Every move will be stressful and there will be things that are unexpected. But for the price we paid, there were some inexcusable mistakes by Rent-a-Son:
- Truck crew arrived 1 hour late.
- Boss ("fourth son") arrived 2 hours late then tried to blame the design of the condo being behind schedule.
- Poor communication between crew and office.
- Office repeatedly promising call backs regarding a lost item and not following through.
Things I liked:
- Attitude of the three less experienced crew. They were polite and worked hard.
- They can carry boxes and drive a big truck.
I picked rent-a-son because I got the impression that they are a more premium service. I didn't mind paying a premium for a stress-free move. Unfortunately, although they got close, the service did not match the price and some of their actions created additional unnecessary stress.
After filling up their detailed online form, I called and spoke with Patricia and clearly explained our condos moving system, which involves a trailer pulled by a tractor to move items from the elevator to the loading dock. We also discussed the elevator booking hours, the loading dock booking hours, etc. I later got a quote which I thought was expensive but didn't mind it for the promised 4 "sons" and "stress-free" service.
The job was scheduled at 8:30am. Three of the crew showed up with the truck around 9:30am. They were pleasant and started working right away. The fourth crew member showed up at 10:30. He was clearly in a bad mood and literally the first thing he did upon arriving two hours late is express how unhappy he was with the condo's moving system and how we won't be able to finish in time. Didn't apologize for being late or try to even come up with an excuse. He hadn't even seen the items in the apartment yet and said "from what I've been told, there's no way we'll be able to finish by the time the elevator booking ends". Unbelievable from someone who showed up two hours late.
This guy was clearly the most experienced. He was directing crew on how to wrap and move items. He was also the guy who did most of the disassembly/reassembly required of some furniture.
We went one hour over our condo's elevator booking, which was very stressful as another tenant in the condo had a crew ready on time for their move. The condo personnel had to skip lunch and scramble to make sure two moves can happen simultaneously which they're not prepared to handle. This made things even less efficient as the tractor had to be shared. Had rent-a-son crew arrived in time, we would have finished within the booked elevator time if not earlier and with a lot less stress.
After everything was brought into the house we were moving to, I pointed out that there were two brand new IKEA unassembled items (a king bed with drawers and a drawers dresser) that I needed help assembling. The guy was very upset about that and indicated that they only assemble furniture that they move. I pointed out that I was told that this is a service they do provide (I had also clearly mentioned it in the online form I filled to get a quote). He asked me who did I speak to and when I said Patricia, he got angry and said "There's no Patricia!". I said fine, don't worry about it, you clearly don't want to do it. He then reluctantly agreed to do it saying that "if they told we'd do it, we'll do it but they made a mistake". It took the four crew members two hours to assemble the two pieces. At their rate, I wouldn't recommend it and they clearly don't like doing it anyway. They put some of the boards that go at the bottom of the drawers upside down such that you'd see the unfinished side when you open the drawer.
Finally, we'd rented boxes and a dolly from Frogbox. When rent-a-son crew arrived, they started using that dolly in addition to their own dollies, which looked very similar. After the move was complete and the crew left, we realized that the dolly was missing. We checked both the house and the condo we moved out of and the dolly is clearly no where to be found. I believe that it ended up on their truck with their dollies by mistake. We contacted rent-a-son three times to ask about it. Every time, I have to explain the whole story again. They clearly don't have a system or interest in tracking customer service requests once they get paid. They fumble to find a person who's supposedly tracking this and every time I get a promised a call back and hear nothing until I call them to remind them. I don't think that they've done anything to track the missing dolly. They clearly don't care. In the end, I got tired of this and paid Frogbox for the dolly that I believe rent-a-son took.
Maybe my experience was a fluke given all the great reviews here.
