Good moving company? (Bellevue, Lynnwood, Mercer Island: insurance, movers, credit)

[TheTravellers]

We are looking for a moving company to do a local move to a neighboring town. If you know of a good moving company, could you send us a private e-mail recommendation?

We plan to get the new place a month early and move as much as we can ourselves, leaving the heavier items for the movers. Also, we plan to do our own packing.

Any recommendations would be appreciated.


Thanks in advance,

The Travellers

[bigtrees]

Your items won't be insured if you do your own packing. Moving insurance only covers items that are packed by the movers.

[jwb123]

We have used Careful Movers, based in Lynnwood, twice and both times were great. They were professional, friendly and did a great job at the best price I found at the time. They also were extremely accomodating when they showed up, and us having been in the hospital with our child, were not completely packed and ready - and helped us without charging us more.

I recommended them to someone on this forum - and they used them with success too.

[CityGirl72]

Hitchhiking on this post - anybody got good to okay movers that will do out of state, I'm getting quotes at 10K, and I'd really like less

[rocmicm]

The wife and I are moving from Mercer Island to Bellevue (traffic here we come). Any updated recommendations for movers that also pack up your stuff?
Thanks!

[ElektroDragon]

Originally Posted by CityGirl72

Hitchhiking on this post - anybody got good to okay movers that will do out of state, I'm getting quotes at 10K, and I'd really like less

I moved a big house from NY to WA last year and paid about 7.5K for a full service move. I used United. They were just OK. The driver was a jerk and smoked all over my stuff, and the fat, sweat drenched packer plopped himself in my office chair without asking and got it soaked! Gross! I never got a credit for the chair, and they lost one of my boxes I think. They also liked to play with the boxes and flip them in the air as they were carrying them. At least they didn't steal or really break anything and were more or less on time. This is what you get from a PROFESSIONAL, NATIONWIDE moving company. I am scared what a smaller unknown company would do. Probably steal everything! I had a GREAT (and I mean GREAT) full service experience with Mayflower in the past, but they're owned by the same company as United, so I don't know what the heck is going on. The Mayflower folks sent uniformed, smart looking packers. United just sent a bunch of really fat middle aged men in t-shirts. It looked like all they did was move things and drink way too much beer.

[Radnor]

Apparently it is illegal to give an estimate over the phone or without visiting your house first. I also read that you can view company complaints and violations online, so once you pick out a few companies you can look em' up here thanks to your local government:

WUTC: Company Complaint Data

The MovingScam forums and website are a great place to find tips and recommendations for movers.

Tips: Moving Company Advice: How to Find a Reputable Moving Company
Companies to avoid in Washington State: Moving Company Reviews Superlist

[drewba]

I highly recommend Apex Moving. We've used them for two different moves and have had great experiences, as have my in-laws and a co-worker. Their service was top notch, the movers were friendly and the pricing was reasonable.

They price per hour, but they work very hard and the amount of work that they got done in a day was impressive.

[LMB]

Originally Posted by ElektroDragon

The driver was a jerk and smoked all over my stuff, and the fat, sweat drenched packer plopped himself in my office chair without asking and got it soaked!

Unfortunately I know that driver, ElektroDragon! I'm pretty sure he moved us too! If not, it was his twin brother. Our cross-country move with Mayflower/United from FL to WA two years ago was a nightmare. We'd heard really good things about Mayflower, but maybe that was before United bought them. We ended up being the "last one" on the truck--and that is something to avoid if possible. The pickup before us took up twice as much room as estimated, which meant they crammed, slammed and squished our furniture and boxes into what became basically a trash compactor. Unbelievable and so stressful. Every time we complained to the driver about the way he was handling the truck loading, he basically told us to bug off--he said he was an experienced professional and had been a cross-country moving driver for many years. We had to call out the local Mayflower CSR we'd been working with on the estimating--and he ended up in a heated argument with the bellicose driver and left. We had so many things broken, ruined, and missing--plus we ended up with the someone else's table legs (we reported it, but they never came back to pick up and get to its rightful owner).

Then as we were halfway across the US on our roadtrip to Poulsbo, we were notified by the driver that "some" of our stuff was sitting in a United storage facility in FL and we'd get it two weeks after the original load! His truck was found to be overweight (big surprise!) and he had to unload part of our belongings before he could leave. What a mess! It took us over a month to actually get everything, and the stored items had been given new inventory numbers so we didn't even have an accurate check-list. We still don't know all the things that may missing.

Our son & his wife are moving here next week, and we suggested they use ABF U-Pack. So far, that is going very smoothly--and they are impressed by the professionalism, and the price for nearly the same load is almost half what we paid. In retrospect, we would have hired local loading and unloading help and used ABF. I know we could have packed the truck better than our unprofessional chain-smokin' cram-it-in careless driver and the group of thugs working for him. When we filled out our post-move evaluation for Mayfower/United, it took us an additional 15 pages of comments to let them know how we felt about our moving experience with them. Needless to say, they aren't using our testimonial on their website or brochures.

Lynn

[seattlenextyear]

A lot about moving has to do with luck. We "signed" with Mayflower too, but our driver had a United hat on and drove a United truck. The local people at each location had Mayflower hats on, so whatever. Our driver was pretty amazing: he got our stuff here DURING Snowcalpyse 2008 instead of delaying the shipment by waiting another night or two to get through the mountain passes. The other packers all worked hard and did a good job, so we're pretty happy with the experience.