Preparing for the move
With my moving date (July 21) now less than a month a way, I figure it’s time to get serious about figuring out all the logistics. The biggest question, of course, is how I actually get my stuff from San Francisco to Boston.
My first thought was to use PODS. I really like the concept, and their way of doing things just seems very convenient. (For those that don’t know, they deliver a container of the appropriate size to your house, you pack your stuff in it, and they take it off to either a storage facility, the destination of your move, or both depending on your needs.) However when I got a quote from them it was around $7000, a bit more than I was looking to spend.
My next thought was the tried and true standard of U-Haul. Obviously U-Haul is a known quantity. They’ve been around, they’re well-known, they’re reliable, and whenever you drive long distance you always see more U-Haul trucks than anything else. How can you go wrong? When I got a quote from them it was about $1800 to get a truck for 11 days and three thousand something miles, along with a trailer to tow my car. Not a bad deal, other similar companies (like Penske) were all in comparable price ranges. This is all perfectly good, I have no problem driving 3000+ miles in a U-Haul towing my car, but I wanted to drive down to New Mexico on the way to visit my mother, and I didn’t really relish the idea of taking the U-Haul with trailer down one lane dirt roads where I might not be able to easily turn it around to get it back out. In addition, my calculations suggested the cost of gas for this option would be around $1000.
Then it was suggested to me that I try some website where you can post what you need in terms of moving services and different people can bid on your move. It sounded great to me, although by the time I got home that night I had forgotten the name of the site (I need to figure that out still). A Google search of the what I thought the name might be lead me to Help U Move.
Help U Move’s approach is something of a mix between PODS and a traditional moving company. They deliver a trailer (like the back of a semi) to your house. You pack your stuff into it, using as much or as little space as you need (though they’ll charge you for at least 3 feet even if you don’t use it all). Then they pick up the trailer, take it off to wherever it is they take it, load it up with commercial goods, and drive it to your destination. They’ll even hold it in storage for two days at no extra charge. Because they’re using it for commercial deliveries as well they’re able to offer very low costs. The quote they gave me: $1700. That’s right, they beat U-Haul on price as well as convenience. There’s still a few things I want to check out, but the BBB has received no complaints about them, so I think there’s a good chance I’ll be going with them. I’d much rather drive my own car from San Francisco to New Mexico to Minnesota to Illinois to Boston (lots of people to visit on the way); it’ll be significantly faster, more comfortable, use less gas, and did I say faster?
Now I just need to get on with my favorite part of any move: packing.
[Edit: whoops, apparently a bad quote in a link had chopped out an important part of this post...]
June 26th, 2006 22:43
Be VERY VERY careful of unknown movers. They have an amazing scam going on, which is not technically illegal. First, they give you a quote that they say is not possible to change. They load up your furniture and then add about $1000 to the bill saying that the bid was made on a certain amount and you had more. They ALL do this, and the only way around it is to use and pay for a reputable company. I learned this the hard way.
The second part of the scam is, they put your stuff in storage and will not release it to you unless you pay that extra charge. I had to sue, they stole some of my stuff, it took 6 months to get my furniture back, half was severely damaged and because I had to sue, I couldn’t get any extra money, even thru insurance for the repairs.
This is a WELL KNOWN scam. I didn’ t know about it before, but I sure do now. There are web sites on it. Look for moving compnay scams and interstate moving scams on google and you’ll find them.
Honest, pay a little extra and get Mayflower or United or Bekins. You’ll be so glad you did. And whatever you do, DO NOT USE ISRAELI MOVERS. Said by an Israeli, btw. They are the worst of the crooks and they have a lot of the market swen up.
I can recommend a good small mover that is honest and works in both the bay area and in Boston. Issacs Movers. They are Israeli, but I’ve used them twice and they’re great. Very easy to deal with and honest. I’ve only used them for local moves, but I do trust them. DO NOT USE Axtra/David movers. Huge crooks.
Good luck on your move.. We did cupertino to Newton a couple of years ago. Best thing I ever did in my life.
June 27th, 2006 07:35
You might also check out ABF. They have mobile containers as well (though the price is about $1900 to ship one to Boston — much less than PODS). They also have trailers that you can load yourself. Broadway Express is another company that lets you load trailers, though it might be more expensive because it has a minimum amount of space you have to rent.
June 27th, 2006 08:05
Wow, thanks. I’m really glad I decided to post about that before actually making my decision. I’ll definitely check out Isaacs and ABF, and Broadway Express as well.
You can be sure that whatever I find out will show up here.