Hired Hands

THEY NEVER SHOWED. THEY JUST… NEVER SHOWED UP.
We scheduled Hired Hands to pack our apartment into a U-​haul truck for 2pm on a Sunday. We were driving to Boston the next morning. 3pm rolled around, and we started worrying. We could not get anybody on the phone or on email. We got a call at 1pm THE NEXT DAY with NO EXCUSE. Just «um, we apologize for that.»

I recently moved to Cortland, NY from Michigan. In early July, I called Hired Hands to schedule three movers to unload my belongings into my house in Cortland. I received verbal confirmation from an assistant manager that they would be there to meet me on August 6 at 2:00pm. After driving all of my belongings to Cortland in time to meet the movers there by 2:00pm on August 6, they no-​showed me. At 2:15, I called them and got their voicemail with a message saying that they were out of the office on August 4, but would be returning calls on August 5… which was all the more confusing because it was August 6. I continued to call back, but wasn’t able to leave a voicemail because the mailbox was full. I called the parent company, which was also closed. I called another company under the parent company (they are all housed in the same building), and they had no idea where any of the Hired Hands employees were. I was forced to get a hotel that night (I couldn’t unload any of the furniture myself), adding to my total moving expenses, and had to find some last-​minute movers who were twice as expensive as Hired Hands and frankly didn’t do a great job. On Friday, August 8, I finally received a call back from Hired Hands. The person who called blamed the issue on another employee and offered to come unload my things on August 12! Ridiculous. After seeing all of the positive reviews, I felt sure that this was the best company around. But after being out an additional $ 500 (because of the hotel and more expensive movers), I certainly don’t recommend them.

I didn’t fully realize quite how excellent these movers were until I unfortunately took a chance on another company (because of ostensibly lower rates). By comparison, they are in a league of their own. Ultimately I paid $ 200 less for Hired Hands to move my one bedroom apartment to a storage unit and then all the way to a third floor walk-​up in Brooklyn than I did for another company to move my items from a first floor one bedroom in Manhattan to a storage unit in Ithaca.
They worked fast and without complaint, they showed up on time, they did not damage any of my belongings, they loaded the storage unit in such a way that many of my items were still accessible over the Summer, and they were even willing to accommodate a request to unload the storage unit without me present, which saved me a four hour drive. Their professionalism made what should have been a very stressful experience incredibly easy.

Hired Hands Moving Company is great! As a new grad student in Ithaca doing a cross country move, I hired Hired Hands to help me move all my things into my new apartment. I was very satisfied with their services and have used them for every move I’ve made in Ithaca since (Comes out to FOUR moves total, and they were GREAT every time). I admit I was surprised and impressed that several times they assured me that I would be able to pack all my belongings into a single storage unit and/​or Relo-​cube, and did it both times with room to spare!
They’re fast and professional. Most movers are recent Cornell grads or local Ithacans back home for break, which is nice because you’re helping college folks earn some extra cash. Friendly folks, good rates.

After hearing about some of the questionable practices from the more established movers in Ithaca, I went with Hired Hands for my move from Ithaca to Manhattan. The rates were far less than any other quote I received, but with no recommendations at all from anyone, personal or otherwise, I was a bit nervous.
I was so relieved. Hired Hands is a student-​run organization that seems to be managed by current or recently graduated Cornell students, and hires mainly college-​aged guys for part time labor. Knowing that, I’m sure everyone’s experience can be a bit variable, but my experience was impeccable. Everyone showed up on time for the move out, the truck and the guys arrived on time for the move in, and everyone worked their asses off moving all of my junk on those hot summer days. This is especially shocking (I’m a cynic, I know), since they charge per hour. The way they were carrying two, three boxes up my walk-​up at a time, it could’ve t fooled me.
Keep in mind that these guys are licensed only for in-​state moves, but you can forget about hauling stuff to California, but if you’re moving between NYC and Ithaca, I couldn’t recommend these guys more strongly.