Thunder Movers

Before reading this review on Thunder Movers check the BBB and read all 13 complaints, research their revoked ODOT license, and go through the 117 filtered Unilocal reviews.
With that said, I’ll keep this as brief as possible.
The movers showed up when they said they would, but charged 45 minutes of drive time (@ $ 140/​hr) to travel 8.2 miles on a Saturday morning. This drive only takes 20 min at the most. At no time during the initial quote were we ever informed that we were to pay for travel time prior to the company showing up. The movers were fast and friendly (Chenele rocks), but the lead continually reminded us to tip them. Nothing was damaged during the initial part of the move, but a bookcase was dropped through a wall in the house we were moving into, creating a large hole in the drywall.
The move lead took photos of the damage and called Dotti Thunder, the owner of Thunder Movers, right after it happened to inform her of the accident. The move lead then told us to get three estimates for the repairs and submit them to Thunder Movers for damage cost reimbursement. The final bill, which they charge after they write your credit card information down by hand (sketchy), was well over the amount quoted.
With the exception of the drywall damage, the drive time charge, and the higher than quoted final charge, we were mostly satisfied with the move. That is until we tried to receive payment for damages caused by their movers. The first call to Dotti’s personal cell phone was answered, but she stated that she was too busy to talk about the damage issue and would call back later. This never happened. Numerous attempts have been made to contact Thunder Movers, but no calls have ever been returned, nor does it look like they ever will after reading the experiences of others. We have since paid out of pocket for the repairs, and have filed a complaint with the BBB, the State Attorney General, and the Federal Trade Commission. We have also cancelled the credit card which was used for payment because it was recorded by hand.
The owner of this business states on their website «We care and make the extra effort to treat others how we want to be treated.» «…We are Honest, Hardworking, regular, „Portland Weird“ people, Pacific Northwest People.», but their actions speak far louder than their words.
Here is a direct quote from the BBB in regards to their current licensing;
According to the Oregon Department of Transportation, Thunder Movers LLC’s ODOT permit is suspended. To verify the company’s current status, please contact ODOT at (888) 275‑6368 or
.
According to U.S. Department of Transportation, Thunder Movers LLC is not authorized to operate as an interstate household goods carrier. To verify the company’s current status, please contact the Department of Transportation at (202) 366‑4000 or
.
Is this an outfit you would trust to be responsible for the transportation of your possessions? My suggestion would be to stay far away from this unethical company.

Blunder Movers didn’t show up at all.
Two weeks prior to my move, I scheduled for them to send 2 movers and truck on December 23. The phone interaction was pleasant and professional. I even received an email confirming date and time.
Skip ahead to moving day and there I am with all my stuff lined up on the sidewalk ready to go, but Thunder Movers never showed. I waited and waited and waited and waited. I must’ve called 100 times. No one answered the phone. Even as of today, December 31^st, no one is answering the phone.
Can you imagine? You’re all ready to move and the movers just don’t show? This was completely unacceptable.
I can only assume they left early for their holiday and neglected to contact me. That, or this business is now closed. It’s anyone’s guess.
Another thing to note, I noticed the BBB logo on their TM’s website, so I visited the BBB website to see what was what. Not only was I surprised to see they had an F rating, but I also noticed there was a complaint about their falsely represented standing with the bureau.

I never received an estimate from Thunder Movers, but was assured it should only «take the morning» since I’d gone with an additional mover, for a total of 3 movers.
The movers arrived on-​time at 9am, but didn’t have the van fully loaded until around 1:30, despite my being very organized and having beds and furniture disassembled and all boxes in the garage. I should note that this was the second time I was hiring Thunder Movers. I hired them again because I had such a good experience with them the previous time: they moved the same amount of items as this move over the course of a morning for a total of $ 450 – 500.
This time, the move took the entire day, from 9am — 5pm for a total of $ 1300 ($ 1050 in moving fees and $ 250 in pads/​wrap.)
All eyewitnesses — my mother, ex-​husband and friends who stopped by during the morning — commented on their extreme slowness, frequent breaks, not being able to locate one or all of the movers at certain times, etc. One of the movers, who was very young (honestly looked like a teenager), told me this was his first day on the job.
The unpacking into the storage unit (approximately ½ mile away from the house) took from 2pm-​5pm. I met them there, but they encouragingly told me I didn’t need to stick around and they’d text me when they were done. The man working at the storage facility had plenty of opportunity to observe them, and commented to me once they left how much time they seemed to waste. He even showed me pictures he took with his phone of them sitting around. He also commented that they each took at least 3 long bathroom breaks, which opened the door to ample speculation.
My calls to the owner — I’ve left 3 voicemail messages so far — have gone unanswered.

