It's really expensive to hire a moving company!!

Colleen

Colleen

Senior Member
Location
Pennsylvania
Hubby, who's 80, and I (74), are planning to relocate back to our beloved PA from AZ as soon as he can get his total knee replacement done. He has an appointment on Monday (26th) to see the Ortho surgeon and hopefully get things rolling.

Since we are kinda in limbo right now and can't move forward with anything definite because we have no idea how long he's going to have to wait to get it done and how long recuperation time is, so we've been doing research. First, we had a realtor come out and give us a listing price but we can't list it yet because it would sell in less than 2 weeks or less and then we'd be homeless but at least we have an idea of what we can list for.

Then we contacted a realtor relocation specialist in PA and she has been very helpful...but, again, we can't pursue anything we see right now. We have been amazed that homes we've looked at online in our price range, have been selling within hours.

Since our destination is over 2100 miles, and hubby can't/won't do the UHaul thing any more, we called the local moving company, who is affiliated with Atlas Van Lines. She came out yesterday and itemized everything. We have a 1772 sq. ft. 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with large shed and 2 car garage. We downsized considerably when we moved into this smaller home 4 years ago so I was surprised when she totaled up the weight at around 10,000 lbs. and the grand total (drum roll)....would be $14,000. Hubby thought it would be $12,000. I said no way...it will probably be $10,000. No senior discounts. Nothing.

Holy Moley! Maybe that's not a lot to some people, but that's a nice chunk out of our profits from the house....not to mention the 6% the realtors are going to get. Sheesh...what can you do??? Pay it, I guess and move on (literally).

We're going to need that "huge" social security raise....haha :)
 

I have moved cross county several times, and paid movers several times. I can pass on some things I learned in the process that could keep your costs down a little:
  • Get bids from multiple moving companies, you will be surprised how much different they can be.
  • Bargain, I have found you can often talk the movers down a bit, particularly if they know you are getting multiple bids.
  • Ask about time of year, if you can control your timing at all that can help a lot. Rates are higher at peak times, lower at other times.
  • Do all of your own packing, having them do it costs a lot.
  • If your things need to go into storage, do not use the moving company's storage. Costs a lot less for you to rent space from one of the storage companies, not connected to movers.
  • I have not tried them myself, but have heard good things about the moving pods. A container gets delivered to your place, you pack it, then it gets delivered on the other end. I am told renting the pods is not too expensive so that can also be a storage solution.
Best of luck with it all, moving can be very stressful.
 
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It's especially high right now because of the pipeline being shut down , so the price of gas for the moving trucks is sky high!
We WERE energy independent but prices on everything has escalated!
Also, the Government hand outs replacing working wages has diminished the number of truck drivers.
You are moving in the middle of inflation. It isn't going to get better for a long while. Sorry to write this to you. I understand how you feel!
 

Colleen said:
We're going to need that "huge" social security raise....haha
Click to expand...

It definitely does cost a lot, but of course, you know it will be worth it.

And yes, that social security bump, will make such a difference, you'll hardly notice the expense left for you. :LOL:

As in most things like this, I advise that keeping your great sense of humor, is the most important way for you to get through it all, Colleen!:love:
 
It's not only expensive but a lot of them are a bunch of crooks.

My granddaughter and family just moved back here to Florida. Their furniture was supposed to be delivered on July 7. Then July 10. Then July 12. It finally was delivered a few days ago. BUT not all of it. The truck pulls up with one little old guy driving. He says the rest of it is still in Ohio because they couldn't get it all on the truck. The company they originally contracted the move with "subcontracted" it to some fly-by-night company. They can't tell us what's on the truck and what's back in Ohio. BUT, and here's another BUT, they want the money that's due ($4800 in cash) or they won't open the truck and will drive it back to Ohio. In fact, they won't open the truck to even let us see what's inside.

