Express Moving Company

It kills me even giving them one star and don’t know that I’ve ever been screwed over by a company as much as Express Moving Company screwed me over. Their poor service cost me a TON of money to correct.
I had scheduled Express Moving a week in advance for them to arrive in between 8AM-​10AM on Friday morning. They sounded professional on the phone (the only good thing I can say) and they asked me to confirm by calling on Thursday, which as a company that should be their responsibility. I called on Thursday, as they requested, to make sure they would arrive Friday morning. I called and left a message on their voicemail. I called a few more times after that just to make sure. However, nobody answered the phone, nor did they return my call.
Friday morning, they called at 8:15AM to let me know an alternator on the truck went out and would have another crew come out around 2 – 2:30 PM. OK, I’m not happy about my day being pushed out, but at least they’ll be here. He also says he’ll call me back later to me know when what time they’ll be there.
2:30 comes and nobody is here. I called, left a message. Nobody returns a phone call here. I called MANY more times over the next two hours to finally reach someone. I am completely livid at this point and calmly told her that I am screwed at this point because of Express Moving. She tells me to call my landlord to explain the situation??? WHAT!!! I hired them to move me, not for advice on what to tell my landlord. She only gave me excuses. After expressing my displeasure with her, she tells me she doesn’t have to take this abuse. Because I raised my voice, I abused her? She finally says she’ll look into it and call me back as soon as she can. Guess what? I never heard back from her. I called back several times and nobody ever picked up the phone.
We were forced to use some other moving service that charged extra for on the spot moving and they moved slow. All in all, 2 people took off work for no reason, we spent almost $ 150 more on some other service and finally finished at 1AM. This should have been done before noon. Not once did anyone from Express Moving apologize or ever call me back. How can a company actually treat their customers like this? Absolutely poor customer service. At some point, they should have said, «We are sorry, but we can’t do the job, but we’ll find another moving service to it.»
DO NOT USE THEM!
FYI: When I asked about the special rate listed on Unilocal,they said they don’t offer that anymore.

Negative 5 stars. I wish I could swear on Unilocal.They were supposed to be here between 8 and 10 this morning. It is 5:30 and they still aren’t here. We are supposed to move out today. TODAY.
We called the day before to confirm, left a message, didn’t hear back that day. They called us this morning at 8:13am and said the alternator on the truck was out, so could they reschedule for between 2 and 2:30. We were disappointed and it threw a monkey wrench into some cleaning plans, but okay. 3:00 arrives and they still aren’t here. We have to try and call 3 times to get through their stupid phone system. Finally, we get through. The lady doesn’t know anything about it but says she will get back to us. Guess what? They never got back to us.
Its one thing if your truck breaks down and you have to cancel a job last minute. It’s another thing to put someone off the whole day… I mean, the whole day!!! We could have gotten someone else!
The Outcome: As it happened we did have two exhausted movers from another company show up later in the evening. How lucky we were to find someone! However, it took 2 hours over what it should have for them to complete the job because they seemed pretty damn tired. The way I figure it, Express Moving Company owes me a vacation day for my time off, plus $ 200 for the difference in time it took the evening movers vs. the morning movers, and a couples massage for the hell they put us through.
I left a moderately polite voice mail for them, stating that I understand sometimes things happen but I expect an explanation. 4 days later I still haven’t heard back. I don’t recommend them at all, unless you dig it when your body goes into panic mode.

When I decided I needed to move, it was on a Thursday afternoon, and I wanted to move Saturday if possible. Short notice, I know; I didn’t think it could be done. I contacted two companies: Express Movers and Two Guys and a Truck. I was able to book online with Express Movers, and they called me within the hour to confirm my reservation. (Two Guys and a Truck didn’t call me until Friday early evening.)
All I wanted was 2 guys and a moving truck, and I got just that with Express Movers. The prices were definitely reasonable, and like they advertise, there were no hidden costs.
I originally booked my time for 2pm on Saturday, but received a call later saying that they had an opening at 10am, if I wanted to take that. I decided that it would be better to move earlier than later, so I took the earlier time. I was told I would receive a call when they were on their way. Sounds great, and consistent with what I’d read with their other reviews.
9:00am rolls around… 9:30… 9:45… by this time I’m growing concerned. At EXACTLY 9:59, I get a call from the movers themselves saying that they’re running late and there were some supposed truck problems, and will be there by 12pm. Alright, fine.
12 rolls around… 12:15… 12:30. Sigh. They finally get there at 12:40 and call me.
The movers got lost in the condo complex (everyone does), so while I’m on the phone with them, I direct them to where I’m at (directly behind them about 50′ across the parking lot). They get off the phone with me and stand there talking to one another for about 5 minutes. I’m standing there like a dummy while they kind of bide their time, finish up their conversations, or whatever.
They pull the truck up to the curb; it’s an unmarked white truck with the exception of «Express Moving» in 2″ black letters on the door, and there are 3 young kids (early 20s) dressed in plain clothes (sleeveless graphic muscle tees, athletic shorts, flip flops). I say, «I thought I hired just two of you?» The driver says, «I’m not going to be working.» Ok. So the guy in the flip flops changes his shoes. even though the website claims they are UNIFORMED, they most definitely were not. If these guys didn’t have my phone number and paperwork with the «Express Moving Company» letterhead, I would seriously have doubted that these were my movers.
They DID get to work right away, and they wrapped everything in shrink wrap that needed it in order to be moved. They did this to my HEAVY dresser. (In hindsight, they should have taken out the drawers, because the nails ended up coming apart from the frame; I realized later when I was moving it from where they placed it.)
They had the truck loaded in about an hour — and I think I had a LOT of stuff. So that was probably the best part. I drove on ahead of them when we left, and they arrived about 45 minutes after I did.
They were pretty good with unloading everything. I had EVERYTHING labeled with a big white label + black Sharpie, and some of them ended up in different locations.
They did move around 2 sets of dressers at my mom’s place at her request (NOT part of what I originally asked them to do), one of which was seriously heavy. I still can’t believe these skinnier-​looking kids had so much strength to move that much stuff up and down stairs, in and out of the truck…
I would give them 3 – 3.5 stars due to lack of communication/​timeliness on their part and lack of professional attire (as they advertise uniforms). However, when they got started they were really efficient, and the price itself was reasonable ($ 340 from Palatine to McHenry, not including tip). They also did those extra moving requests even though they didn’t have to, AND they got me in the day I wanted to move.
In the end, Express Moving Company was totally worth every penny.

I cannot say enough good things about this company.
1 — they called in the morning to confirm my time slot. It was simply nice to know that they were on top of their game
2 — they called closer to the time slot to say that they would be there on time or a half hour early. They ended up not getting there early, but nonetheless almost exactly on time
3 — they were fast, professional, and careful with my belongings. everything that could be chipped or banged up in anyway was first wrapped by a blanket and then wrapped in some sort of plastic wrapping. nothing was hurt at all, except of course some things i moved myself… lesson learned
4 — they made me aware of a piece missing in my full length mirror which i thought was cool of them… i broke the mirror in my last move, so i was grateful they were being that observant when they were moving my things
5 — they walked me through the bill since it did take longer than we had anticipated so there were no surprises for me
6 — when they were putting my stuff in my new apartment they asked where everything should go and was conscious enough to not stack boxes too high.
Overall, very considerate, professional and worth the money. Give them a call for your next move. They also have an impeccable BBB record. Thank you express moving! (Talk to Marty, he was great)