Rude, inconsiderate, and inefficient.
I actually didn’t use this company, but I was moving into an apartment building they were moving someone out of. Apparently Thunder movers didn’t verify the size of the loading dock, and brought the wrong truck; they had to go get a new truck, which meant they were only starting to load up when I arrived. They refused to vacate the loading dock even though I had it reserved. I had to park on the street and pay more money to my movers because these guys were so horrid. I should have had their moving van towed.

If a company can’t reply to an email inquiry, how could you expect them to be reliable on the day of the move? Definitely will NOT be using Thunder Movers.

Thank you TJ and Joaquine! Thunder movers was great, arrived on time, had a big truck and all of the moving equipment. You both really hustled. Thank you for making my move so easy. I enjoyed your «whistle while you work» attitude.
I would recommend hiring TJ and Joquine for your move.

I needed movers in 2 days. Of the companies available in a pinch, Thunder had 1. the best Unilocal reviews and 2. the best price.
Having been horribly scarred from a cross-​country moving company a couple years ago, the bar of expectations was set pretty low. Thunder definitely raised the bar — there were no hidden fees, they showed up on time, were mostly efficient (see below), and were fun dudes that I really didn’t mind spending half a day with.
I would give them 5 stars except their accuracy was off. I’m assuming this was due to some medical grade herb (no judgements, but why no offer to share boys?). If trading a bit of accuracy for cheerfulness is necessary, I’m okay with that.
I had told them that morning, and Dottie on the phone when booking, that there were two (2) apartments to move out of, one (1) apartment to move in to, and one (1) storage unit trip involved. So pack the truck accordingly, PLEASE. This didn’t happen: they ended up bringing storage stuff into the new apartment and then having to bring it back down to the truck. Not entirely efficient.
A couple days later, when all was said and done, a box of clothes was missing. It was found in the most remote corner of said storage unit and required a ridiculous expedition to retrieve.
Bottom line: yeah, I’d hire them again.

We had Thunder Movers move our townhouse back in June. Joaquin and Andy did a great job. They were quick and worked right through lunch to just get it done (which we appreciated).
The reason for 3 stars instead of 5 is because their truck was way too small for our house, and now we have to rent a UHaul to finish it up ourselves. This is something we were very much hoping to avoid (and the whole point of hiring movers in the first place). We’re not packrats, nor did we even have furniture in one of the three bedrooms, so I’m not sure how they got the truck size so off.
If the truck had been an appropriate size, I would have given 5 stars. The movers did a great job and seemed fair in their charging.

I have used thunder Movers twice and have been mostly satisfied, but there is something a little unsteady about this company that does make me feel like I am rolling the dice every time I hire them: I believe all the five star reviews are true, but I also believe every word of the one star reviews.
The first time I used them, Dottie estimated my move would take 3 hours, 4 at the most, it took 9 and a half. When you are paying around $ 100/​hour, each hour ticks by painfully. The movers themselves were nice, but I have no idea what took them so long; I was moving out of a highrise, so they were loading at a loading dock where I really didn’t see what they were doing every minute like you would in a house. The biggest bummer was that they waited until they were leaving to tell me that they charge for their ‘estimated’ travel time to and from their business location to your residence, so basically they add at least an hour to every move and this made me feel uneasy and like I was being taken advantage of.
The second time I used them, they were an hour late because they went to the wrong location, nowhere near my location. And I was ready to throw a fit if they tried to charge me for that extra time, but this time things all turned out in my favor, because the two movers had never been ‘the person in charge of the paperwork’ before so they didn’t charge me for any travel time and ended up charging me for only two hours even though it took two and a half and the minimum for a Saturday was three hours.
I haven’t ever had anything damaged, but I haven’t moved anything very fragile either.
I am about to move again which is why I was refreshing my memory of their service by reading the Unilocal reviews. I think this time I am going to try Willamette Valley Moving, they seem like more of a sure thing.
If you hire Thunder Movers, everything will probably be just fine. I just have a feeling that if something goes wrong, it goes terribly wrong and you end up paying the price.