A bunch of screaming on the phone ensues between the original company (who says they can't do anything), the subcontracted company (who just plain old WON'T do anything), and my granddaughter. I even screamed at everybody, just for extra screaming...LOL.

I even called the cops (non-emergency line, of course) (which I knew wouldn't do any good 'cause it's a civil matter) just to maybe put a little scare in the truck driver.

After two hours of screaming, they finally offered to let her hold back $300 until the rest of the stuff shows up (of course, they cannot say WHEN it's coming except for sometime in the next three weeks....maybe). We don't know at this point if all the beds are missing, the crib, the washer, the dining room set, the, the......

By then, we've about had it. We had to make a decision quick because the truck was leaving to go back to Ohio momentarily and heaven knows if she'll EVER see her furniture again. We made the decision to fork over the money and get what furniture there was and seek legal relief later. THEN, he had to call for help in unloading. There's BIG bedroom furniture going upstairs. One little old man, an old lady with a bad back and a hysterical young woman isn't going to do it. Finally four guys show up, truck is opened and luckily all the important stuff is in there. Mind you, the washer has the control panel hanging by wires and the door handle is missing from the dryer. The stuff is just jammed in every which way. It's a wonder everything wasn't smashed.

She has a consult with a lawyer next week to see if they can sue one or both of the companies. I'm not expecting much luck with that. It's like punching Jello.

Moving companies have a bad reputation. I've read complaint and complaint against them for their practices, like "holding your furniture for ransom" until you pay them more, losing furniture, smashing furniture, not showing up when they say they will, etc. If they break your furniture, they'll do anything possible to get out of paying for it. They'll delay and delay and delay in the hopes you finally give up.

So, if you contract with a well-known and supposedly reputable firm, make sure they aren't contracting out the delivery to another company. Make that absolutely sure in the contract. If they won't agree to that, move on.

The last time we moved was the first time I had not moved myself with the help of relatives and friends. It was a good experience, but of course, we rented our own moving van and contracted with a company for the "helpers", who did all the work. It was only a 5-mile move, too, which helped.
 
Colleen,

Sounds exciting for yawl to get back to PA.

You have been given some good advice in the Posts above.

Short summary - I think the estimated costs you have received are reasonable. Moving is not cheap and in our opinion, it is worthwhile to go with a reputable Moving Company.​

Following is abit of rambling long winded basis for the above recommendations.

Too Long Did Not Read follows:

ms gamboolgal and I have moved 24 times in 40 year of marriage. That included multiple International moves for us for megaoilcorp.
If we added in helping kids to move, it is a few more added in.
Early moves were Pick Up Trucks and U-Hauls and us doing the toting & work.
Later moves were company moves for megaoilcorp and were paid for by the Company.

As others have said, you can get in a bind by going cheap with movers. Not always the case - but "Buyer Beware"

We have known work and personal acquaintances - who have had absolute nightmare moving experiences by going cheap. Some of their experiences were very costly both in terms of lost monies and in damaged or ruined family heirloom items.

It really helps to read the Terms and Conditions in the Contract. Ask questions and get answers in writing/email with time and date stamps.

And ms gamboolgal was always there for all of the Packing Out and Unpacking exercises. She was very good at supervising and monitoring what was done. She would have made a helluva good Offshore Construction Projects Manager !

Based on our experience - the estimates you referenced sound reasonable for a well known, reputable, and respected Mover that will have insurance.

For us, the security and peace of mind are worth the incremental costs vs potential risks. Especially for a cross country move. For us, it was monies well spent.

I will say that in all of the many moves, including those to/from and in Africa, we had very little lost / stolen / damaged items. Perhaps we were fortunate - but I give ms gamboolgal most of the credit as she was so very much engaged in the planning and managing the Movers.
She was also a very generous tipper and took care of the ladies and men doing the Packing Out and Unpacking. The tipping thing was more of a Africa thing but I will say that it helps to get things done.

All the best in your move back to where yawl want to be. Please keep us posted on how it goes.

gamboolman....
 
