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So my wife and I decided that we are done with Illinois and it's poo poo weather and are looking to move to Arizona. After looking last night on UHaul Rentals which at .79 per mile would cost a literal fuckton, we are wondering if the best option would be a moving company. After googling it there seems to be a bagillion companies that provide this service and in looking even deeper a lot have horrible reviews. My question to you all knowing smart people is what companies should I be zeroing in on that are either reputable or you have experience with? We are having a fire sale here shortly to sell off all of our couches and bedroom set, so we will just have a few beds (that will be disassembled), some mattresses, some dressers, couple bikes, treadmill, and then just boxes so nothing too crazy. We don't want to spend a ton, but I do realize we may have to spend a little more for a reputable mover. Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide!
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Apr 28, 2016 18:31
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 17:59 |
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If you think U Haul is expensive wait until you get a load of full service moving company rates. 10 years ago my company relocated me from Phoenix to San Antonio and it was 3600 dollars for 2 men and a truck to load our stuff, drive 1000 miles and unload it. (We did all the packing) You're talking about a trip that is about 1800 miles give or take. If you don't have that much stuff you may be better off looking at one of those Pod moving companies. Multiple companies offer the service now.
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Apr 28, 2016 18:46
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Alternatively, if you have any furniture you don't care about, think about getting rid of some of it on CL if it will help you get a smaller truck - you can likely replace it locally with equivalent quality without spending any more, especially if you can be patient. Obviously not a bedroom set, but maybe dining room, bookshelves, etc.
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Apr 28, 2016 19:31
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Ok, so a POD moving company is probably my best bet then? Any recommendations on any of them? And yeah we are going to have a garage sale and post to FB/CL trying to sell off most of our stuff. Hopefully we are successful.
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Apr 28, 2016 22:59
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I had a smooth and good experience with ABF U-pack moving from Virginia to Colorado recently. I did the PODS-style ReloCube and moved all my stuff and including motorcycle in a single cube (I didn't bring any furniture except my mattress, though. Replacing all of it with IKEA poo poo was less expensive than a second cube). You can also rent trailers from them by the foot if you need a lot of space. Good stuff.
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May 3, 2016 08:00
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I watched an Investigative Reports type show on them and I guess a lot of companies are corrupt and their employees regularly steal poo poo, even if you have it packed up and taped
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May 3, 2016 15:27
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Professor Shark posted:I watched an Investigative Reports type show on them and I guess a lot of companies are corrupt and their employees regularly steal poo poo, even if you have it packed up and taped Or, they hold it hostage until you pay more money
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May 3, 2016 15:56
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Julie And Candy posted:I had a smooth and good experience with ABF U-pack moving from Virginia to Colorado recently. I did the PODS-style ReloCube and moved all my stuff and including motorcycle in a single cube (I didn't bring any furniture except my mattress, though. Replacing all of it with IKEA poo poo was less expensive than a second cube). You can also rent trailers from them by the foot if you need a lot of space. Good stuff.
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May 3, 2016 16:32
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Omne posted:Or, they hold it hostage until you pay more money Yeah, I remember it all feeling really old timey schemey
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May 3, 2016 16:37
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Professor Shark posted:I watched an Investigative Reports type show on them and I guess a lot of companies are corrupt and their employees regularly steal poo poo, even if you have it packed up and taped I have been reading reviews saying the same thing. They are all nice before they get your deposit, then when they get the deposit you cannot get ahold of them, they don't show up, etc. It's pretty drat scary. We are now looking into Penske rental trucks since they don't charge per mile. Hopefully we can firesale most our poo poo and pack the truck up and go. Estimate on the truck rental is $1500 and I would just need to pay for gas...seems like a decent option. I also did get an estimate from ABF which came in around $3400.
