Movers

When we decided we were going to move out of Chicago to Idaho, I had no idea how we were going to choose a moving company. I researched my parents group because there are a lot of families moving in and out of our area. I checked Angie’s list, yahoo, yelp, and other websites. Did you know that there is no such thing as a perfect moving company?

So, how do you choose the worst of the worst or the not so worst?

I was told by a friend to get multiple quotes and do not go with the cheapest. Our deadline was tight, just two weeks. Yup, we were moving in 2 weeks!

After phoning 2 companies to come out for a quote, I was nervous about who was going to show up at my house and how was this process going to work. You see, I am a very do-it-yourself kind of gal. Each time I’ve moved, I’ve handled everything myself. Moving from IL to IN, IN to TX, TX to MA, and MA to IL, we did it all on our own. Yes it was time consuming and hard. We also didn’t have as much stuff and on the last move, we only had one child. Moving 3 kids, a cat, and a 2 bedroom apartment crammed full of stuff was not something I could not handle nor wanted to handle across country.

The first moving company sent their representative out immediately and he was very kind. He explained the process, described the company’s philosophy, and was very timely with the estimate. The second moving company’s representative cancelled his appointment with me.  He rescheduled and was not as through and was just a little put-offish. He just seemed like he had better places to be and did not really make me feel comfortable.

When I received both estimates, I began to worry. They were off by $1000. This made me wonder what the difference was and what was really happening? I really liked the 1^st company and wanted to go with them, but they were just too expensive. After all, we were packing all of our items our self, so I didn’t quite understand.  I would contact the representative and he would never get back to me. I finally made a call to the company itself and ask for clarification. After negotiating for a few days, the owner of the company phoned me and said he wanted my business. He was willing to work with me and we agreed upon a price. I was relieved because our moving date was fast approaching.

We had to give them a pick up window and in return they would give us a delivery window. Our window was very small—only 2 days. Our neighbors were moving the same week and had scheduled their move later in the week. We had no choice but to schedule ours earlier. This ended up being a good thing as it motivated us to get packing quicker. Now their delivery window is another topic.

I was extremely nervous because I had read a bunch of horror stories about other people’s experiences. Movers were not showing up, not labeling items correctly, breaking things, not showing up on time, and not being able to speak English. I was already under enough pressure to make sure everything was packed before they arrived and to make sure we had everything we needed because it was going to be a while before our stuff was delivered. We were heading out on the road immediately after the movers took our stuff. It was going to take us 5 days to get to our destination and I had to pack things for us to use while in our new home. We were going to campout until our stuff arrived.

Luckily the movers showed up on time. They were very pleasant, very knowledgeable, and helpful. I was surprised that the representative was one of the movers. It did send up a red flag to me, but heck they were great and I didn’t question it. I could not believe how long it took them to move everything out of our place. They started about 9am and ended at 3pm. They have to label each item with a number and write it down. This is to ensure that when you receive your goods, you know what has been delivered and what is missing.

As the process was winding down, they gave me an itemized list and then they discuss a delivery date. I was hoping for a 7 day delivery but they gave me a 14 day delivery date.  I was very hopeful when the head mover stated our load was pretty significant and it should get their earlier. I said, OK.

They left and we headed out of town. Our first stop was in Davenport, IA and here we realized that our kids were sick. One started throwing up before we arrived at the hotel and then the rest of the kids followed suit. We weren’t sure if we should just lay low in the motel or keep pushing onward. I thought we had to keep going as to make sure we arrived before the moving company. It was actually nice, because the kids were sleeping most of the day and weren’t complaining. We then stopped off in Kearney, NE for the night and also to see some family we hadn't in many years. We then got back on the road the next day and stopped off in Wyoming. It was very cold. The arctic something was passing through and it was in the negative. Again, we needed to keep pressing onward because we might be getting a delivery soon. Again, pressing on and we landed in twin falls, ID the next night. During all of this, we were keeping in touch with the moving company. They would tell us that our load had not been picked up yet and they were hopeful it would be picked up soon. The next morning, we stopped off in Boise to pick up our puppy. We then had a 3 hour drive to our destination. We still had no word regarding our delivery.