We just moved this weekend, and used Thunder Movers. Over the past few years I have moved a lot, and have used several moving companies. Thunder movers was the best experience I’ve had.
Thanks to them, my belongings were moved safely and quickly.

Shady business practices and bad packing job!
I had them pack things: nothing was packed correctly, everything was just thrown in to boxes haphazardly.
Instead of sending me a bill as they said they would do, they went ahead and charged my credit card without trying to contact me at all! When I told them what they did caused my bank to charge me extra fees, they offered no apology and didn’t even offer to pay the fees for their mistake.
The whole operation seemed haphazard as if they did not communicate with each other or with their customers. It was absolutely the worst experience I have had with a moving company, I would not recommend them or use them again!!!

Thunder Movers were able to schedule my move on the day I wanted, around the hour I wanted, and to get the job done quickly.
I especially appreciated the movers’ calls to update me on when they would arrive, when the time changed (to earlier than expected), and then their arrival time. The movers themselves were polite, friendly and efficient. They offered to put together pieces of furniture if we had the screws. We didn’t, but the offer was a kind one.
The reason I took a star off is that Thunder Movers, like most moving companies does not have a lower price for people who want to move a very small amount of furniture but don’t have the muscles or a truck to move things. We were in no way close to to filling the 2 hour minimum.
That said, I recommend Thunder Movers very highly. Their service is friendly, considerate, and efficient.

These guys have moved me twice, most recently in early Oct. ’10. Both times they showed up exactly when they said they would, they worked really hard, they offered extra boxes and packing material when they saw I needed it, and they never once complained about the 3 flights of stairs they had to navigate! Oh, and nothing was broken and they finished in less time than they (or I estimated they would.)
Love these guys and would use them again, in a second.

I scheduled my move about 3 weeks in advance. My move time was set for 11 am. I took time off work so I could be there for the move. 11:45 rolls around still nobody. I called and talked to Stacey I think her name was. She told me they were running late from the last move but they will be there in 30 mins or so. Ok shit happens no problem… 1:30 I call again still no movers. Same sad story. Ok well as long as I can move today whatever I just need it done. 5 PM rolls around, still nobody or a call from them so I call again and this time they said they will have to schedule me for tomorrow. But they have to move some other people in the morning. So it would be after 3 before they showed up… is this the best you could have done?
I would never recommend this company to anyone of their moving needs. I don’t understand how they have such good reviews, but looking at it it appears that it might have changed management or owners and the new crew is running it into the ground.