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May 4, 2016 19:50
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Shath Hole posted:I also did get an estimate from ABF which came in around $3400. The main mitigating factor for me was my move was at the end of December. While I'd driven rental trucks across town before, I really didn't feel confident in driving cross country in potentially snowy conditions. In fact, that car trip could have been an enjoyable jaunt if I wasn't paranoid about getting stuck in a storm so I went as far as I could each day to get to Vermont as quickly as possible. Of course the entire route turned out to be clear sailing with only a small amount of snow driving in OH and PA. Except packing the drat cubes! The Saturday morning I needed to fill them, we got a mini-storm that in a few hours dumped a few inches of wet slick snow that made the mere 20 foot trek from my house to the cubes nearly treacherous.
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May 5, 2016 13:41
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Shath Hole posted:I have been reading reviews saying the same thing. They are all nice before they get your deposit, then when they get the deposit you cannot get ahold of them, they don't show up, etc. It's pretty drat scary. Did you do the math? Chicago to Phoenix is 1753 miles which puts you at $1400 at 80 cents a mile.
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May 5, 2016 16:13
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tsa posted:Did you do the math? Chicago to Phoenix is 1753 miles which puts you at $1400 at 80 cents a mile. Penske doesn't charge per mile like UHaul. Wait, you are saying we could save $100 or so by going with UHaul aren't you? I don't know why in my head I had the .80 per mile for this trip being much worse. Is there any difference in quality from Penske to UHaul?
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May 5, 2016 17:02
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Cheesus posted:That sounds about what I paid per cube from Colorado to Vermont in 2011. As someone with back issues, I'm not looking forward to a 1800 mile move in a box truck but the cheap rear end in me would rather spend the 2000 or so we save by going this way on the house  We will be moving late June so outside of rain, there should be no weather concerns...I say this and watch us get pulled up in a tornado Oz style going through Oklahoma.
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May 5, 2016 17:03
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Sounds like a plan. If I were moving from April-ish through October-ish, I'd have driven too and pocketed the coin.
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May 5, 2016 18:57
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I work at a moving company that sometimes does moves like this, I would recommend to shop around for a estimate, get rid of anything that you can't live without, and to know your rights as a shipper. Your rights as a shipper vary from state to state I imagine but in Colorado whatever the estimate for the move is, the company moving you cannot charge you 10% above that quote without your permission. I imagine there's some more laws for interstate moves but it's something worth looking into. The other two things are just shopping around for quotes, every moving company is pretty much made up of about 50% felons so it can be really hit and miss for what kind of quality you can get. The last thing is to literally just throw away anything that you don't particularly care about or is expendable. At the place I work we charge by the pound for when we do a cross country move. I've never been on one but just doing some really simple calculations in my head it almost never makes sense to move some lovely broken IKEA night stand across the country. If I were personally going to be doing a large move like this, I would do it like this. First get a general idea of what it is going to cost to get it done by a few companies, at this time also ask and try and get a feel for how the price is going to change if you bring less stuff. This is an exaggeration here but the idea is the same, if by leaving your 30 year old couch that weighs 200 pounds is going to save you $1000, then leave the couch and buy a new one at your new place. It's going to take a little thinking but a lot of times you can come out even by just buying new furniture. So do that math in your head and then you're pretty much set. The other option you can look at is, renting a truck from Uhaul or wherever. Have a moving company come out to pack it for you, drive it yourself to wherever you're going and then when you get their have another moving company come and unload it for you. tl;dr Moving companies are slimy as poo poo, it almost never makes sense unless you have exceptionally nice furniture to pay somewhere around $4000 to get it moved across the country when you could just sell all the furniture you currently have and buy new furniture when you get their.
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May 5, 2016 20:01
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Chocolate posted:tl;dr Moving companies are slimy as poo poo, it almost never makes sense unless you have exceptionally nice furniture to pay somewhere around $4000 to get it moved across the country when you could just sell all the furniture you currently have and buy new furniture when you get their. Thank you very much, I appreciate that. It kinda solidifies what I have been thinking.
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May 5, 2016 20:45
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Shath Hole posted:Penske doesn't charge per mile like UHaul. Renting a trailer (u-haul) is much cheaper than renting a truck, if you own something that can pull a trailer. It doesn't have to be a huge truck or anything, many mid-size or larger cars would pull a trailer 1800 miles one time, so long as you don't mind going slow on hills. Depending on your liquidity and risk tolerance, you can buy a truck/cargo van/minivan/trailer, move with it, and sell it on the other side.
