advice on moving companies
Sep. 7th, 2003 06:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
verbminxI just posted this over on the Pander boards, but I thought that I should post it here, too.
I have to move very quickly - we will have a week between "having enough money to move" and "having to be out of the house." The original moving plan was to rent a truck and have a relative drive it up while my mother and I each drove a car. Because of the level of speed and lack of planning time, though, it looks like we're going to have to hire a moving company. Neither of us can physically handle doing the entire move ourselves.
I know all about how to hire a moving company (get estimates from several, make sure the estimates are binding not-to-exceed, etc) and what to look for (licensed and insured, uses agent labor only, etc). I also know that what you get from a moving company depends largely on where you're moving from and the branch that you're hiring. What I don't know about is - which moving companies have you guys used and liked? Used and hated? I'm primarily interested in long-distance state-to-state moves. (I've heard good things about Two Guys and A Van, but they don't go out of state; likewise, U-Pack has great ratings but is not available around here.) I know that a lot of our satisfaction will just depend on how good the local branch office is, but still, I'd really like to hear from people I know, and I'd like to hear if anyone has any sterling recommendations.
I've looked this up on epinions.com, where almost all moving companies available to us have really poor reviews - Allied and Bekins so poor that we won't even consider them. Suddath/United has mostly decent reviews with a few really bad ones, and Mayflower and North American are super-mixed, about half great and half terrible. There are also two possible local companies that don't have epinions reviews: Paul Arpin and All My Sons. However, I'm assuming that people who feel compelled to post a review on epinions are mostly people who got burnt, and that happy customers are less likely to have anything to say. I've also noticed that a lot of negative reviews came from military people who had no choice about who would be moving them (and, presumably, the movers are likely to be more careless about a government contract that they're not likely to lose even if ppl are dissastified).
I have to move very quickly - we will have a week between "having enough money to move" and "having to be out of the house." The original moving plan was to rent a truck and have a relative drive it up while my mother and I each drove a car. Because of the level of speed and lack of planning time, though, it looks like we're going to have to hire a moving company. Neither of us can physically handle doing the entire move ourselves.
I know all about how to hire a moving company (get estimates from several, make sure the estimates are binding not-to-exceed, etc) and what to look for (licensed and insured, uses agent labor only, etc). I also know that what you get from a moving company depends largely on where you're moving from and the branch that you're hiring. What I don't know about is - which moving companies have you guys used and liked? Used and hated? I'm primarily interested in long-distance state-to-state moves. (I've heard good things about Two Guys and A Van, but they don't go out of state; likewise, U-Pack has great ratings but is not available around here.) I know that a lot of our satisfaction will just depend on how good the local branch office is, but still, I'd really like to hear from people I know, and I'd like to hear if anyone has any sterling recommendations.
I've looked this up on epinions.com, where almost all moving companies available to us have really poor reviews - Allied and Bekins so poor that we won't even consider them. Suddath/United has mostly decent reviews with a few really bad ones, and Mayflower and North American are super-mixed, about half great and half terrible. There are also two possible local companies that don't have epinions reviews: Paul Arpin and All My Sons. However, I'm assuming that people who feel compelled to post a review on epinions are mostly people who got burnt, and that happy customers are less likely to have anything to say. I've also noticed that a lot of negative reviews came from military people who had no choice about who would be moving them (and, presumably, the movers are likely to be more careless about a government contract that they're not likely to lose even if ppl are dissastified).
