Signature Movers

TL;DR I hired this company twice, and unlike G.W. Bush, fool me once and you can fool me again, apparently.
Do not hire.
The first time I hired Signature Movers, it was for a move from Richmond to DC. I was being fully reimbursed for my move so I went for a full pack-​and-​move service. I found Bill’s company, Signature Movers, through word of mouth and texted to schedule an appointment.
The first sign of trouble was that there was no confirmation of any kind. No email or anything. When I asked for something of the sort, Bill acted as if I were asking for the moon. «Whatever…» I thought. «All I really need from them is to pack up my stuff and move it. If he says they’ll show up they will.» … Yup. Hello, Irony.
They did show up on time and packed up all of my stuff (One bedroom and an office) pretty quickly and efficiently so I was all smiles. All I needed to do was drive up to DC and wait for them to deliver the next day. So far, so good.
The next day I had scheduled a window where I could use the loading dock and freight elevator in my new building. They were an hour late, which was pretty annoying since I was standing in an empty room twiddling my thumbs. But they did eventually show up. I had a three hour window and they unloaded in a little less than two hours. They asked for lunch; I bought them Five Guys. Move successful. Even though they were an hour late, things pretty much worked out. So far, so good.
Fast forward a year. I forgot all about them being late and hired them again for a move from DC to Silver Spring. I texted Bill again, remembering not to bother asking for confirmation of any kind, and scheduled the move. I scheduled back-​to-​back loading dock reservations, one for each building, and confirmed with him that the 12:00pm start time was ok. So far, so good.
Moving day comes. 12:00, let’s do this… or not.
No call. No movers. Just me and my thoughts and my partially packed apartment.
At about 12:15 I text bill for a status; he texts me back saying «Gonna need more time. Will get back to you.» Not a good sign, but who expects a move to go perfectly? I rescheduled the loading dock reservations and let him know that I was able to push everything back an hour, but that was the most I could do. No response. 30 minutes go by… 45… an hour… an hour and a half with radio silence from Signature Movers. I text them again. NOTHING.
At that point I got fed up and hired another company that was more than happy to have my business. (They even gave me a 10% discount for my troubles caused by Signature Movers!) I then texted Bill to let him know not to bother. That got an immediate phone call as a response. Bill let me know that his guys were «…on their way.» and offered me a discount. I told him no thanks. I’m not going to cancel on the people who are out there hustling for business so I can pay those who aren’t, ya know? This is where he offered to reimburse me for my move. I was confused. I hadn’t paid him anything so what was there to reimburse? He clarified that he would pay for my move with the other company to make things right. I told him I’d think about it. The other guys checked in with me a few time with status updates, showed up when they said they would, and moved my apt.
The next day I get a text from Bill offering to compensate me again. I appreciated the gesture and, as someone else here said, his attempt to make up for his company pretty much being awful the day before. I felt a little guilty about accepting the entire price for the move, however, so I said just make it half and we’d be square, and I wouldn’t go online writing bad reviews. After thinking about it I realized that that was why he was willing to reimburse in the first place. I also told him that, really, a lot of the fallout from this debacle could have been avoided by just keeping his customer informed, and not treating him/​me like a mushroom.
Well, you’ve probably guessed it by now, but that was about a month ago… no word from Bill. I’ve stopped expecting a check in the mail. And now I’m writing this review.
Avoid this company. There are lots of moving companies out there that understand how to simply do what they say they’ll do. Signature Movers, sadly, is not one of them.

Bill and his team moved my family from suburban MD to suburban Virginia last week. I can’t say enough good things about Bill and his team. It was a long, hot day but they worked so hard throughout it the entire time. They were super careful with all our boxes and every single piece of furniture was wrapped in blankets to protect it. They packed the 2 trucks so tightly that nothing could possibly shift. Once they finally got everything unloaded at our new house, they made sure to stay to put together every bed, mount the tvs on their stands and put things together so they were right. I would highly recommend Signature Movers to anybody searching for a moving company.
We had previously used a different mover for three separate moves and had been quite pleased with them. However, they went out of business a few years ago so we tried out Signature for this move. Well, Bill’s team was so much more careful with our things that there was just no comparison with the other company. Even if the other company was still in business any future moves we make will be done by Signature Movers.
Add to everything else that Bill gave us a very fair price and we were especially pleased. I had interviewed three other moving companies. Bill’s quote and one other quote were about the same. The other two were higher by quite a bit. So put great service and a great price together in one moving company and the choice is very simple. Use Signature Movers!

