day. In order to get the job done they had to call 2 guys over to help (who were from my brother’s job) and they finished around 10:45. A 13 hour move. It was over 2000, with an added 350 – 400 in box charges (which I never asked for as they were supposed to tape up the cabinets!!!). I called my friend Paul to talk about it and he offered me no assistance, said I had to pay and that was that. I mentioned something about not being able to tip if the bill was so large, and he said «fine it doesn’t sound like you liked them anyway, don’t give them a penny.» I then told him that I wasn’t going to pay for any of the boxes and I was going to deduct those charges, he said fine.
The people who run this place are completely incompetent and rude. They hire mediocre, small guys and pay them absolute crap (I think it was maybe 8 or 10 an hour) which encourages the guys to move things at a ridiculously slow pace. Luckily my Polish maid was there yelling at them in Polish to get moving otherwise we could have very easily gone past midnight.
To sum up, if you are thinking about using Moishe’s don’t. I was stupid enough to have not looked on Unilocal before hiring them so if you don’t heed the advice of others, you will be here soon enough writing of your own nightmare.

I had a great experience. Three men helped me move from a third floor apartment to a second floor apartment. They were incredibly fast and efficient. They really knew what they were doing. I was charged what I was quoted. I will definitely use them again.

Let me start by saying shame on me because I was referred to them by a non Unilocaler. What was I thinking. I considered them to be a reliable source. The service from Moishe’s was horrible they were on time however the movers didn’t speak English which made it very hard to communicate with them and I guess that’s why my new dining room table ended up being damaged, snow globes broken, and boxes packed on top of each other with no regards to what is inside. The amount I spent I would have expected fantastic service and none of my items broken.

On the plus side, nothing got broken.
On the minus side, they took seven hours to move a small one-​bedroom apartment (and I was completely packed up before they arrived), I caught them smoking pot in the truck, and they stole my neighbor’s speaker equipment off our back sunporch.

DO NOT MOVE WITH MOISHE’S
We moved with Moishe’s in May and were severely disappointed. Charged us double than the quote and broke over $ 4000 worth of our things. Citysearch was WRONG!
We contacted Moishe’s over a week before our move and due to «time constraints» they were unable to come over to complete an in-​home estimate. We gave them our specs, moving from a fourth floor walk-​up to a fourth-​floor walk up including planters that were on the fifth floor rooftop. They quoted us $ 800 and five hours of work.
The men arrived promptly at 9am and after walking up the stairs only one time, the complaining began. They decided their strategy would be relay-​style, with one guy in our apartment who would take one box and hand it to another guy on the third floor who would walk it down to a guy on the second floor and so on. This is an extremely slow process. So much so that by hour two they were telling us that they needed to call in more people to help us move, resulting in more $$$. We were supposed to be done at 2pm, at 2pm they weren’t done moving our stuff out of the first place (the 15 minute breaks every 45 minutes didn’t help).
We had left our clothes in our closet, a friend had told us the movers they used had a wardrobe that they filled with the clothes and moved them at no charge. Our movers took our clothes and put them into wardrobe boxes they had brought without asking and then charged us $ 10 a box — they used 10 boxes ($ 100 we didn’t authorize).
Now, you would think that because they only carried one item at a time that our things would arrive in perfect condition, hardly. We stood on the back porch watching them pack our stuff into the truck. We first noticed that a box marked «CAREFUL — ANTIQUE GLASS» was on the bottom of the stack of about 10 boxes. Needless to say, my grandma’s antique glass did not make it to our new home intact. As we were commenting to one another about their poor stacking skills, one of the men walked up to the back of the truck with a guitar in a soft case and threw it into the truck. We yelled down at him and he looked up and threw his hands up like he didn’t understand us because he didn’t speak English.
In a second bedroom we had a pull-​out couch that the was easily placed in that room by the furniture store delivery people who originally delivered it, but Moishe’s was not able to remove as easily. They claimed that they had taken the door off the hinges to remove the couch. Once they left, I opened the door to go in that room to sweep and the door fell off. They did not take the door off the hinges, they ripped the door off the hinges.
When we were three hours overdue to have left the first place we stopped them from moving anything more including our art, a few collectibles, and our bikes (which they had already dented by moving our couch but we didn’t know) we had already witnessed how careful they were and we weren’t willing to risk it.
After they left, I walked around sweeping and walked upstairs to the rooftop to make sure they took the planters that were in the quote and they didn’t. I only pointed them out five times.
We finally got to the new house around 5pm, three hours after they were supposed to be completely done. As they were moving the pull-​out couch into the 2^nd bedroom, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. They had it in the door frame and two guys were standing in the hallway pushing it through the doorway because it didn’t fit they way they had it positioned. They broke the doorstop off the wall. Then as the same guy who threw the guitar into the truck was bringing in our Dyson vacuum, he dropped the canister onto the floor — He broke it.
The best part of the day was the 50″ flat screen TV that we had delivered to our old place the week before moving that was still in its original box in pristine condition. This was about the last thing the movers moved up to our new place. It did not arrive in as pristine condition. The box was torn up and the TV was damaged beyond repair.
They finally left at 9pm. Our bill was over twice as much as what we were originally quoted. We indicated on the bill that they broke the couch, they damaged the wall, and they broke the Dyson (we didn’t notice that the TV was broken until after they left and called that in the next day). We signed the bill where the head mover told us to but didn’t read the fine print. He had filled in how much our stuff was worth, he wrote in that our things were worth 30 cents per pound. We could have written in the amount our stuff was worth but he didn’t indicate that was an option. They’re willing to give us $ 300 for our $ 400 Dyson and $ 3999 TV (Total = $ 4400) and told us they would have someone sent out to repair the couch. The result of our selecting Moishe’s is a a $ 4100 loss just for our things and we still have to pay over $ 1600 for them to move us.
This is unacceptable! Do not use Moishe’s.

