Boston to Minneapolis - June 2008

[bostontompls]

I used the superlist to help choose my movers and I think overall it worked pretty well so I wanted to give my feedback. After a few e-mail quotes from places that ended up not seeming like companies I would want to use, I talked seriously to 3 companies.

Gentle Giant - they were very nice, but said it was unlikely they would have a truck going to Minneapolis more than once or twice in May so using them would have required more flexibility than I wanted to have. They recommended I check out this site (I had actually already found it, but their recommendation was a nice validation).

Rainbow (Agent for North American Van lines) - GNTE quote of about 2800 lbs for about $2700 - including an origin shuttle, full valuation with no deductible and all packed by me. The agent was one of the owners, arrived on time and was very professional.

Humboldt (Agent for United Van lines) - non-binding quote of 2600 lbs for about $2400 - including an origin shuttle, parking permit for origin, full valuation with no deductible and all packed by me. The agent was Dave McDonald. He arrived on time and was very professional. He said that they did not generally give GNTE quotes for such a low weight, but that the final weight difference from 2600 lbs would be plus or minus approximately 60c per lb.

I decided to go with Humboldt because I figured that since both quotes were pretty close, the chances that I had more stuff than 3100 lbs (the point at which Rainbow and Humboldt would be the same price) was low and otherwise they both seemed promising.

I was assigned a moving coordinator (Jacqui) at Humboldt who was quite helpful and nice about random questions. The day of the move (the 15th), 2 movers arrived 10 minutes early, inventoried and marked all of my boxes, wrapped up my furniture, and loaded the shuttle truck. They were very professional. I was given a delivery window from the 19th-26th. I was able to track my shipment online and by the time I looked on Sunday the 18th, they were able to give me an accurate estimate of the 22nd as the delivery date. The driver called the night before to schedule the delivery (he then called back in the morning to see if a slightly earlier time would work). Jacqui also called the day before with my total ($2550 for 2860 lbs - very close to what the estimate was and less than Rainbow would have been). The driver came with two additional movers. They were all professional and delivered everything to the appropriate room. However, they were missing three boxes that had been left on the Humboldt warehouse floor during the transfer from the shuttle to the large truck and were in the process of being sent via FedEx to the local United agent and then were delivered to me on the 27th by one of the movers that had delivered my stuff. Obviously, it would have been better if they had all come on the 22nd, but the driver and mover that delivered the boxes apologized several times and they took away a large pile of collapsed boxes cluttering my dining room so it was okay. All of my furniture was fine, but I have found a few broken dishes (probably due to a combination of non-ideal packing on my part and the fact that they had to essentially be transferred from one spot to another 4 times since my origin location required a shuttle).

Overall, although it was not perfect, based on what I have heard from friends and other people’s stories on this site, it was pretty smooth for an interstate move.

[Rick]

Appreciate the update. Were the broken dishes packed inside the empty cartons that you had the second crew remove? If so, you may have disposed of your evidence of mishandling if you planned to file a claim.

Considering the bumps along the way, it was good of you to check back in. Wish everyone was as thorough researching their potential movers, comparing the value of their in-home estimates, and responsible about returning and posting their feedback.

[bostontompls]

The boxes that had the dishes broken looked fine which is what makes me think it might be at least partly my packing (and therefore I never really had any evidence for a claim). Also, it was cases of 1 martini glass being broken in a whole box of bar glasses or 1 bowl in a box full of dishes so it was not a single box that was all broken.