We hired Bill and his crew to pack up a 3 bedroom house in Tenleytown and load a UPack trailer for our long move west. They did an excellent job, showed up as promised, and even came thru for us when our plans changed at the last minute and we needed extra help packing the weekend before the loading (we thought we could do the packing ourselves — big mistake!). The loaders (and Bill) worked incredibly hard — earning every penny of their hourly rate — up and down the stairs with many heavy items and not a scratch on anything. They also were very smart about how they packed and then loaded all our items for the cross country trip, including fragile art, sculptures, etc. In fact, the only item that was broken when we unpacked was in one of the few boxes we packed ourselves (before we gave up and called in the pros). I sometimes get the feeling on Unilocal that only unhappy people bother to make posts — since the happy customers like me simply move in to our new places and forget about it. That is why I wanted to recommend Signature. A quality small business worthy of trust that did a very good job for us! Thanks again, Bill!

Bill and his team at Signature Movers executed a great move for my family from Laurel, MD to Houston, TX! They successfully moved our home and 2 cars. The best part was that my husband and I landed in Houston and within an hour and a half we met Signature Movers at our new home and were reunited with all of our furniture, clothing, and cars. Over the last 10 years, Signature Movers have moved us 3 times, but this was the first time across the country and we were extremely pleased!

I am quite meticulous. I consider most of what I own precious and irreplaceable. In the past, I had never used movers because I never felt I could trust anyone with record collection, family momentos, etc. When I moved from Chicago to Philadelphia, I had little choice in the matter since, as a New Yorker, I don’t drive and I couldn’t convince anyone else to Uhaul me across the country. A friend I trust recommended Signature Movers and I made him pledge to me that I would be happy with the move. Well, as it turned out, happy is the understatement of the century. They took better care of my things than even I could have. And I wasn’t even in Chicago when they packed up my belongings! Everything arrived in tact, well cared for, and on time. I could not offer a higher recommendation to the company! They did a phenomenal job for a very picky client.

I have used signature movers for 4 moves over the past 7 years including moving my grandmother to MD from NYC. They was on time and professional and his guys were always fabulous and friendly. I have recommended him and my real estate agents have referred him over and over again…

Bill Shuler and his crew at Signature Movers were wonderful. They were professional, knowledgeable, hard workers, caring and efficient. I had a difficult move with a large amount of furniture, clothing and a car which they transported across the country for me. This was a split move, as some had to go into a house, the remainder into a storage locker. Their communication was excellent, and they got across the country ahead of schedule. All was delivered and moved into place well; the storage locker was packed beautifully. I would highly recommend them.

I had a terrible experience with this company and would strongly advise people to look elsewhere for movers. Here is what happened:
— I was moving from DC to Durham, NC (about 250 miles). I picked Signature Movers because Bill, the owner, agreed that they could do the move in one day, which is what I wanted. I agreed to have them to a full pack and a move.
— The movers arrived 30 minutes late. They were supposed to arrive at 7am, but did not show up until 7:30am. They did call, but it was still frustrating.
— When Bill gave me my estimate he said it would only take 2 – 3 hours to pack up my (small) apartment and load up the truck. He only sent two guys and it ended up taking 5 hours. I couldn’t figure out what was taking them so long.
— They left at 12:30pm for Durham. I expected them even with a lunch break to make it to Durham by 5 or 6pm. I did the drive in about 3.5 hours. They did not show up until 9:30pm, 9 hours after they left DC! They made a bunch of lousy excuses, but none of them made much sense. I still don’t know what took them so long.
— They weren’t done unloading my stuff until midnight. This is not what I signed up for. Furthermore, several of my items of furniture were damaged because the movers were careless.
— I talked with the owner and to his credit, he took $ 500 off my move for the delay and the damage. So I was still unhappy, but I appreciated him trying to make it better.
— Then when I went to pay that night, they movers called the owner with my credit card number. He couldn’t get the charge to go through and refused to let his movers leave until he did. He became very frustrated with me on the phone as I wouldn’t give him another form of payment. I had already called American Express and they told me that no charge had been put through so the problem was on the movers end. I asked Bill, the owner, to let his movers go home and allow us to settle up the next day since it was after 1am. He refused.
— Even though he had my credit card number and I had offered to make a deposit, he insisted on getting payment at 1am. Finally, he got the payment to go through and the problem was with his phone line, not my credit card.
In summary, the owner is not good to work with and his movers are unreliable and not careful. Take your moving business somewhere else.

We moved from a third floor walkup in Columbia Heights to a building in the U Street area — these guys were extremely efficient — we were completely moved in four hours. This included disassembling our bed and other pieces of furniture, dealing with very narrow alleyways and stairwells, and dozens of trips up and down on an extremely hot day.
They didn’t dilly dally at all — no stretching out the time, even though we were partially paying by the hour. Really nice to boot.