I will start by saying I never actually let them move my stuff, and wont ever deal with them again! This is how my day went…
I have a 11 – 12 apt. So I take the day off work (yes unpaid day off) so everything is packed up nice for them and it will be an easy move for all of us. 11:00 rolls by, no call… 12:00 by, no call… hmmm.
I’m a REALLY easy person to deal with and it takes a lot to piss me off so I think nothing of the fact that I haven’t heard from them yet. They must have got stuck at the last job for a little while, no big deal, I have the whole day… So, I finally get a call around 1:30 or 2 (keep in mind even the call was about 2 hrs late). So Stacy calls and tells me they are running late and wont be here till around 4 but would give me a call an hour in advance.
Ok. again not mad. I shrug it off. I have a lot to do, I tell her «no problem», and go on with my day. So now they have under estimated their last move by 4 hours.
Waiting and waiting and waiting… 3 rolls by no hr in advanced call. 4 rolls by no hr in advanced call. This is where they, or Stacy, should have called me and let me know what was going on. 4:30 I call the office again, «Oh I’m sorry they still will be a few hours… probably around 7.» I say, «Ok, no problem as long as we can get this done by today its ok, because I took the day off work and cant take another day off!»
So now we are how many hours late? 8??? How do you miss an estimate by 8 hrs? Still not mad, maybe annoyed a little, but not mad.
6:30 rolls around and I get a call from the movers «We are done with our last job, we will head over! Oh and by the way anything past 7:00pm is overtime, $ 122/​hr.»
Whoa, whoa, whoa!!! Wait just a min. I am not paying you over time because you are 8 hrs late! My 11:00 apt was NOT scheduled in your overtime hours! I call the office. Now I am pretty mad!
«Hi Stacy. I just talked to the movers they said its going to cost me $ 122/​hr!!»
«Oh, no one told you that anything after 7 is over time?!? I’m sorry.»
Ok your sorry but Im not paying that! So Stacy tells me she will split the difference with me. Thats nice but I’m not paying you more cuz you are 8 hrs late. But no Stacy will get a slap on the wrist already for splitting it with me!
I’m sorry but I don’t care if you get a slap on the wrist, it’s a business, you miss judged your last move and should eat the cost not me! You are already moving me 8 hrs late, come on. So, Stcay assures me that they could move me tomorrow, but they have an apt in the morning and I could be moved at 1:00!
So I ask her «Well does it matter that I am being pushed till the next day? I took the day off work for this!»
but dont worry Stacy assures me «Of coarse it matters! But I can’t do anything about it, I can’t give you a discount or anything! But you have been really cooperative!»
Thanks guys! No, I will not pay for your mistake. No, I will not wait till AFTER your other apts the next day. No, I will not be cooperative anymore. No, I will never use or recommend you to anyone!

–1 star for showing up at the wrong storage place and still charging me for the 20 minutes it took to get to the right storage place. (Really??!)
–1 star for stopping activity to talk to me. Talk to me WHILE you move my stuff, I’m fine with that. But don’t STOP moving my stuff while you talk to me.
–1 star for taking 4 hours to move to my apartment, what it took the other movers 1.5 hours (including travel time) to move in to my storage unit.
–1 star for complaining about how heavy my dresser was, and saying *that’s* why it will take you longer than 1.5 hrs to move my stuff. Um? YOU’RE MOVERS. That’s what you DO.
+1 star for… I don’t know. You can’t give 0 stars here, can you?
The lady on the phone was nice when I made my reservation. And they actually showed up, eventually. So there was that. I guess that’s worthy of 1 star.

Update — I didn’t discover this until after the move was finished, I went back to clean my old apartment and discovered a big chunk of the fake linoleum had gotten ripped up from the floor of the storage unit. I found it later stuck to the underside of one of my boxes. You’d have to pull pretty hard to rip that off, and you’d definitely notice it.
I called them and reported it. Right away the person who answered started trying to talk me out of it and say there was no way to know how it happened. Uh, right. When I persisted she finally sent me a claim form. I filled it out and sent it in. And heard nothing, nada, zip from them about it. Of course, the cost of the repair came out of my security deposit at my old place.
I also told them a bit about the events covered in my initial review. She apologized and said she would «talk to the drivers about it», but did not offer any of my money back or anything actually useful (like granting my claim for damage to the floor).
And also, many of the positive reviews here are because they offered a discount to people who gave them a good review. Which I guess now is against the terms of service of Unilocal

