Ft. Dearborn Relocation Management

This company handled my relocation from Illinois to Massachusetts.
The service I experienced at the hands of these companies was horrendous and dismal.
Their truck showed up with 4 hours delay. The cause of the delay was that the company was short on trailers — even though the move was scheduled for over a month. The crew sat idle in their office waiting for a leased trailer to be repositioned. During this 4-​hour delay, there was scarce information coming to the customer. I had to place numerous calls to find out what was going on. The company had a month to plan and allocate resources for this move. And even when they failed to do so, they did not send a forward crew to begin staging packages and furniture to expedite the loading. And because they used a leased trailer without side doors, loading took even longer.
For a job that started late and for a trailer that was not designed for easy loading, the company could have also sent a larger crew. They did not. As a result, a loading that was supposed to have been completed by 5 or 6 PM, lasted until 10:30 PM.
The promised delivery day came and by noon there was absolutely no communication from the companies or anyone else about a delivery schedule. Again, only after I made inquiries, I found that there would be an unspecified delay in the delivery.
That unspecified delay turned to be one week. During that week the quality of support and communications I received from the company was dismal. Phone calls went unanswered and so did emails. When someone spoke to me on the phone, all that I got was vague promises and feeble excuses. The company had me over a barrel and there was nothing I could do but wait.
I contacted the company directly, seeking remediation and they refused.

Mayflower Transit was a life saver for us as we had a 3 bedrm, 2 ½ bath, lvng rm, dining rm, full basement & 2 car garage move to another state. We were pkt & in 3 ½ hrs the movers had the truck loaded & on it’s way to our new destination. We left the following day & met them the next day at a storage facility we were going to store our belongings at. The gate at the storage wouldn’t open & the driver Jeff & his movers patiently waited in the freezing cold w/​us for the problem to be solved. They unloaded our stuff w/​in 2 & ½ hrs of being able to finally get in to our unit. From Bo, the sales rep, to Sally, the move coordinator, to Jeff, the driver & last but not least, both sets of moving guys, we couldn’t ask for a better group of people to help us through a VERY STRESSFUL move! Thanks guys! You were ALL AWESOME!!!

I moved my entire 3 bedroom house of stuff from Chicago to FL with Mayflower. It went just fine. The estimating process took a bit of negotiating. When they give you a ‘fixed price’ bid, make sure you have a couple of reliable estimates to bargain with. Don’t hesitate to bargain for a better price! At the end of the day, my load was charged as about 10,000 lbs and probably weighed only 9,000. Maybe I overpaid a little, but the service was well worth it.
I did the packing myself (tedious) and I know what I’m doing so a total of one wine glass was broken/​damaged in the entire move (my fault). The driver/​owner of the truck had hand picked the loading/​unloading crews and I have never seen men work so hard and so diligently. NOTHING was dented/​soiled/​damaged in any way. They showed up on time, delivered on time, re-​assembled all the stuff they had disassembled, positioned and re-​positioned big pieces, and the coordinator called me frequently to confirm details and keep me informed. The crews were pleasant, considerate and very professional. One of the most pleasant moving experiences I’ve ever had.

I paid Mayflower Moving, their moving «agent» Ft. Dearborn Relocation Management /​Blackhawk Moving & Storage, and parent company Unigroupe Inc almost $ 5,000 to move my stuff from Chicago to North Carolina, and every part of the process was a wreck. DO NOT hire them, unless you hate yourself and your belongings. It’s been almost 2 months since the move, and I wanted to make sure that I waited some time before writing this review, so that it wouldn’t come across as too emotional.
What I was sold was an easy process by salesman Carl D. He told me that my stuff would be dealt with by reliable professionals who would get our goods from point A to point B in good order, and on time. I was led to believe that «the team» were all trained and competent, and was actually naïve enough to believe him.
What I GOT was a «bait and switch» feeling. The second the sales process ended and the actual performing of services started, we knew we had made a mistake.
I was actually LIED to by the 3^rd party moving coordinator Debra C (Blackhawk Moving & Storage). Several times. The moving crew arrived to the pickup late, slacked on the job, lied on the furniture manifest and bill of lading (stating that literally ALL of my furniture was damaged in some way), and broke several pieces of furniture when they dropped it off. The drop off date was re-​scheduled twice, and even still — the final drop off occurred over a week past the re-​scheduled date. Because our stuff actually sat on a warehouse floor in Sycamore IL for 7 – 10 days longer than the outside drop off range of our contract, we lost out on professional opportunities and interviews in our new hometown. We were even more stressed out during the a major life transformation. We had to spend even more money on air mattresses, silverware and clothes so that we could actually start to live in the new house before any of our stuff arrived. Each time we tried to get an update so that we wouldn’t feel so helpless, customer service all but disappeared. Carl D never answered another email or voicemail. Debra C’s value to the entire experience was worthless. The end of every phone call with her left us with more questions and less concrete answers about where our belongings were, and how much longer they would take to arrive.
No matter who you hire, moving isn’t fun. I’ve moved almost every year for the last 20 years, and know first hand that the process is hard on the customer, and often even harder on the company’s employees doing the moving.
However, this experience was by far THE ABSOLUTE WORST I have ever been a part of. The feeling of actually paying a company my hard earned money for an experience like the one we had is beyond sinking.

