getting quotes from professional movers.
I want to know if anyone here has had good or bad experiences with professional movers. Did anyone have a “gottcha” moment with the movers that can be avoided?
We used movers for our move two years ago. My advice would be, get three guys, not two - we thought we’d save money by only hired two guys, but it took so much longer that it was a false economy (plus my husband and I had to bust OUR asses as well to make up for the third guy).
Also, be aware that the more you have done before they show up, the less it costs. We didn’t realize that the movers would take the legs off everything - I would have done that myself if I had known, and saved a lot of time. You should have everything packed and ready to go and labelled when they show up, unless you’re paying for them to pack for you.
I did tip my movers after they were done, but I have a sneaking suspicion I didn’t tip enough. Sorry, guys - it was the first time I had hired movers. Oh yeah, keep a supply of cold drinks handy if it’s at all warm - those guys bust their ASSES hauling your stuff. They probably wouldn’t turn down an offer of a sandwich or something, either.
Overall, I’d hire movers again, no problem.
We’ve used movers for our last few moves here in Chicago and it’s some of the best money I’ve ever spent. I hate hate hate moving with a burning passion, and I’m pretty terrible about carrying/navigating furniture around corners and hallways. Movers are serious pros and it’s incredible how good they are about making furniture fit through the tightest areas.
Definitely plan on having a case of bottled water on hand, and cash for tips. We usually do about $15-20 tip per person.
Ask around friends in your area for someone they’d recommend. The company we use here is one of the bigger more corporate ones, and they’ve done a GREAT job for us each time we’ve used them. I’ve also heard some horror stories about some of the other companies in the area. Word of mouth is key… Yelp is a good place to start.
One cost I was surprised by, was how much they charge you for packing tape - even if your stuff is already packed. They wrap furniture in blankets and pads, and then tape the hell out of them, going through a LOT of tape. They charge you per roll and it can add up fast. They tell you about these kinds of charges up front, I just didn’t realize how much tape would actually get used.
If you’re in the Chicago area, send me a PM and I can give you the name of our moving company.
Paying a mover is money very very well spent, in my opinion.
In NYC there are a lot of companies that offer “flat rate” moving. It might be a little more expensive than the cheapest possible rate you could get on an hourly or per-man basis, but I prefer the lack of surprises.
Agree with Bob Ducca in that it was some of the best money we ever spent. Especially as we had to move in August. (bleh).
We went with one of the cheapest moving companies.
They severly scratched and broke several things. Since many of these objects were not extremly expensive and the paperwork/burden of proof (that they were not damaged before the move) were so enormous that we gave up trying to be compensated.
I don’t know if I will ever use movers again. YMMV
“Nobody cares about your things as much as you do.”
Not for the cheapest price they don’t. I think this is an excellent demonstration of you get what you pay for.
We used movers when we bought our house. Moving from a one-bedroom apartment, it doesn’t seem like a lot, but we have a ton of books and pottery. My husband researched reviews extensively and we went with a local group mostly made up of artists who are movers to support themselves, with extremely positive online reviews. The three guys showed up on-time, dealt with a snafu involving our building’s freight elevator, and were done loading our truck well ahead of the cheaper company someone else in the building had hired, even though we started an hour later and had more stuff.
They were fantastic and well worth it. The whole thing was done in only a couple of hours, nothing was broken, and the experience was MUCH less stressful than it would have been otherwise. We tipped them outrageously and I’d do it again.
Absolutely.
Decide what you’re willing/able to do, and what you’re willing/able to pay for. Movers will do anything from moving one heavy armoire to packing, moving and unpacking a whole home. You just have to decide how much you want them to do.
For one move, we had very little money but lots of time, so we figured out how many hours we could pay for and hired movers just to move the heavy stuff (down three flights of tight stairs and up two at the destination). They were so quick - much quicker than I expected - that I told them to take about 50 boxes I had already packed up and was planning on taking over myself. We budgeted for 3 hours and they left our first place at about the 2 hour mark - we correctly guessed that moving things into an empty place would be faster than moving them out of a crowded place and putting them on a truck.
