What should I expect to pay for a small local move, and should I be worried about dishonest tactics?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m in Las Vegas. I’m planning on making a small, routine, off-peak move about 15 miles. I’ve got a bed, couch, a few end tables, a dresser, a coffee table, and maybe 5 normal sized boxes. Pretty basic. Neither place has stairs or anything complicated to worry about. As moving jobs go, it’s about as easy as it gets.

I’m also willing to do it anytime next week. Movers probably have peak demand at the beginning or end of the month or weekends, and I’ll avoid all that.

I went on yelp, and for some reason almost all the movers there are “labor only”, I’d have to go through the hassle of renting a truck from a company, doing all that paperwork, all that stuff. I can do that, but it seems like a hassle for such a small move. I figured there’d be a lot of guys who had a basic box truck and did simple moves like this all the time.

I went on craigslist and I saw a few ads for guys that’ll come with their own basic box truck, at a cost of $50-70/hr for 2 guys. Seems pretty fair. But the ads themselves go on and on about how they’re trustworthy and reliable and won’t scam you and no hidden fees and transparent pricing and all this stuff.

And it made me suspicious. They’re all like this. They’re trying so hard to tell me they’ll be honest and not scam me that I’m wondering why they’re telling me this so hard. Other businesses typically don’t tell you how much they’re not going to scam you.

So, do movers like this regularly scam you? Do they hit you with hidden fees out the ass, do they lie about their prices, do they steal your stuff? What’s going on here?

And what should I reasonably expect to pay for something like this? I estimate it’d be about a half hour at the origin, a half hour at the destination, a half hour drive - round that up to 2 hours to be safe. If the ads are truthful, that’s $100-150 for the whole thing, which sounds perfectly reasonable to me. But now I’m thinking I’m gonna get hit with a $50 couch fee and a $79 2 stairs on a little hill on the way up to the door fee and a $39 fee for them sending humans instead of an elaborate pulley system operated by squirrels.

2

All I can tell you is what I paid for a similar moving of stuff in September when I was forced to move:

$125/hour for a crew of three and a truck.

They disassembled my queen-sized bed/headboard and reassembled it at the new place, packed up the glass top of my desk as well as the desk, grabbed the microwave when I asked, secured and padded both the ginormous TV and my antique sewing machine, drove it to the new place, schlepped it all up a flight and a half of stairs, and put it all exactly where I wanted it. They came equipped with all the possible tools they might need, various types of padding, strapping, and everything else that might be required. No surprises and no additional fees. I did have to schedule more than a week in advance - they’ve got a great reputation and are busy all the time. I also had to put a deposit on my appointment which I would forfeit with a less than 48 hour notice of cancellation.

Had I wanted it, they would have shown up with boxes and packed up my entire place for me and transported everything. I just used them for the stuff I couldn’t move myself. For that company it was a flat hourly rate for anything and everything. Because I did as much as I could myself I didn’t need them for very long (when they walked in everything but the bed was ready to pick up and go and there were no obstacles between objects and the door), although the disassembly/reassembly of the bed, even if I could technically have done it myself, they did in MUCH less time and more efficiently than I could.

Total bill: $225. Worth every penny in my opinion. Fast and efficient and very professional.

Definitely make sure you know what is and isn’t included.

3

Three acquaintances with pickups, a case of decent beer cold and two large pizzas delivered.

4

The only time I had a problem with a mover was when we hired a “company” that turned out to be a guy with a truck. The movers were day laborers he picked up that morning outside Home Depot or wherever. Despite us telling him we had a three bedroom house and a piano and him assuring us it wasn’t a problem, when he showed up, I could tell right away the truck wasn’t big enough to fit everything.

He then said we could make 2 trips. (About 35 miles one way). I told him that driving back to make the second trip would be off-the-clock. He wasn’t happy about it, but agreed. Of course, he later started pulling all sorts of extra charges out his ass to try to make up the shortfall. I ended up tipping the laborers directly, then told him “you’re overcharging us, keep the overcharge, that’s your tip” and didn’t tip him.

I really should have just told him to leave when I saw he’d lied about having a big enough truck, instead of trying to renegotiate.

5

Oh, yeah - I left the piano out of the list of stuff I had moved. They did a great job with that, too.

Sure, you can do three friends, a pick up, a case of a beer and a pizza but you may have to juggle schedules, someone could get hurt - everything is a trade-off.

6

You should be worried a little, but I think the real scammers are the long-distance guys, who will hold you up for outrageous charges while your life is packed up in a semi.

7

Since the OP is looking for advice, let’s move this to IMHO.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

8

Best thing is to get a recommendation from someone you trust. Hopefully you have a friend who has moved recently.

