I moved from Maryland to TV in July 2011. First I checked into PODS and ABF (Arkansas Best Freight) Cubes. I found the ABF Cubes were a little smaller than PODS, but I could get 4 cubes for about the price of 1 or maybe 2 PODs. Of course this is 8 years ago and things may have changed. You can see the ABF is smaller.
Then I called a local mover who had Mayflower and United Van Lines services. I sold most of my furniture to the buyer of my home, but kept the M/BR set since it was almost new, and household goods and clothes, and anything on the wall (pictures, etc) because those are expensive to replace. I had 71 boxes. They sent over the appraiser and he estimated a cost of $3400. Since I estimated 4 cubes to cost $2800, I decided to go with the mover since I didn't have to do any work except load my boxes at my house.
Then a couple of weeks later when we were ready, they send a truck with a couple of workers and loaded everything. Called me when they got back to their warehouse and told me with the actual weight, it would be $2700, that's $700 less than their estimate. Said call them back when were are ready in Florida and they will send the items, in the meantime they sat in storage at their warehouse. I told them I'm closing on Tuesday July 5th, so just deliver everything on Friday July 8th.
We closed July 5, 2011 as scheduled and called the movers. They said they had no trucks coming to Florida at the moment, but would keep us advised. We went to Sam's Club and bought a queen air mattress for $30 and with our clock radio for music, we were ready to wait. Spent a lot of evenings at the square and eating out twice a day.
As it turned out, they didn't get a truck to Florida for almost three weeks. They combine smaller loads like ours since we didn't fill a whole trailer. They had three combined loads on one United Van Lines Tractor trailer. South Caroline, The Villages and Tampa. After 21 days it was delivered, and it was amazing he brought that big tractor trailer into our Courtyard Villa community the last street. Nothing was damaged but for a couple of artificial trees. However, since they were 16 days late from their promised delivery date, they gave us a refund of $125 a day. They told us to give the driver a certified money order for $2700 and we would get a refund later.
The mover in Baltimore then gave me a claims email address in Chicago of Mayflower Van Lines, they said they would provide the refund. They delivered our goods on Sunday, I emailed the company in Chicago on Monday, and on Friday in my mail box was a check for $2,000. So the whole move cost me $700.