For another, we had literally hours to move an unpacked place out, but we had a bit more money. The movers not only moved, but packed (we were packing like mad, and had half a dozen friends to help, too) and they were certainly very fast, but we paid for it in supplies. I found things like a matchbox car wrapped in two sheets of “newsprint” (actually clean, off white glossy paper they provided) and placed in a box with four other small items. So I paid less than I expected in manhours, but more than I expected in paper and boxes. Still, under the conditions, it was worth it, and they packed and cleared a three bedroom, two floor apartment with a second family room in the basement and got all the stuff into a storage unit in 6 hours.
If you have LCD televisions or large mirrors, be prepared to pay a hefty deposit on special boxes for those. I think ours were $60 each, which we got back when we returned the boxes. That was an unexpected expense for us, and the movers refused to move the TVs without them.
I’ve used professional movers since 1993. I was never a fan of using friends, what if one of them drops an antique, or the TV? Use three guys, and if you’re accurate about how much stuff you have, you’ll get an accurate quote for both time and money. Last year, I went with the group with the highest Yelp rating for Chicago (city proper) that turned out to be a fairly new local company. They were fantastic. The move took 5 hours, from third floor of one building to fourth floor four miles away. They RAN between loads and up and down the stairs, and I was the second move for them that day. Another moving crew might have taken 8 hours. Loved them.
Definitely hire movers. Highest Yelp ratings are your best bet. Book as early as possible, the high raters get booked up fast. Do a weekday if possible, and not right at the first of the month if you can help it.
When we moved from outside Bangkok to our new place in the city 7-1/2 years ago, we used Crown, a Hong Kong-based outfit with offices worldwide. They were very good. We were considered a small job, because they usually pack up and move whole households internationally, but they came out to look, quoted a very reasonable price, had a crew of three or four men do the entire job for us. The only reason it took more than the scheduled one day was because someone’s unit at our old condo caught fire while we were moving, so entry back into the building was blocked. But the fire was in the far side of the building from ours, so no damage to us, and the crew got the rest of our stuff the next day at no extra charge.
We were told we did not have to pack anything if we didn’t want to, that they would do it all for us at the same charge, but we did anyway. Then they were going to unpack everything for us at the new place, hang up clothes in the closet etc, but we told them not to bother. It was the same charge, we weren’t saving money by not letting them, we just wanted to do that ourselves.
A very positive experience.
That’s a good point. We were just moving 14 blocks or so and had days to move, so we got the movers to do all the big, heavy, bulky stuff, and the majority of the move, and we just frittered away at the remainder over the next couple of days (since I had to go over and clean anyway). Next time, we get the extra guy (or two) and they can do the whole move for us in hours (I’ll still pack, so I have a chance of finding stuff at the other end).
Think through where you want every box and of piece of furniture to land before the crew arrives. They are fast and I wasn’t prepared for this during our last move. I felt like an idiot, standing there drooling, as they carried in boxes asking “Where do you want this?” Have the stuff marked, or at least have a plan for what box goes in which room. Some of it is obvious (kitchen, clothing, etc.) but there is always a ton of random crap which could go anywhere–bookshelves, books, Christmas decorations, spare electrical gidgets, beach umbrellas . . . Figure it out beforehand.
Our last movers were sweethearts–there was a tired fridge in the kitchen, destined for immediate replacement, which they offered to move to the basement to serve as backup/beer fridge. Never would have been able to do that on our own. So consider relocation of anything left behind by previous occupants that you might want somewhere else–the movers can do it much more efficiently than you can.
Apologies if this posts more than once. Internet has been wonky all day.
Ask about or watch out for stair surcharges. We had one quote- based on a walk through- but then they tacked on a stairs surcharge since it was 3 stairs up to our house. We fought it and won (since it was not included earlier), but what a pain.
