I’m moving across the country in a few weeks (details coming later), and the million and one things I gotta do are stressing me out.
Anyway, I’ve got a few quotes on movers, but before I make an appointment I wanted to get some opinions here. Has anyone done a long-distance move recently that can give me some advice on movers? Got any companies I should avoid, or one that was like on time with all your stuff undamaged?
If you’re on a budget and have some people to help, I’d definitely recommend UPack. Basically, they drop off a large trailer, you load your stuff yourself, and then they drive it to wherever you want and you unpack it. You pay a fixed rate per foot for whatever space you use. Obviously, it’s not for everyone, but if you don’t have too much stuff and can get some people to give you a hand you can really save some money. The whole process was very easy to set up, they were very professional and responsive, and they got my stuff to me exactly when I asked them to. You can even track your stuff online.
Yeah I guess I should have been more specific. :P
I don’t really have much in the way of helpers, and my budget is not tight enough that I need to worry about it THAT much. I plan to pack all my stuff myself, but want movers to deal with furniture and the loading/unloading.
I’m not taking a car with me, I’m flying. Driving a U-Haul is expensive in itself - $950 for the truck plus at least 3 nights in a hotel, gas, etc… might as well go with movers. The quotes I have, if I’m packing all but the furniture, are for $1500 (I only have a 1 bedroom apt, about 600 square feet).
Jason, I moved from Chicago to the DC area within the last year, and I too was moving furniture and whatnot equivalent for a one-bedroom. $1500 seems pretty reasonable–not sure what kind of mileage or how far you’re going, but my movers charged around $1100 or so. (Can’t remember exactly, company footed the bill).
Make sure you check your mover out with the BBB and other sources so you don’t get the infamous " never mind our quote, you don’t get your stuff back until you pay X dollars" scam.
All I hear about movers is horror stories. Can’t go wrong with the UPack do-it-yourself thing.
When I moved up here from Utah I used Allied - di nary an issue with them. Of course my company that paid for the move has dealt with them on a number of occassions so they didn’t try to screw me over.
We used United Van Lines for our international move. Smooth as silk. Nothing lost, nothing broken. Delivery on time.
Troy
I don’t know if you remember the stories of my move out here, Jason. A nightmare.
Go with a LOCAL branch of a national moving company, not one that says "we can come up there and get your stuff.
Go with a name brand moving company, and check the online resources for complaints. Moving is an industry that’s totally screwed up, corrupt, and poorly regulated. I’ve never had a move go smoothly, and I remember very few that went smoothly in my youth when my parents were running the show. Having used crappy discount movers to come out here, I can say that you’ll get less hassle from a nationally known company (but even those are franchises.) Go for United, Allied, etc. Avoid Mayflower.
Make alternate plans for the possibility of your stuff being very, very late. Even when I moved to CA from NC, with a mainstream company selected by Ziff-Davis, the truck driver had a gall-bladder attack during the drive across country and checked into a hospital in Tennessee leaving my trailer-full-o-stuff at a rest stop. Took two extra weeks to get my stuff as they worked to reroute another truck that was going that direction.
If you hear a strong accent, hang up the phone and call someone else. Our stuff made a two-month-delayed, damaged transit to Vermont courtesy of a team effort between the Russian and Jewish Mafias. Nice to see them cooperating nowadays, at least.
Good luck. You’ll need it. :-/
…Denny, who thinks movers are one reason he still lives in Vermont
U-haul is super-expensive, just for renting a truck. I’ve done U-haul a few times because I never really investigated the competition, but Ryder offers the exact same service for about half the cost. the only downside is that I think you have less coverage if the truck spontaneously combusts or something.
Another piece of advice I will give you is that if you have any cheap furniture, ditch it and pick up some other cheap furniture when you reach your desintation. Second hand stores are great for this.
