134

10 Penniman Rd

Boston , MA 02134



(617) 202-6047

This was my first time using movers. I was moving my stuff from my dad's house to my first apartment. Overall, I thought they did a great job. They estimated it was going take three hours and, although I assumed it would take much longer, because the men moved very quickly and efficiently, they were done in the time they estimated. They were very careful with taking apartment my bed and putting it back together, and they made sure my dresser was wrapped up so it didn't get scratched/damaged. My only complaint is that they have a three hour arrival time window, I wish they could have given a time, or a shorter window. Also, not really a complaint, but something to pay attention to is that if they have to use some various materials, you will be charged extra. However, they state that in the paperwork and the lead mover explained that policy to me when he first arrived.

Moving is stressful, you deserve better. This company is despicable, atrocious, vile, corrupt, deplorable, shady, and villainous. Is that enough for you to move on? I hope so. If not, read on. I hired them in 2009 for a move from Boston to DC. My belongings were 4 days late for a local move. Reason: The truck was impounded in NY because they drove it on a parkway that prohibited trucks and their driver had a suspended license. In DC, the contents of the truck were held hostage on arrival, and I was threatened repeatedly on the phone by the owner/manager of the company who extorted 3X the original quote in cash for the driver to release my belongings. The owner refused to accept a credit card, despite this assurance in the contract. I was threatened by the owner both during and after this episode. The owner goes by fake names when communicating with customers. I ended up contacting the MA Attorney General, and after the company refused to mediate through their office and ignored certified mail requests to do so, I ended up taking them to small claims court in Brighton, MA. After the owner did not show for two hearings, I hired Chris Waites, a MA Constable (yelp.com/biz/massachuset...) to take him into custody and escort him to Brighton Court where I won my case against him. I filed jointly with another Yelp user, (Chris D) who had the same problem.The constable we hired was armed. In order for the owner of the company to comply with the capias filed it took an armed sheriff to get him into court on the third try. But the sociopathic behavior continued. The owner of the company made inappropriate comments and gestures toward me in front of the judge. The owner won't disclose his name and keeps removing this review through Yelp when I reveal it. These scammers change company names before negative information catches up with them. There are also now (as of 1/2015 280 filtered ("not recommended") reviews of this company on Yelp that are resoundingly negative. Pretty sure the company does its work to flag bad reviews to demote the hundreds of reviews that are in the filters. The fact that there are a majority of filtered reviews also implies that there is some kind of a financial arrangement with Yelp. i.e., perhaps this business pays yelp to filter negative reviews? I've queried support at Yelp but they deny this and insist that the filtering is just part of their algorithm. Considering the disproportionate number of negative reviews continuing to accumulate in the filter, I remain skeptical. If you haven't had enough of this yet, read the filtered reviews. Please do your due diligence and do not hire this company. If you've used them and are reading this review to get validation, write a review. Check out reviews on BBB, look at corporate filings from the MA Sec of State website for Moving Explorer and Boston Quality Movers. Other fronts for this company include: atommoving.com bostonqualitymovers.com movingcompanyallston.com bostonflatrate.com michaelsmovers.com movingexplorer.com bostonquality.com newwaymovingservices.com bestratemove.com If you want to pursue legal action, do it. They deserve to be OUT OF BUSINESS and management IMPRISONED for all of their impropriety. If you are still searching for a mover, do yourself a favor - find another. Keywords: fraud, shakedown, extortion, theft, racket, stealing, scum, scam Update: I was contacted by the "new owner" of the company via phone on 4/29/15 who requested that I remove my earlier review because, while not disclosing his name, he assured me the company was under new ownership and he was determined to put it on the right path. I gave him the opportunity to propose a solution and offer proof of the company's new ownership via email. The following day I received an email from a Relocation Consultant at the company. In the email they offered $750.00 for me to remove my review. I have serious doubts that the person I spoke with on the phone was in the person who contacted me via email. Given that this behavior was familiar to me (masking real names, lying, etc) my suspicions arose. I wanted to verify my suspicions. MA active business filings for the Owner of the company that I sued in 2010 are currently mapped to Boston Flat Rate's physical address. Even though I was assured on the phone that the company was under new ownership, the corporate filing did not support this claim. http://corp.sec.state.ma.us I wish my story could have a better ending, but unfortunately their despicable practices continue - almost 6 years after my move.

I wish I could give zero stars. Look for another company to move. Their drivers taking their time watching soccer while on my time. They misrepresented to me what the service was going to cost. They lost my lamp shade. And on top of that, when I contacted a manager to express my concern, they didn't care. They don't know the first thing about customer service.