I had good experiences with professional movers both times I’ve used them, and can’t fathom going to back trying to wrangle my family and friends into doing it. I moved all my small stuff myself and let the movers take care of the furniture and boxes of books.
local guys? I’ve used them a bunch in my adult life, and while the cheaper guys are surely not bonded/insured = not smart to use them, they’ve always been cool and professional and we’ve always been the type to not ride their asses if they want a sip of water or take a little break to talk about my jazz posters.
Never, ever, would I use a long-distance mover, though. I like what few shit I got, and don’t like some cranapple assmouth cunt on a telephone line telling me how much ransom I need to get my stuff back.
Yeah, that sounds weird. I would have been in trouble if there was extra charge for 3 stories down and 4 stories up! My movers just accounted for the extra time for all the stair climbing in the initial quote, no surcharge. They figured on 5 hours, and that’s what they did, running whenever they had empty hands.
Go pro, you won’t be sorry.
How I saved money was to pack the boxes myself (a friend broke some electronics in the process–not good) and piggybacked onto another load going the same direction. Label the boxes with the room they go in; I also used colored stickers to prioritize what was needed first. Today, I don’t think I’d bother moving mattresses, and would be cautious about bothering with upholstered furniture.
My last move was a local firm, in business for a long time, and they did fine.
I will always hire movers from here on out and let them do the heavy lifting.
I moved once out of a 3rd story apartment into a house. I hired movers because I didn’t have a truck big enough for some items, but I vigilantly moved most everything I could manage by myself. I had both places for a couple of weeks so every night I was carrying stuff up and down those stairs. The end total for moving the furniture, TV and the heaviest boxes was about $200 and they did it incredibly quickly.
The next time I let them move practically everything and I had a lot more stuff. Same company (Two Men and a Truck). Again, incredibly fast. Total was about $250. Yeah, I saved $50 by busting my hump for weeks, in August, going up and down flights of stairs. They can grab 5 boxes at a time on their dollies and they’re very strong.
We actually just moved offices at work too. We hired a moving company (Allied this time) and we were very happy with them. They helped organize the move and had a lot of people all working together with our staff to make it happen. Moving all of the heavy metal filing cabinets (with files!) and an absolutely relentless amount of huge furniture items that were difficult to get through the narrow corridors of the old place was a big job but they did it all without complaint or problems.
One thing they recommend we do, which was rather clever actually, was to organize things in colored “zones” as they would be distributed in the new building, then label things by color and room number. That way, they loaded the truck by zone (so there wouldn’t be wildly disparate items all over the place) and then when unloading, they just grabbed things by color quickly and then sorted them into rooms when close. This helped them a lot - even though they had, IIRC, 12 movers working on a single truck, they had few traffic jams. This was helpful for us especially because our new setup is really different from our old one – e.g. a warehouse full of stuff was being distributed into a lot of different areas, and we had a lot of product production materials (e.g. pallets of cardboard) that needed to be sorted out into place at the new building to account for limited space. This sort of organization is probably overkill for you. Definitely, though, clearly labeling everything in a place that is easy to see (not the top, in case boxes are stacked) makes it cheaper. You don’t want the movers to constantly have to ask you where stuff goes.
Sure, do your research - there are lots of horror stories out there - and get estimates. Feel out the company ahead of time, read reviews, check out their BBB listing, try to get some recommendations from friends. But hire movers. They will do it much better and faster than you will, and the money is worth it.
Absolutely. I’m a relatively strong guy, with at least one handtruck, but I don’t have the professional dollies they do, nor the trucks, nor the labor, unless I call in a few favors from friends. It’s always been worth it to me to spend the $300 (or so – IIRC, that’s about what me and that woman paid each time we moved back east for a local destination [small apartments, lots of books, lots of heavy stuff, including furniture] between 2001 and 2006 or 2007 or 2008 or 2009 – I can’t remember, lots of stairs each direction).
Do get them some bottled water – they won’t turn it down, especially if it’s a hot one, and they’d like a five minute break without feeling like they’re slacking.