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Because of my 50 year career, extra board assignments, regional seniority changes and constant reporting point changes meant moving at least every 2 years give or take a month or two so after a while and several thousands of dollars in moving expenses later we'd just donate our furniture to our churches, clothing and nonessentials to the Salvation Army and give the receipts to family members for tax purposes. We'd pay the destination realters who were more then happy to receive a few boxes of our essential items and put them in U-Haul Storage until we arrived. I hoped this helped and GOD Bless.
 
We have moved a LOT in the last 23 years and have always been able to do it ourselves with U-Hauls but now that we're older, we know we can't do it all so paying someone is our only option.

We plan on doing our own packing and we will be getting a 6x12 U-Haul trailer to tow behind our truck. We plan on taking certain things with us that we want to keep safe and besides it will take some of the weight off the semi. Probably at least 500# or so.

Our move will probably not take place until Mid-October and the gal told us yesterday that Atlas starts giving extra discounts Sept. 1st.

I'm confident with the mover because we used them 4 years ago for our local move. They are local here or else we'd have to get someone from Las Vegas, which is only 100 miles from us, but since we dealt with them in the past, we'd rather go with them.
 
One thing we learned when moving so frequently in the military (because we had to pay if our household goods weight went over our allotted poundage) was to consider carefully if items are worth moving. For instance, is it worth moving things like everyday dishes, half shot pots and pans, etc.? In many cases it is cheaper to replace stuff like that on the other end than to pay to ship it. The same is true for very heavy furniture and furniture you're not really crazy about. Be sure that if you are moving it, it's something you really want and really need and really use, and something you can't replace cheaper on the other end.
 
All, I can say here is stick with movers when it's time, DO NOT USE PODS Moving...

Back in May when we decided to see our home, and unexpectically we sold our home without listing it...All of a sudden we had nowhere to go...

So, I couldn't call movers because, we had.t bought a house yet... So we called PODS movingf, and in case YOU haven't heard of them. They drop off containers, in our case two 16 footers... You pack your house in them, so we fillwed one with the house stuff, and the other with garage and workshop. Then we called them, and they put our pods in storage @ $500 a month for the pair of them...

Everything seemed great... So we stayed at Lorie's Mom till now... When they picked up the pods, they told us they would be free delivery to our new home, as long as it was in a 50 mile radius of our old house...

So, I called them Monday, and asked if the3y could deliver our Pods on Thursday July 29th to our new home...

And then what seemed to be a GREAT, HONEST company all of a sudden became a nightmare...Oh Sir, we don't deliver to that postal code, I said YOU told me YOU would deliver anywhere in a 50 mile radius of our old house, and the new house is 36 miles from the old house... Yes, Sir he says, but we don't deliver to that postal code... What the???

We have been arguing now for 4 days, I have asked to spea to supervisors, or someone in charge, and nothing...

So, we've rented a moving truck for next Friday, which we have to go to the POD storage, empty our 2 pods, drive it to the new home, and empty it into our new home...

So I plan to take this company to court after we are settled... So please, anyone who is thinking of moving, PLEASE stay away from PODS Moving... There is a lot more about this story, and if you wanna know, PM me...

But stay with normal movers...
 
Alligatorob said:
I have moved cross county several times, and paid movers several times. I can pass on some things I learned in the process that could keep your costs down a little:
  • Get bids from multiple moving companies, you will be surprised how much different they can be.
  • Bargain, I have found you can often talk the movers down a bit, particularly if they know you are getting multiple bids.
  • Ask about time of year, if you can control your timing at all that can help a lot. Rates are higher at peak times, lower at other times.
  • Do all of your own packing, having them do it costs a lot.
  • If your things need to go into storage, do not use the moving company's storage. Costs a lot less for you to rent space from one of the storage companies, not connected to movers.
  • I have not tried them myself, but have heard good things about the moving pods. A container gets delivered to your place, you pack it, then it gets delivered on the other end. I am told renting the pods is not too expensive so that can also be a storage solution.
Best of luck with it all, moving can be very stressful.
Click to expand...
That's very good advice. I was wondering about those pods. When I get around to downsizing and moving I hope I remember these tips. OMG, the cost of moving is enormous.
 
mike4lorie said:
All, I can say here is stick with movers when it's time, DO NOT USE PODS Moving...

