Tomcat Moving & Hauling

Never again!
We hired movers so that we wouldn’t have to rely on friends or do any moving ourselves. This was not out of laziness but because we had moved so frequently and didn’t want to do it again and I had some health issues. We ended up doing more work than we had on any other move and I ended up in the hospital. with an injury that could have only been caused by the amount of work I had to do.
We hired Tomcat after they were recommended by a friend who had moved recently. Tom came in that morning with two guys and looked around the house making notes of what we owned. The two guys then started moving furniture and boxes. They wrapped nothing. The chairs were thrown into the truck as was a 300 hundred year old trunk. I didn’t find that out until much later. They didn’t bother with shrink wrap or even moving blankets.
The estimate that we were given was a 6 hour move including drive time. This estimate turned out to be so far from the reality. Eventually Tom called in his grandson? a 15 year old kid that did nothing but sit and want to talk to me while I helped to pack the truck. Tom left for large chunks of time and would call MY cell phone to talk to his workers. My husband and i called two of our friends to come in and help pack the truck since progress was so slow. Eventually the truck was loaded (poorly) and we should have been on our way to the new place. This was not the case since they had run the lift on the back of the truck for 5 hours without bothering to charge the battery. We had to wait over an hour for the company they rented the truck from to come out and jump start it. During the wait time for the jump truck Toms wife kept calling my phone to talk with the movers. There must have been a dozen phone calls in all. And the workers were complaining that they were hungry. I had little to no food and scrapped together what I could while they sat in the truck waiting for the jump.
When we finally got to the new place it was late afternoon and we were 6 hours into it. It took these guys another 4 + hours to unload the truck. Keep in mind we were moving to a one bedroom so there wasn’t a ton to actually move. All the while my husband and I are moving as much as we could. When it was all said and done it took over 10 hours and the fees were off teh charts considering how much work my husband, our friends and I did. In fact I am sure we could have done it faster had the movers not been in our way.
Tom did agree to a small (very small discount) after he realized what a disaster the day was.
Our move took an entire day, cost way more than the estimate I had been given. As a result of this move and all of the work that I personally had to do in loading and unloading the truck I had to have a surgery that put me out of commission for over 3 months and cost me an incredible amount of money.
Do not hire this company! Why pay movers to help you move when you will be the one doing all the work ?
.

Update to reflect our experience with Tomcat for our last move. The lead guy in the 2-​man crew was pretty good – he did a good job of cramming all our stuff in a small truck – but the «helper» was an out-​of-​shape smoker who had to take a break every time he went up and down the stairs (it was a lot of stairs, to be sure, but the guy was in no shape to be the «brawn» in that duo). I had to ask him twice to smoke downwind of my truck full of stuff, and his sluggishness made an already tough move that much slower and therefore more expensive. I suspect he’s related to somebody who owns the place.
I’m no longer in the Bay Area, but I probably wouldn’t use these guys again. And if I did, I’d be sure to ask about the people working my move.

Horrible. Both of my sisters had used them before, years before. Now, they had to rent a truck to move us. They were late both days, mind you, it should have been a one day move. Then they wanted to charge us $ 1400 for a $ 800 job, not. Stay away!!!

If i could give negative stars i would. DO NOT under any circumstances use this moving company. Granted, our experience was a few years ago, but here is our sad story. These people left us HIGH AND DRY ON MOVING DAY!!! we had arranged for them to come and move our stuff — you know, like the day that you have to be out of your place because someone else is moving in the next day? Tomcat Movers:
— DID NOT SHOW UP AT ALL
— did not call to tell us
— were EXTREMELY rude when we called to complain.
it was pretty unbelievable. On moving day, it was about 11 AM by the time we realized that we had to find some other way to get all that stuff out of the house in the next 6 hours, with no truck reservation, no movers, nothing. Have you ever tried to find a mover on the same day you need them? Nightmare.

Miserable experience. 4 ½ hours late with no apology. Showed up with only two workers, one who Tom had never used before and actually asked him in front of me if he knew how to load a truck. Although Tom was supposedly «supervising», he immediately went to get coffee and to rummage through the free stuff Berkeley homeowners leave on street corners (he took some of my old stuff). Movers were so painfully slow that I joined in and did more work than the two of them combined. Both movers took personal phone calls while on the job. Eventually had to stop the move unfinished because they were taking so long. At my new address, without proper moving equipment, the first large piece of furniture they moved was dropped on and dragged across my brand new wood floor ($ 2000 damage), for which I was blamed for not helping enough. Tom sat in the truck outside rather than supervising upstairs. The rest of the move took forever. No apology, no discount. After four months of back and forth, including threatening legal action, Tom’s wife?, after being terribly misinformed (lied to) about the floor incident, finally gave up trying to convince me to use every miracle floor repair product on the internet and submitted the claim to their insurance. All the while I was blamed, accused of lying, insulted and overall treated unprofessionally.
Never again. My building manager will no longer use Tomcat for any job. And I learned my lesson that paying a little more is worth the extra care and attention I’d get. If there was anything less than zero, I give it.

Terrible. They overcharged me, damaged my furniture and complained a lot. Even Tom has a bad attitude. I also found out later that some things were missing — including a watch my parents gave me. I was stupid for trusting them.

I used these guys in the past (6 years ago), so when I was desperate to have movers load some Door to Door containers (this is what I had them do 6 years ago), I called them again. This time I was on a tight schedule (flew in from out of state to complete my move), so it was essential that I had reliable movers. This is why I called them. THEY NEVER SHOWED UP!!! I called several times that morning and never got a call back. Not even an appology the next day. They also knew I was a repeat customer. They didn’t even need to bring a truck. All I was doing was having them move furniture and boxes into a Door to Door container. I frantically had to call another mover that morning because I was driving across country that day.

My list of damaged items are too long to list. Not major damages, but enough scratches, spilled bottles because boxes were carried and placed upside-​down, and broken glasses to make it quite annoying. Of the two guys sent to move me, one guy had no idea how to properly move and neither of the guys knew how to pack and shrink wrap furniture for moving. These «professional movers» are no better than a couple of friends I’d hire with beer and pizza. Don’t get me wrong, they worked hard, they didn’t slack. They just weren’t the «professional movers» I thought I hired. Some of my stuff have gone through 2 previous moves without damages, and well… at the end of it all, after looking at the bill more carefully, I wasn’t charged correctly. Well, better luck for me next time.

I hired these guys to move all my stuff from an around the back downhill apartment to a through a rough brick pathed garden and up an narrow flight of stairs apartment.
What would have taken me and my friends all weekend, plus a truck rental, plus busting our butts took them an afternoon and about $ 400.
They were completely cool and worked their asses off.
Also, dig their logo.