Oh Boston Flat Rate Movers. As I'm currently moving out of the place you moved me into, the bad memories are flooding back. Everything started out fine, they even moved my date for free after I was hit by a car the day of my original move. They came the next day, packed up my Brookline apartment, and moved me into my Somerville apartment. It was all fine until they brought me the bill. They had charged me for 4 hours and had been working 2 hours, and I obviously would give them another .5 hours to get back to Allston, and transportation from Allston to Brookline was included (they called when they left the warehouse to let me know my time had started). So there I was, on crutches, braced up, being charged $400 and 4 hours for a move that hadn't even taken 3. I tried calling the company, but it was a Sunday and no one answered. The mover in front of me said "They longer you complain, the more we charge. It's just $96 - pay it." I called later that week to complain and got laughed at by a manager. I was charged $400 to move a mattress, 4 boxes, a dresser, a desk, and a futon from Brookline to Somerville on a Sunday morning when there was no traffic. Total and complete rip off, never let anyone you like use this company.

I'm going to do my best to write an objective review that will be useful, but I expect that will be somewhat difficult given the hell I've been through with this company. Like many other reviews posted here, I'm considering legal action against the company--or at the very least filing a complaint with the BBB. The following is a brief summary of my experience: 1. I engaged the company in Nov./Dec. 2013. Lauren answered the phone, and was very polite and helpful. The movers arrived on time on Dec. 28, 2013. The move was from Boston to Tampa, FL. 2. The movers worked quickly and efficiently. They refused to use tape I bought, saying it was the "wrong kind." That ended up costing me an extra 150 dollars (they tape everything 800 times unnecessarily), but beyond that they seemed professional. *****This company uses flat rate per sq foot, not weight. This calculation is done by a foreign worker with limited english. Everything is based on estimates. Whatever your "estimate was," it will no doubt be much higher. There is no way to really verify or audit anything he is doing. He essentially sits there with a sheet of paper counting the hundreds of boxes you have and estimating their sq footage. As I will show below, nothing about this company is "flat rate." 3. I was originally told there would be a 14 day window before delivery. What I was not told, and what you will find in the boilerplate language in the contact, is that this number is 14 BUSINESS DAYS. The company took its sweet time, and did not deliver my items until mid-late January, despite giving me verbal assurances that it would be there Jan 3rd or 4th. 4. While awaiting delivery, I was completely in the dark as to where my stuff was. I was only given a call as they were "leaving Boston" and was given a call the day before delivery. 5. The delivery was nothing short of a fiasco. They showed up later than promised. When they arrived, I was told that I lived "too far" from the delivery point. ****the contract only guarantees 70 feet from delivery truck to unit/house/apt. In apartment buildings with delivery zones, this is essentially no one. I was then charged an extra $350 because they had to move my stuff down 2 long hallways. All this was hidden in fine print in the contract and was never explained. 6. The delivery manager was an agent of Boston Flat Rate but is NOT an employee. He is a contractor, and a moody one at that. He whined the entire time and had a horrible attitude, making us feel like we owed him for moving our belongings in. 7. THE COMPANY LITERALLY DIDNT HAVE ANYONE ELSE TO HELP WITH THE MOVE-IN. That's right, they hired two people OFF THE STREET. These individuals even expressed to me that they had no experience with the company and were off the street. They were not experienced movers, and dropped a ton of stuff right in front of me. They would try to move too much and boxes were falling off the push carts left and right. 8. The company, which contractually promises to put back together furniture, gave us an attitude when we asked for things to be put back together. It was a rush job and was not done properly. It was also difficult to find which boxes had disassembled items because the original movers in Boston had failed to label anything. I ended up having to put together multiple pieces of furniture that they were obligated to reassemble. The "manager" literally rolled his eyes at me when I asked him to put back together a table. 9. A family heirloom bookcase had water damage on top. The wood was molded and buckling. I was told by the moving manager not to worry because "it would probably dry out." The company's HQ simply referred me to their third-party claims department, which will "negotiate" your claim and at most will reimburse you cents/lbs if you waived insurance. Query how that helps anyone with, say, a damaged TV. 10. The following was also observed during our unpacking period: -things were dissembled in Boston without permission. -Books and other items were ruined from WET BOXES. Boxes that looked like they had been exposed to high doses of water. -Broken dishware, despite it being triple bubble wrapped and still securely in bubble wrap and tape ball. We feel this implies they were rough and careless with the boxes at multiple points in the trip. -Screws and other hardware were taken from items taken apart and thrown in random separate boxes without labels. Some were not recovered. -some pieces from disassembled furniture were and still are missing. -TO ADD INSULT TO INJURY, they straight up lost and did not deliver our little Nino's cat scratcher. All in all, the move cost almost 4k for a two bedroom apartment with no bedroom furniture. This company is COMPLETE SHIT. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

Quick update: A few days after I posted my review, I received a voicemail from the owner/manager (?) saying he wanted to check in with me and see if I received all my stuff. A few days later, I called back and got their voicemail. I left a message that I did receive the missing items, but that I was unhappy with the move- not only with the delay in receiving my items, but also that it felt like every little thing that could have gone wrong along the way, did. And if they'd like to discuss it, to call me back. It's been 2 weeks since I left the message and I haven't heard back.

