CA to VA around July 20

[Jody]

My husband and I are getting ready for a big move from Orange County, CA to VA. We've gotten a phone estimate from Broadway Express and 4 in-house estimates from full-service movers. We've decided we want to go with a full-service mover b/c of the size of the move, and because Broadway Express's estimate was not to be confused with cheap.

The problem is that our 4 in-house estimates vary widely in weight estimates, possibly b/c we have a lot of books. All estimates were "guarenteed not to exceed." Here they are:

1. Atlantic Relocation Systems in Anaheim CA, agent for Atlas Van Lines headquartered in Evansville IN. ARC's BBB rating is AA. They estimated the greatest weight, 19,200 lbs, with a cost of $12,462 without including packing. I'm not sure what discount was used.

2. Western Relocations in Anaheim CA, agent for Paul Arpin Van Lines headquartered in Rhode Island. WR's BBB rating is BBB. They estimated 16,529 lbs, with a cost of $9,906 without including packing. The discount was 66%.

3. O'Neil Relocation Services in Garden Grove CA, agent for Mayflower Transit headquartered in Fenton MA. ORS's BBB rating is C. They estimated 16,604 lbs, with a cost of $8,262 without including packing. The discount was 66%. They were the only ones to say there was no chance our belongings would be unloaded and reloaded (although of course that's not in writing).

4. Alex Moving and Storage in Santa Ana CA, agent for North American headquartered in Ft Wayne IN. AMS's BBB rating is BB. They estimated 12,500 lbs, with a cost of $8,530 without including packing. The discount was 65%. I have seen that there is one other instance on this discussion board where this company gave a low-ball estimate of weight which caused problems later.

We're trying to get S & M movers out for one last estimate tomorrow, and we'd like to make our final decision by tomorrow afternoon. The move is getting close!! We'll schedule it for something like July 20th.

Will appreciate any words of wisdom, particularly about how to reconcile the quite different weight estimates we're receiving.

Thanks!

Jody

[Diane]

Hi Jody,

It's best not to use any company whose rating with the Los Angeles area BBB is lower than A. Definitely, don't use Alex Moving. It does not have a good reputation in these parts. Its weight estimate was definitely low-ball.

So you can guess that my choice would be Atlantic Relocation Systems in Anaheim. It got a World Class Quaility Award from Atlas in 2004, a very good sign. I see that BE's estimate for 40 feet, about what you have, is more than $6,000, so I can see why you thought it best to go with a full-service mover for peace of mind.

Good luck, no matter who you choose.

[Nancy]

Are these all GNTE quotes? Atlantic is an excellent company, but I can see they are your highest price. I'd say you ask them if it is indeed their best possible price.

[Jody]

Thanks for your replies! We really wanted to move with Atlantic Relocation Systems/Atlas (love that AA rating from the BBB), so we called the guy back and told him we had to have the lowest estimate from him in order to get our new jobs to reimburse the move partially (which is true). He made it happen!

Friday afternoon he called to try and get permission to increase our discount from 60%. Apparently Atlas was not willing to do that unless Atlantic Relocation Systems hauled our stuff with one of their own trucks. Early Saturday morning, he got approval from the Atlantic office to use a truck for sure, so he called back with a great price: $9808. To get there he added a bigger discount and reduced the weight to 15,900. That's quite a big reduction in the weight that he made! He said it wouldn't hurt if we'd get rid of anything we don't want before the move. He was considering bringing used mattress boxes to the move to keep his bid the lowest (that's the one packing item we've added to the cost), but ended up not having to do that.

Now my main fear is whether they load and then unload our stuff - he was the only one to not say "no way" to that, but I think he was just more honest.

By the way, we had been on the fence about the O'Neil Relocation Services bid, but the agent gave us THREE separate names for their company, all with the same address but very different BBB ratings. He also recommended The Car Carrier to us, which I saw has an F rating from the BBB. We weren't impressed.

Now we just have to decide whether to pay about $600 for replacement coverage on our furniture. Our State Farm covers our stuff in the truck the same way as if it were still in our house (i.e., won't cover scratch and dent).

Thanks for your help! - Jody

[Diane]

WHAT a deal, Jody! Low price AND they're going to haul you in their own truck! It's partly because you have such a big load, but please keep us informed about how your move goes because we have no reviews of Atlantic Relocation Systems in Anaheim as yet. Also, you might want to post the name of your sales rep for future reference.

