Big Al's Specialty Movers

This review is long overdue. Used Big Al’s Speciality Movers at the recommendation of a family member. The entire process from start to finish was miserable. Getting someone on the phone to schedule the move was a feat in and of itself; took me 3 days of consistently calling to get through to anybody. Finally get it scheduled for a 4 hour move and was told someone would be by the day before the move to inspect everything and make sure it was ready to go.

I hired them to move a bedroom set from our upstairs to our basement for a remodel. One of the movers was irritated about all of our stairs. He came into our home with attitude and making negative comments as soon as he arrived. I was honest and up front when I called that our home was three stories and even paid an extra fee for the stairs. They were NOT CAREFUL with our furniture at all!! We were left with gouges and scratches on our headboard and a drawer that no longer stays closed on our dresser!

$823.97 an hour? Hire Big Al's! I hired Big Al's to move my furniture from one part of my house to another as I was having my floors refinished. Al came over and estimated that the move would take 3 to 5 hours. I called to schedule an appointment with Beth. The only day they had available was a Saturday. I was informed that they had a 4-hour minimum on Saturdays. At $167.70 per hour for 3 movers plus other "fees," the charge would be $823.97.

I wanted to leave a glowing review and take goodies over to the crew at Big Al's, unfortunately I'm disapointed and can't do that. We had 19 bundles of hanging clothes and Beth knew this, the movers were either not told or they didn't count and left one bundle behind (our winter coats & jackets). Big Al's won't take any responsibility for their lack of communication or their guys counting the bundles. I'm sad to say that they have claimed that because this bundle was in the entry closet they missed it.

I have used Big Al's Specialty Movers in the past when moving a piano and they were very thorough and careful with our piano. This second time, I used them to move not only my piano, but also my entire house. From the very beginning, this process seemed like I was dealing with a company without any experience. First off, my home was to be inspected prior to my move, but was not inspected for a long distance move, but for a local move. They have differences in how this is done.

>> BEWARE!!! $8,573.97 ESTIMATE BECOMES $11,292.94 FINAL BILL<< We used Big Al's in 2007 to move from Vancouver to Kelso. We have a large, three panel organ and Al's was recommended as the best in the business for moving organs and pianos. We had a great first experience with them. We did our own packing, but the move cost us $1800. Fast forward to 2018 and we needed to move from Kelso to Eugene, OR. So we called Al's. We needed them to pack this time (we're retired and and don't get around as well as we used to).

RUN!! This is straight up price gouging!! Charging over double.the price of anyone else. We were quoted $219.00 a hour when everyone else charges around half that we needed to only move 2 med storage units from Vancouver Wa. to Castle rock Wa. No packing needed..Everything is already packed in hard tote boxes with lids? We have no appliances? No Piano ..Couches or heavy furniture? No stairs for movers to climb? So what the H???

I was quoted a 3 man team for 4 to 6 hours. And when they arrived they were so busy joking and goofy around. One of the team members stayed in the truck and one was new and stood around a lot. So really i felt like i had a 1 man team. It took them 9 hours to move my small 900 sq foot apartment that was totally packed and my new location was a mere 4 miles away. When I tried to contact the owner on this matter. He never returned a single phone call. I would never recommend them to anyone.