Ask around and the moving horror stories are rarely about a dented dresser. Usually it is the invoice, nowhere near what the mover said on the phone. DSL Moving exists to fix that, with a flat-rate price lock that actually holds. Whatever Trent Oberholtzer puts on your estimate is what you pay; nothing gets added after loading.
Why Daniel Built the Company Around One Number
Owner Daniel Scott Lang grew up in Norwood and is the third generation of his family to run moving crews in Cincinnati. When he started DSL Moving in 2015, the complaint he heard most from families was never really about price. It was about a quote that quietly grew between the phone call and the invoice, with a new line item appearing every time the crew found a flight of stairs or a piano nobody mentioned. He built this company on one rule: the number you sign is the number you pay. Not a starting point. Not an estimate with room to grow. The number.
How the Price-Lock Guarantee Works
Before any truck leaves our Spring Grove Avenue yard in Camp Washington, Trent Oberholtzer walks your home in person or over video and builds a flat figure off the real inventory (real room counts, real stairs, real heavy items), not a phone-call guess. That figure is emailed the same day. It is not a range and it is not a placeholder. It is what shows up on the truck manifest and what shows up on your invoice.
Daniel personally reviews every long-distance and heavy-item quote before it goes out. If a crew runs into something Trent genuinely could not have seen (a piano behind a wall, a safe nobody mentioned when the estimate was built), you get a phone call before anyone touches it, never a surprise line item after the fact.
Where Other Movers Let the Number Drift
| What Other Movers Do | What DSL Moving Does Instead |
|---|---|
| Stair fee added on move day | Folded into your flat figure once Trent sees the floor plan |
| Long-carry fee past the curb | Priced upfront if your driveway or a narrow hill street means a real walk from the truck |
| Fuel surcharge on long routes | Built into the flat quote once, at booking, never revisited |
| Vague hourly “estimate” that only grows | Written flat figure, or a posted hourly rate that never changes by day or season |
| New items discovered, new charges added | A phone call first, a fair price agreed to before anyone touches it |
What’s Already Locked Into Your Flat Number
- Full crew and truck for the job, sized by Trent to your actual rooms
- Moving blankets, stretch wrap, and taking down beds and tables
- Loading and unloading at both addresses, including reasonable stairs and hill-street carries
- Our $1M policy backs cargo coverage on every piece the crew carries
A Real Example
Example: a Blue Ash two-bedroom, one flight of stairs, a piano in the front room. Trent takes the $649 flat band and adds the $289 piano fee; the stairs are free because the flat band already includes that carry. The $938 total reaches your inbox before any deposit is paid, and that is the number the invoice shows.
“My grandfather and my dad both ran crews in this city before me, and I heard the same story from customers for years: the price on moving day was never quite the price on the phone. DSL Moving only works one way: if the quote says it, the invoice says it. If something changes, you hear about it from us before the truck touches it, not after.” Daniel Scott Lang, owner, DSL Moving
How to Get Your Real Number
- Call or request a video walkthrough. Trent Oberholtzer confirms rooms, stairs, and heavy items
- Receive your written flat figure by email the same day
- Put down a $95 deposit, refundable inside 72 hours, to lock in your date and your number
- Move day arrives, and the figure on the truck matches the figure in your inbox
The Deposit Protects the Promise, Too
Your date, crew size and flat figure all lock the moment the $95 deposit clears. Extra hours caused by our own estimating miss never land on your bill. Curtis Voss and Brody Kalscheur, the crew chiefs for Cincinnati, Norwood, Blue Ash, Sharonville, West Chester, Mason and Fairfield, load from the same inventory Trent priced. Nobody on the truck is working from memory of a phone call.
Quick Answers
What if the crew finds something Trent missed? You get a call and a price before anyone touches it, never a surprise line item on the invoice.
Does the price-lock apply to long-distance moves too? Yes, Daniel reviews every interstate and heavy-item quote personally before it goes out, and the written figure holds the same way a local flat rate does.
Is the deposit part of the locked number, or extra? It counts toward your total. The $95 simply reserves the date and the figure Trent wrote down.
Want a ballpark before you pick up the phone? The 2026 pricing guide lists each crew size and flat band. To hear from people who already moved with us, read what Cincinnati-area families are saying; there is also Daniel’s story and the FAQ page on deposits and rescheduling.
See Your Number, Not a Guess
No fuel surcharge, no stair surprise, no line item you have not already agreed to, just the flat figure Daniel signs off on.