A Plus Chicago Movers

Unprofessional, outrageously expensive, and a total rip-off.  I scheduled my move with Mr. Al Hogan Jr. Over the phone, we discussed the amount of (fully furnished) rooms I had in my apt and that I lived on the 3rd floor of my apartment bldg.  He told me that the move would cost $120/hr for 3 professional movers and the move would be expected to take between 3 - 4 hrs. He told me that the total cost would be about $500, which is pricey, but I figured, I'm paying for professionals.  Mr. Hogan told me that I could pay by cash or with a credit or debit card.  My move was scheduled for 8:30am.  The movers arrived pretty much on time, but when Al Hogan surveyed my apartment, he said he'd have to get a bigger truck.  After he'd been gone for a couple of hours, I attempted to call him to see what was taking so long, and his business phone was disconnected. WOW! Now I'm wondering if this is some kind of scam.   They finally came back a little after 11am, and when they returned, they still had the same truck as before.  OK.  Before they began, Mr. Hogan wrapped the china cabinet and appliances, which was wonderful, but that's where everything went down hill.  About an hour into the move, one of the 3 "professional" movers quit.  Apparantly, he was from a temp agency and decided moving was too much for him.  Now, moving is some seriously hard work, but if you're a mover, what do you expect?  So, only 2 movers left, and they looked like someone's old uncles from the corner liquor store.  Both were older gentlemen, neither one of the them had an ounce of strength, and they were moving one item at a time, because they didn't even have a dolly; they had a rickety piece of wood with wobbly wheels on it.   Around 3:30 in the afternoon, Mr. Hogan told me that "I was killing his men", but if he felt that bad for them, why didn't he become the 3rd man I'd hired and help them instead of standing around barking out instructions.  One mover even asked my son why he wasn't helping move the stuff.  "Duh" - that's what he was hired for.  The move dragged on for so long, I finally did get my son up to help me move all of the furniture to the back door so they could just grab it and go.  I told them I would move the smaller items myself because it was taking too long.  When they arrived at the new place to move the furniture in, once again, my son and I (and I'm a woman) helped them move the mattresses, box springs, boxes, and bags in to get the job done.  They didn't finish moving me until 7:45pm.  Indeed an all day move.  Then Mr. Al Hogan comes up with the grand total of $1100.  $1100 instead of $500 because it took them 9 hours to complete the move.  He would not take into account that my son and I helped them complete the move, nor the fact that one of his movers quit and forced the move to take longer, or subtract the numerous breaks his men took because being professional movers, they didn't take into account the job would be so hard.  Mr. Al Hogan and I argued viciously and finally he knocked the price down to an even grand, but refused to take my fridge and stove off the truck until I paid him.  So, I give him $500 in cash and tell him to charge the other $500 (remember he said I could pay with a credit or debit card) and he tells me that he doesn't have the means to take a credit card, and that I would need to go find an ATM and get him the rest of his money.  I told him that if he didn't take the card he wouldn't get paid, so he finally writes down my credit card number and told me that "It better go through".  A real professional right?  I'm still having nightmares about this move and will use EVERY review site I can find to tell people about them.

Service cost: $1000