Boothe Creek Excavating & Landscaping, Inc.

On August 19, 2016, I hired First Choice Movers for labor only to move my items from my condo to a truck I had rentedI was referred to them by a large real estate agency in Chicago The owner, David ***, was extremely friendly and helpful over the phone and recommended things I could do to prepare for my move and even the best places to buy the moving blankets, plastic wrap, etc He also readily provided his Certificate of Insurance to my condo association Wary of moving companies in the past, I was impressed with the owner and felt very good about my decision to hire this company First Choice Movers arrived on time, but with no moving equipment (dolly, cart, etc), however, they claimed they could do it all with the manpower of people When moving my foot couch, I cautioned the movers that they needed to angle it carefully to get it through a low opening in my foyer Instead, they quickly forced it through resulting it two large holes in my wall This also caused the wall to buckle feet down, possibly damaging the adjacent wall at the corner, and also damaging my ceiling track lighting I called the owner, David ***, who appeared to be extremely concerned and promised to send a contractor out to repair all damages I waited for hours on Saturday, August 20th, for his contractor to arrive before contacting David again He told me that I would be contacted within a hour The contractor did not show I told David there was some urgency in the getting the repairs completed because new tenants were moving in the following Thursday He told me to go ahead with finding my own contractor who he would reimburse My condo association then consulted there own contractor who quoted $- $which I thought was a little high In David's best interest (and because of the referral, I still felt he was an honest businessman), I called two contractors to come out on my own time to try to get a better quote The lowest quote I received was $450-$ When I passed along this information to David *** on Wednesday, August 24th, he indicated this was way too high and he had a contractor coming out that day at pm I left work and again waited for hours Even after I gave him every opportunity within days to repair the damage himself (or through his contractor), David's contractor again did not show David blocked my calls and then responded to an email I sent regarding filing a claim with his insurance company stating the following:
Hi Natalie
The certificate of insurance only covers the common areas of the building, inside the personal apartment is not covered, I just covered this with my agentThat being said, you wouldn’t be able to file a claim with my insurance anywayThe absolute most I will pay to have the walls repaired would be which is the cost of the work you had done by usAnything above and beyond that would be on youIf we do work for labor cost it would be insane to pay 450-500, thats like me paying you for the privilege to move you, So I’ll let your contractor know that I’ll pay a max amount of and thats about itI’ll copy my attorney on thisPlease be advised that State of Illinois regulations regarding moving limits us from damages above the original cost of the moveRegards
David ***
David's rationale is because I paid his workers $(the quote for hours of manual labor), then he would be paying for the "privilege" to move me if he were to take responsibility for his workers and pay for the damage exceeding that amount that his company caused I paid the $in good faith for that labor because I truly believed that David would honor his word and repair the damage his company causedI unfortunately did not do my homework prior to hiring First Choice Movers and relied on a referral from a real estate company from which I have had great referrals from in the pastThe situation is now in the hands of my condo association and the insurance companies and I am not well versed on State of Illinois moving regulationsTherefore, I am not writing this review in an attempt to get any money back from David because after reading reviews posted about him here and on yelp.com, it is pretty clear that will not happen I am only writing because the real estate agency who referred this company was shocked by the situation and asked me to file a formal complaint so they would have additional back up to remove him from their city wide referral list I also provided them with pictures of the damage, a video recording of his workers accepting full responsibility and explaining how the damage occurred, all text and email communications between myself and David, and all estimates received from separate contractors to repair the damagePlease be careful and do your homework when hiring a moving company

David and his team at First Choice Movers are EXTREMELY unprofessional and completely UNRELIABLE. Moving is already stressful, but David's lack of professionalism made this experience more difficult and far harder. Despite booking him a week in advance, David backed out of his commitment THE DAY OF the move after overbooking himself and being over 3 hours late. Instead of trying to accommodate the customer, he decided to hang up the phone and not show up at all. I hired David because I wanted to reduce the stress of moving and as a busy student taking care of a sick parent, I wanted to make sure I could still make a very important doctor appointment. I scheduled my life AROUND David and his team, going out of my way to reschedule appointments and prior commitments. Our move time was scheduled for 9 a.m. per David's request. This meant I came home from an overnight shift at 7 a.m.m to start packing so I was set to go by 9. My mother, who is not well, also showed up at 7 a.m. from the suburbs so I would not be alone for the move and to make sure we could get to her appointment in the afternoon. At 10:20 I called David to ask how late the movers would be and he promised to get back to me with additional help. Nothing happened, so I called again at 11:15 only to be berated about how busy his schedule was at the end of the month and couldn't I just move later (no--my landlord needed me out by the 30th) and instead of apologizing, David HUNG UP the phone and refused to respond to any calls or texts thereafter. First Choice movers should be your LAST choice if you would like a professional and seamless move with trusted movers. David and his team are rude, unprofessional and clearly not equipped to work in the service industry. I warn anyone who is hiring movers to stay clear of ever using this business.