I had a great experience with Boston Flat Rate Movers. I would definitely recommend them to anyone else that needs movers in the Boston area. They were very friendly and extremely fast. My move took under two hours including travel time! The movers called ahead to let me know they were on their way and even helped me move a couch outside that wasn't being moved. My move was pretty much stress free and I credit that to the movers.

Moved with this company this past Friday for the 2nd time, and intially, we were off to a pretty okay start (minus the fact they showed up 45 minutes later, whatever). They were super nice and assured me that for next time, they will help me "pack my stuff better" to save time and money. I spoke with Lauren who said I did NOT have to empty all my drawers nor get a parking permit - okay, so I didnt. Movers show up, start taking out my drawers and literally DUMPING everything into large boxes (mind you, this wasn't just clothing, it was all sorts of little trinkets, etc.). OK, fine. We leave the first venue and they had buttered me up and were extremely nice. Turns out, they got a parking ticket because they knowingly parked in a cross walk (so it wasn't the normal $40, it was $75) - so please, add that to my tab, will you? We get to the destination, and he tries to lie about what time they arrived initially. IN HIS OWN WRITING, it said "1:45" but he claims he arrived at 12:45, and tried to charge me for 4.50 hours. Uhhhh, no. I told him this, he agrees and says he wants to charge my card for the wrong amount, and will refund me (what nonsense is THAT?). I said uhhhhh no, how about you fix the contract, and charge my card ONE TIME for the correct amount, I can wait. And then he got nasty with me, and asks me why did I choose their company, blah blah blah. All in all, I've heard most movers in Boston (maybe in general, who knows) are crooks. If that's the case, maybe this company is better than most. But based on my experience, their customer service is terrible, and although efficient, they try to scheme their way into getting more out of you in the end. You can't even say no because you have to pay! Nightmare, don't do it. Moving is already stressful, these guys don't help.

Extremely prompt, showed up right at the time they quoted. Very quick and efficient. Assembled everything and asked for feedback about where to put items in the new house. Overall, very friendly and polite! No complaints here!

Do not use this company. Flat rate only means that they price according to some software program, not their quote. When they showed up, we had about 12 more medium size boxes than our initial quote ( about 40 medium and large boxes, couch, lamps, bed, etc.). However they charged almost 30% above their quote. When I complained to their "dispatcher" his response to my complaint was, " we can just leave the additional boxes there". We moved all our boxes and furniture to the garage so they didn't have to go farther than10 feet to pick up and put in truck, yet we got no consideration on cost. Repeated emails asking about delivery to out of state go unanswered. These guys are incredibly rude, and don't care at all about your move. Their 21 day delivery commitment is "business days" so actually it is over a month before you can force them to do anything. Hire someone else if you're going more than next door. These guys suck.

I had an excellent experience with this moving company. I recommend them to all of my friends and anyone else that needs movers in the Boston area. Everything was delivered well and fast and on time! In addition to this, the moving company was incredibly accommodating to my personal circumstances. They were very sympathetic to the difficulties of moving. If I had to move to a completely new region again, I would use this company again and again.

I used Flat Rate movers several years ago when moving from NYC to NJ, and had an amazing experience so I decided to use them again with my move from Roslindale to Allston. Ill admit, I was nervous when they showed up an hour late. But it was a crappy day - raining like cats and dogs - so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I'm glad I did! Even starting an hour late, they finished my whole move in the 3 hour window I originally booked AND they got my massive couch up into my new place. It was touch and go for a while with the couch, but they got it! Amazing. Between the price and the service, I couldn't have been happier.

We were moved Saturday December 14 in the middle of the coldest, crappiest weather. Boston Flat Rate Movers did an AMAZING job. From Lauran in the office to the 3 movers provided, all staff was professional, kind, patient and wonderful to work with. The movers especially worked fast on this freezing cold day, yet carefully. Boxes were clearly marked and put in their proper place upon arrival. My old antique bed was put together for us and had to be jerry-rigged because it is simply falling apart. The movers did a great job. We originally hired BFRM because their rates were incredibly inexpensive and very competitive. They performed above and beyond our expectations given the relatively inexpensive price. I would hire these guys again in a minute. The next time I move (hopefully not in a long, long time) I would hire Boston Flat Rate Movers again. Thanks Lauran and movers. You were fabulous.

