A summary of my "interesting" experience with California Movers USA
- Review of California Movers USA moving company
- Table of Contents
- Regarding
- Summary
- Detailed ratings
- My Recommendation to you
- The 4-man moving crew consisted of
- Run-down of events
- Back to the run-down of events
- PRELOG TO "THE LAST 3 MINUTES"
- "THE LAST 3 MINUTES: QUITE THE DISPLAY"
- Closing words
- Photos & Attachments
California Movers USA moving company:
The 4-man crew did a great job, but the foreman is very passive-aggressive and less-than-honest, and takes criticism extremely poorly, even when it's well-meaning and I'm still planning on giving them 5 stars.
- Quality & care: 5 stars
- Efficiency and speed: 5 stars
- Hard-working: 5 stars
- Move price: 5 stars ($200/hr at the time for a 4-man crew + truck, boxes, & wrapping material)
- Verbal Communication: 3 stars
- Foreman passive-aggressive behavior: 2 stars
Up until the last 3 minutes of a 10.5 hour move, I was prepared to give them 5 stars. Literally, during the last 3 minutes before they left, the foreman's intense passive-aggressive behavior while I was signing the paperwork left me feeling unsettled, confused, and upset, and lowered their rating to 2 stars. To read about the details of these last 3 minutes, jump down to the section below titled, "THE LAST 3 MINUTES: QUITE THE DISPLAY". Unfortunately I had already given the forman a voluntary tip, at which point he treated me like crap and walked away angrily. It turns out he didn't deserve a tip, but his 3 men did. I'm giving 2 stars instead of 1 since it's Thanksgiving and I'm just grateful the job is done.
If you're a man, use them. They work hard and do the job well. Their prices are great. If you're a woman, I suspect the foreman may treat you like crap too, so have a man present. Read this BBB complaint: after dealing with the foreman myself, I believe it is accurate: https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/san-francisco/profile/moving-companies/california-movers-local-long-distance-moving-company-1116-895373/complaints.
- Ar### (name left out to protect his identity) - foreman
- Dmitri - EXCELLENT; wrapped stuff fantastically well, was polite and interested in bettering his English; worked really hard; should be the foreman in my opinion, but probably isn't simply because Ar### has the best English
- Vlad - hard worker
- Salim - hard worker
All 4 spoke Russian as their primary language, and there was a definite language barrier communicating with all 4, including the foreman. However, their English was enough to get by.
- Do NOT write anything about damage to your property on the end-of-move form in front of him. It pisses him off if you write there are dolly marks on the carpet or scuffs on the wall. Literally, it makes him mad and he will use strong passive-aggressive behavior (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive-aggressive_behavior) to let you know he is pissed off. He will sigh, groan, use a sharp tone, look closely over your shoulder while you write, make comments about what you write while you write, try to criticize how you're writing (the quality of the penmanship), etc, rather than just calmly telling you he disagrees with you.
- Do NOT give any tips to the foreman intended for his crew. ie: do NOT say "here's a tip to distribute among your crew." I do NOT believe he would give it to his crew even if you asked him to. I got the impression he feels as the foreman he is entitled to more. Ensure you give tips to his crew directly, and I recommend you try to do it privately, without him knowing, if at all possible. He should NOT know the amount you tip his crew, as I believe it will make him jealous and angry.
- When tipping his crew, place each tip in an individual envelope so he can not see the amount. Do NOT let the foreman know how much tip his men are getting. If their tips are equal or more than his tip, he may be pissed. I suspect me giving them the same tip as him made him mad.
- Do NOT tip the foreman until AFTER ALL DOCUMENTS ARE SIGNED AND DONE AND HE IS LITERALLY IN HIS TRUCK ABOUT TO DRIVE AWAY. LITERALLY, DO NOT GIVE THE FOREMAN A TIP DURING THE FINAL DOCUMENT SIGNING, AS THAT'S WHEN HE LOST 3 OF HIS 5 STARS AND TREATED ME LIKE CRAP AND USED INTIMIDATION TACTICS AGAINST ME. I made the mistake of tipping the foreman about 5 minutes before he left, while signing the paperwork, and he treated me like crap for the next 5 minutes.
- If they call ahead and say they are showing up earlier than expected, and you know you won't be ready on time because you were planning on no earlier than the start of the specified window, please just tell him politely up-front that you won't be prepared to receive them until [the start of the window]. I was caught off-guard and super stressed with the whole move and probably came off rude when I told them I couldn't answer the door until 15 minutes later at exactly the start of the window. Them showing up earlier than the window, and me not addressing it directly and politely the moment they called didn't help.
- Recommendation to movers: don't say, "This is the movers and we will be there in 15 minutes," say instead: "This is the movers and we are running early. We'd like to show up in 15 minutes if that's okay, since we know that's before the window start. Will you be prepared for us at that time?"
