Moving Company Experience-First National, American Knight, Andrews (Houston, Dallas: movers, house)

[MoveFamily]

Hi,
Looking for experiences with moving a 4 bedroom house from Ohio to Dallas, TX. Or from anywhere to Dallas for the following movers.

1. United Van Lines - Andrews Moving and Storage
2. American Knights Moving and Storage
3. First National Moving and Storage.
4. Atlas
5. Graebel Van Lines

or recommend someone who was very successful in your case.

In the process of getting at home quotes. One company gave a quote of approximately 75 cents per pound. Comes to almost $10,000/- with some packing weight about 12,000 lbs, with full packing it goes to $11K plus. Does this sound right?

We need to work on purging some of the stuff and getting it lower. We would prefer to bring it under $7000 - $7,500 max if we must.

American Knight told over the phone (without an inventory list or at home quote - they will come to give an at home binding quote) , they have a direct delivery with guaranteed delivery date for around $6,200/-. In this case, the truck or container is not shared with anyone. When sharing with others, the delivery window is about 10 days and is known as consolidated move.

Note: I have been reading reviews for all of them. Lot of negatives and positives. So it is hard to decide which to pick. I saw a lot of good reviews on First National. However was not able to figure out whether they give at home quote. Looks like the quote will be based on inventory we fill. Also seeing a large amount of positive reviews compared to others, I wonder whether these are real reviews.

[Johnhw2]

I was moved from Houston to plano by grabel. It was a great experience first class staff and movers. We work thru a Cincinnati Ohio office of grabel.

[TeamLynn]

You might try someone like:
Name Sam Westerman
Company Move Advocate
Phone 800-617-1918
Website The Move Advocate: The Move Advocate

They will have 3 big movers give you quotes and have some discounts with the big guys.

If you can do some work yourself, you might try:
http://www.upack.com/abf

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

I moved from a 2300 sq ft house in Salt Lake City to the Dallas area in 2012. They did it all (except jewelry, my bed, dog/cat stuff, and potted plants) for $11, 000.

[Siphon9r]

I'm just finishing a Seattle->Dallas move and am using U-Pack. They drop off a trailer in front of your house, 28 linear feet I think. You fill it up as much as you want and install this wall at the end of your load. You then call them and they pick it up and drive it to your destination. You pay only for the space you use, whether five feet or all 28. Yours will be the only residential load on the truck, they fill the rest with commercial stuff like Amazon packages.

We of course ended up using more than I thought and took the whole truck. From Seattle to Dallas I think it will cost in the neighborhood of $5-5.5k. I separately paid or will pay movers to load and unload the truck. Taken together I think the truck and movers on both ends will end up costing me around $7k. So far the experience is pretty good and I would recommend them. When driving down last week we passed their trailers (says ABF on the trailer) several times so they definitely get a fair amount of business.

[MoveFamily]

Thanks SiphonR, we are seriously considering using upack. One question is should we insist on packing furniture in plastic and/or material that will prevent water seeping into the furniture? I am wondering whether the truck could get water in it if it rains heavily on the way.

[Siphon9r]

I am still pleased overall with my U-Pack experience. The only caveats I would mention are that you cannot schedule the drop-off of your truck at your address until the trailer is at the local depot. This means you won't know for sure when to schedule your movers (if using any labor, etc.) until 2-3 days before you'll need them - this can create a challenge in a busy local market. I fortunately found some great help on very short notice.

As for packing, we didn't get any moisture in the truck beyond what was self inflicted by bad packing (spilled bottles of soap or oil). Any damage was the result of the relatively crappy movers we hired in Seattle and nothing to do with U-pack. I would err on the side of getting extra plastic wrap and furniture pads just to cushion your furniture against the bumps on the long drive and make sure your movers use the stuff when loading your truck.