My husband is in sales and had the "opportunity" to move to another state with a higher volume territory. He took the position and we moved. Since we had only been in Bozeman, MT, for one year, you can imagine I was not thrilled to be moving so soon, especially since we have teenage children. One condition I put on hubby was that I was not going to pack anything and wanted to have professional movers. Now, all the sales agents and managers are independent contractors so there really is not any sort of "company" funding for a move. Our State manager agreed to give us several thousand dollars to help pay for the move. The amount was basically enough to cover a U-Haul move, so we decided to splurge and we obtained quotes from professional movers. Here's my experience...and why I'll never move any other way!!
GETTING QUOTES
If you ever move with a professional moving company, make sure to get at least three quotes and make sure the quotes are from a company that is a Better Business Bureau accrecited business with no less than a B rating. I could not believe the amount of variance between quotes. I called three companies for quotes: North American Van Lines, Atlas (the company our corporation uses to move State managers), and America's Moving Services. Both Atlas and Allied quoted us over $9,000 for a full-pack move. They also did not guarantee any price, which means if the estimator did not estimate correctly we might have had to come up with extra money before the driver would unload our items. America's Moving Services was the lowest quote. The quote was about $1,500 less than the other two moving companies. Based on the fact that we were paying for some of the move, we decided to go with America's Moving. Our estimator was very friendly and efficient. He took all the information quickly and provided me with a quote that day. Once we decided to hire them, he was our "relocation consultant" and was with us the entire move making sure everything went well. He is now helping us deal with one minor issue that occured once we got to Tampa.
PACKING DAY
What a great day!! I had actually packed quite a few things...about half the house prior to the packers arriving. They were pleasantly surprised. I did leave all the icky, breakable stuff to their expertise. I did not pack anything in the kitchen, garage, clothes, kid's rooms, electronics, etc. I was able to save some money by packing up all the non-breakable items, so I did. One item to note on the insurance that comes with your move. If you pack the item and it breaks, it is not covered by the insurance, so make sure to let them pack anything you feel you might not be able to pack well.
Our packers were AWESOME! There was a group of three guys and they were busy beavers. They had my whole house packed up in less than one day. They probably could have done even more, but they sort of spread out their day with a leisurely lunch and several breaks. They were very careful with the items and labeled all the boxes properly. I am still unpacking; however, not one single item has been broken or damaged in this move. I am thoroughly impressed with my packers. The only down-side is I have TONS AND TONS of packing paper to get rid of now, but that's ok with me. All my precious items are intact and as beautiful as ever.
LOADING DAYS
The packers came on a Friday, so the truck, driver, and loaders came on Monday and Tuesday. We originally scheduled them to come on Tuesday, but due to time constraints, our consultant asked if we could do a two-day load.
The way the loading and unloading is handled is the driver is the "supervisor" of the loaders/unloaders. Matthew, our driver, was FABULOUS!!! He came through the house and took a visual inventory of what we had, then came up with a plan for the loaders. He told them what to do and they did it with skill and ease...and some heavy breathing with the heavy items from upstairs. They had entire downstairs loaded by about 3:00 p.m. Monday. They decided to complete the upstairs on Tuesday, which was done by about 1:00 p.m. Away Matt went with our stuff. He was going to be to our place in Tampa, Sunday morning and would call us on Sunday. As promised, he called on Sunday to get specific directions and said he would see us in about 5 hours!
UNLOADING DAY
Matt arrived Sunday afternoon as promised. He had two unloaders with him and they began the unloading process. I was very surprised at the detail this company provided inventory-wise. When the items were loaded, every single box or item was stickered with an inventory tag and listed on a sheet. When they unloaded the truck, I was in charge of checking off each number to make sure it arrived. They unloaded the truck by about 9:00 p.m. with only a few issues. There are a couple dings in our stairwell, which we will need to get repaired and we also believe there was a theft of two Ipods from the teenagers' rooms. We are working with our consultant on those issues, and it should not be an problem, as we did have insurance purchased. Other than those two minor issues, the move was PERFECT!!
IN MY HUMBLE OPINION
I would NEVER move by myself again! We have used the U-Haul method about seven times prior to this move and it is just SOOOOO stressful and a big pain!! Even though the price of this move was $7200, it was WELL WORTH IT!! I had relatively little stress and did not have to pack anything I did not want to. My husband did not have a sore back from lifting 2800 square feet of boxes and furniture, and we did not have to impose on friends and family to help us! It was all done for us! I would recommend professional moving to ANYONE!!!