Back in May when we decided to see our home, and unexpectically we sold our home without listing it...All of a sudden we had nowhere to go...

So, I couldn't call movers because, we had.t bought a house yet... So we called PODS movingf, and in case YOU haven't heard of them. They drop off containers, in our case two 16 footers... You pack your house in them, so we fillwed one with the house stuff, and the other with garage and workshop. Then we called them, and they put our pods in storage @ $500 a month for the pair of them...

Everything seemed great... So we stayed at Lorie's Mom till now... When they picked up the pods, they told us they would be free delivery to our new home, as long as it was in a 50 mile radius of our old house...

So, I called them Monday, and asked if the3y could deliver our Pods on Thursday July 29th to our new home...

And then what seemed to be a GREAT, HONEST company all of a sudden became a nightmare...Oh Sir, we don't deliver to that postal code, I said YOU told me YOU would deliver anywhere in a 50 mile radius of our old house, and the new house is 36 miles from the old house... Yes, Sir he says, but we don't deliver to that postal code... What the???

We have been arguing now for 4 days, I have asked to spea to supervisors, or someone in charge, and nothing...

So, we've rented a moving truck for next Friday, which we have to go to the POD storage, empty our 2 pods, drive it to the new home, and empty it into our new home...

So I plan to take this company to court after we are settled... So please, anyone who is thinking of moving, PLEASE stay away from PODS Moving... There is a lot more about this story, and if you wanna know, PM me...

But stay with normal movers...
Click to expand...
Geez, always something
 
Gaer said:
It's especially high right now because of the pipeline being shut down , so the price of gas for the moving trucks is sky high!
We WERE energy independent but prices on everything has escalated!
Also, the Government hand outs replacing working wages has diminished the number of truck drivers.
You are moving in the middle of inflation. It isn't going to get better for a long while. Sorry to write this to you. I understand how you feel!
Click to expand...
I happen to agree with you there.
 
I've moved so many times, I ran out of fingers and toes to keep count. When I was single, I had family and friends to help move me. Once in a house, I used well-known movers with decades of experience .. especially international movers. Of the times I packed my own things, there was always an inventory list to fill out. I try not to think about the shipping and storage I've paid .. just to say, it was worth it.
 
mike4lorie said:
All, I can say here is stick with movers when it's time, DO NOT USE PODS Moving...

Back in May when we decided to see our home, and unexpectically we sold our home without listing it...All of a sudden we had nowhere to go...

So, I couldn't call movers because, we had.t bought a house yet... So we called PODS movingf, and in case YOU haven't heard of them. They drop off containers, in our case two 16 footers... You pack your house in them, so we fillwed one with the house stuff, and the other with garage and workshop. Then we called them, and they put our pods in storage @ $500 a month for the pair of them...

Everything seemed great... So we stayed at Lorie's Mom till now... When they picked up the pods, they told us they would be free delivery to our new home, as long as it was in a 50 mile radius of our old house...

So, I called them Monday, and asked if the3y could deliver our Pods on Thursday July 29th to our new home...

And then what seemed to be a GREAT, HONEST company all of a sudden became a nightmare...Oh Sir, we don't deliver to that postal code, I said YOU told me YOU would deliver anywhere in a 50 mile radius of our old house, and the new house is 36 miles from the old house... Yes, Sir he says, but we don't deliver to that postal code... What the???

We have been arguing now for 4 days, I have asked to spea to supervisors, or someone in charge, and nothing...