Thanks for the information about O'Neil (Mayflower) also.

Regarding valuation coverage, people have posted that you can get free full replacement value coverage with Atlas if you have AAA. If you don't already have it, it would be worth signing up because in our area I think it costs under $70 and you would save hundreds.

[Guest]

This is funny but I am moving on the 21st from Sacramento to Virginia. What part of VA are you going to? I am going to Herndon. We are using Chipman United.

[Julia]

We're moving from CA (Santa Barbara) to VA (Charlottesville) too!

Please, give me some advice!

The size of the move will be around 400 cuf (1 bedroom apt, lightly furnished) and we need load/unload by movers, so we can't use ABF.
We cant use BE either because of the small size of the move (BE's minimum =10 linear feet, we have max of 5-6....)
... and, finally, we can't pay more than $1500...


We tried Coast 2 coast exp - but we dont like them already.
What should we do??????
Maybe, somebody knows reliable and affordable (for us) movers in this area?

Thanks a lot!

[Noone]

Unless you can find a U-Pack like ABF or BE (with hired helpers on either end) I'm inclined to believe that your budget is below the minimum for a legitimate full-service mover.
There are alot of California pro's here who might be able to offer better info, and no doubt they will find this thread soon enough, but have you considered garage selling the furniture, and boxing and shipping your things UPS or USPS?
Likewise, if ABF is an option, how much left-over money do you have to hire loaders and unloaders?

[Diane]

Both BE and ABF would charge more than $1500 to transport this 5-6 linear feet of goods (about 2500 pounds) cross-country.

You could do what "Noone" says and sell off what you can. Then, if you still have furniture that you want to ship, you could give a call to either Delancey Street Movers or Moovers, Inc. on the chance that one of them might have a few feet of space left on a truck that they want to fill. See the following threads for reviews and contact information:

Delancey Street:- http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2377
Moovers:- http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4655

We also have one good review of a U-Pack service called Help-U-Move - http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5112 The person said that she moved 6 feet of goods from MA to FL with them for only $1080. The hauler was Overnite Transportation. You do have to construct the bulkhead from two sheets of plywood that you yourself buy, and no ramp is provided. One plus with Help-U-Move--there is a 3-foot minimum in most lanes.

I don't know anything about this company other than the fact that I myself negotiated with them two years ago and I thought they seemed OK, though VERY bare-bones. However, one moverpro posting here sent me a PM questioning the authenticity of the review since he felt that two petite individuals couldn't have loaded the trailer without a ramp.

[Julia]

Noone and Diane - thanks a lot for your replies! We'll contact the Moovers and Delancey first.

You said its impossible to move for $1500, maybe we should increase our limit then...

Actually, we moved to Ca from DC for $1200 last year and we only packed our staff. The company was Twins Moving&Storage (MD). They were late on 2-3 weeks, made some small damage to the furniture, and there was one really scary moment, when a driver called us and said that he was gonna unload our staff on the border with CA because of lack of some form about gipsy moth.... And company didn't react at all; they just ignored our problem and refused provide us with the form, so we had to find it ourselves and sent it to the driver.

We thought that experience was really bad until I started read reviews on other moving companies which were horrifying! And now I just want to find a normal company who would not blackmail us keeping our belongings kidnapped trying to increase the cost twice.
I wonder, is it a possible task?

[Diane]

You're extremely lucky to have avoided a hostage freight situation with Twins, which is known to be highly dubious. I'd have to say that I don't think any reputable full-service mover would move you across the country for $1500 unless a company like Delancey or Moovers just happened to have a small amount of space it wanted to fill. The companies have to weigh the revenue against the extra fuel costs getting your things to their destination.

[Guest]

Diane, what do you think, what is our reasonable minimum with a decent company?

[Julia]

I'm sorry - the previous message was mine.

[Tyrone]

Julia,

I have a suggestion for you. Instead of trying to back into a price based on your desired budget, you would probably be better of reading this article, which will get you going with real numbers rather than "guesstimates" or "wishful thinking" numbers.

As an aside, it is true that your desired amount is unrealistic, especially at this time of year.
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Dominus amotioni capitis e clunibus sum.

[Diane]