Horrible Horrible Horrible. Don't use this company. Double the amount of the estimate, broken and scratched items, horrible customer service. Extra hours and extra cost that were never disclosed. We used this company for a local move in Boston. A 3 - mile move to be exact. Lauren gave us a quote for around $900, for a 2 bedroom apt., the actual cost was $2100. She never told us about the many details and mark ups they have. For examples, packing materials (3 wardrobe boxes, a few rolls of tape) was $245. They basically held our stuff hostage on the truck until the credit card was approved. Isaac, the manager we spoke to many times about the difference in price is a moron, and crook. Isaac, doesn't care about customer service, wouldn't even budge on the price or admit the estimate we were given was basically a SCAM!!!! These are the type of moving companies you hear about... CROOKS, SCAMS, HORRIBLE... NEVER USE THEM!!!!!!

I would love to give a minus rating to this company: I thought from the reviews it was a professional and caring company but the reality is that they don´t care about anything else than making money. I had a moving schedule time on Friday 27th of March. They give you a 3 hours window to start the moving. They were on time BUT the movers did not look very active and energetic. The reason why is because I found out after the moving ended that there is a minimum charge of 3 hours (required by Massachusetts law). I have a voicemail from one of the consultants of Boston Flat Rate Movers that specifically says that the hour price is X and how it is prorated every 15 minutes but he does not say anything about a 3 hour minimum time. I talked with other consultant and I explained what I have to move (one full bed, TV and 2-3 boxes). Do you think I need 3 hours of help from three people and one huge truck? If I would have known I have to pay a 3 hour minimum, I would have rented a U-Haul, much cheaper and quicker than this unprofessional company. The "manager" who I talked to did not care about my complaints and kept telling me that I knew the 3 hour minimum charged. I went back to my emails received where he assured me that it clearly said that there was a 3 hour minimum is this: "The final move cost will be determined by the actual time the move will take (minimum of 3-4 hours), That includes the time from when our movers leave the office, and until the time our movers return to the office (driving from our office to the origin, and from destination back to our office, is travel time. " This is not clear, that they will charge me at the minimum 3 hours. Plus 3-4 hours? what does that mean? I think it is confusing. The worse part has been their attitude towards me while I was expressing my concern. Customer service skils and empathy score, zero! Go find some other companies if you need to move!! P.S: They lost my lamp shade and never seen it back!

Hi all. This is a close one between 3 and 4 stars. First, they aren't a scam. We used them, and they did the job. What I noticed was that there were two websites with the same logo when I was ordering. One was www.bostonflaterate.com, the other had the same logo but clearly looked like a scam. So keep that in mind. Good things: They came and packed up everything and didn't steal anything or do anything wrong. They did a very good job packing everything; at this point doesn't seem like anything we shipped broke (haven't tried all the electronics, but it'll probably be fine). They came and dropped everything off. They had 3 people for the packing and shipping, 2 on the drop-off. The people were nice; took apart the furniture and put it back together. Where they get you are if you go over in size, and aren't fully prepared. We had misjudged how much we had by about 50% and they hammered us on that. Each extra little box then cost a fortune in just the new cubic feet alone ($500). We were law students moving out of our apartment so we didn't have that much. The packing costs weren't too bad (they discounted us the packing costs as the end, contingent on us giving them a tip - which was fine since we were going to do that anyway), but then all and all it was $2000 for the move, when we were quoted $1000. Tips and all may have made that higher. Still was cheaper than the others, that have perfect Yelp ratings and are really good but are pricier, but only by $500 or less. Also, they came early for packing, which of course screwed us since we weren't ready and so had to have them pack things for us (they were getting annoyed we were so unprepared; well they shouldn't have come over an hour early). They said they would get to our place between 8 AM and 12 PM but didn't arrive till 4PM. And they'll only let you know the day before when they are coming. So that's a little annoying. In sum, if you are prepared (have as much packed yourself as possible but the fragile items) and know exactly how much you have, and can be flexible on delivery, then they are good and the cheapest we found. If you need help or flexibility then they are less good. For reference, we moved from Boston to Virginia.

Great experience with them. They are reliable and nice. They move fast and protect the furniture very well. Strongly recommend!

I like there service, People are nice and on time. They really take care of your furniture. I would like to use their service again:)

We used Boston Flate Rate movers to move to our new apartment last week. A lot is included in their rate, so for the money it's a really good deal. They are very good at making sure you are informed regarding moving times and arrivals. They were careful enough with the furniture, and moved at a decent pace. They were also personable and respectful which was nice. Overall we had a good experience, I would definitely consider using them again.