A 4-man crew was scheduled to arrive between 9 and 10am on a Friday. I'd been up until 2am for many nights (weeks even) prepping for the move, so I specifically chose the 9-10am window instead of the 8-9am window since I needed the extra time to sleep and then prepare in the morning. I guestimated before-hand this would be an 11-hr move with 4 movers, so I expected to be done around 9pm or so, with them stopping 30 minutes for lunch (not on the clock) and possibly 30 minutes for dinner (not on the clock).
Ar###, the foreman, called me at 8:30am and said he'd be there in 15 minutes. He didn't ask me if that was ok he was early or anything, he just said that quickly and ended the call. I was caught off-guard, as I expected them to be there between 9 and 10am and I desperately needed until 9am to get ready. They arrived at 8:45am while my wife and I continued to get dressed. They called me at 8:45, and I responded (somewhat sharply, since I was super stressed) and said, "I'm not ready to receive you; you're before the 9am start of the window, and I wont' be ready to let you in until 9am". I then finished getting ready for the next 15 minutes. At exactly 9am I opened the door and walked out to let them in.
Once outside I greeted the foremen and said, "Hi, sorry about that but we just weren't ready to let you in before the start of the arrival window." I then said (because I had read reviews online complaining they didn't speak English, and I wanted to make sure one of them could translate for the others in case they didn't, since them not speaking English is ok with me so long as we can get by), "do you all speak English?" The foreman said "yes, of course!". I said, "ok, then I'd like to have all 4 of you come in so we can do a walkthrough of the house and I can explain a few special piles and things I don't want you to take." Ar### seemed upset, and said firmly, "I am the foreman. You can tell me what you want." I said, "No, I want all 4 of you to be together when we do the initial walkthrough to make sure you all understand and nobody misses the instructions about what items not to take." Note that my reason is I can NOT risk them packing items I need to paint and clean and repair the house, so I need them all present for the walkthrough! Ar### seemed upset about that. I could tell he was visibly shaken that I had "usurped his authority as the foreman", as I walked outside and asked his other 3 men to accompany us. Ar### then spoke Russian to them (since they didn't understand me well enough to have any clue what I was saying), and I retorted loudly "that's not English!" I was mad that the foreman had lied to me! He hadn't been with me more than 2 minutes and HE HAD ALREADY LIED TO ME! It made me mad! I'm fine if they don't speak English! BUT I'M NOT FINE IF THEY LIE TO ME ABOUT IT! He then said, "oh...well, like 50/50--enough to get by". I said, "well let's do the walkthrough, but if they need any translation, please translate for them." He agreed and said he would, then we did the walk-through. Ar### translated probably 3 of my 30 sentences I stated over the next few minutes as we walked through the house.
Anyway, they did the move, and they did a good job. I made an effort to learn each of their names, and to be friendly to them and talk to them. Dmitri was by far the most cordial and the most anxious to learn English. I commented his English was good, and he emphasized how it could be much better, and he's trying to improve. I believe him. He made an effort to make conversation with me. The other 3 did not, and we had little conversation. Dmitri also is a very skilled mover. I was happy to see him wrap things well and protect corners of book-cases and things. Ar### was also a skilled mover, but his demeanor and dishonesty make me recommend Dmitri become the foreman instead.
Note that NOT ONCE DID THESE GUYS STOP FOR WATER OR FOOD. I was very surprised. Literally, by the end of the 10+ hr day, one of them (I won't mention the name) was cramping due to dehydration, and all of them were STARVING and energy-depleted I'm sure. Heck, even I stopped for water every couple hours and food on two short occasions while I was working with them, and I did a fraction of what they did.
RECOMMENDATION: DON'T TREAT YOUR WORKERS LIKE RUSSIAN SLAVES. GIVE THEM A MANDATORY 30 MINUTE FOOD AND WATER BREAK IF THE JOB GOES OVER 6 HRS, PERIOD. They were energy-depleted, dehydrated, and I'm sure feeling like crap by the end of the day. Lack of food will also cause sluggishness and reduced productivity by the end of the day, regardless of how hard-working they are.
So, fast-forward 8 hrs into the move. They had worked really hard and done a great job. I was pleased with them. I went to the foreman, Ar###, and said pleasantly, "You guys are working really hard and doing a great job. We are getting close to the end and probably have about 2 hrs left. I want to ask you to please tell your men that if you guys keep working hard just like you all have been doing I will give you all a tip. I'm heading to the bank now to get some cash." Ar### angrily replied, to my great astonishment: "yes we will keep working hard like we have been all day!". He seemed to understand nothing about the tip, and he definitely did NOT say a damn word to his men about it. I was totally caught off-guard. Looking back at it, and considering all the facts and events, I have concluded that I think one of the main problems is: 1) Ar###'s poor attitude and passive-aggressive behavior, 2) he was hungry!, 3) his English sucks it turns out. He is about 60% fluent I'd say (note that I speak 3 languages so I have some idea of what this means), and communicates quite well overall but MISSES NUANCES AND IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS EVERYWHERE. This means he probably completely misunderstood what I was saying. In either case, he was mad I offered them all a cash tip! I didn't know what to think about it, so I went to the bank and got enough cash to pay for the whole job plus tip all 4 of them.
