I’ve been meaning to post this for a while now, and keep spacing it.
Some time before the move, Prairie and I decided that we didn’t have the time, energy, or interest in doing all the heavy lifting of furniture and thousands of books ourselves, and started looking for local moving companies. Prairie dug through Google for a day, came up with a few, and hit their websites to see how expensive it would be to hire movers. None of the sites gave even rough ideas right away, though a few of them had ‘online estimate’ forms, so Prairie filled a few out to see what they said.
Of the three or four she filled out, the only company to get back to us was Jordan River Moving and Storage. They called us back, we had a brief conversation about just how much work there would be, and they gave us an estimate. Since we had never done this before and had no idea what to expect for pricing, we waited another couple days to see what other quotes we would get — but since nobody else bothered to call us back, we decided just to go with Jordan River.
The day of the move, it was quickly obvious that this was a good idea. Perhaps this is slightly colored by our not having hired movers before, but the guys from JR were incredible. We got a team of three, and even though they had to deal with a power outage at our old apartment that kept the hallways quite dark and a third-floor apartment on the other end, they just flew through everything. We’d figured on four to five hours for the process, but they got the whole thing — loading, driving from Northgate to Kent, and unloading — done in just barely over three hours. Watching them work was amazing, hefting three heavy boxes of books at once and practically running up the stairs, lifting larger items up and over the railing of the outside stairs to avoid half of the stair climb…wow. I tried to pitch in for a few minutes, but it quickly became obvious that I was just getting in the way, so I stepped back again.
In the end, the whole thing was done under the estimated time (and therefore under the estimated budget), and we were more than happy to give them a good-sized tip. While we don’t expect to be moving anytime soon again, we’ll definitely be giving Jordan River a call when the time comes. Highly recommended.
Tagged: business, moving, recommended
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It just goes to show that it pays to get someone who is used to doing this every day; they do it right, and they do it quickly.
While I won’t be using Jordan River Moving and Storage any time soon (I don’t think they serve southern California), I’m glad that the two of you had a good experience with them.
Where does JR work out of? Are they a Kent or Seattle area company or neither?
According to their website, they’re based out of Kirkland, WA.
Please call the company, ask for the highest supervisor (and then ask a couple more times) and share your story. I love the expression — or tone of voice — when asking for a supervisor. I presume one rarely asks for a supervisor for a compliment, but does so frequently for a complaint. Putting it in writing with workers names, if you know them, and sending enough copies for each workers file is super. They can easily be dropped into a file for the next time a performance review comes ‘round.
I’m glad you were pleased. You might have been able to assist with the lifting when you were throwing around cases of paper everyday. Boy, what a softy you are after a couple years of sales and office/school work!
Love you. Mum
I already called — in fact, I called just a day or two afterwards, then e-mailed them after I made this post. They seemed glad to hear it!
woh….you must have used a different Jordan River Moving and Storage from Kirkland, because my experience (and many web reviews support this) was extremely negative - culminanting in the criminal — read on:
I was moving across country and contacted Isaac’s Relocation, as I was pleased with how they’d handled a past move. However, on learning Isaac’s would be sub-contracted to Jordan River Moving and Storage, the direct quote from Jordan River Moving was so much lower I went with them. Despite seeing negative web reviews, if Isaac’s was vouching for them, that was good enough for me.
This is very unfortunate because so far I am missing two iPods and, briefly, MY CAR – - the key was apparently not hidden well enough and one of the Jordan River Moving movers stole it. I’m still unpacking and dreading finding out that something else is missing.
Apparently, the driver is an employee, but the second person unloading goods into my HOME – Jordan River Moving has no records, not a name, not an address, not a driver’s license photocopy, not anything. Jordan River’s customer service keeps saying call the police, but there’s nothing they can do without the basic personal information one would expect an employer to take on an employee.
I understand it is industry practice to hire local workers at the delivery end of moves, but Jordan River Moving takes this to the next level and apparently does nothing in the way of due diligence, not even writing down a name let alone doing a background check for criminals.
Fortunately, the criminal employed by Jordon River Moving managed to park the car in a permit-only location and get it towed, so several hundred dollars later for impound retrieval, plus $1000 to get the car keys changed, and assorted other steps I’ll want to take to buff up security, the situation seems to be resolving itself…I hope.
It is incomprehensibly irresponsible that Jordan River Moving has no records of an employee (temporary, outsourced, or otherwise), and that Jordan River Moving takes no responsibility for hiring criminals. Jordan River’s service throughout had been poor, ending finally with this stunning lack of even the slightest consciousness of due diligence and sense of responsibility. I guess I should feel extremely lucky to have only had a Jordan River Moving thief stealing in my house instead of someone committing more serious crimes.
If you value your safety and the safety of your loved ones, and your valuables – Do not use Jordan River Moving and Storage. A web search will produce a number of other terrible reviews – which sadly I did not listen to because Isaac’s was ‘vouching’ for them by sub-contracting to them.
The “NOT Recommended” experience matches up more closer with other web reviews. The following reviews have further information on Jordan River Moving’s history of legal troubles, terrible service, and overall outrageous business practices.
