Picking a CA to NM moving company (Santa Fe: renting, movers)

[PaddyMac]

Hi all,

We are in escrow to sell our home in LA (we sold in a week - whoohoo!) and are looking forward to starting a new chapter in the Land of Enchantment. I've really enjoyed this forum over the past year, and have learnt so much.

I'm now trying to find a qualified interstate moving company to move the contents of our 3-bedroom home (+ home office, so more like 4 bedrooms) from Los Angeles to Abq. They have to be registered for interstate moves, so it's not like there are thousands to choose from I suppose, but if anyone has done this recently, please share!

I've found some good sites for background research which I'll share first:

Protect Your Move - download the "Your Rights and Responsibilites When You Move" PDF

MoveRescue - check under Pre-Move Education
Moving Company Guide
Moving Guide - 6-8 Weeks before move - checklists by week

Moving: How to avoid Moving Company Scams reviews companies. MovignScam.com have a "superlist" of good/bad moving companies organized by state under their Forums - General (you have to register to read them - well worth the hassle)

A couple of contenders who seem to work between CA and NM that I am thinking of asking for quotes from:

ANDYSTRANSFER.COM
Welcome to Johnson Storage & Moving Co.

Would like a third estimate. (Hmm, the agent will have to be able to come out to our LA home and do an on-site inspection! Maybe I should be asking this on the LA Forum!)

By the way, we are looking to pack the boxes ourselves, but have a moving company pack it on their truck and then it will be warehoused for about 2 months while we house hunt. (We've no plans to drive a big truck or to tow a U-haul, esp. after reading the horror stories about U-haul in the LA Times last year....). Thanks for any tips. Our last move seemed so easy (before we bought all this stuff too...)

[ricky37]

Having moved from ABQ to VA to OH and back to ABQ, we used ABF trucking. You have to pack the trailers, or have them packed, but the moving price is very reasonable. Make SURE you have good packers.

[Towanda]

We just moved from Kansas to Santa Fe less than two weeks ago and we used United Van Lines.

Just want to throw in a plug for them because their customer service was way above what we expected and the packers/movers were really nice people.

And so far I have not unpacked anything that has gotten broken.

[ricky37]

Are you retiring to NM? <Mod message: advertising employment is against the forum Terms of Service (TOS)>

[WasSoggyInSeattle]

Have you looked into PODS? Portable On Demand Storage? They drop them off at your place, leave 'em until you say come get them and then they will store them for you. Husband priced them out and it was cheaper then us renting a truck (more like 2) & doing it ourselves (from Seattle to Abq). You do have to pack the boxes and pack them into the PODS though.

If anyone has had a bad experience with this let us know too as this is what we are leaning toward since we'll have to store stuff for a few months.

[CindyBQuilts]

We're in the same situation. I requested a quote from ABF, but their 24 hours response time has been over a week. PODS don't come out to our area of the sticks.

[nmguy]

I moved from Calif. to N.M. using Bekins and was happy. I did all the small packing (plates, lamps, etc.), and they took care of the big stuff --beds, sofas, credenzas, et al.

The price was right, and they were very professional.

Early on, I considered driving out on a U-Haul, but Bekins was actually more reasonable.

[santafescribe]

Originally Posted by nmguy

I moved from Calif. to N.M. using Bekins and was happy. I did all the small packing (plates, lamps, etc.), and they took care of the big stuff --beds, sofas, credenzas, et al.

Every move is different of course, but we had a less than stellar experience with Bekins moving from CA. to NM. Of course the problem was about money - we got a quote which turned out to be quite a ways from the actual cost, and then the truck driver demanded an additional payment at the very end.

So, they're probably a fine company (and most of our stuff got through unscathed, which is important), but make sure you get a firm written quote (from them or anybody) before you give them your business. Watch out, for example, for an extra charge (a TON of money) if when they arrive in NM their truck can't make it to your door and they have to tranship to a smaller truck for shuttle delivery.

[Towanda]

United Van Lines was not able to get to our front door and had to use the shuttle from the road to our garage. It was an additional $800+ added to the bill, but we knew about it in advance.

Before the move we got a written estimate...which turned out to be lower because they over-estimated the weight ... so our final cost was less than we had thought we would be paying.

Even knowing the cost in advance and having everything go right .... paying a moving company is very expensive.

[PaddyMac]

Thanks for all the info. FWIW, Bekins got bad reports from MovingScam.com.

I will look into United Van Lines, thanks. We do have to store our stuff for a couple of months, but I'm not into packing pods or self-packing - we just have too much stuff as we work from home.

We'll pack everything into boxes, but then we're looking for more of a full-service. Good info on the shuttle extra charge.

Does anyone know what happens when you fill up a large truck, then store it. Do they store the truck? Or do they offload the goods so they can use the truck?