[parvi]

We will be moving soon to The Village's. Have been contacted by a moving company called Smooth Relocation Movers, based in Chicago. If anyone has used them, what is your opinion? Does anyone have a recommendation of a company they were happy with? Thank you for your help.

[Loudoll]

We highly recommend Two Men And a Truck if you need someone to do almost all of it for you as we did. They were patient, efficient, flexible, dependable and made sure everything was set up they way we wanted it before they left. Zero damage, stress or complaints with this company.

[thetruth]

Originally Posted by parvi

We will be moving soon to The Village's. Have been contacted by a moving company called Smooth Relocation Movers, based in Chicago. If anyone has used them, what is your opinion? Does anyone have a recommendation of a company they were happy with? Thank you for your help.

Assuming you will or have gotten several bids on your move.

Some SALESMAN comes to your home and gives you an estimate. After all his hiden magic what he does likely infornt of you is to list what you have. His program calculates WEIGHT. A average couch weighs ????? so that is what his computer adds to get the weight of your move.

The salesman will cringe if you ask what the TARIFF RATE IS. The tariff weight is the cost per 100 lbs to move form zip code xxxxxx to zip code xxxxxx. It is filed with the government fixed for a year-I think. If you interview three companies and there is a lot of difference, likely the way low one has UNDERESTIMATED YOUR WEIGHT. When, you travel the highways you will see turn offs marked weigh stations. It is exactly that. The driver must stop and get his load weighed. If, your stuff weighs say 4000 lbs and the salesman either deliberately or incorrectly estimated 3000, they will bill your the difference and or hold your property to be sure you have no choice.

We interviewed I think it was three movers. Both United Van Lines gave us the same pitch. They will over estimate the weight and assure you that you will get the overcharge back. SEEMS TOTALLY REASONABLE. i LATER DISCOVERED that UNITED VAN LINES and MAYFLOWER are owned by the same franchise company. After our move was completed by MAYFLOWER, we had some items CRUSHED on their truck. REASON-they did not property secure some heavy stuff. Far as getting your money back A SLIGHT OF HAND. Our Tariff rate was fifty seven cents per hundred pounds. The refund was thirteen cents per hundred. They over estimated us by, if I recall 3,000 pounds.

SUGGESTIONS
Take good pictures of everything as you pack it. Can you
proove you had a xxxxx. It was in perfect condition
as so it's value isxxxxxxx.
Buy or at least consider REPLACEMENT INSURANCE. I'm
not sure but it cost us like 5-700 dollars. Our move
was I hope worse than some others. They destroyed
my desk-that alone was worth $1200. They
s statue we had. My photos showed it was fine
as packed. It showed that it was packed like the
treasure it was to me. It is no longer the same
they paid $800 to have it restored.
You will pack all your stuff and number each box. The
the mover will put their own numbers on your boxes
and the numbers will not match. On delivery, our
mover dropped all out stuff into our living room,
handed me his manifest list AND EXPECTED ME TO
SIGN IT WAS ALL THERE. Based on previous
experience, HE WAS NOT HAPPY. I PUT THAT
SEVERAL BOXES ARRIVED DAMAGED AND I WAS
UNABLE TO COUNT AL THE BOXES AS THEY WERE
DELIVERED AS A PILE-YES, I TOOK PICTURES.
After opening boxes, nothing was broken. I way over
packed everything. ONE BOX worth about $600
never arrived. I was paid $400 for that-TRUTH and
they know it. I was too tired to fight for the $200.
FOR PERHAPS SOME HUMOR. Mayflower told us we should
choose them because they have trained mayflower
employees at mothe ends of your move. TRAINED??
I have an amoire. Men's dresser,sort of like a china
cabinet. Such large furniture usually is designed
to be taken apart to be moved. The trained
MAYFLOWER PEOPLE didn't know this. They carried
it down the stairs. Damaging both the furniture the
freshly painted walls, and the iron rail. The driver
came in screaming at them when they discovered
there was no way it was going to make the bend
at the bottom of the stairs unless they took it apart.
Not the same people but STILL MAYFLOWER. One
delivery to our NEW VILLAGES home. I heard a crash.
One of their TRAINED? people dropped that same
amoire and poke a hole in our new wall about 8 inches
square.
MOST IMPORTANT-with your contract they will demand a
deposit. DO NOT PAY IN FULL. Put the balance on
a credit card ON DELIVERY. Any issues SUCH AS WE
HAD AND THE CREDIT CARD COMPANY WILL HELP YOU
TO GET IT RESOLVED.

[Loudoll]

It was exceedingly generous of you to write about your atrocious, costly move in order to help the poster and other people. We also got several estimates, etc. and our choice, Two Men And a Truck was not the cheapest by far, but they seemed to be the most straightforward and trustworthy which turned out to be the case.