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August 2024 by Dan Wodtke
Edit 8/3/24 I reached out as requested, but received no follow up as expected.
TLDR - Do not use Willamette Express under any circumstances, most especially if Spencer is your estimator/agent. The entire purpose of hiring movers is to reduce stress and give you back time. Willamette Express and Spencer saw that the opposite occurred.
My experience with Willamette Express was, without hesitation, the single worst customer experience I have had. We were sent to them through a nation-wide logistics firm. We had the local agent Spencer out to our home to see the site and provide a moving estimate for the home as well as an off-site facility. Our home was on a small access road with wires, so we knew a shuttle truck would be required to get items to the semi and specifically requested it. We paid for packing services as well.
The day prior to the truck arriving, the packers arrived to pack. They were polite and fast, but it became clear that the speed was due to the atrocious state of the packing. What we did not know is the depth of the failures. One box had (I am not making this up) a pizza stone laying on top of a sledgehammer among a number of other yard tools with absolutely ZERO paper or padding. A computer monitor was packed in a box that wouldn’t even MOSTLY close, and also had zero paper or padding. Several thousand dollars worth of speakers were thrown into a box with ZERO paper or packing. They are, predictably, gouged and cosmetically ruined.
The driver called the day before loading to confirm the details. He had not been told about the site. He had not been told about the need for a shuttle truck. He had not been told about the off-site storage. Spencer was called on-site to remediate the issue and bring more materials but tried to drop off a couple of boxes and leave. Once forced inside to speak with the driver and myself, he was dismissive, showed no interest in helping, and left as soon as he could. He called back later at my request. I told him the packing situation was being handled by the loaders (NOT Willamette Express associates) but that a significant customer service issue remained. He said, and I quote, "Your feedback is noted and I hope your day gets better." After that, he simply hung up. No apology, no ownership whatsoever.
One would think things had reached their zenith, but it seems that despite our selling/offloading several hundred pounds (including a sectional couch) AFTER Spencer provided his estimate, his original 8500 pound estimate was off by over 4000 pounds. I am currently working to address this colossal failure as charges are based on weight and the customer is responsible for actual weight with no deference to the estimated weight. This makes sense presuming you have competent estimators. We had competing bids, and selected this bid based on the cost. This was clearly a predatorial bid attempting to do exactly what happened. We’d pick the lower bid, be locked in, and just eat the difference. As soon as the bid was agreed to, Spencer was a ghost.
The nationwide logistics firm has stepped up and offered a resolution to address Willamette’s failures. We paid for a moving service to save time and stress, but Spencer has ensured we have had exponentially greater stress and been saddled with several hours of my time now needing to be devoted to remediating this issue. Between the claims process and ensuring something was done to address the utter failure in execution, I'll still need to spend additional hours, but at least that’s procedural.
Do not use Willamette Express. We were directed to them through a quote request via a nationwide moving/shipping firm with whom I worked to reach a very fair outcome given the situation. People rely on these moving services to offer stability and ensure they can continue for all manner of reasons. It is my goal to do what I can to ensure no one has to endure what I've just gone through. Seriously, never use these folks.
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July 2024 by Vasyl Vasylenko
Highest of quality service, friendly people, big smiles.
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May 2024 by M A
My husband and I hired this moving company for our move from Oregon to Florida in January 2024. The representative Darren Siegel seemed knowledgeable, and we decided to go with him. We were told we are getting his "A team" for our move. On the day of packing, the team came and I took them to each room and gave clear instructions. For example, I put the floor heat register covers in a corner and told them not to touch the pile, I was leaving them for the new owners. They did not take down the TV or the large mirror from the wall, said the team who will actually move our household is responsible for taking them down, not them, who are doing the packing. They also did not pack the glass top of the kitchen table. On the day of pick up, another team showed up and said, it was the first team who was supposed to pack the TV and the mirror, as well as the glass top. This team agreed to pack the remaining stuff, although their job was just to load up the truck. In the process, they found out some of the closet drawers were not emptied. Fortunately, they had some packing boxes, tape etc with them, so we used their materials to pack the left over items.
Our things stayed in a climate controlled storage facility in Florida for almost 4 months. We got them delivered after we moved into our new house. My husband supervised the transfer every step of the way, making sure nothing is left behind in the truck or in storage.
As the unpacking started, we realized that a good 10-12 boxes were not labeled. So, the movers could not drop them off in the correct room, everything was dumped in the middle of the living room. Several of the other boxes were mislabeled, like cook ware was found in boxes labeled as tupperware. We had an antique Egyptian chandelier that had several pieces broken, a Tiffany style floor lamp had its stand missing, an office desk lamp was not working any more, an antique Indian side table was unscrewed for packing, but the screws were misplaced, so the table could not be put back together, a console table had the drawer pulls removed for packing, those were missing, and the glass frame of one of my certificates was broken. In addition, they had packed the items I had asked them not to, so it cost me $100 to mail the heat register covers back to Portland, to the new owners
We contacted this company, asking how they would like to compensate us.........NO RESPONSE!
The move cost us 19K, for a very subpar service and zero accountability. Do Not use this company for your move!!
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March 2024 by Bryan Tierney
Willamette helped us with our move recently and I couldn't have been more impressed with the crew and how accommodating John and the office staff was getting us scheduled during the ice storm. Without Willamette Express we wouldn't have known what to do. They were friendly, personable, and extremely efficient. Next time we have to move we will be coming back to this company!
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November 2023 by Tamara Wade
We could not be happier with the results of our recent experience with Willamette express moving company! They were professional, responsive, reliable, and punctual. Communication was also outstanding.! Mishka and Antonio were the bonus and the best part of the overall experience! Their performance, care and concern for our belongings and need’s were met with due diligence and respect.! If you want a no stress, effective, efficient moving company to get the bang for your buck, hire Willamette Express.!!!
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September 2023 by Carole de Glanville
Joe and Lenny were so great, and so helpful and accomodating. They also saved our backs!
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September 2023 by Derek O'Bannon
Joe and panlo were great. So helpful and efficient
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September 2023 by Ralph
Alexander ryan and joe did and amazimg job,and went above and beyond!
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August 2023 by duane griggs
They are a international shipping and moving
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August 2023 by Steve Panfiglio
Joe,alex and Lenny were amazing!
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August 2023 by Scott Milam
Good facility and professional staff.
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August 2023 by Josiah J. Duarte
Went with Calvin For a Job Interview
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April 2023 by A Nomad's Journal
Unfortunately, Willamette Express LTD has a hard time paying their employees. They provide paper timesheets that employees use to clock in and out; then when payday comes around, employees are paid less than half of what they are owed, due to the employer stating the don't have their time clock sheets. When you work there, other employees warn you to keep your own copy of your time sheets, so you can provide the employer with the proper wages they should be paying you. If you quit due to non-payment, rest assured they will never mail you your last check.We have filed a complaint with the Department of Labor and the BBB. We are expecting justice to prevail and hope that hard working employees get treated better. We have given this company multiple chances to do the right thing, and it's unfortunate that we have had to work so hard to get paid,Please give your time and money to other companies who provide quality service, fulfill their contractual agreements, and do not practice illegal employment practices.
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April 2023 by Rachel E.
I would like to inquire as to why you don't pay your employees? I have a friend who is fighting to get his last paycheck from you and all attempts at communicating have been unsuccessful. Therefore I hope to warn everyone researching this company that there is a high chance that they will be met with unprofessional behavior and the possibility of working for a company that is dishonest and apparently supports extorting people for labor.
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April 2023 by nevs R.
Does not pay employees if they think they can get away with it. There are definitely more respectable moving companies out there.
