Such a positive relocation
P.R
Submitted this review about
Americas-Moving-Services
Review made Live: 4/16/2009 11:01:00 AM
We had to move a large 3 bedroom house worth of stuff (about 9500 pounds, as it turns out) from Boston, Mass to Phoenix, Arizona. We thought about doing it ourselves but the decently long distance plus the likelihood of heat in Phoenix turned our thoughts to professional movers. We got quotes from 3 of the majors, and several other natioally recognized companies and ended up going with America's Moving Services as agents for yourmovingday. We went with them largely on the strength of the salesperson, Eric. He took the time to explain things the best, it seemed like he was telling the truth Inspired by the move, we got rid of a BUNCH of stuff. Stressed but undaunted, we awaited their arrival with nervous anticipation. The driver, Mark called at 8am to let us know he might be a few minutes late due to traffic, he ended up arriving at 9:20 or so (original window was 8-9). Fine. Unbelievably, the move went EXTREMELY WELL. Mark was great, he ran the crews well, he helped us with this pressboard furniture that's a pain in the butt to move, the arrival and unload was on time, and we have yet to find anything that's damaged (except for one piece of the pressboard furniture damaged at the load before we concluded we needed to tear it all apart before moving; honestly, we expected much worse...)
Possible keys to success:
* We packed everything ourselves (except for TV's, furniture, and some other items that the salesperson said the movers would handle). We used lots of clean newsprint and packed carefully. Worked great - nothing broke! And the movers used a TON of furniture pads and tape to protect all the furniture, which worked well.
* We were absolutely ready when the movers got there. We asked the crew if that was standard and they said no - often families were in disarray and that would make it hard for them to work well.
* We provided water and soda (and M&M's) throughout, which everyone seemed to appreciate.
* We were definitely around for both the load and unload, which mattered a ton. For example, I remembered better than anyone how my desk fit together, so I helped put it back together. We also handled the checklist of inventory on unload (apparently other people leave that to the driver? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?)
* Lots of positive attitude and friendliness. It took a while for the guys to warm up, but by the end of both the load and unload everyone was smiling or at least friendly!
Other things:
* Driver is key, as they're independent contractors with a wide amount of flexibility and leeway to make decisions for or against you. Make them your friend!
* Be aware that they will pack that huge truck ALL the way to the TOP! That means that boxes not labeled top load might have 10' of other boxes, furniture, or whatever else on top of them. A couple of our boxes weren't packed as fully as they should have been and got a bit smushed; no harm done as it was all soft stuff (clothes, etc.)
* It's normal to tip drivers and crew; ours were so nice and friendly that we tipped $30ish for the crew members and about $140 for the driver...
* We took stuff that was precious to us (photo albums, some computer stuff, sentimental stuffed animals) with us in our cars so we wouldn't stress about them. In retrospect they would have been fine on the moving van but it made us feel better.
* The load was 7 hours, including a short lunch break. The unload was about 5.
We would 100% without hesitation use this company again!
