Modest Moving

Do not use this service. The company is predatory and horrible.

I contracted Modest Movers for a long distance move across several states, about 1300 miles. I had already reserved a UPACK cube for about $3500, when someone from Modest Movers called and gave me a quote for $2500 for a full service move and I thought it was too good to be true. Well. It was. At the time I thought this was a great deal, and seeing really good reviews online, I decided to cancel the UPACK reservation and book with Modest Movers. Big mistake. The first thing to know, this company does not do any of the moving. They contract out the service to other, actual moving companies. And the companies they contract with do not necessarily have the same timeline, fees, or policies as Modest Movers states in their contract. The information I got from talking to Modest Movers personnel was different from the information I got from the contracted company.

Additionally, Modest Movers, once the stuff was picked up, had no idea where my stuff was and could not give me any updates. I called at least 3 times to find out more information, and each time I was told by the representative that they did not know where the truck was or where my stuff was, dispatch didn't know either, and that they would "send it up to a supervisor who would give me a call back." I never got a call back.

Then there was the lack of transparency about all the parts of the move that really matter--time between pick up and delivery, accuracy of the estimate, and how to pay. I was told verbally when I booked that it would take about 7 days for the truck to arrive with my things, from the day it was picked up. After a week an a half of waiting at my new address, I called and was told, no, the policy is actually 21 business days, but that it RARELY takes so long. Then, when I finally got in contact with the actual company moving my things, I was told it was 21 days from the earliest available drop off date, not the pick up date. So in the end, the actual time it would take the truck to deliver is a month from when they picked up, not the 7 days I was originally told.

Second, the accuracy of the estimate--Estimates of cost were based on cubic foot. After the company estimated the cubic footage of the items being moved, I was quoted a bout $2800. But, I was not told that I would have to pay an additional $500 upon arrival to have the stuff actually delivered. Basically, the moving company CHOOSES to drive such an enormous truck, that they can't park on normal streets--any two lane street--and so have to use a shuttle to move items from the truck to the house. Modest Movers NEVER said anything about a shuttle. Nor did they explain that if the house is not a farm, or on a 4 lane highway, that there would be no where for the truck to park. Literally any home in a city or on a two lane street would be inaccessible by a truck of this size. And this was not explained until 2 days before the delivery.

Finally, Modest Movers did not say anything about how I would pay for the services of the contracted company. The company they contracted with to do my move only took cash or postal check (postal checks cost money to get). So in addition to having to pay a the last third of the $2800 in cash when the truck arrived at the new address, I was told only 2 days before delivery that I would also have to pay the $500 for shuttle in cash. Given I booked a company called MODEST movers, it may be reasonable to assume that I don't just have $1500 in cash laying around at any given moment, especially after spending upwards of $5000 to move, half of which had already gone to MODEST MOVERS.

When I called Modest Movers to ask why there was this breakdown in communication, the response was, take it up with claims. So on top of spending at this point MORE money than I would have spent if I had gone with the original UPACK cube, waiting for a month for my stuff, and draining my bank account to pay for $hitty service, the only response from MM was that I could spend even more money to hire a lawyer to sue them for sucking.

All of these things are predatory behavior. This company tells poor people who have few affordable moving alternatives that they can provide an affordable service, and then their service ends up costing more and taking longer than other options. A total lack of transparency and inflexible payment options means that I could not even make an informed decision if this would be the best option for me. I had done my homework. I had looked into multiple different moving services and methods. I chose this one not only because it was cheap, but because it had good reviews (on other reviewer sites). I expect those reviews were robot-generated, just as false as the name "Modest." Do not use this company. You will regret it.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3300

My family was moving cross country from, I spoke with a guy named Johnny back in September for our move in December, he sold me on a backhaul, and the original quote was for $7000 the day before pick up, they called to go over our final inventory list, I had added a dining room table and a breakfast table. I assume the price would go up about $2000 however, when they gave us the final quote it was 23,000 we went back-and-forth for hours, they could not give us a reason for the increase in cost other than they doubled our weight with no legitimate reason. We went back and took a few things off and still the cost was 14k. We found another local long-distance moving company in town we sent over the quote , they put it in their system and gave us a cost of $7900 for our move. We sent that quote over to modest moving company. They were not willing to match that price nor refund us our $3000 deposit. They also stopped answering the phone after we sent them the quote that they requested. This company underestimates to get the job and deposit! They are criminals.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $23000