Binding Quote (based on weight) - Many more boxes than estimated (packing, movers)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We're moving soon and very close to finishing packing everything up.
We have a binding quote from a very reputable, national mover.
I doubt our weight will be much different from the estimator's estimate, but he drastically underestimated how many boxes we'd have. He estimated roughly 80 boxes, and by my last count we're closing in on 200. I can't account for the difference except to assume that I simply packed our things more carefully, with more packaging paper and such, and in generally smaller boxes, than he anticipated.
My understanding is that a binding quote is a binding quote, and as long as we didn't add anything that wasn't there when he did his estimate that we can expect the mover to be unconcerned about the difference in the number of boxes.
Has anyone ever had a binding quote and had the mover express concern (or worse) about a difference in the number of boxes?
Did anyone actually come into your home then and do the math? Because if they didn’t, they charge based on weight and they’re unconcerned by the quote lol. If they came into your home and provided an estimate there, they’ll usually honor that if they’re at all reputable but that’s also not what any national moving companies do. They give phone estimates and the estimate is just a good faith guess based on expected weight and the actual cost is whatever your weight is.
Did anyone actually come into your home then and do the math?
Yes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JonathanLB
If they came into your home and provided an estimate there, they’ll usually honor that if they’re at all reputable but that’s also not what any national moving companies do.
That is incorrect. I had in-home binding estimates from United/Mayflower, Allied and Atlas.
That’s extremely rare - I’ve literally never heard of that - most all moving companies only give phone estimates because by law they can charge by weight if they only give an estimate by phone, but if they see it in person it’s binding. That’s why in general they refuse to give in person estimates not to mention most national movers subcontract the work so they don’t have their own agents even available to come to your house. I’ve moved countless times and I’ve never had anyone come before the day of the move. That’s standard practice. If they do come, you risk being overcharged but at least it’s binding if you go over.
What does your contract say? That's the final word on your binding quote.
We were told our binding quote "could go higher after weighing" by 15%, one mover weighs at their facility and we are invited to be there to see. I think that's how movers protect themselves from people adding in heavier stuff after they give the quote. We've deleted a couple of heavy items since getting our quotes and now thinking of calling and asking if they will re-quote. Ha, wish me luck on that.
I had 2 diff. companies come in-person to look at our stuff (boxing 1/2 done when they came) and their quotes were close to each other, within 15%. I think they go on their own experience, size of house, what contents look like and look around or heavy things. Our heavy items are generator, a sofa bed (sofabed plus another sofa removed from move) and crated artwork. I think they over-quote and profit = difference in weight, but hard to prove unless my house contents are the ONLY stuff on the truck.
I just called the mover we are leaning toward (Atlas affil.) and got a re-quote by phone/email because we've eliminated several heavy items listed on the inventory from in-person quote and it's based on weight not volume so OP should be fine.
Update: No one said anything about the number of boxes. We actually ended up using about 375 inventory tags (though keep in mind that, for some reason, sometimes they apply two to the same item), 206 of which were boxes by my personal inventory; compared to the 80 or so boxes that the estimator estimated.
I'm going to call today or tomorrow to get a final weight (to see if I am entitled to a refund for going underweight), and to give the coordinator a piece of my mind about how badly our boxes were manhandled. All of our clothing carefully hung in well-constructed (some brand-new) wardrobe boxes were found pooled at the bottom of the boxes. One of the table tops was clearly ripped off of its pedestal and lucky for them I was able to repair it since they are irreplaceable. (I've looked; I actually want one more but this design, from South Africa, is apparently no longer imported.) And only as testament to my over-packing, none of the dishes or glasses from our kitchen suffered any ill-effects of the manhandling. (We haven't unpacked the dining room yet.)
I'm sure that the movers who loaded the truck didn't do this. I'm sure that the movers who unloaded the truck didn't do this. This must have happened when they, for their own reasons, transferred all my property into a warehouse, and then onto a different truck - handling it four times instead of just two. Insanely bad practice that makes all the difference, I suspect, between many customers' items reaching their destination intact versus broken.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
