The Movers

So, many of you know, especially those of you who ate lunch with me most days in May and June, that I was totally freaked out about choosing a mover. I have mentioned here already that we went with the cheapest, Oz Moving, and I just wanted to explain why I would recommend them though not unconditionally.

PROS
The People: In my opinion so much depends on the guys who actually show up at your place. Oz's estimator was great - we liked him the best of the four who came by and the movers on our crew in both cities were great. I can't vouch for the rest of their guys, but our guys were nice, soft spoken and efficient.

Privately Owned: One of the reasons we went with Oz, a privately owned company, versus a national company that had authorized dealers, is that with a dealer you never know what you're going to get. We had multiple quotes from different Mayflower dealers and they differed greatly. For me that fact sort of removed the peace of mind that I thought I would get from going with a national line. If two dealers could give you different quotes for the same service, then why go with either of them?

No Haggle Pricing: The initial quote never changed. You hear horrible stories about Guaranteed Not to Exceed quotes doubling because of hidden costs and fees. That didn't happen to us. The initial quote was for 30 boxes and 5 wardrobe boxes - we had 71 boxes and the price didn't change!

The Service: Everything arrived, ahead of schedule, in pretty much the same condition it left NYC in. I was SO worried about my grandparent's art deco 43" round mirror that they packed for me and it arrived unscathed. I also sent a lot of delicate stained glass that I packed myself. While I haven't unpacked all of it yet, what I have unpacked is fine.

CONS
Sub-Contracting: As previously mentioned it seems our move was sub-contracted out to Fragile Van Lines on this end (a company I was told to avoid), however the crew that showed up was wearing Oz moving shirts and seemed to be employed by Oz. I'm not sure what actually happened, but luckily everything went off without a hitch.

Conceirge Serivce: Back in June I started getting a lot of hang-ups on my cell phone from a 954 area code. I would answer and no one would say anything. Or I would let it go to voicemail and they wouldn't leave a message. It was mildly annoying. Once or twice I would try calling the number back but couldn't get through. I googled the phone number and this is what I came up with:

Jody
This is another number for dish network. They called claiming that I had called them in regards to my service. I have never had service with them and never plan to. When I told the guy that I wanted his company to stop calling, he hung up on me.

2006-09-13Jonh
stupid call from Florida. Called me twice and don't talk. Background noise sounds like a store or a call center.

2006-09-16brad
Claimed to be a company called "SatelliteSales.com". Told me that I had contacted THEM about getting satellite service, and pitched me on Dish Network service. I asked him what company he was from, and he replied, "Do you have a Credit or Debit card handy?" I told him to email me whatever he was selling, and I would look at it, at which point he hung up. Suspicious.

Mitch
Calls and states sales for satellite company. never requested. this people ARE CRIMINAL DO NOT GIVE ANY INFORMATION TO THEM> REPORT ANY AND ALL CALLS TO DEPT OF JUSTICE. AND BBB. CALL THIS # TO GET ADDED TO NAT'L DO NOT CALL LIST 866-290-4236

2006-10-04Maria
A man called stating he was from dishnetwork and was returning a call, which I never called them. There was static noise in the backround. I tried to call back it doesn't pickup.

2006-10-08Laura
These people call me like 10 to 15 times a day,now i am getting pranked by them,sometimes they hang up or just breath but a few minutes ago they called and when i said hello a guy said (redbull gives me wings) and hung up!

So then one day in late June I answered the phone when the number called and someone actually spoke to me. She said she was calling from Oz Moving's Concierge Department and she was going to help me close my utilities in NYC and get them started in LA. She was very pleasant and chatty. I was confused because of what I had read about the number and asked her if she was actually employed by Oz. She said a bunch of stuff that didn't really make sense, but she had my move date and my address in NYC, so she seemed legit. She did not, however, have my address in LA, which Oz didn't have because we had just signed the lease the day before, so I gave it to her. She then went on to request some info about our utilities. I was a bit apprehensive but I felt there was no harm in explaining to her that we were living in student housing so we didn't have utilities to transfer. She offered to help set-up the utilities in LA and I told her that we weren't thinking about that yet. She wanted to give me her number and I asked if she could call back and leave it on my voicemail because I didn't have a pen and she said she would.

We never heard from them again. The best I can tell, Oz sold my info to a pretty shady company, but since I spoke to them, they've stopped calling and no harm seems to have been done.

So if asked, I would tell someone that I used Oz and they were cheap and good, but I couldn't recommend them unconditionally because I think there are some shady things going on beneath the surface.