Double D movers - detailed review

This is a detailed review of a recent (8/24/2012) move of ours. We used Double D's moving for it and were extremely disappointed with it. Unfortunately, the website we used to find the movers allows only 200 character reviews (that's right, we have to tweet a review). Therefore, I decided to post a detailed review here. The review follows:

We were very disappointed with the services of Double D. Be very careful if you are planning to use them as movers. The two movers they sent did not have the ability or the ethic for the work required. We complained to the management and they told us that they would set up a conference call with the actual people involved and us to figure out what happened. Twice they set up appointments for when they would call and both times we waited and waited but never got the call from them. It is now 2 weeks from our move and we decided to write this review without waiting for them any further.

Let me start with the good though. We had a wet carpet when we moved in and requested them on the day of the move to delay their arrival by one hour. They were gracious about it and agreed to come an hour later. We were very happy with them for doing that.

From that point onwards, however, it was all downhill. They took 4 hours to move us from a one bedroom apartment to a 2 bedroom place in the next building (less than 50 paces away)  within the same apartment complex. We had a furniture dolly to help. A friend of ours and I helped them carry several things and I still had to carry a few things after they were done. We had moved about half of this stuff in to this apartment about 5 months ago and the two movers then required just 45 minutes! I would have expected these movers to get it done in 2 hours. 3 hours would have been ok but 4 hours to move 90% of it with help from 2 additional people is unacceptable! Here are some of the reasons why we call out their lack of ability and work ethic.

1)  They were unable to lift a loveseat (and not a heavy one but one from IKEA) by themselves. It needed help from my friend and they almost tore it once

2) We kept our sofa in the original packaging it came so that we could assemble it in the new apartment and not be worried about it being damaged during the move (and it was delivered to us by two people). I am glad we did so because these movers could not pick up the sofa. They ROLLED it for almost the entire distance

3) They broke two of our plants (we moved the rest ourselves)

4) They were insanely slow in going from one apartment to another even when they had nothing in hand

5) As time ticked along, they were taking the smallest things even after we told them to take the big ones and leave the small ones to us – at one point, one of them carried only one lamp in a trip

6) They tried to double team for the lightest of things – I had to tell them to pick some things up in solo that I could hold alone (and I am as skinny as it gets)

7) They told us (repeatedly) that our time started at 3:45 because that is when they got out of the car. Well, they did not call us when they got here, neither did they knock on the door. My wife called them at 3:54 (we checked in our phone records) and they told us that they were waiting downstairs. We asked them to come up and were waiting for them. A few minutes later, I decided to go check and they were downstairs in the car smoking. I should not be paying for that!

8) We had a mattress cover on top of the mattress protector (which they grumbled about) for the move. I am glad we did because they dragged the mattress almost the entire way and have torn the mattress protector through the cover. If we would not have had it on, they would have soiled the mattress protector and damaged the mattress

9) A couple of our cabinets have scratches from the move.

10) During our previous moves (and we have used a couple other movers in the past year and been very happy with them), we had laid out furniture pads on the carpet to prevent staining/damage to the carpet without any issues. However, these movers were grumbling about them, tripping on them and moving them away so we decided to not use them.

11)  We paid in cash for the extra hours and asked for a receipt. We were given a handwritten note (on a regular sheet of paper) acknowledging the receipt of money. When we called management, we asked for a formal receipt and were told that it would be emailed to us. Two weeks later, we are still waiting for it.

Due to all these reasons (and more), we are very unhappy with Double D. We have seen them negate other reviewers by posting comments after the review and have therefore posted an extensive review. Use them at your own risk (especially if you get the same people as we did)!