I’d just like to say that I recently moved from Maine to North Carolina using UPack. This was for me and my girlfriend in our 2 bedroom apartment. Basically we took everything and piled it into a big 10x8 square in the back of their truck. Piling everything up made it really cheap. Only cost $400 to move it all. However, when unloading in NC …a lot of the stuff shifted causing big scratches on our wood stuff because I didn’t pack it right. Everything went smooth though.
don’t pack any of your blankets. use them to cover furniture to prevent the above from happening.
Shit Jason, I just got here and you’re leaving? Do I smell bad or something?
I had a pretty awful UPack experience. It’s fairly inexpensive, but the San Francisco Branch was horrible to work with. They were six hours late delievering our truck. This was a big deal because we had to pay to reserve a line of parking spots on our street. I had to spend those six hours policing the parking spaces because even with the traffic cones I put down, people would just try to park there anyway.
Once they delivered the truck, the bulkheads used to section off your stuff from whatever else they decide to put in the truck were broken. I called them up to get replacements and they told me they were out and they didn’t know when they would have more. Since I was leaving the next day that wasn’t going to work. After an hour and a half on the phone and a chat with the district manager, I was told me to lock up the truck and the driver would bring new bulkheads and install them the next day.
Two days after I left, my wife (who was already across country) called U-Pak to make sure the truck was off the street because there are these little things in San Francsico called “Parking Tickets.” Most people try to avoid them because they’re a bit tough on the wallet. The truck was still on the street even though our contract with them stated that they would take the truck within 8 hours after your done loading. It took them three days to retrieve the truck. Thankfully we weren’t ticketed.
Once our goods reached Vermont, things were a little better. The Vermont branch of UPack was great. They delieved the stuff on time. Unfortunately because of their 6 hour delay in getting us the truck in SF we had very little time to load truck in the best way. Lots of shifting and lots of dings and scratches.
So based on my experience, I can’t recommend UPack to anyone. :x :x
Also, let me stress that you make sure the person you’re talking to is LOCAL. And if you call a yellow pages ad with one company name and the phone is answered with another, hang up. A lot of the crappy movers take out ads with different company names in different yellow pages across the country in order to insure that a bad reputation doesn’t follow them. The company that moved us to Vermont was called one thing in the phone book, S&L Relocation Services when they answered the phone, and something else on their trucks.
At least you won’t have to ride with the truck driver while he hires local illegal alien help to load the truck. (Of course, the only illegal alien in Vermont is that guy named Pierre who hangs out in downtown Burlington with the state’s homeless guy…)
We moved from CA to SC after college (hardly any furniture). Given what we did have and prices for movers/U-Haul, we did the sell it all and get new (used) stuff when we arrived. Books shipped great through the post office at book rate (very cheap!). We did UPS (I think) for everything else we shipped. I kept records of what was in each box and labeled the boxes (A - P, I think) so in case anything didn’t arrive, I’d know.
Good luck with the move!
Well, if it’s anywhere near me, I guess I can just look your new address up at the police station - thanks to the Wilson Act of 1997, game magazine writers are required to notify the public of their whereabouts. That’s how I found out Jeff Green is, thankfully, approximately 27.5 miles away…my hypothetical future children will never find him lurking in our carport reeking of Bartles & Jaymes wine coolers and mumbling incoherently about Freedom Force. Not if I can help it.
You could try what I did - sell everything you own beforehand and just move with a suitcase of clothes and your PC!
Jason, good luck with the move. And just on the theory that it never hurts to state the obvious, don’t forget to keep all your move-related receipts (including tolls, house-hunting trips and meals) for the tax deduction (assuming you’re moving for job-related reasons).
Also, get a copy of the moving terms from the movers in advance. I’ve heard many horror stories of people basically having their furniture held hostage by “hidden fees” that basically either double the cost of the move or tie them up for months while they sue the movers.
Not trying to creep you out. Just saying be careful. Denny’s right-movers are generally very unsrupulous and you need to watch them closely.
There’s also the “fedex fucking everything” option. It’s less expensive than you’d think for stuff that’s not furniture.