Tri State One Rate Movers

I have to admit I was EXTREMELY nervous using Flat Rate because of the reviews I had read but a good friend of mine, whom I trust thoroughly, recommended them and I had already signed the contract so I figured what the hell! Also, a couple of the reviews did not sound legit.
Let me begin by saying this is the first time out of roughly 15 moves that I have ever used a mover and I only did this time because I now have a daughter and just did not have the energy to pack and move with a needy infant on my hands. So, I first contacted them about 3 months before our move, the guy was super nice, showed up on time and did the inventory in about 10 – 15 minutes. This was good for me because, like i said, I have a baby at home that requires lots of attn. I had told him I would not need any boxes (at the time I thought that it would be an additional cost, which I definitely did not have). By that evening, he had emailed me with the cost. I wasn’t expecting it till Monday at the earliest, so that was nice. Then, he dealt with my daily calls and questions about the contract for a month before I decided to sign it and then when I decided I DID need boxes, he said he would include them in the cost and had them delivered the very next day.
Moving day, he told me they would be there by 9am and they showed up at 8:50 on the dot. I have a feeling I could have been a little more prepared but he didn’t say anything other than, dont worry about it we have a box for that or dont worry about it we can put that here blah blah. The workers (an additional 3 men) were also nice, including the one that delivered the boxes who you could tell was the managers right hand man. One guy was sick and a little sluggish, but as someone who has worked many years myself, I know we all have our off days so it didnt bother me so much. Other than that they were in and out in about 2 hours — I thought to myself THIS IS AWESOME HAHA. Never again will i move myself.
So to conclude, the reason I gave 4 stars instead of 5 is for a couple of reasons — I have 2 cribs — one for her room and one we used as a sidecar to our bed bc she prefers being with us. the one next to our bed had a bar that broke. This didn’t upset me too much bc it was a used crib purchased at a cheap price from craigslist AND we are no longer using it anyway and im just grateful it wasn’t her actual crib! And he was very apologetic and nice about it the whole thing. The second issue was I had forgotten to take a shelf off my entertainment stand which was my responsibility but I forgot and so they did. The pegs for it were somehow lost. I had called and he said if they found them he would mail them to me no problem, but I guess they never found them and so I bought new ones which cost me a whopping $ 2.00 or so. Had it been something that was their responsibility I may have been more upset but if I had just done it myself then their would not have been an issue to begin with.
As for the price, id say it was middle of the road compared to others. They are known for giving you a set price and i have heard horror stories about getting a fat add on at the very end of a move which is a big deal for me because I am working on a budget so I WOULD NOT have had, even if I wanted to lol. So overall, id say this move was pretty successful!

WOW, this company did NOT live up to the glowing reviews posted here, and there was actually alot of intimidation on their part ot post a glowing review as well which I thought was pretty strange.
I used Flat Rate movers for a long distance move from Brooklyn NY to Los Angeles. Perhaps they are better on local moves, but if you are looking for Long Distance movers, beware!
I’m going to be as honest as possible, not every aspect was bad, but I would NEVER recommend them to a mover because the bad parts of the experience were HORRIFIC and outweighed any positives. So, let’s start there: the booking process and overall estimates were fairly good. The price was fair though not the lowest or the highest. The representative I dealt with was friendly and informative. A long distance move with FlatRate does have some complications though whcih gave me pause and these are things you should know.
First, because of NYC restrictions, a large truck cannot make it into NYC. Therefore, they have to put your items into a smaller truck while at your home, then move them to a larger truck (manually) somewhere off-​site. Obvioulsy the more «handles» your items go through, the larger chance of damage. Also, in my case, we were moving across country without a «new address» as of yet. Flat Rate does provide a 30-​day storage option, where your items are picked up in NYC, moved into a storage location in NJ until you call with an address, then packed back on a truck and delivered to you. However — this means 4 «handles». I’ve since learned that other companies will actually place all your items in a container, place the container in storage (without handling it again), then place the container on a truck and deliver to you from that same original container — this means your items never go thru more than 2 handles — one at pickup and one at delivery. I understood these risks, but I was assured that the teams handling my items were very careful, so I went ahead an booked with Flat Rate.
On the day of the move, the movers were an hour late, but they did call in advance to say they were stuck in traffic. Other than that, the pickup move was positive — good guys, efficient and professional. That is about where any positive experience ends though.
Once we got to LA and found our permanent home, we called Flat Rate to give them our address and schedule the delivery. We were told multiple times in the «sales process» that from the time we call with an address, our items would be delivered in 7 – 10 days. You can imagine then that we were shocked when we called on July 5^th and we were told that our belongings would not be delivered for 20+ days. The excuse we were given was that summer is a peak moving time and they were back-​logged. My feeling is that they should have accounted for those kind of spikes in both their verbal estimates to me, as well as in their operations planning. If you tell customers that you will deliver in 7 – 10 days, then you should plan your operations accordingly to maintain those service levels. Or, for customers that are moving over the summer, you should explain that delivery can take 20+ days BEFORE they choose to sign a contract with you. As it stood, there was little we could do at that point except wait out the 3 weeks on a blow-​up mattress with the few clothing items we’d packed in our luggage and no other belongings.
Even though that was horrible, I still may have given a few more stars on this review; but that was before we saw the complete damage that had been wrought on our possessions once delivered. I do not exaggerate, out of 90 items on our inventory, there were less than 5 items that appeared in tact. I have moved many, many times and have used various companies, Bekins, Allied, and I have NEVER seen this much damage. I am a fairly realistic person and I realize that things will get damaged in a move, it is a reality. However, what separates this experience for me is that there was a blatant disregard for any kind of professional handling. 100% of the boxes when delivered had CONSIDERABLE damage. Luckily, most of the items inside the boxes survived fairly intact, but there were 1 – 2 casualties in most boxes. Also, we carefully marked the fragile boxes as «fragile» and also marked the boxes with arrows as to whcih end was intended to be UP. However, when the delivery crew took the boxes from the truck and loaded them on the dollys, many boxes were brought in upside down, and boxes that were clearly marked «fragile dishware» or «extremely fragile» were being crushed below 3 – 4 boxes that were marked «heavy books».
At the end of the move-​in, we were called by the long distance moving coordinator to ask how our move went. I told him how frustrated we were at the lack of care our items had been given. He apologized and indicated that «someone would call us the next day». That was 7 days ago and we have not yet been called. Hope this helps others.

I’ve used Flat Rate Movers 3 times in the past 3 years. Pricing is great and the service is exemplary. I have not had a single item broken or misplaced, the movers have consistently been prompt, courteous, and diligent. I strongly suggest using Flat Rate Movers!
— Jeff L.

Flat Rate Movers did both an amazing job packing us yesterday and moving us today. They were polite, professional, hard working and pleasant guys. They took great care of our furniture down to the smallest item. They made everything so easy and stress free, the best moving company i have used in Manhattan.