Moving companies

[mejake007]

Anyone make a long distance move fairly recently that used a moving company? I've never done it and a possible new job has popped up for me 2,000 miles away.

Any recommendations about moving companies? suggestions? warnings? horror stories?

I've looked around the 'net for ratings/rankings but all I come across are advertisements. Consumer Reports didn't even have anything.

[CanadianCowboy]

Cowgirl & I have done the long distance move thing 5 times since (and including) leaving Stillwater, two of those being international -to Canada and back. The company handles the moving arrangements, so we have always had Allied do ours. All of the moves except the last one went beautifully. The last one, I think things were great until they hired the delivery crew, and they pretty much destroyed several piecesof our furniture.....about $4000 dollars in reimbursed damage.

So....here are some things we learned along the way....The driver is the boss of the packers/loaders and unloaders/unpackers, sometimes he hires them locally, sometimes he takes what the local moving company has in the way of labor, and sometimes he will have a regular partner. Treat him/her well, with respect, ask questions, make sure they have tea/coffee/pop to drink, and offer to have pizza delivered for lunch. Then WATCH the packers/loaders. Make sure they don't do stupid things like pack your printer upside down and with the ink cartridges still in the printer.

A good driver will be very persnickety with the packers because he is responsible for the move. But still, he can only be in one place at a time, and the packers seem like they are everywhere all at once. The driver will tend to stay in the trailer and oversee the stacking/packing out there.

At the other end is where the damage always seems to happen to us. The worst was the last move here to Whitesboro when the delivery driver decided that he couldn't get the semi-rig into our neighborhood and unloaded the big truck onto a smaller u-haul moving van to bring to the house and unload, which turned out to be a cost not addressed and we were stuck with at the end. Then with the double-handling and a not very careful crew, we now have a destroyed desk that was estimated at $3000 to repair, along with several other items damaged or destroyed. But essentially you need to do the same things at the delivery end as what you did at the loading end. It helps if you are married and BOTH of you are available for the delivery because one of you will have to take the role of checking off the inventory as it comes off the truck while the other watches the unpacking like a hawk. The first role is mine, the second is Cowgirl's...and she notes what is broken or damaged as it arrives in the room and/or comes out of the box.

Finally, if you have damage, the moving company has processes to take care of it. But they are going to try to not pay for anything they can get away with. In our last move in which we had lots of damage, we only got a token settlement offer and an extremely lowball offer for the desk repair (like $200). When I pressed them about the desk repairs, they sent a quick check for about $600. I held that check, contacted the traffic dept. at my company to let them know we were having some "issues" (and copied the moving company on that email), and kept communications going with the moving company clearly explaining what we expected them to do, letting them know that we were regular customers, but also letting them know that we were keeping our employer informed of what was going on. They came around fairly quickly then and offered a fair damage settlement.

I hate moving the household, but it helps to have a good moving crew. Just watch over them, and don't accept what isn't right.

[PokePorsche]

Any recommendations about moving companies?


Emricks Allied Van Lines are owned by OSU graduates, they donated and drive the big orange rig that hauls the football gear for road games...and my dad used to work for them. Good folks...link below

http://www.emricksallied.com/