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Have moved several times across country, but it has been 14yrs. since last one.
Can you recommend moving companies and/or advise which ones to avoid?
Moving from TX to Charlotte.
We've used United Van Lines in the recent past (2007, 2012, and currently using them for another move). We've had great experiences. However, like all moving companies, there are differences in agencies. For example, Suddath-United in Jacksonville FL is excellent, but Suddath-United in Charlotte not so great. Our move coordinator is actually Andresen-United in Massachusetts, and she's handling our move from Charlotte to FL using the local Hildrup-United.
The key, in my opinion, is to find a good coordinator for whichever moving company you ultimately choose. So, when you're calling for quotes, take note of the personality of the person you talk to.
If you don't mind driving the truck, rent the truck and hire a loading crew and an unloading crew. I used this site to find mine: U-Haul: Moving Help moving labor service
We went the ADF-UPack route (they drop off a 28' commercial shipping trailer, you load it, pay by the linear foot, they fill the remainder with commercial freight, deliver that, and then deliver the trailer to your destination where you unload it).
Even with contracting with their partner moving staff company on both sides of the move, it was still only about 1/3 of the cost of a full service multi-state move. And we went with the "deluxe" package, which included the moving staffers on the departure end breaking down and packing all the furniture, mirrors, pictures, lamps, etc. And (theoretically), on the NC side, they were to assemble the beds, unpack all the furniture and cart off all the packing materials.
On the NY side of the equation, those guys were like magic - consummate professionals who did such an amazing job I A) wished we had just spent the extra money and contracted with them to do the full service move (though we really couldn't afford that), and B) actually left me kind of dumbstruck with how good they were.
On the NC side, though, the experience was like night and day. First off, the truck driver completely ignored the spot we had had marked off with cones from the local PD and in the process took out a neighbor's tree limb. Great first impression.
And the moving staffers? Total cluster-whatchacallit, completely unprofessional (didn't even have a box-cutter; had to borrow our scissors to cut through the packing material, which they had no way of carting off at the end of the job; no tools to re-assemble furniture, and seemed shocked that they'd even be expected to do so; left boxes just wherever they felt like it (even though they were instructed repeatedly where certain things were to go); etc.
Not to take anything away from the guys - they busted their humps, but they in no way provided the service we paid for. And I would in no way hire that company ever again.
So, while ADF-UPack was definitely a money saver, the folks you work with in terms of their staffing partners, and their drivers as well, are a complete crapshoot.
I should add - we researched our options pretty exhaustively on the site Mike mentions up above, and it seemed like ADF was our best bet. So, just remember that no matter how many reviews you read, YMMV. ANd like I said (and mawipafl said before me), even within one particular mover/service/company, if you're dealing with different teams at different ends, you may have wildly different experiences.
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