NYC man hires movers and they start ‘shaking him down’ before touching anything, then comes the knock on the door

A New York City DJ named Petie had a terrible experience with Piece of Cake Moving and Storage. He shared his story on TikTok under the username @imthemime, and the video got more than 928,000 views. The problems started the moment the movers showed up at his apartment.

According to Bro Bible, Petie said the crew started pressuring him for money right away, even before they touched any furniture. They were asking for a tip before doing any work, which is a major warning sign. He felt like they were trying to shake him down from the very beginning.

The movers also tried to charge him extra for clothing bins. Petie had asked for five or six bins the day before, and the company confirmed it by email. But the crew arrived without any bins and then claimed he needed 25 bins, which would cost $600 or $700 extra. Petie knew that renting 25 bins only cost $375, so their price made no sense.

The crew’s shady tactics went beyond overcharging for bins

The movers also pressured Petie about bags he had packed himself that weren’t on the official list. They suggested he could pay them cash under the table, and they wouldn’t tell the company about the extra items. Petie felt like they were trying to rob their own company while making him pay them directly.

Even with all these problems and 80% of his stuff still in the apartment, Petie tipped them well. He sent $250 through Zelle to the two movers, which was over 20% of his quoted price. That’s when things got really strange. This kind of behavior from service workers isn’t new, as other troubling incidents have gone viral in recent months.

Just moments after Petie sent the money, one mover came back to his door. The mover said $250 wasn’t enough and called it just the “base tip.” Petie was furious and told him he didn’t have to give them anything at all. He said he would have canceled the Zelle payment if the app let him do that.

When Petie posted his story on TikTok, many people commented with similar experiences. One person said movers tried charging them an extra $300 for an office chair that was already in the quote. Another said the crew showed up at 6:00 AM instead of 9:30 AM and scratched their walls. Stories like this show how certain people receive public recognition they don’t necessarily deserve.

The normal tip for movers is usually 5 to 10% of the total cost, so Petie’s $250 was already very generous. What makes this even stranger is that Piece of Cake Moving and Storage has very high ratings online. They have a 4.8 rating on Google with nearly 12,000 reviews and a 4.9 rating on Trustpilot with over 11,000 reviews. But other viral stories mention missing items and demands for a 20% tip upfront, making it hard to know what to expect.