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May 9, 2016 20:04
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photomikey posted:U-Haul is absolute bottom of the barrel on quality and customer service. Budget (trucks) is two steps up from there, and Penske is above that. No poo poo? Why does UHaul charge per mile then and Penske doesn't? You would think the bottom barrel people would embrace their poo poo tier quality and try to lure people in by offering no cost per mile. We are going to go with Penske, although I did not cost compare the Penske truck to Budget. I'll check that out 
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May 9, 2016 22:12
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I don't know anything about cross country moving, but I did read this article on Cracked about how the pods thing went hilariously awful for him. I think it got robbed but they weren't there to lock it back up so the PODS people wouldn't ship it to him. When he finally gets someone to lock it up, he calls it something like a mail order robbery. http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-awful-things-nobody-tells-you-about-moving/
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May 10, 2016 01:08
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About cross-country moving companies: They will break your tasteless, mediocre poo poo. The good stuff they won't break, because they will have stolen it. On delivery, which will not happen within 36 hours of the agreed-upon time, one person will hand you papers that he or she will pressure you to sign without reading, because they have a deadline and need to get back on the road and it's really important that get going, so sign here, here, and here. The other people will set your auntie's antique bedside table, which her grandfather smuggled out of Soviet-occupied Austria in 1945 by disassembling it and swallowing one piece at a time, in the corner so you cannot see the huge chunk they took out of the side while shoving it off the back of the truck with one foot. Walter died writhing in agony, suffering from lacquer poisoning and intestinal splinters, but he considered it a small price to pay to pass on such a wonderful piece to his heirs. You will later find one of the table's elegantly-carved feet in a drawer, where the movers threw it after it broke off while they were shoving some other family's father-son dirt bikes into the last square inch of space in the back of their truck. Sadly, the movers are "independent contractors," so you will get nothing from the moving company except the runaround. Movers are natural nomads, and even if you find an address where they can be served on one of the six days per year they aren't on the road stealing and breaking people's possessions, you're still out of luck, because one of the papers they shoved at you when they dropped off what was left of your worldly goods indemnified them from responsibility for literally anything. Good luck in your new home.
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May 10, 2016 01:24
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I've used ABF U-Pack for both my long-distance moves, would recommend them. Only problem I've had with them is they sent me some deadbeat truck unpackers on the receiving end, they didn't even offer to help reassemble my furniture and spent a significant chunk of their hourly paid time taking smoke breaks. Other than that nothing of ours has been broken or stolen, our headboard did get a scratch on it but it's not too noticeable. They have always shown up on time, and the one time there was a delay they kept me updated with their status. Once you get your truck unloaded and the movers leave double check all of your windows and doors because often some less than reputable movers will take note of your nice stuff and unlock a window while they're there to come back later and steal it. While they're loading/unloading stay near where they're going in and out so you can keep an eye on your stuff. Label your boxes vaguely as well, and just keep an inventory list elsewhere if you want to know what's in each box. Anything you absolutely can't afford to lose take with you in your car. Many moving companies cannot legally transport some items so you have to sell or take them with you (guns, ammo, cleaning supplies are the big three). Next move we're planning on renting a little U-Haul trailer to put stuff we don't want the movers getting their hands on so we aren't crammed in the cars with all our poo poo and it's more secure so people can't do a smash and grab if we stop for the night somewhere.
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May 10, 2016 02:58
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Paper With Lines posted:I think it got robbed but they weren't there to lock it back up so the PODS people wouldn't ship it to him. When he finally gets someone to lock it up, he calls it something like a mail order robbery. And yeah, seconding what Aquatic Giraffe said about driving stuff you can't afford to lose.
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May 10, 2016 14:10
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 17:59 |
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I'm glad I decided to just do everything myself, haha these stories sound horrifying. Cross country moves are stressful enough without all that drama. Just booked our Penske truck, so that is that!
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May 10, 2016 21:35
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