Absolutely terrible customer service.
Upon news that my roommate in Logan Square would not be renewing the lease, I found a nice two-bedroom in Ravenswood. Trying to avoid the nightmare move I experienced 3 years ago, I called up different moving companies and received estimates in April. Mind you, this is my first experience hiring movers.
My situation was pretty basic: move my belongings from point A on the 31st, deliver them to point B on the 1st. Fairly standard.
Of all the estimates, Jays was $443, which was least $300 cheaper than Move-tastic and a few others. Of course, they were charging me for overnight storage, but I figured that just goes with the territory. They would pack my stuff into the truck on the evening of the 31st and move me in on the morning of the 1st. I booked them on May 1st for a June 1st move-in.
Due to scheduling issues, I signed my lease about a week later but realized that I might not have access to the new apartment until 12pm on June 1st. Uh-oh. So I called Jays to see if they could accommodate me.
First, I spoke with some male who could barely speak English. After several failed attempts at communication, I asked to speak to someone else. I spoke with Hara, who seemed to know what she was doing. She said she would talk to Jay and see what could be done.
The next day, I receive an e-mail from Jays, which said: ""I apologize for the inconvenience but after speaking with the owner we do need to charge for 2 separate transactions"" which later translated into $250 more than what they quoted me! Then it read ""We
understand if you need to look for a better price elsewhere.""
Better price elsewhere?!?! Where?!?! It's May 12th and the busiest move-in day of the year is rapidly approaching! And now I just realized that I scheduled a very important move with an apparently incompetent company!
Also, never mind that they notified me over E-MAIL when clearly a phone call would be more appropriate and professional. I called them only to be faced with the unintelligible male, who stated that Hara was gone for the day and that nobody else was available.
As my phone shorted the next day, I had to e-mail them back, stating that this was completely inappropriate, unprofessional, and ludicrous. Their reply? ""Again, I am very sorry about this. The 2 days cost would now be an estimate of $688. "" They didn't even bother to give me a new itemized estimate!
Since I was half-sure everyone else was booked, I asked for the itemization of that number, only to receive another e-mail: ""The owner (Jay) would like to come and give you an in home estimate, as to give you a more accurate cost estimate."" Wait, what?! So now it might not be the SECOND number you provided me? Hmm, maybe you should have thought about doing an in-house estimate before you e-mailed me the first time.
I then spent my morning frantically calling other moving companies just to hear 'we're booked solid!
Fortunately, I was able to find ONE moving company that was not completely booked, saving me from the agony of dealing with Jays any longer. They came to my place and presented with with an estimate, waived insurance AND the overnight fee. With a perfect yelp record, they were only charging me $745, $60 more than Jays (even though Jay waived a few things because of the mix-up).
So screw you, Jay Movers. I'm going elsewhere.
Bottom line: the pricing here isn't competitive enough for you not to go forward with a more reputable company. Go with Move-Tastic, Bradtke, or The Professionals instead. All have immaculate reputations and aren't much more expensive than Jays. Moving is stressful enough - why add to it by dealing with an incompetent business?
more