Company Name:

DELAUTER’S A-1 MOVING HELPERS

Category:

Moving

Services Performed:

Yes

* More Weight is given to a report where work has been completed.

Work Completed Date:

October 07, 2010

Last Modified Date:

November 23, 2010

Hire Again:

No

Approximate Cost:

$4,100.00

Home Build Year:

1994

Description Of Work:

I originally met and spoke with the owner, John Delauter.  During our first meeting he brought his 4-year-old daughter that I had to entertain just to keep her quite so that he could do his estimate/job.  That should have been my first red flag but having a daughter myself, I understand how children can be.   But come on this is your business; find a sitter while you’re out doing your quotes…. Now before I go any further with my complaints, I will tell you that I am the easiest person to get along with and to work with.  Now with that being said, we came up with a price originally he quoted me $4,300.00.  Which I thought was outrageous.  He said ok then if you pay cash I will give you a break and charge $4,100.00.  He thought giving me one flat rate would be best. (I wanted to make note that I wrote my check out to his name at 11 am for the full amount and he had already cashed it before 12 noons.)  And that was before anything had taken place.  My move was from York, Pa.  To Crisfield, Md., which is about a 4 hour, drive.  So for that price, it included packing up my one bedroom apartment, which is only less than 400 square feet total.  I don’t keep a lot of clutter so the packing really didn’t take long.  It included 3 packers that came the following day, October 7, 2010. They had me packed up within a few hours.  I wasn’t around to see them pack up and when I returned, all the boxes were already stacked in the hallway so I couldn’t see what they had written on them.  The price included a 24ft truck, and 3 movers. With stops and pickup of additional furniture at Windsor (sectional sofa) which was up the street from him, then another stop on Carlisle road, (dining room set) then our final pick up was in Hanover, pa to pick up my roommates belongings which consisted of boxes, a grill and some additional smaller pieces of furniture.  Well when we got to Hanover, they quickly informed me that they didn’t have much room left so we had to end of leaving most of my new roommates boxes/furniture behind.  So I will now have to hire someone else to move those items and pay even more money on top of all the money I just paid out to John Delauter A1 Moving Helpers.   From Hanover we were on our way to Maryland.  To our new house, which they were supposed to go to and deliver our furniture in the rooms, provided for boxes/furniture that should have been marked for easy delivery.  It was anything but.

Member Comments:

