Suggestions for Moving Companies (Tampa, Iona: to rent, insurance, movers)

[Lovesummer]

If all goes well I will be moving from NY State to FL at the beginning of March. Trying to get a moving company is overwhelming and making my head hurt.

I had 2 companies actually come to the house and do quotes and received a few quotes over the internet, without seeing the actually contents of the house. The 2 that came to the house estimated about the same pounds and are very close in price – less than $50 difference. The ones that I have done over the internet are much cheaper which worries me. One of the movers I found over the internet said they are registered with the BBB and the 2 that have come to the house are also BBB certified.

Does anyone have any names of good moving companies? Or names of movers to stay away from? Thanks for any help.

[FloridaKash]

Originally Posted by Lovesummer

If all goes well I will be moving from NY State to FL at the beginning of March. Trying to get a moving company is overwhelming and making my head hurt.

I had 2 companies actually come to the house and do quotes and received a few quotes over the internet, without seeing the actually contents of the house. The 2 that came to the house estimated about the same pounds and are very close in price – less than $50 difference. The ones that I have done over the internet are much cheaper which worries me. One of the movers I found over the internet said they are registered with the BBB and the 2 that have come to the house are also BBB certified.

Does anyone have any names of good moving companies? Or names of movers to stay away from? Thanks for any help.

Pack your boxes yourself. Nobody will pack your boxes better than you.

Call ABF UPack. Got to their site to get an idea about how much space your shipment would need, request a quote.

Find a local moving company to load the truck up for you. Find a small moving company at your destination to unload the truck.

This process is more time consuming and difficult to line up. But you will have far less damage than with a big moving company and will save a boat load of cash.

[tewas]

Well i recently moved from Ohio to Tampa with moving company: New Planet Moving. I left with mixed feelings. The driver was professional, a ran a little late for pickup, but i was OK with it. He did call me multiple times with status updates, so i wasn't sitting in the dark. Pack everything yourself into boxes. Make sure you wrap all fragile items properly, after all your stuff will be driving a lot.
They did come and disassemble furniture and wrap them in blankets to protect from scratches. This company did charge for tape used, and they use a lot. It was $2 per roll and they charged me for 14, they used over 20 tho. I'm not sure about other companies. Ask how they do and in case they charge you for it, buy a case of tapes and tell them to use yours. It will save a little bit. They do have special box for clothes and they charge for that, you might want to get one for yourself.
Anything that fits in a box, should go there, otherwise they will use their own box and charge for that. A lot of companies charge for stairs so be aware of that. They count 5-7 stairs a s flight which is is bull. Some of the companies do have elevator fee, clear that with the company as well. Majority of the companies will move your items only 75ft from your residence to the truck, and charge for more, make sure you have road where semi can park.
The way my company did was to make an estimate of how much your stuff weight and quote you a price, then they will actually measure when truck drives thru scales to have exact mass. The base quote price is what you will pay no matter what, and every pound over the limit they will charge more (my rate was 79 cents per pound over, but i was under) so keep in mind that.
In general my movers were pretty good, the only bad part was dealing with their dispatch lady. She does not seem to have concept of returning calls, and almost always "on the phone with driver", however if you demand strongly you will reach her. Factoring out terrible communications with the dispatch, the company did a good job, but i would not hire them again due to that dispatcher.

Now there is one thing that you should be aware of. Some companies quote you with price that is Not to exceed. That means that they give you a price and total won't cost more than they said. I would highly recommend such company, so you won't have surprise costs (mine was about $200 thanks to stair, elevator and some packaging material charge). When i was looking i found one company that did that, but their quote was about $200 more than the company i went with, so in total i did not really loose any money. Next time I'll move, I'll get the company that has Not to exceed price.


On the other hand, depending on how much items you have, it might be better to pack everything, hire few people to move big stuff into uhaul or something and drive here yourself. Then hire few more people to help you unload. It's more hassles to drive with truck full of stuff, but you always know where your stuff is and there are less probability of breaking anything.

Good luck with moving

EDIT: I still have bunch of e-mails from companies that quoted me, if you are interested send me DM and i can forward you them. Maybe you will pick something out.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by FloridaKash

Pack your boxes yourself. Nobody will pack your boxes better than you.

Call ABF UPack. Got to their site to get an idea about how much space your shipment would need, request a quote.

Find a local moving company to load the truck up for you. Find a small moving company at your destination to unload the truck.

This process is more time consuming and difficult to line up. But you will have far less damage than with a big moving company and will save a boat load of cash.

I agree. I went the self-move direction as I pitched a lot of things and only needed a 16' truck for everything. I booked a "College Guys" moving service for my arrival there, who I found on Craigslist-Tampa Bay. They quoted $225 for a flat rate with three guys. They unloaded and placed everything from the truck into my 2nd floor condo within one hour and there was no breakage. Well worth it and wish I had thought of a similar service from my point of origin.

