Re: 10 Things Your Mover Won't Tell You

[Rich]

Having been in the Navy for 22 years, I've done no less than 10 moves. Fortunately for me the Gov't advocates for us. Non-the-less, its a painful and losing proposition. I've got one more upon retiring. I'm doing part of it by myself... the part that has all the woodshop stuff in it. I'm getting a tractor trailer container and will fill it myself. Funny thing everytime I move regardless of my rank, the movers have always charged me within 100lbs of the maximum allowed weight for my rank. This move I'll be over weight for sure, hence the container idea, that and I have control over everything. On my move from Germany, I had a box whith a hole in it... The only things stolen was my humidor full of Cigars (cuban of course) and a Waffen SS dagger I found in an excavation, two items I couldn't clam loss of.... Bastards knew exactly where to look and what to take.

[Michael A. Terrell]

When I was crating my stuff to leave the US Army back in the '70s, one of the jerks working with hold baggage said, "that's a really nice stereo. Too bad it'll never reach its destination." I smiled and told him, "I'll have all my weapons out of storage and ready to use by the time the crates arrive, and I've managed to save enough to make a round trip back here, in case something comes up missing. BTW, do you guys build plywood coffins?" Not only did they arrive the way I packed them, they stuffed some boxed office supplies as filler. I didn't need to by pens or pencils for a couple years.

[rich]

Another way to move that I have found to be very easy, is to use a Ryder Truck or equiv. and hire day laborers to load and unload it. Since one usually has to drive to the new house anyway, puit the wife in the car, and you drive the truck. Day labor runs about $10-20 per hour. and 4 hours, two guys, will empty most houses. And you, and your friends, don't get sweaty!

Since you pack it yourself, any damage is due to your own ineptness, and it's hardly worth stealing from yourself! My move this spring will be in two phases, first to get all the junk, hobby stuff, trinkets out of the old house to ease the sale, and the 2nd move to grab the rest of the furniture. First move gate my wife's car out there, 2nd move gets my truck out. I've got to drive anyway, so I might as well drive a big truck, hang with the semi's, use the truck stops. Kinda fun.

[Trevor Jones]

My experience in four long distance moves, is that the day labour plugs are the source of almost all the damage suffered. They drop stuff, whang it off corners, and generally don't really give a damn about your stuff, because they are just lift and carry labour. After all, "Whatch gonna do, fire me!"

The guys that were full time with the moving Co. have been much better.

On my last move, we lost one china teacup, and had a couple scratches on some very used bookcases. Total damage costs came to far less than the cost of the lunch I bought these guys. I was very pleased with the service that they provided.

I did one move recently out of my own pocket (vice work related) and hired a four man crew and a truck, from the same van line, to move anything that was too heavy to lift myself, furniture, shop tools, and appliances. Cost me a grand for the one day, had zero problems or damage, and all my friends are still talking to me. Best of all, they were insured, both against damage to my stuff, and damage to my house.

I think this has a lot in common with the conversations that come from hiring riggers to move machines. Some get good ones, some don't, and usually the guy that goes cheap, gets what he pays for.

Cheers Trevor Jones

[Peter Grey]

Indeed. When we moved into our current house, we hired movers. They put some small scratches on a couple of pieces - no big deal. They hauled all our furniture down 12 steps (or 24 if it was on the top floor) to our front door, and then 67 steps to the street. Then they hauled stuff up 15 steps to the front door and half of the stuff up to the second floor. They earned every penny we paid them that day.

Peter

[Trevor Jones]

Indeed!

On one of my later moves one of the loaders was picking up two 60 to eighty pound boxes and trotting with them down my 40 odd yards of driveway and up into the truck.

This guy was not big, a bantamweight boxer.

He said that the guys that went to the gym three or four times a week, pretty much didn't know what hit them, once he got in the ring after the moving season!

Great guy, careful and fast. Was on the crew that unloaded at my new residence, too.

Cheers Trevor Jones

[Bruce L. Bergman]

Right - Let the pros do the heavy work, but get as much of the little stuff done ahead of time so you don't have to pay them for it.

Get a pile of apple boxes from the local market, or ask Karl to ship you a pallet of those out-of-date printed apple boxes from 3 years ago he's been stuck with. ;-)

Pack up all the fragile and everyday stuff yourselves first - take a few weeks and get everything that you can packed securely ahead of time.

As for hiring movers, use caution. The games they play on you with under-estimating costs and holding your stuff for ransom are endemic in the industry. The workers might be great at treating your stuff with care, but the supervisors and owners are even better at separating you from your money given half a chance.

Get a step ahead of them - Know pretty closely how much your stuff weighs and the volume it will fill when packed before the movers arrive (you can weigh and mark all the pre-packed boxes) and compare that to the estimate.

If you don't mind signaling that you'll play hardball, know where the closest certified scales are and offer to meet them there before they arrive at your house for loading, and again as they leave. That can cut off the issues of "your load was way over weight!" as you know the true weight.

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