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We will be moving from Cali to Raleigh. This seems the most cose effective and easy way to move. Have any of you used either of these companies? Were there any hidden costs? Were they right on time? How did you like their customer service? Why is ABF so much cheaper? Pods Quoted us about $5,500. ABS Quoted $3,200 for the similar square footage of storage. Which would you recommend?
Thanks in advance to you very helpful City Data peep's!
We will be moving from Cali to Raleigh. This seems the most cose effective and easy way to move. Have any of you used either of these companies? Were there any hidden costs? Were they right on time? How did you like their customer service? Why is ABF so much cheaper? Pods Quoted us about $5,500. ABS Quoted $3,200 for the similar square footage of storage. Which would you recommend?
Thanks in advance to you very helpful City Data peep's!
We moved from Portland to Durham this past summer and used Allied. (We packed boxes, they put the stuff on the truck, drove, and brought the stuff into the house. We are a family of four, had a 3600 sq ft house but pared down a lot. Our quote was about a grand more than your Pod quote. So to me $5.5K for a POD seems like a lot of money.
I had read that some people who used the PODs for long distance moves had moisture issues, related to the plastic the PODs are made of and humidty. They did not wrap their soft furniture and some of it stained. Allied wrapped all our furniture for us.
FWIW, when we drove across the country this summer we saw A LOT of ABF trucks but very few POD trucks doing the cross country thing.
Good luck with the move and check out Craigslist for free boxes and packing paper!
I have used ABF U-Pack twice now, and they were great. The delivery of the "box" was on time, and it was picked up when we asked. We were able to track it across the country (from San Diego to Raleigh) and it arrived on time. The initial quote was exactly what we paid, and if you need to call them, they are easy to get a hold of and very helpful. The space is a bit smaller than the PODS, but if you aren't moving large furniture...it's a great way to move everything.
Can you fit regular items, like a sofa, small piano, ect. , into a Relocube? The price looks good-I got an online quote-but it said I'd need 4-6 of them. Can you fit actual furniture into them?
I priced out PODS and wow it got more expensive than my last check last year. I have used PODS locally and liked them, but the price difference between them and the rleocubes was a lot. I can't park the ABF trailer in my apt parking lot so that's out for me.
We recently relocated from Sacramento, CA and used ABF U-pack and had no problems... If you use ABF U-Pack your responsible for packing it (or, in the alternative have someone do it for you). Either way, make sure you pack it in like sardines. Why you ask? Your responsible for your own household goods.
We used PODS and were very happy with them. We had our home put into storage in NJ at $100/month. Then after a few months of job hunting in a furnished rental, we had the POD shipped to Raleigh where it stayed until we found our house. Even with the various moving around, it all went very smoothly without any additional costs than were originally quoted to me.
Not sure why they are so expensive now.....we paid a total of about $1400, not including the month to month storage fee. Maybe their prices have gone up? They're not the only game in town now.
Another thing, we used a company called "Moving Labor Brokers" to help load/unload hte heavy stuff from the POD. It costs $270 for 2 guys for 4 hours and then if you need extra hours its about $40/hr, if I remember right. They too were professional, courteous and good with our furniture.
One more tip on using any sort of POD storage....put all your clothing and linens in garbage bags! Sounds awful but I had all our stuff packed in those blue plastic tubs and we had the POD halfway packed when we realized we weren't going to fit everything in. I took all the clothing out of the bins and put in the bags and it gaves us back half the room and enabled us to stuff the bags into cracks/crevices for more secure storage.
I used ABF U Pack to move to Seattle from Atlanta in 2004, and I'm using them again to move from Seattle to Durham in two weeks! I don't have PODS experience to compare them to. But, for me the ABF system works as a great "in between." I'm a do-it-yourself kind of guy to save money. But, I'd rather not have to drive anything across the country. I had a solid experience with ABF in being relatively affordable, professional to deal with, and reliable.
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PODS or ABF U-Pack?