[Innertuber]

I'm not sure this would work for you but we've used PODs for moving.

You get multiple days to pack up the container. They will deliver or store it. You can hire 2 guys and a truck or as Kyle mentioned just get labor to unload, or just take your time.

It's nice if you have a place to park the thing and slowly fill it, not so good of an idea in Manhatten I suppose.

Good luck and start collecting boxes at the nearest liquor store.

[Lovesummer]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I did find a moving company - I am doing my own packing but they are loading and unloading. Someone recommended them (friend of a friend) and they have an A+ rating with the BBB so I am still keeping my fingers crossed.

I looked into ABF (Pods do not come to my area - thats what you get when you live in the boonies) and once I figured in paying people to load and unload the cost wasn't all that much difference. If it were summer, I would have no problem doing the loading myself, but the weather has been to cold for me to even think about doing it and I do not trust people enough to post for that on Craig's list.

Still nervous about the move, but I was driving myself crazy trying to figure out who to use and what is cheaper - I just needed to pick someone and I have been saving for this move for some time so I have money set aside for it.

Thanks again for all the suggestions - warm weather, family and friends here I come.

[Innertuber]

Have fun and don't pack things you really would hate to lose - valuable coin collections, passports toss em in the backseat! Hsve a safe move.

[Gatornation]

I've rented a truck and paid movers to load and unload. I just drove the truck and it was by far the cheapest way to go.

[claurenzo]

I;ve moved both locally and long distance and after trying movers twice I absolutely say never use them! The person with the tape problem got lucky. I had movers show up and say that they had to wrap everything in plastic or I'd have to waive their liability of damaging items. And they wanted to charge me for all of the wrap and tape and they were hourly as it was a local move. So add two hours and material? My $250 move turned into an $800 nightmare, a standstill in my living room for two hours as I argued with the company on the phone, a damaged $2200 bedroom set and $1500 couch and a very exhausted and pissed off me. When it came to long distance, they give you an estimate by weight or by how much space you take up in the truck. What they don't tell you many times is they broker your shipment out to someone else who then charges their own fees on top of it. I moved from Vegas to Ohio and was looking online to find someone to share renting a truck with because of my bad experience before. One guy I spoke to needed to move his family quick. His moving quote was $2200. When they delivered, they told him $3900! And he had to wait almost two weeks to get the money to pay them as they held his stuff hostage and then charged him ADDITIONAL money to STORE his things until he could pay.

I ended up shipping my stuff through uship.com. There are legit companies and then there are individuals or owner operators of semis. I ended up getting my stuff shipped for $800 TOTAL from Vegas to Ohio....yeah. Nice right? No they weren't a moving company but my stuff got here great. It happened to be a construction company who had delivered a $50,000 piece of machinery and was just looking for gas compensation on the way back. They did an excellent job with my stuff and though they didn't have moving company insurance, my stuff was still covered by their business insurance anyways. Nothing got damaged and they even helped move all my stuff upstairs. WELL worth looking into. And you will get moving company quotes too. Just be sure you ask if there are the extra fees if you go with the moving company. The tape, seran wrap, extra money paid for the time it takes to pad and wrap all those things, if their company is legitamately shipping the item or if they are brokering it onto another truck and if so what is their company info so you can call to confirm with them that they don't have extra charges of their own. For all the times I've moved (over a hundred in my life) moving companies were the ONLY people to damage my stuff. Go figure.

You can also drive yourself...quick hint for anyone else too...go online to Penske, pick the middle of the month in the coldest or slowest month you can think of on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Get a quote. Then try other months. Keep trying until you find the lowest rate, it doesn't matter the time frame. Then go back through, choose the lowest rate and click on YES A PENSKE REP CAN CONTACT ME. Do NOT book the deal. Use AAA to get an extra 10% off. If you don't have it, buy it as your savings will pay for your membership. Within 24 hours, Penske will call you and since you haven't booked, say what can we do, let's see what we can get this price to. Negotiate the price even lower, then make the reservation. Penske allows rate guarantee for six months and you can change your move date as many times as you want so you wait two days, call them back and change your move date to what's needed. That same rate online will likely be double the rate but since your rate is locked in they can't charge you what they would've had you booked it straight up online on the actual dates needed. For example, Vegas truck online normally to rent was $1574, after speaking to Penske it was just $825 and I changed my dates a million times and then ended up having the Uship.com people do it since I still would've had to pay for gas, a flight back to Vegas, and the time off work.

Hope all this helps!

[algia]

U-Haul! It doesn't get any cheaper and you have control over what's going on. I would never hire a moving company!