So, we've rented a moving truck for next Friday, which we have to go to the POD storage, empty our 2 pods, drive it to the new home, and empty it into our new home...

So I plan to take this company to court after we are settled... So please, anyone who is thinking of moving, PLEASE stay away from PODS Moving... There is a lot more about this story, and if you wanna know, PM me...

But stay with normal movers...
Click to expand...
Yours is not the first PODS horror story I've heard. We had a similar situation on our last move, looked into PODS, saw some very bad feedback about them and took another, more DIY, approach.
 
Good warnings to heed on the PODS thing. My brother just used them and had a pretty good experience, maybe a different local company, maybe a different situation, maybe just luck. He sold his old house whilst the new one was still under construction, so he just moved the containers from one property to another. The containers sat for a few months on his new property whilst the construction got done, then he moved the stuff in. Don't know what he paid, but he was happy in the end.
 
Colleen said:
Hubby, who's 80, and I (74), are planning to relocate back to our beloved PA from AZ as soon as he can get his total knee replacement done. He has an appointment on Monday (26th) to see the Ortho surgeon and hopefully get things rolling.

Since we are kinda in limbo right now and can't move forward with anything definite because we have no idea how long he's going to have to wait to get it done and how long recuperation time is, so we've been doing research. First, we had a realtor come out and give us a listing price but we can't list it yet because it would sell in less than 2 weeks or less and then we'd be homeless but at least we have an idea of what we can list for.

Then we contacted a realtor relocation specialist in PA and she has been very helpful...but, again, we can't pursue anything we see right now. We have been amazed that homes we've looked at online in our price range, have been selling within hours.

Since our destination is over 2100 miles, and hubby can't/won't do the UHaul thing any more, we called the local moving company, who is affiliated with Atlas Van Lines. She came out yesterday and itemized everything. We have a 1772 sq. ft. 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with large shed and 2 car garage. We downsized considerably when we moved into this smaller home 4 years ago so I was surprised when she totaled up the weight at around 10,000 lbs. and the grand total (drum roll)....would be $14,000. Hubby thought it would be $12,000. I said no way...it will probably be $10,000. No senior discounts. Nothing.

Holy Moley! Maybe that's not a lot to some people, but that's a nice chunk out of our profits from the house....not to mention the 6% the realtors are going to get. Sheesh...what can you do??? Pay it, I guess and move on (literally).

We're going to need that "huge" social security raise....haha :)
Click to expand...
Which is why we moved ourselves and our house sold the first day with a cash offer
 
Alligatorob said:
Good warnings to heed on the PODS thing. My brother just used them and had a pretty good experience, maybe a different local company, maybe a different situation, maybe just luck. He sold his old house whilst the new one was still under construction, so he just moved the containers from one property to another. The containers sat for a few months on his new property whilst the construction got done, then he moved the stuff in. Don't know what he paid, but he was happy in the end.
Click to expand...
My daughter used a container when she moved
 
gamboolman said:
read the Terms and Conditions in the Contract. Ask questions and get answers in writing/email with time and date stamps.

And ms gamboolgal was always there for all of the Packing Out and Unpacking exercises. She was very good at supervising and monitoring what was done. She would have made a helluva good Offshore Construction Projects Manager !

Based on our experience - the estimates you referenced sound reasonable for a well known, reputable, and respected Mover that will have insurance.

For us, the security and peace of mind are worth the incremental costs vs potential risks. Especially for a cross country move. For us, it was monies well spent.
Click to expand...

There are many good points in the many above posts, in this thread.

And I agree that if it were possible without harming or risking your own health, then it's good to pack your own stuff, and do as much of it as possible yourself,
or if not, then best to find someone else that you personally and thoroughly trust, to do the packing for you,

but sometimes neither of those options are possible,
so then, the other given suggestions are helpful.

If you yourself could have someone else who is very trustworthy, to simply be present when movers do the packing , loading, unloading is done, it's very helpful to your odds of a good outcome.

