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We’re moving from Missouri to California. I’m struggling to find a reputable moving company to use. Should we go with a local company or a van lines type company? This is our first major move, so we have no idea where to look. We’ve gotten quotes from both, and the price difference is crazy. I have a price window of nearly 3k... I don’t understand the dramatic price difference. Any advice?
You will need to determine when you want to have your relocation take place. If you're looking at moving within the summer time, You're going to be paying a higher price - regardless of who you choose. 80% of the entire industry's work takes place between May and August.
The difference in cost could be for a wide variety of reasons. You will need to make sure you're comparing Apples to Apples. One quote may include a Full Packing Service where as the other does not. Contact an agent and have them perform an in-home survey with you at your residence. These are at no cost or obligation to you, and gives both you and the mover an accurate representation of what the costs would be. If you attempt to get a price off the internet, You're likely to under-estimate things, and might end your move with a significantly higher price than what you first expected.
When you're looking to move with a distance as great as this, It would be best to find a mover affiliated with a Van Line. All movers in this industry are Independent in a sense. You're still able to find a Local Mover who operates under a Van Line for Interstate Relocations. with sticking to a major Van Line, These movers have much more resources at their disposal to ensure a smooth relocation for you.
United Van Lines and Mayflower Van Lines are technically the same company (Unigroup), and operate on similar tariffs.
Allied and northAmerican are also technically the same company (SIRVA), and operate on similar tariffs as well.
Atlas Van Lines is unique in the sense that a Parent Company doesn't own them, the Moving Agents themselves do.
All three of these companies operate on Similar Tariffs, and all companies discount this tariff to a similar extent. Contacting at least two of these, or all three if you're able to would ensure you receive a competitive price.
We used this company to move from St. louis to WA State. They treated us very well.
Get bids from at least three movers, and ask a million questions. Ask the same questions to all three. Don’t necessarily go with the lowest bidder. The sales person who comes to your home should give you an itemized bid on the fly, printing it on a portable printer. If he or she does not give you a bid on paper, don’t choose them.
Before choosing, check the BBB and Angie’s List.
The move will be expensive. Don’t pay to move anything you don’t need, value or really want.
We used this company to move from St. louis to WA State. They treated us very well.
Get bids from at least three movers, and ask a million questions. Ask the same questions to all three. Don’t necessarily go with the lowest bidder. The sales person who comes to your home should give you an itemized bid on the fly, printing it on a portable printer. If he or she does not give you a bid on paper, don’t choose them.
Before choosing, check the BBB and Angie’s List.
The move will be expensive. Don’t pay to move anything you don’t need, value or really want.
Good luck.
Everyone's individual relocation is different, and often times the salesman is not able to give a physical bid before leaving the Survey.
With each relocation being unique, Yours may call for a special third party service, special parking permits, ect. I would suggest not making a decision based on the ability to provide a physical quote minutes after the survey. If you pressure for this, the salesman will likely estimate higher to be safe. Give them time to return to their office, Discuss your move with co-workers, and allow them to devise a plan that suits your unique situation. Often times, you'll have your quote within 24-48 hours electronically.
When entertaining multiple quotes, I would also suggest that you not have all three vendors present at the same time. I've personally had a few customers who have done this in an attempt to speed the process up. This only put more stress on them, as they didn't have time to sit down and actually talk to each representative.
We hired a local moving company to move form CA to MI. even thought he company had a different name, the truck said Atlas Van Lines, The invoices said Atlas on top and the one person wearing a logo was Atlas.
I spoke with the people who helped us move. The driver and his assistant were independent contractors. The moving company contracted with them and they hire local crews at each end to load and unload. It is my understanding the tractor was owned by the driver, but the trailer was supplied b the moving company who had some arrangement with Atlas. The packing crews were completely independent and under contract with the moving company. They were local. They got paid by the box which was a mistake. Some of the boxes were well packed. Some had fragile items that were not individually wrapped. One had endless layers of packing materials, all wrapped around a wrench. That was all that was in the whole box. Another box had the carefully packed and wrapped trash can from under the sink complete with trash. The even wrapped and packed feathers that had fallen off our bird and were on the floor. None of it made any sense, but most of it was packed in a way to maximize the number of boxes used (hence the thoroughly wrapped wrench alone in one box).
If you hire a company to help with packing, make certain you are there to supervise them.
Everyone's individual relocation is different, and often times the salesman is not able to give a physical bid before leaving the Survey.
With each relocation being unique, Yours may call for a special third party service, special parking permits, ect. I would suggest not making a decision based on the ability to provide a physical quote minutes after the survey. If you pressure for this, the salesman will likely estimate higher to be safe. Give them time to return to their office, Discuss your move with co-workers, and allow them to devise a plan that suits your unique situation. Often times, you'll have your quote within 24-48 hours electronically.
When entertaining multiple quotes, I would also suggest that you not have all three vendors present at the same time. I've personally had a few customers who have done this in an attempt to speed the process up. This only put more stress on them, as they didn't have time to sit down and actually talk to each representative.
We got four quotes. The first was an off the top of his head verbal quote. The next three were quite professional, and provided us with printed quotes. We chose the United company operated by Mrazek. I do agree to having sales people come sequentially.
It might be that different companies do things differently in different cities.
I’ve heard so many horrible stories about movers, but we were treated well.
In our agreement was a guarantee that they would move our stored possessions within two weeks of notification, or pay a penalty. (Its been over five years. I think it was two weeks.) They got our stuff to us within that time frame.
The only things lost were some antique casters for an antique dish cabinet. Our art and stained glass was crated or boxed correctly. I watched the guy build the crates.
We used this local mover https://californiamoversusa.com/ to move from San Diego to Phoenix. We got quotes from 3 companies and decided on this one because of their competitive rates and recommendations from our friends. The guys arrived right on time with moving gear and wrapping stuff. They packed our stuff and loaded into the truck and were quick, careful and efficient. The only glitch was that as we needed to store our stuff for a couple of days I found out about some charges I wasn't made aware of ahead of time. But their manager discounted the rate and it was quite fair. All things considered, I had an overall positive experience.
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