Numerous legal actions against Jordan River Moving and Storage — http://wutc.wa.gov/rms2.nsf/frm2005VwDSWeb!OpenForm&vw2005L1DktSh=051472-Documents&NAV999999 http://wutc.wa.gov/webimage.nsf/frmFindItSearch?OpenForm=1&q=Jordan%20River%20Moving%20and%20Storage
http://jordan-river-moving-and-storage.pissedconsumer.com/ including an interesting note: http://www.pissedconsumer.com/consumer-reviews/moving-and-storage/jordan-river-moving-and-storage-opinions-%11-service%11moving-and-storage-2004021072374.html … The DOT rating of satisfactory is not like the BBB. It simply means you have not failed an inordinate number of inspections. I have yet to see someone with an unsatisfactory rating. Quit trying to mislead everyone. In fact, your driver Out Of Service rating is 99.6 (100 being the worst).
Customers should also know that Jordan River has had its license revoked twice in the last 7 months.
http://www.yellowpages.com/info-IY245054970/Jordan-River-Moving-Storage/reviews http://www.yellowbot.com/jordan-river-moving-storage-mercer-island-wa.html http://www.yelp.com/biz/jordan-river-moving-and-storage-kirkland
Thanks for the extra information. All I know is that in my personal experience, Jordan River was friendly, efficient, fair-priced, and exactly what we needed. Perhaps we got lucky — and if so, that’s fine with me — but we, at least, had a good experience.
As the owner of Jordan River Moving & Storage I would like to take moment to respond to the compliant filed by this customer. I would first like to say that this customer is grossly misrepresenting the facts of this move.
I met the customer personally when I did his visual estimate in Seattle. He is 30 years old, but still has his mother managing his life for him. Since he was a referral from Isaacs Moving I gave him a do not exceed quote based on his previous move. His mother was the one who was coordinating the pick up with us. She was very rude to me, our movers and to the customer service. We allowed her to write what ever she liked on the contract. Her attitude did a 180 turn when she was told that upon weighing the shipment, it weighed less than the 5200 lbs. They were refunded accordingly.
We delivered the items within the promised time frame, nothing was damaged or missing. The driver did indeed hire a temp worker to help unload the shipment in Baltimore. I will repeat NOTHING WAS MISSING OR DAMAGED, after the delivery was completed. The customer signed all his moving documents, stating that he had received all of his items.
The day after the delivery the customer called to tell us that he was missing items. At that time he told us that the temp worker had come back that day stating that he had lost his cell phone in the customer’s house during the move the previous day. He allowed the man to look though is house unsupervised, while the customer went back to his computer. Who the hell does something like that? When he called looking to get the man’s name our customer service rep told him she would look into it and get back to him. I would also like to note that the neighbor hood that this customer moved into a very dangerous, crime- ridden neighborhood. Furthermore this customer can not be sure that someone else did not see the delivery and decide to come back the following day and act like he was an employee of ours.
The following day, he called back stating that his car was now missing. When the customer service rep asked if he had contacted the police, he response was no, he was waiting for us to get information about the temp worker. She asked him, “Why wouldn’t you call the police, when your car is missing.” He is a very strange man, I know because I have met him.
So let me ask you, why would we be responsible after the move is complete? During all phases of the move nothing was missing or damaged. Every thing was done professionally and the delivery was completed on time, for less money then he had expected to pay.
For him to say that he received poor service from Jordan River Moving & Storage is not only rude, it is simply untrue. I can understand though, it is not easy for any person to admit that he was foolish and made a poor choice.
I urge any potential customer reading this complaint to look at all of the wonderful reviews there are about our company. We would also be more than happy to provide anyone with referrals from other customers who were very happy with the service the received from or company. We would also like to make it clear that the “facts” this customer provided about our company are completely false and untrue.
Sharon Joseph Owner
Sharon Joseph Owner
Jordan River NOT RECOMMENDED.
As a former employee, I can vouch for all of the negative experiences that have been stated for Jordan River.
The owners are sexist jerks who make fun of ANYONE lower than they are. They do not care about customers, just the money that comes out of the moves.
The the people who do the local moves are usually lucky. They actually get the trained employees, who know what they are doing.
With the long distance moves, that is a different story. They do not properly prepare for the moves, they use people from LABOR READY and other companies like that, which use people that have NO IDEA what they are doing, and are generally VERY sketchy people.
I am not a disgruntled employee that got fired, I am just here to let people know the facts.
I am SO sorry for anyone who used them and had a bad move. Just warn your friends!
If you want to increase your chances of a pleasant moving experience, choose a moving company that is affiliated with a large brand. Allied Van Lines is a national company with agents all over the U.S. and Canada.
Used Allen & Coles Moving Systems - The entire office was so accommodating with our cross-country move that I would not hesitate to use them again if the need arose. The professionalism and comfort I had with the organization can not be duplicated!
First mistake was taking a reccomendation from Issac’s Relocation. What a bunch of clowns they are. Never use anyone associated with Issac’s. They lo-balled me, charged twice as much… apparently common for them from ather rvws i read. Their guys packed horribly and raided our fridge for food and BEER! What morons. Lots of broken stuff.