[BeetleBailey]

Would appreciate feedback both pro’s & con’s on your experience with your moving company? Thank you.

[dewilson58]

The biggest (to me) watch out are brokers. Find a company who will transport it the whole trip. Otherwise, you have no idea who has your stuff.


Also pay attention "carry distances" limitation. How close the truck can get to your front door.

[SKIMAN]

I did The Pod when moving here from Connecticut 8 years ago was about $2500 which included 1 month storage if needed . Pod was 16 footer was able to unpack everything myself but sometimes not suitable for others.... and the Pod was packed full bought my own boxes on the internet went well..Think total spent was $2700-$2800 pod ,boxes and incidentals.

[vintageogauge]

I used a couple Pods and later a 30 foot U-pack truck trailer that you fill yourself and pay for as many feet that you use within the trailer, they have a bulkhead that you put up and if you don't use the entire trailer they may or may not put a piece of machinery or crates in the back. When they deliver it you can either unload it yourself or hire some local movers to do it. We also used a commercial moving company to bring down our bedroom sets and a couple other large items that I could not stack very well in the U-pack, no problem with the moving company, no damage and they were on time.

[CoachKandSportsguy]

There are some very long prior threads on this topic. Do some searching and you will get plenty of moving and sell your stuff before moving advice.

[Brwne]

Originally Posted by BeetleBailey

Would appreciate feedback both pro’s & con’s on your experience with your moving company? Thank you.

I prefer the "flagged" movers like United Van Lines/Mayflower. Their employees are background checked, trained and covered by insurance - these workers are IN YOUR HOUSE with your stuff! United has "vaults" - roughly a quarter the size of a POD - that will be loaded at your home, "sealed" and then "unsealed" at your destination. This way, your actual belongings are not loaded, unloaded, reloaded, and unloaded etc. The "flagged carrier" approach is a bit more expensive but I thought of it as insurance...

[John_W]

I moved in 2011 from Baltimore suburbs to southside of TV. We were able to sell most of our furniture with the home to the buyer, $2500 was great deal for them but saved us a lot trouble when downsizing. We still had our master BR set since it was almost new and all the wall decorations, I wanted to keep them since they're usually so expensive. As I packed I ended up with the BR set and 77 boxes.

First I looked at ABF, Arkansas Best Freight, they have cubes slightly smaller than a POD. It was going to take 4 Cubes and at the time I remember it would cost $2800 and I would have to do the labor. I checked POD's and it was about the same for 3 PODs. I called the Mayflower/United Van Lines office about two miles from my house. They came and gave me an estimate of $3400 and they do all the labor.

I gave them the job, they came and picked it all up about a day later and took it to their warehouse. We were not leaving for another week, but it was nice to have out of the way so we could prepare for the walk through by the buyers. The mover called the day they picked up the load and said, it has been weighed and it will only be $2700, I said great.

We had closing we drove down and arrived Thursday June 30, 2011 and checked into the Holiday Inn at SS, our salesman Tony Trussler had gotten us a special rate of $75 a day. I remember that weekend because the Casey Anthony verdict was coming down. We couldn't close the next day Friday, they were booked up, we couldn't close Monday it was July 4th, so we stayed there until Tuesday July 5th and had closing and moved in with an air mattress and a clock radio.

Our furniture was scheduled to arrive that Friday. However, for whatever reason they didn't have a truck coming to Florida for over two weeks. Finally two weeks later they called and said we have a United Truck coming and we have room. He had 3 stops, South Carolina, us and then Tampa.

They arrived on Sunday 16 days after we had originally agreed. We live in the last street of a CYV community, I couldn't believe when I saw the 80' long United Van Lines tractor trailer coming around the corner, I thought he was going to take out the street light and stop sign, but he didn't.

When I last spoke to the mover about the delay he said you can get a refund of $125 a day for everyday it was delayed and he gave an email address for Mayflower in Chicago and said after it's delivered send them an email. However, you pay the driver the full amount in certified funds, so I gave the driver a check for $2700.

That night I sent an email to Mayflower in Chicago with the info and that following Friday, about five days later, I had a check for $2000 in my mail box. 16 X $125 = $2,000. So in the end, it wasn't such a bad deal, it only cost $700. We ate out everyday for two weeks and didn't have any TV, spent a lot of time at the squares and learned our way around.

[guitarguy]

Talk to the Village movers. I think they also do long moves.