Callan & Woodworth Moving & Storage

This move was like our own personal worst enemies maliciously packed our stuff, in an effort to cause the most work possible unpacking & reassembling.
We had moved with professional movers once before, so I took the time to go around the old house, putting up very basic signs to indicate where things would go in the new house (kids’ room, baby’s room, basement, garage, etc.) However, a large portion of the boxes were not labeled at all, as regards to originating room or contents.
When the boxes were delivered, they were literally opening a lot of them, and asking me which room to bring them to. However with six guys carrying things in to two different entrances, and only one of me, a good portion of the items were delivered to completely wrong areas of the house. For instance, I found food & kitchen items in the garage and basement.
Some of the boxes were labeled, but these did not all get to the correct destinations. We had a lot of boxes labeled «books», and they even had markings of which rooms they originated in! However, rather than putting the books in the corresponding offices, or kids’ rooms, they were all put in the same place, leaving us to move boxes of books across the house & down stairs.
Part of the deal is that the movers are supposed to put back together whatever they had taken apart. The loose parts are supposed to be put into a «parts» box, and labeled for later assembly. We had two «parts» boxes, filled with miscellaneous items, but parts littered everywhere, to be lost and possibly found. I still have a mismatch of odd parts that I have found in random places, that I have no idea what they go to.
One of the movers showed me the baby’s crib parts, with slots falling out of the rails, and skeptically asked me if I would like him to put the crib back together. As they were leaving, I spotted the high chair sitting in the kitchen with no legs. I asked where the legs were, and one of them said definitively, «in the garage.» (The garage was packed solid with boxes and other random items at that point. I did have them find the legs & put that back together.)
They put the Lazy Boy back together, but left the screws out, so it was just loosely sitting together. We had an exercise trampoline & 3 of the 6 legs were with the trampoline part. The other 3 legs were (much later) miraculously found stuffed into tight little formed corners of a milk crate in the garage that had something else stuffed into it. An exercise ball had the plug pulled, never to be found.
In the old house, I had a stiff fabric box, with a lid Velcro-​ed on, filled with mementos from the kids. It had school pictures, newspaper clippings mentioning them, magazines from when they were born, Christmas letters I have received, and silver coins they had received from their grandparents. The silver coins were packed tightly, so as not to rattle. I would have expected them to place this box in a moving box & move it as-​is. Instead, it seemed to have been looted by professional thieves. Some of these items were stuffed inside a plastic bin with the kids’ slot cars (photos rumpled, etc.). Other items were found mixed in with other kids’ toys. The fabric box & the silver coins were never found.
Mountains and mountains of paper were used in this move, but no paper was used in some important places. Professional looking packing paper was used to wrap some of the kids’ wooden toys, but a delicate wood & brass wind-​up Grandfather-​style clock was tossed sideways into a box with no paper, next to some items from the garage. Two heavy glass mosaic mirrors were stacked, with no paper, on top of delicate music gear, that was found bent & dented. A box labeled «toiletries» contained loose makeup with tops falling off and pump-​style lotions, not wrapped in any paper, on top of speaker wire and piano books from the living room.
I had my necklaces hanging on a jewelry hanger with lots of hooks. Packing tape was used to tape all my necklaces to the hooks. It was very difficult to remove all of the miserable packing tape from the beads and chains.
We have a 400 disc CD changer. I specifically mentioned to the guy who sold us the job, that this would need to be kept level. I also left a note on it to keep it level. It was packed on its side, with all the CDs dumped out inside and scratched up.
All of our files were stored in a file cabinet. They removed all of the folders from the drawers, and stuffed them into boxes. Some of the folders were folded backwards, with misc. papers spilled out and mixed up. Our tax records and receipts from previous years got all mixed up in the bottom of a box.
I would give them one star because the items from the kitchen were wrapped in paper & packed with care.
Overall, I was highly disappointed and wished I had done more research before hiring them.

The best mover we ever had … they were professional thru out the move… I would recomend them to anyone… AAA

I stored my furniture for over a year but when I attempted to empty them I was reminded this was a long term storage. Colleen who schedules workers to be at the storages, charges an additional $ 35 to your monthly storage fee. in addition to their charges she is condescending, irritable and really tells you she is too busy to help you schedule. its on her time, when she wants to help. after a year of fees and extra charges I believe a company should treat you better. The owner is understanding and helpful when I nicely told him Colleen should not have contact with the public. I will never use them unless I deal directly with the owner. she told me it was $ 600 to use a dumpster but the owner offered this to me for $ 50. many people use this facility for a few months so why the problems to empty them after a year and a half. Customer service doesnt exist.

Moving is never very much fun and I am surprised at the negative reviews of this company. I used them for a 3 bedroom house move from Ann Arbor, MI to Houston, TX.
The person (Mike) who provided the initial quote was professional and even showed up to assist in loading the truck. The loading process was quick, efficient and smooth. The month of storage was a little expensive, but not unexpected. The unloading also went smoothly and the driver and his assistant did a great job.
Overall the price (since we were paying out of pocket) was very fair and only a very small premium over what it would have cost me to do it myself. The service was great and they were very quick to respond to any questions that I had throughout the move. There was very little damage to any of our belongings and they were on time on both ends of the move. I would definitely recommend this company as an option for anyone who is moving.
Charlie

Agree with one of the other reviews. My pick-​up and delivery occurred after the scheduled and agreed upon periods. I never received notice of delays until the last minute. I didn’t receive specific times, presumably because the moving company knew they wouldn’t hit them.
Just misrepresentation and unprofessional conduct all-​around. I have moved many times in my life (in-​town, interstate, international) and I have never dealt with movers like this. I will be sharing my thoughts with the BBB.

It’s hard to pick a moving company, but please believe me when I say DO NOT USE THIS MOVING COMPANY even if your life depended on it. Run for the hills.
They are unbelievably unprofessional and rude on the phone. They will never call you back when you call them. They wont answer your questions. They will schedule a firm pick up date for your belongings and then not come at all.
Your move will be 10 times more stressful than it should be. They’ve cost me thousands of dollars extra because they can’t get their act together.
How can a moving company like this stay in business?
I wish I could give negative stars.
You have been warned.

This was the moving broker I used for my move from Michigan to Dallas. They set up all the specifics with the other companies involved in the process. They sent the packing team to my home on time on the day we agreed upon. My only complaint was that my initial first contact was not the greatest at responding to my questions on a timely basis. Once I started talking to someone else at the company, my questions got answer quickly and accurately. I can’t really give any idea on how much it all cost since the firm paid for all my packing, loading and moving expenses, everything was billed directly to the firm.