are at our new house now and the anticipation, stress of driving, and lack of comfort overwhelmed us. It was now Dec. 8^th. I began phoning our moving company everyday to find out the status of our stuff. I began to get the feeling of being duped and now a bit helpless. I didn't understand why our load was still sitting there after all of these days. If it continues to sit, there is no way they are going to make the Dec. 20^th deadline. I even had my hubby call the owner to inquire about a timeline. The owner couldn’t tell us. They had no drivers to pick up the load. I realize that we live in a rural area and that it would take a bit longer, but this is something they should have informed us about from the beginning.

I knew we were in trouble and that it was possible we would not get our stuff before Christmas. My heart sank and I was getting overly emotional. We were in our dream home and it would be our first Christmas without a tree or decorations. I know, some people in the world don’t have a roof and that I should be happy with what I have, but that was not how I saw it. I was paying them for a service and I wanted my stuff. I decided to contact the corporate office and see if there was something that could be done. I recently saw a friend of mine post something on a facebook to a corporate site and I was surprised to see they sent her a message back. I thought I would do the same, except send it via a message. I was pleasantly surprised they responded the next day and were very helpful. I am not sure exactly what the corporate office did for the local office, but we received a call from the local office owner. He stated that they were working on getting a driver out to us but it would not arrive by the 20^th. Again, my heart sank, but they said we would get it before Christmas. That was exactly what I wanted and was very happy.

Each day as the driver was trucking along; the owner would phone us to tell us where the driver was and give us our delivery date. They thought it might arrive on Sunday, but that Monday was a better date.

The morning of the 23^rd was nerve racking as well. Rich had to go into work and I was left dealing with the movers, 3 kids and a puppy. I thought how in the heck am I going to do this, but you know…..you just do it. When the movers arrived, they could not get up our drive way with a semi-truck. In fact, they couldn’t even make the turn into our driveway. So, they had to do what is called a shuttle truck. They rented a Uhaul, unloaded the semi and put into the Uhaul.

When they arrived with the Uhaul, they couldn’t get up our driveway. We have a steep grade and it had rained/sleeted the night before. I had no idea how this was going to work and how they were going to manage. I just knew my stuff was on that truck and I wanted it. Somehow, the driver figured out a way to get up the drive. He was a very smart man.

The first bit of bad news was that his helper had broken my vacuum cleaner. It was an early Dyson and cost a pretty penny. I wasn’t sure exactly how they were going to handle it, but I just wanted them to unload the truck. The 2^nd bit of bad news was that all of our stuff would not fit onto this Uhaul and that they needed to go get another load. I knew this was going to be a very long day.

As they had unloaded they would give me a number to check off a number sheet like bingo. Normally they have a 3^rd person doing this and helping, but they were down a man. I was juggling taking care of the kids, the dog, fire in the stove, and playing bingo. I caught a bit of a break when the wife of one of Rich’s co-workers came over to help. I didn’t know she was arriving and really didn’t know her, but was grateful for her assistance.

I didn’t win the bingo contest, after all was done 3 boxes seemed to be missing. We had to go around and check the boxes to see if we could locate them. We found one right away, but the other 2 seemed a mystery. After 9 hours, I was exhausted and really didn’t care what was going to happen next. The driver offered us some money for the repair of the vacuum and the missing boxes. I had no idea what we should do and Rich was on his way home. I asked them to wait for him to make the decision.

They graciously waited and we settled on an amount. I felt so bad because this driver took up our load so close the Christmas. He said it was business and this was better for him than for us to make a claim.

We did find out that the 2^nd box or item was mislabeled with something else and wasn’t missing at all. We still have not located box 176 and we have about 15 boxes to unpack (none of them have 176 on them). As my Mom stated, we’ll know we are missing something when it comes time to use it.

All in all, moving is stressful. If you are moving across country, just count on it being doubly stressful. I was very grateful to all of the movers and they worked really hard. This is why there is no perfect moving company. They have too many moving parts that one local office cannot control.

Did I choose the right company? Yes, I was very fortunate.