Bait and switch — Got a quote for a long distance move, they seemed responsive and the delivery window they agreed to was much better than anywhere else. Now, 4 days before my move, they call me to tell me the delivery will take place two weeks later than they originally told me. Convenient for them that they limited the competition by waiting to the last minute to do the switch but highly infuriating for me. Luckily Golan’s agreed to meet their original delivery window so I’m not any worse off, but I made the agreement to go with Moishes over 9 days ago.
On the positive side, their in town crew picked up some things this weekend and moved the items across town. They were very nice and prompt. The cross country scheduling sucks though. Glad I didn’t go with them and have them change the delivery date after picking up my stuff.

Like many others have expressed I chose Moishe’s because of the «good» reputation they supposedly had. However I was completely mistaken! Please see below for a partial explanation of my moving experience (I sent them a formal complaint):
«After the movers moved all of my belongings to the truck, I did a final walk-​through to ensure that all items had been removed. To my surprise I found that the HVAC airflow duct grille had been removed and replaced with a piece of cardboard that was wrapped with my Christmas gift wrapping paper (with the paper turned inside out) then screwed into the wall. The actual grille was drilled into a different wall in the hallway not to far from the „replacement“. When I proceed to remove the „relocated grille“, I found that there was a huge hole in the wall. Needless to say, I was quite frustrated. Instead of the movers disclosing that damage was done to my residence they chose to cover it up. Not only did their actions pose, the threat of me losing my security deposit but a serious fire hazard. Furthermore, they chose to utilize my property without my authorization. Being that my consent was not given to any of the movers to use or take my property (beyond relocating it), it is considered theft.
I expected a much higher level of service and integrity from your company and its employees and I am quite disappointed. Although the drywall was replaced, what was supposed to take 4 hours turned into 12 hours. The move was scheduled to begin at 9am and wasn’t completed until 9pm when the movers completed installation of the replacement drywall. As a result I had to cancel all plans I had for the night so that I could drive back to my old residence, supervise the installation and then drive back to my new residence in Forest Park. »

I went with Moishe’s after reading City Search and doing a bit of research on my own.
I thought by paying a premium, I would get premium movers. I was wrong.
The movers arrived on time and took less time than the estimate… so far so good, BUT:
Turns out they damaged pretty much half of my items due to poor (or complete lack of) wrapping. Sharpie pens were used to disguise damage on dark wood furniture. I had valuable artwork that was just placed in boxes without any other wrapping.
This was one of the worst moving jobs I have ever seen. I would never recommend this company to anyone. I still need to fill out the claim work. Hopefully they will give a refund or at least repair/​replace everything they damaged.
F YOU Moishe’s Moving Systems!

I picked Moishe’s movers because they were voted the #1 Best Movers by Best of Chicago Citysearch. Boy were they right, I thought they were great!!!
All I can say is they arrived early, came in under budget (I was charged less than the estimate), and they finished early! This was my first time using movers and it was the best experience. The movers worked so hard, so fast, and were very friendly. I never felt cheated or felt like they were trying to drag the time out. I was so pleased at how professional they were and the way they handlied my furniture and things with care.
I recommend them for anyone wanting to use movers.

Dear Moishes, where’s my stuff? (If you’re lazy just skip to the final paragraphs)
Like everyone else, I searched high and low for the best movers for my long distance move out of Chicago. Moishes has the most positives reviews and good comments from the BBB and all around seemed great. I liked that they have their own trucks and seemed very professional.
However …
I should have reconsidered when, after over a week, I hadn’t heard back from an email I responded to from my «consultant.» Turns out she left the company. Still, I scheduled the move (even though their estimate was triple the price of the others).
The movers (5 of them) arrived right on time, were very courteous (didn’t speak much English but that was OK), only took a couple well-​deserved breaks, and seemed to take very very good care of my stuff. One guy was assigned to the kitchen all day (I have a sh**load of kitchen stuff!) and I watched him wrap and wrap and wrap. Very careful.
I booked my move on the condition that it could possibly make it to the final destination on the East coast in a week. They said sure; it looked good. A week later I call to get the status and no one answers so I leave a message. A day or two later I finally get a call back saying my stuff should get there around the 4^th or 5^th. (It was supposed to be the 1^st or 2^nd). Ok, no problem, I can sleep on an air mattress another couple days.
Well this went back and forth with me calling and no one being there and them transferring me back and forth and me waiting for call backs. It was getting insane …
Let’s just cut to the chase. I finally got my stuff after many phone calls and yelling. They arrived on time, again took good care for the most part, and did it quickly.
Now that I’m finally unpacked I can take stock of what is actually missing, broken and stolen. Only a couple things broke and I don’t really mind. Those things happen. But what’s interesting is what is missing. There was only one box missing and it’s just an amazing coincidence that the only things that appear to be missing are (1) my DVD/​VCR combo which I packed myself in the original box, (2) two brand new professional chef’s knives still in their original box, and (3) all my top shelf liquor! Why would these items be packed in the same box to begin with? Is it missing, stolen, on some other truck or still in Chicago?
After weeks of more back-​and-​forth calls and few answers, I was finally reimbursed a fair sum for what was missing but only after I initiated a complaint with the BBB. However, I will never use them again, nor should you.