If unable to do that, it even helps if you have someone in addition to yourselves, to interact with the moving company as well, even solely by phone, to go over and confirm the details, and to demonstrate that there are others watching out for you as well.

When I myself, became no longer able to do much of this myself,
having a trusted person to stay in constant and repeated communication with the moving company, made a very big difference, in the overall and entire process.

If not possible, then do as much as you can of reviewing the details, and then pay for the best you can get.
 
Kaila said:
There are many good points in the many above posts, in this thread.

And I agree that if it were possible without harming or risking your own health, then it's good to pack your own stuff, and do as much of it as possible yourself,
or if not, then best to find someone else that you personally and thoroughly trust, to do the packing for you,

but sometimes neither of those options are possible,
so then, the other given suggestions are helpful.

If you yourself could have someone else who is very trustworthy, to simply be present when movers do the packing , loading, unloading is done, it's very helpful to your odds of a good outcome.

If unable to do that, it even helps if you have someone in addition to yourselves, to interact with the moving company as well, even solely by phone, to go over and confirm the details, and to demonstrate that there are others watching out for you as well.

When I myself, became no longer able to do much of this myself,
having a trusted person to stay in constant and repeated communication with the moving company, made a very big difference, in the overall and entire process.

If not possible, then do as much as you can of reviewing the details, and then pay for the best you can get.
Click to expand...
Decades ago my husband’s company moved us from California to Utah. A suitcase was lost in the move which contained things that were extremely important to me. Besides the costs I just can’t trust a moving company. While we plan on staying here a while, plans can always change.
 
Aneeda72 said:
A suitcase was lost in the move which contained things that were extremely important to me.
Click to expand...
That's a terrible experience, I've had too,
and I'm sorry you did.:( We never forget something as unfair and upsetting as that. :cry:

I took extreme extra care too, as much as I personally am able to, with as much of my personal valuables as I could, during my very difficult last move,
and I am glad to read that Colleen plans to be able to do the same.
 
Alligatorob said:
I have moved cross county several times, and paid movers several times. I can pass on some things I learned in the process that could keep your costs down a little:
  • Get bids from multiple moving companies, you will be surprised how much different they can be.
  • Bargain, I have found you can often talk the movers down a bit, particularly if they know you are getting multiple bids.
  • Ask about time of year, if you can control your timing at all that can help a lot. Rates are higher at peak times, lower at other times.
  • Do all of your own packing, having them do it costs a lot.
  • If your things need to go into storage, do not use the moving company's storage. Costs a lot less for you to rent space from one of the storage companies, not connected to movers.
  • I have not tried them myself, but have heard good things about the moving pods. A container gets delivered to your place, you pack it, then it gets delivered on the other end. I am told renting the pods is not too expensive so that can also be a storage solution.
Best of luck with it all, moving can be very stressful.
Click to expand...
When my Daughter and i moved from Wyoming to NM after i retired 9 years ago we went with ABF (there may be other such out there and of course the 'pod' ones similar) they parked the the container part of truck in our drive and we packed it up. If you needed to, you might be able to hire local teens to pack the truck for you--i recommend packing anything you'd be upset if it got damaged yourself and if possible taking in the vehicle you take to new location. My only caveat is to be sure they deliver to the town you're moving to--since we were moving to a tiny rural 'village' (it says that on the sign--village not town) i didn't find out till we got down here. Had to get a small U-Haul and make several trips from city an hour away. Had to laugh when the guy at the lot unlocked the container for me and removed the barrier he was kind of surprised and asked 'who packed this?' We did! He complimented us how good a job--said he's opened ones that unleashed an avalanche of boxes and furniture. Told him i had a lot of moves, most of them the UHaul or private vehicle kind, to learn.

Also, be sure you research the climate in part of AZ you're moving to--there are all kinds of online resources to also research services for seniors and such.
 

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