While I was at the bank, I also stopped and grabbed $30 of chicken tenders and some French bread loaves to feed all of them plus my family. I got back home and offered them all food at around 6:00pm. They declined and said if they ate they would not be able to work anymore. It baffled me. See my RECOMMENDATION above. I have a feeling there is a strong pecking order among their team and they know they cannot go against the foreman.
They continued working hard, as promised, so at 7:30pm I met the foreman in the garage to sign paperwork, and gave them all cash tips. The 3 other men had quickly disappeared before I could even tip them, so my wife had to bring it to them while they sat in their truck.
Let me say here that they used dolly's (moving trucks / hand trucks) all day up and down my 4 floors of stairs to get my belongings from the ground floor to the 3rd and 4th floor where our condo (with no elevator) was. I was fine with that! Does it stain the carpet with little oil and grease marks from the axle, wheels, and bearings on the dollys? Yes! But that's part of moving! There's nothing they can do about that unless I hire 8 people instead of 4 to move my 12,000 lbs of belongings up 4 floors into my house! So, they did what I expected them to do: use dollys. And the results were as expected: there were small oil/grease stains and marks in a dozen places on the carpet, and there were some minor scuffs on the railing and walls. What am I gonna do about it!? Nothing! I'm gonna thank them for their hard work and pay someone to fix that crap because they were an inexpensive labor source and I have moved a dozen times before and knew what to expect, and was just glad we got it done in < 11 hrs like I had hoped!
Anyway, Ar### has me sign the paperwork. On it, it has places to sign that "no damage of any kind was caused to the house" or whatever. There were 4 or 5 lines under that to describe any damage, if any. So, I started describing the damage: "half-dozen oil marks on stairs, paint scuffs on walls", etc. Ar### is PISSED! I had just given him the tip, and I had just distributed most of the chicken fingers and bread to him (which he also seemed pissed about), and he was PISSED I was describing damage. He was standing over me watching me write, and he literally started huffing and puffing and taking sharp, deep, exasperated breaths loudly to indicate his disdain for what I was writing! (Mind you, these are all strong passive-aggressive tendencies). And the irony of it all!? I was PREPARED TO GIVE THEM 5 STARS ON THIS GOOGLE REVIEW BECAUSE I WAS PROUD OF THEIR WORK UP TO THIS POINT! He starts saying, "ugh..er...um...hmmm! We worked hard all day and you write this!?" "This is crazy!" "In 5 years never have I customer so bad as you!" "This was 20 hr job and we got done in 10.5 hours!" I'm feeling a bit physically alarmed as he's clearly mad, so I calmy say, "yes, I'm just describing the damage your dolly left". He said, "if we didn't use dolly we never would have finished today! You have so much stuff!" I say, "yes, I know. I expected you to use doll.." He cuts me off: "oil marks! Our dolly's have no oil!" I said, "they have grease or oil lubrication for their axl...". He cuts me off and says something to the effect of, "this writing is horrible! It is too small to read!" (He's hoping I'll back down and quit writing about the minor damage). I say, "Ok, then if it is too small and too messy for you to read, I will re-write it. Want me to re-write it?" He says, "Yes!". I pick up the paper to begin slowly and carefully rewriting it in neater font, and he huffs and puffs and walks away and storms into the house to see the marks. I walk behind him and bend down and point at them on the carpet. He sees them, appears even angrier, then takes photos of them. I take photos too. He storms back into the garage where the paperwork is and I finish my remarks and sign the paper while he anxiously paces behind me. He is pissed! He walks away and says something. I'm upset I tipped him! I say to his back while he walks away, "would you like me to take the tip back!?" (knowing, unfortunatley, I can't). And that's it! He storms away leaving me feeling quite unsettled, a bit physically threatened, and very very confused.
So, here's my review. Now you know.
The price is right, but the foreman is not. The work is good, but this stress is not.
See all photos in high resolution here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/rZ66WK1WjNkauW1GA.
Attached are photos of:
- a few of the minor oil stains on the carpet that we are going to pay to fix ourselves--oil stains which come from the lubricated components on the dollies which were dragged up and down our stairs all day--and which I expected based on past moves--and which INFURIATED Ar### so much he TREATED ME LIKE CRAP!
and 2) my writing describing some of these minor damages before I signed the paper
