any recommendations for a local mover/ man with a van?

yeah what vanilla said, check the classified ad for my price. should cost you about $35 flat.

i tried them and they were sleazy thieves.

if it's the same people--they were $18 at the time (which is the first lie, of many). unfortunately i didn't save the phone no. so i can't swear it's the same folks and i don't want to disparage someone else who may be perfectly honest, but the posters look the same.

first, they required that i hire 3 people, even though it was a small move, so that's already $54 an hour; i also had to pay for their truck, even though it wasn't needed for the move (i was only moving from one floor to another within the same building); i later found out why they required three people--you can't keep an eye on them all at once. several very expensive things went missing--possibly more because i'm not very good at keeping track of stuff, but the things i did notice missing i had just bought a few days before so i knew exactly what they were and that they were there when the movers arrived and gone after they left. (i called the number back and they denied it.) i guess that's why they required a truck too. and then after i tipped them what i thought was quite generously, they wouldn't leave until i paid them more.

so much for thinking they'd be cheap.