9

I’ve moved approximately a 3-bedroom-houses worth of stuff three times in the last 10 years. I think it cost $900 in 2009, $1,000 in 2011, and $1,300 in 2017. Plus tip.

That was Two Men And A Truck, which in reality meant Between Two And Five Men And A Truck.

I always moved the truly valuable stuff myself - records, instruments, tools, art, and sentimental junk.

10

Lord, I wished I could find the prices people are quoting in this thread. I moved a couple years back, and I desperately wanted the full pack-and-move handled by somebody else. I was moving a 1BR about 140 miles, in-state. It didn’t seem too extreme to me. I was getting multiple quotes in the $5000 range. I ended up paying my friend $50 an hour, rented myself a truck, and in 10 hours me, my husband, and him got everything up there and returned the truck. I can’t figure out what those people were smoking. I nearly died, again, from the stress of trying to move all that stuff myself, and I swear…next…NEXT time…someone is going to do this for me, reasonably!! I’m too old to carry my whole house somewhere anymore!

11

$200 + $40 tip and a six pack of Budweiser for a local move in Chicago of about a mile.

Is there a local Las Vegas group on Facebook? There’s a group on Facebook for my neighborhood in Chicago and it’s a great source of recommendations.

I also paid about $100 for large reusable plastic totes which made the move go quite smoothly as the movers just loaded them up. I will mention I was moving from one high rise to another and both have freight elevators which made it much easier and quicker.

12

Now I don’t feel so bad about the one time I was roped into becoming a mover for a day with my mom’s then-husband. It was just me and him and I was just a skinny guy and so of course they had a piano on the second floor. In addition I think they had pause when we showed up in a U-Haul. But we didn’t break anything and made everything in one trip and only slacked off when we stopped at a 7-11 for a soda on the way to the destination.

And that was my last day as a professinal mover.

13

Once you get above a certain distance the move falls under federal interstate move rules. That’s my poor understanding of the matter.

A company I was working for paid for one move of a bit over 100 miles and the full pack cost them nearly $10k. Whereas a local packed-myself move cost me a few hundred.

14

I moved 22 miles a bit less than a year ago and was really worried about being scammed. I contracted for 2 men and the truck at $80 hr with a 4 hr minimum. total price was 320 minimum + 40 for a new part I needed to hook up my dryer+ 20 each for a tip= $400 flat. They were fantastic!

My friend used the same company a month later and it was only meh. Sometimes it is just the crew who gets assigned to your move.

15

Ended up renting my own uhaul truck for 80 and movers for 25/person/hour from a reputable labor only company. Went smoothly.

I’m assuming what’s going on is that labor- only movers get exempted from needing a hq or costly truck license/logistics or higher business taxes or something because all the well reviewed one’s seem to require you to rent/drive your own truck.

Ended up being 200 for everything so that works. It was a small move and they were very quick so I know ended up using the movers for 1:20 (2 hour min) and truck for 2:30 (4 hour min)

16

Also don’t cheap out, once worked 5 straight hours for a friend’s family moving stuff up and down two flights of stairs and my reward was two $5 pizzas and all the tap water I could drink from their faucet.

17

If you were in Boise, very roughly about $100/hour for two men and one truck and a 4 hour minimum payment, so about $400. But, that extra 2 and 1/2 hours we would mow your lawn, wash your windows, walk your dog, whatever because you’re paying for it whether you use it or not. If you were to use my company that is.

18

You are correct. Once a mover crosses a state line, they become subject to federal regulations on for-hire movers of household goods.

The price is probably a partial reflection of that, as Bill and his wreck of a box truck, who is moving you across the city, may or not be regulated. Which means he may not have insurance, his truck might crash because it’s junk, or his drivers may be unlicensed, drunk, and high when they show up to cart you stuff off.

Reputable interstate carriers have reasonable overhead, some of which is intended to insure the safety of their operations, as well as the safety of your move and goods. Not to mention your rights as the shipper.

Should note, it’s unlikely that any mover crossing a state line who is using a vehicle larger than a 3/4 ton truck is unregulated. If you get a rock-bottom bid from Bill on Craigslist in those circumstances, do your homework.

19

To late for the edit, those ads telling you 150 to 200 are full of it, yes they are a scam. Also, remember, with moving you get what you pay for.

20

Did a little research, and we have both Slater and Ace in our warehouse quite a bit. I’d recommend calling Slater and asking what year they won the packing award and what other awards Atlas has given them and when. Ace, much the same. If either one volunteers that they won the Milt Hill award (Atlas’ top award) in the last year or two, go with that one. Um with Ace, make sure that applies only to their local agent since they have multiple locations nationwide.