Moving companies ? Longer distance?

[spedrunner]

Has anyone relocated a distance and used a moving company? How was your experience? Who did you use? What was the cost?

[lilac05]

We've used Allied three times. They were corporate moves, so I have no idea how much it was. My experiences varied. Once, it was the best I could have asked for. Another time, it wasn't so great. Nothing horrible, especially compared to other stories. So much depends on the actual crew that ends up doing the work.

I will say that when there were damages, they were really helpful.

ETA:  If you can afford to pay someone to do the packing, do it!  If takes about 90% of the stress out of moving.

[celeste]

We used Allied for our 1000 mile move last year. For an 800 square foot house, they quoted $6200 for a full pack and move. We ended up packing ourselves because our budget (through the new job) was set at $4000. I never saw the final bill, but I think it came in right around that amount.

ETA: Our stuff survived relatively unscathed because it stayed on the same truck the whole time. Our neighbor moved at the same time with the same company and a bunch of his stuff was destroyed because of multiple transfers. The advantage to having the company pack for you is that they are liable for anything they pack.

[motzie]

We were quoted $12k to move from NY to FL from Allied and another large mover. We ended up going with a smaller local guy and while there were some hiccups, we saved about $4k. Our old house was 3000sf, so it was a big move.

[youbetcha]

DO NOT USE ARPIN! Under any circumstances. They were hugely late and lost my couch.

[spedrunner]

oh my gosh at these prices. I literally have two pieces of furniture to move. My office and my couch, but they are big and hefty I would not be able to get them out of my place without help

[awick14]

Is it possible for you to rent a uhaul trailer or something similar?

When we moved 500 miles it cost us about $350, but then again that is us loading it and everything. If you could get help at each end loading it then that might be a more affordable option.

[picaflora]

We moved just under 250 miles - too long to be considered a "local" move, not far enough to be a "regional" move. We ended up packing ourselves and using a U-Haul trailer, BUT we hired moving companies on each end to load/unload. That alone was worth it. You could book the help through U-Haul's site, but for us it was a bit cheaper to go through www.movinghelp.com. Since you don't have much stuff, this might be an option.

[dianecourt]

Apr 18, 2015 18:58:22 GMT -5 awick14 said:

Is it possible for you to rent a uhaul trailer or something similar?

When we moved 500 miles it cost us about $350, but then again that is us loading it and everything. If you could get help at each end loading it then that might be a more affordable option.

Yep, this is a great idea.  We hired outfits like "Two Guys and a truck" just move the heavy items out of the house into and out of the U-haul on each end.  I think it was about $400 with tip.

[DotAndBuzz]

If you just want help loading a truck, you can pay movers hourly to do that on each end. Doesn't have to be the same company. But a word of warning - the one and only time I hired movers like that, it was a complete disaster. I requested 3, they sent 2, and one basically sat in the truck because of a hernia, and then asked me to dig through boxes for ibuprofen because he was in pain. They then billed me for 2 guys to work 8 hours (because there were technically 2 guys there) when they should have been done in 3 or less. Never again.

I've done 2 cross country moves w/ full packs (3 bedroom + garage/basement) for $4500 and $5500, both Mayflower. The 1000 dollar difference was because we had more crap to move. I've done a local full pack move for around $2k-3k.

Get an estimate from a couple different companies that is a "not to exceed" estimate. That's the max they can charge you assuming you don't surprise them with a massive item, or storage unit that wasn't included in the quote, on moving day. Get it by weight. Do NOT get a cross country move quoted by hours. The hours required to complete a move can vary, and screw you in the process. Weight based, not to exceed protects you 2 ways - if they overestimate the weight of your things, and thus overcharge, you get the difference back after they submit their weight receipt and bill. If they underestimate the weight, they're still bound to the do not exceed estimate, and eat the difference. Both circumstances have happened to us, and we never had a problem with Mayflower sticking to the contract in either circumstance.

It may be less than you think if you don't have much stuff.


Eta - get your estimate from a national company with local franchises.  Mayflower, Allied, Atlas, United, etc.  Don't use a local mover for a cross country move.

[dojo]

Not sure if Mackie is available to you, but they were amazing for us. Their quote was bang-on accurate, they were extremely quick and courteous, they were tidy and I felt they went above and beyond for us with a couple of our requests. They stored our furniture for a period of time and everything came back perfectly. We had one scratch on DS's dresser following the final leg of our move and they came out immediately with a repair guy who custom-mixed a stain to match. I priced them against 6 other companies and they were very fairly priced as well.

[Deleted]

Apr 18, 2015 18:27:37 GMT -5 spedrunner said:

oh my gosh at these prices. I literally have two pieces of furniture to move. My office and my couch, but they are big and hefty I would not be able to get them out of my place without help

You can just hire people to move items in your truck for you. That will be far less expensive than a full moving package. I'm pretty sure when you go through the steps to rent a uhaul it asks if you want to add on people to help pack. I've done that with my car being towed in the back while I drove the uhaul and it's worked out wonderfully. I plan to do it again in June when I move.

[mich1]

I did a cross country move last summer, KY to WA. I had them both pack and move my 2 BR apartment and was charged $6500 for everything.

Company that moved was out of Lexington KY and they did a fantastic job. Easiest move I ever had.

When I was looking for the cost, I estimated how much a UHaul and hiring someone to move it in and out, a POD and full them pack me move. There was only a difference of about $1200 between the 3 modes and it seemed orth Ito me to just pay the $1200 and have someone do it all.

[amandawk]

I recently moved from Seattle to Boston using Graebel. It cost just under $6000 for a 2 bedroom. We went with Graebel because they moved us from Quebec to Seattle three years ago and we had a good experience with them.

[blackcat]

My parents used Atlas to move from NJ to SC and were pleased overall. Atlas did the packing for them. I think the only thing damaged was a lamp. The only hiccup was that the truck was loaded mid December, and with the holidays and snow and stuff, the movers were not able to get the truck down to my parents for three weeks, so they had to stay in a hotel. I am not sure about how much it cost them.

[thecatinthehat]

Midwest to Texas, 6k for a 2 bedroom apartment. This was back in 2011. They did everything!

[compassrose]

I had a great experience with Graebel moving from Boston to Ohio. It was about 3K for a two bedroom apartment worth of stuff (plus a lot of camping stuff).

[spedrunner]

Apr 18, 2015 21:27:02 GMT -5 mooselovah said:

Honestly, if you only have two pieces of furniture you areoving. Look at the cost of selling and repurchasing them. Otherwise, I would hire movers to load a truck (uhaul) and unload at the other end.

i thought about this, and i am leaving a lot behind, but my office and my couch I just love and can not

[underwaterrhymes]

We have moved a lot.

Our local moves have all been in the $1,200 - $1,400 range for 2-3 BR apartments.

Our multi-state moves (MD to FL, FL to MA, MA to IL) have all been around $5,000. They didn't pack us in any case, but we have a lot of crap at this point. We need to fix this.)

[tulip]

You have what sounds like a small move, I used Sterling Van Lines to move one room basically that I inherited. Lots of glassware, nothing was broken. It was around 2,000. They charge based off of the space it takes on the truck but they send out a truck and it stays on that truck but it takes awhile to get it unless you are in the area close to them.

We used Atlas for our move from Texas to Florida but it was a corporate move and we didn't pay. They were excellent and I highly recommend them. Our 'goods' were put into storage for a few months and not one thing was broken or damaged.

ETA: with Sterling they went from Nebraska to Florida with the stuff. So not just one State over or anything.