Welcome, one and all, to my first 1-​star review! I really didn’t think it could happen, honestly. I’m a damn tolerant person. Maybe this was just a perfect storm of incompetence and utter negligence. Or maybe I demanded too much — you know, like follow through? Either way, come share in the fun!
First, let me set it up: I work for an agency that serves low-​income folks. Our residents don’t have much. We had 2 residents that we had moved into temporary housing by another moving company and they had a bad experience. So, we offered to use a different company (Thunder) for the move back.
It started out beautiful. Great phone interactions, great reviews on Unilocal.Sweet. Dottie, the owner, seemed to know what the deal was, too. We talked about sensitivity being important to us and about how these particular people we were moving had bad experiences with a different moving company just a few months prior. She explained that her employees go through sensitivity training and that they could take extra special care of our peeps. She even said that they always replace things that get broken, even if the insurance doesn’t cover it. Nice, this is going great.
So, I mentioned 2 residents. That means we had 2 moves. Keep up, now…
Move #1: Carey (Karry?) and Doug arrived on time without the boxes that we requested. They went back to the shop to grab them, so we got started an hour late. Did I mention how important the schedule is to us? Anyway, they load our resident up nicely, drive over to the destination and wait patiently (for like 30 – 45 min.) while I worked out some issues with the resident. Hey, they’re getting paid either way, right? This move goes Ok and if I rated these moves separately maybe I would even give 3.5 stars. But I’m not. And I won’t. Why?
Move #2 (my personal hell): Carey and Doug came out the day of (a half hour late) at 9am and were pretty impressive. They wrapped things in saran-​wrap stuff and protected everything nicely. They were pretty sensitive to the needs of the tenant (who was initially very… interactive… with the movers). Well, the day goes on and the movers become more and more reluctant to help our tenant, placing items in the apartment where they are difficult to access or move. It’s also taking much longer than the previous move (which = more $$). It’s now 6pm and they’re still unloading. They had to make multiple trips (even though Dottie did an estimate prior to the move day). And then, on top of all this, the next day I get a report from the tenant that the movers showed up with the second load smelling like Cheech & Chong. Great.
So we had a bad move day experience. Ok, I can deal with that. They weren’t terrible and despite their best Snoop Dogg impression, they did a good job moving our tenant’s things. I just won’t use them in the future. If only that were the end of it. No no, my hell had just begun…
I get a call the next day from our tenant saying that their computer wasn’t working. Balls. Just what I need. I call Dottie to see what the claims process is with Thunder and was immediately met with push-​back saying that they couldn’t know whether or not the computer was working before they moved it, etc. etc. Really? Dude, chill the eff out. I just want to know what we need to do. I eventually spoke with Dottie and at first she gave me the same spiel, but then said that she would personally go to our tenant’s home to inspect the computer and take any necessary action. Then 2 days later I get a WTF call from our tenant saying Dottie is MIA. Fuck me this is taking WAY to much energy. Fine.
So I call Thunder again to see what the deal is. Here’s where the story takes a nosedive into the most exhausting, tedious, ridiculously painful and unnecessary month-​long struggle to get this once-​insignificant claim resolved. Let’s do a montage: Cut to Dottie conveniently never being in when I call, to literally dozens of messages left — via voicemail and through office assistants — gradually moving from polite to serious to upset. To me even going to their physical office location (which, on a side note, was completely disorganized and smelled like Sex Panther cologne. That shit’s illegal in nine countries, you know).
Dejected and completely at wits end with this situation, I finally just took the computer to Geek Squad (review on the way for these guys) to see what was up with it. It turns out to be a simple hardware fix that they did FOR FREE. I have no words to describe how I felt during this experience. The frustration builds even as I write this review a few months later. So, would I use Thunder Movers again? No. Literally not even if they paid me.
PS — For the record, Dottie still hasn’t contacted me.

Holy crap! I couldn’t believe how fast Karry & Nick from Thunder Movers moved our furniture and belongings. It only took two and half hours and everything were moved into our townhouse.
They were fast, friendly, and gentle with our stuff. We don’t have expensive furniture and things, but boy they handle them like everything that we have are made out of gold. They shrink wrapped my dresser so I didn’t have to take my clothes out of it. They shrink wrapped my heavy fold out bed-​couch. They shrink wrapped my bookcase.
I couldn’t believe that it only took them 10 minutes to moved my unbelievably heavy fold out couch. When I moved to my old place, it took me one hour just to moved the damn couch with two other people.
I was shocked on how good the service was from Thunder Movers. I don’t think I can move any other way now. From now on, Olivia T. will move the Thunder way.
No headache, no backache, lower stress level, and I’m a happy camper at my new place now. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

I had the pleasure of changing residence during the most hectic time of my year (read with heavy sarcasm), and Thunder Moving made it about as easy as moving can be made (not even an ounce of sarcasm here). I would say that there are very few things that I hate more than moving… and thankfully Thunder was there to take the edge off.
They arrived on time, the cost was reasonable and the load/​unload were quick and painless. It was really a pleasure having a moving company actually do what they said they were going to do — novel idea, right?
Now… time to get back to the unpacking…