Now the real problems.  I was elated with this company in the beginning I couldn’t praise them enough… then it all turned around, it all began when we were about to leave and I ask them do they know where they were going??  They looked at each other as if was crazy or something…and said no one gave use any direction.  Now as a professional company that I had assumed had done many of moves before would of had a GPS or something…no.they had nothing… so I told them to follow me… well they were driving about 40 miles per hour and at that rate we would of gotten at our destination at midnight.  So after I got to where I knew where I was going, I called them and told them to take my GPS and I would meet them there.  Immediately they got lost cause they didn’t know how to use the very user friendly GPS.  I helped them get back on track and continued on…. As I was pulled over waiting for them to find us so that we could give them my GPS, a women was broke down with her car…. her phone was dead so I elected to stay behind to help them till AAA got there.  Well that put them about a 1/2 hour ahead of me…so I call my sister-in-law ahead of time and ask her to ask them to please wait 15 mins that I would soon be there…they said no we are going to start moving her stuff/boxes into the house… she can move them where ever she wants them when she decides … they have a job at 6am in the morning and they have a long drive home cause they have over a 1000 boxes they have to move tomorrow morning…When I did arrived as indicated 15 to 20 mins later I walked into my house, which was my first time ever being in the house, it looked like a bomb had went off.  Boxes were scattered everywhere… furniture just sitting in the middle of each room… I ask the guys if they were going to help me put the furniture where it should be and they looked at each other like I was crazy for even asking them…I was scared to ask them to do anything cause if I did I felt they were going to bite my head off…There was absolutely no supervision whatsoever…I was later told that the one that one playing catch/ball with the neighborhood kids while passing my furniture to the other two guys, was suppose to be the supervisor.  This was a big surprise to me.  They finally got all my furniture/boxes in my house but not before causing damage, which I took many pictures of including the way everything looked when they were done.  The boxes were marked so bad that it literally took 2 weeks to sort thought the boxes to figure out where everything was suppose to go.  My hardwood floors that had just been rebuffed and shined had scratches and marks from dragging stuff instead of picking up the furniture/boxes.  There were nicks and scratches on most of the walls… I had to hire painters at my expense to get things back to the way the landlord had it.  Again another expense out of my pocket.   I have to hire someone to rebuff the hardwood floors, which is another expense to me.  They also cracked the showerhead, which now leaks, and the shower rod that was a special order, which cost over $200.00, was bent and had to be replaced.  They bent this probably rushing to take it down.  This move by far has cost me more than a down payment on a new house.  Let me give you an example of how some of the boxes were labeled.  Curtins (yes that is how it was spelled.) and instead of taking my curtains down, folding them and putting the rods in separate box…they wrapped the curtains around the rods and stuffed the in a box altogether.  Another box labeled: Cloth? Odds and ends, Kitchen but never put what was in box. Pantry, Food, cloths from bedroom. Cleaners, living room, again non-specific, Connie’s Stuff.  Everything was Connie’s stuff…so that made no sense.  So you can see why it took 2 weeks to go through everything…I had to start putting my own bed together cause if I didn’t I wouldn’t of had a place to sleep.  They were very little help…so that I could motivate them I ran out and got them drinks, offered food. Anything to keep them from complaining…. this has been by far the worst experience I have ever had with a company… So all in all they did about 20 hours worth of work.  When it was time for them to leave they were so worried that they were going to get lost so I even had to give the my GPS so that they wouldn’t get lost.  However, If I didn’t keep calling/texting, I don’t think they would of even of sent me back my GPS.  Just where do these companies come from????   So the way I see it they charged me $200.00 per hour.  So I went on line and also call a couple of other companies only to be told of how I got ripped off…that they saw me coming a mile away.  I understand that the going rate for 3 packers and one truck is about 95.00 per hour.   So I should have been charge only $1805.00 at the most.  And then on top of it they didn’t complete the entire move.   So I still have to go back to PA and hire someone to get the rest of my roommate’s items that they didn’t have room on the truck.  What also really angers me is I could of paid my 3 brothers $500.00 each.  And rented a Pensky Truck. (Which is what they pulled up in) so I could of done this whole move for under 1500.00 not $4100.00.  These people really ripped me off.   Had I got good service, and they didn’t do damage and had the called me back when I called to complain, and resolved my complaints then I wouldn’t be so angry about this whole situation.  The owner of the company won’t return my calls, all he has done is throw me onto one of his packers, which she promise she would talk with him and call me back.  When I didn’t hear back from her for a week, I decided to text him and then he responded to my text and when I ask him to call me he stopped texting.  That has been the extent of our conversation.  He hasn’t offered to take care of damages even though he claims to be insured and has offered no refund what so ever… I will never, ever use them nor refer them to anyone…. and every change I get unless I get some resolution, I will tell as many people as I can about this company… don’t let those testimonies fool you.  I made the mistake in believing them…don’t you do the same…thanks. This company completely misrepresented themselves.  Please just so you don’t end up kicking  yourself iyour you know what daily…DO NOT AND I REPEAT DO NOT EVER USE THESE PEOPLE…EVER!!!

                      Stay As Far Away As Possible

Would give negative stars if possible. Hungover; broke items, took multitude breaks,complained, etc. all while being paid BY THE HOUR. Nice scam if you can get it.

September 30, 2011 by Lise Morin in York, PA

BAD, BAD, BAD Unethical owner & Company

Unfortunately you can’t give 0 stars to this sham of a company. John DeLauter makes all kinds of claims about the people he has moved, mostly attorneys & judges. He broke into my home without a court order and removed premarital items. After the judge ordered the items returned to the inside of my home to be inventoried for 30 days, he dumped them all of them in my driveway. DON’T TRUST HIM WITH ANYTHING HE SAYS.

January 14, 2012 by Frank Ferrentino in York, PA

 

Terrible Company and owner

He defied a court order to move the entire contents from a garage into the basement of an enclosed area, instead dumped the entire contents in the driveway of our property where the Judge had ordered we had 30 days to inventory it. We had to hire a reputable Company at our expense to move the items to our basement through Bilco doors. He wanted more money to perform a task he was supposed to do from the start. When you hear the name of John DeLauter, run as fast as possible!!!

January 16, 2012 by Madeline Mastro in Millville, NJ