I am happy to give this moving company 5 Stars. I have moved a number of times and this was the smoothest move ever. The staff was very friendly and went out of their way to help. Phone calls were returned in a timely fashion. Even the driver kept in contact. It was a GREAT experience. Thank you, United Mayflower from Scyamore Il

Moving sucks, but moving with Mayflower (which uses Ft Dearborn) made it easier. They were professional in the sales/​consultation, pickup, moving communication, and delivery.
A few things were broken in the move (nothing incredibly serious) and it’s taken a bit of time to get the repairs taken care of but all in all its been a pretty great experience.

Ft. Dearborn Relocation Management (a part of Mayflower) recently helped me move from Chicago, IL to Seattle, WA. The move had to happen pretty fast i. e pickup within a week from when we decided on using Mayflower and delivery a week later. The pick ups were from two locations, one a high rise and second a storage unit. Ft. Dearborn made the entire move process absolutely painless.
Starting with the sales process, the sales person Carl Dombrowski is as knowledgeable as they come. He knows the move logistics inside out and clearly he made every effort to understand our move needs prior to suggesting the appropriate options.
Debra Copeland was our move coordinator and she kept us informed throughout on the progress of the shipment. This included follow-​up right after the goods were delivered.
The pick up crew of Pedro, Drew and Scott were absolutely fabulous and efficient. They moved my entire apartment including packing a few high value items within 3hrs!
The driver Sean Berry kept in touch with us as he progressed in his route. His professionalism and flexibility to accommodate delivery times helped us immensely.
The single most consistent theme about Ft. Dearborn and Mayflower associates were their attention to detail and deep professionalism from start to finish.
Thanks Ft. Dearborn again for your help!

Nothing special. Just realize that after they have your household goods customer services disappears. The people you are talking to on the phone are just sales people not there to be customer service people helping you with your move… they don’t care after they have you.
Our person was Debra C. who told us she would contact us with an update two Fridays ago about our goods leaving Illinois didn’t contact us. Debra didn’t call us the following Monday. So, we called on Tuesday as we drove to Houston our new home. The problem was they were saying our household items might arrive on the 22^nd. We couldn’t be there until the 23^rd. Finally she called… our items hadn’t left Illinois.
Here it is August 31^st. We haven’t heard from her and our stuff is due no later than September 3^rd. I can track packages through Fed Ex, UPS and the USP but these management people cannot update us either via our email or phone calls. Warning they are not relocation management people they are relocation sales people.
Very poor customer service. We don’t know if our items even left Illinois yet. Debra C. will not return our calls or email. Sticking with Reebie next time… used them twice and they were great!
****EMAIL UPDATE 2 hours after this post and then a phone call:
EMAIL: They (A MOVING COMPANY) cannot find a driver to take our «MOVE» our household from the 3^rd largest city in the USA, Chicago, to the 4^th largest city in the USA Houston!!!
Two weeks have almost passed and they cannot MOVE our items. They are trying to find someone.
They are associated with MAYFLOWER and UNITED!!! and they cannot complete a MOVE!!!
THE PHONE CALL:
…the good news… starting Saturday we will start to get $ 125 a day back.
THE BAD NEWS, THEY CANNOT TELL US WHEN OUR STUFF WILL COME!!! THE MAN TOLD US THAT WILL BE IN SEPTEMBER SOMETIME!!! WE FORGOT TO PIN HIM DOWN ON A YEAR THOUGH!!!