Ask HN: How do you move across the country [US]? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you move across the country [US]?

7 pointscoreyp_111 comments

More specifically, how do you find a moving company that you trust?

I have called several companies, and they all seem to be just brokers, and all have *scary* reviews along side the praise (which seems fake). They all seem to be using the same software (based on their email and quotes). They all follow the same sales pitch. They all criticize the other companies. Talking to them makes me feel like I'm talking to a con man.

They use the exact same phrases like: "We're one of the most trusted names in moving." "We have deliveries on your route several times a week." "Give me two minutes to talk to my dispatcher to see if we have a truck available." (Really? Does every company need two minutes __exactly__?)

I hear of companies charging double and even triple when they get to the location, and hold your posessions hostage until you pay up. I hear of expensive items "disappearing" during the move. I hear of the delivery time of "1 week" turning into "2 months". I hear of items being damaged because they were evidently unloaded and reloaded somewhere in the middle of the transport.

I'm sure that some of you have had to move a large household across the country... Please help me know in whom to trust!

Details, if you need them: I'm changing jobs. I'm not getting reimbursed for moving. It's 1,000 miles, from Indiana to Texas, and I have a 4 bedroom house. I'm being quoted ~$9,000, and I don't even trust the companies!

I moved from Massachusetts to California last December. I recommend Atlas Van Lines.

Background: I originally used one of these brokers as you described without realizing what I was getting into. About a week before they were supposed to pick up my things, they told me they were still trying to find an available crew to actually do the job. I have a flight booked in two weeks so now I’m panicking and calling up any places I can find. When I called Atlas, the local rep I talked to calmed me down and explained in detail how he’d heard this a million times before, that Atlas was one of about four legitimate moving companies that aren’t just brokers (I’ve forgotten the others he mentioned), and that the source of the problem was due to deregulation of moving companies several years ago. Long story short, they came through in the clutch, picked up everything no problem, and delivered it no problem. Of course YMMV.

Even though you aren't being moved, you could ask the HR of your current or next company who they use or how they find someone.

I was moved in 1996, new job took care of all the details, the movers were fine, it all worked. In 1996.

Today I'm a trucker. Right now practically all shipping companies are overbooked. My company is paying us a "productivity" bonus for increasing number of miles driven. Everyone is buying stuff, and everyone is moving. So it wouldn't surprise me if your stuff gets there late, because unfortunately your shipper (or the broker) doesn't want to leave money on the table merely because they don't have the trucks and drivers. As ugly as that is.

Right now there are many trips that are late for delivery on the day I pick them up. My trips are typically 500 to 1500 miles and take one to three days.

From other threads, do it yourself seems like a good idea. Or maybe just DIY for some of it, and have the rest moved. You may have trouble finding a rental truck exactly when you need it. Because everyone is moving.

The "load it yourself and we'll pick it up and deliver it" solution is good. You can load the container at your leisure. A friend did that, worked out well. Again, around 1996. These also probably have availability issues right now.

For a long distance move, I would probably only trust movers that are hired by an established company to relocate employees.

Does your new company do relocation for some people, but not you for some reason? Maybe they could book it at your expense? Your current company won't relocate you to get rid of you (probably), but if they do relocation, it's worth figuring out who they use and see if it might work. Of course, if you book it, the moving company may subcontract the job in ways they wouldn't if it were the employer booking.

I did a similar distance move, but from a two bedroom silicon valley house. If you have time, see if any of the pod companies support your new and old locations; we packed two (maybe three) pods, and then got the rest of the stuff in a Penske truck. My parents and brother flew to our old place and then drove with us to the new place (two vehicles + the moving truck) and stayed for a few days to help unload the truck (and I think the pods managed to come in time that we got help unloading those too).

For pods, if possible use a vendor that has rails so you can actually tie things down. Anyway, you want to really pack your stuff in tightly. Anything that can move, will move and break itself and whatever it moves into. I think we used u-haul's pods which are basically plywood boxes with one or two ring on the wall (which does just about nothing afaik). For load-out, you could get extra pods dropped off and if you end up not filling them, they don't charge for the empties (or didn't). Really, as much as you can get in those, the easier, because they're out of your hands.

Also, this should be earlier, but sell or otherwise get rid of as much as you can at the old place, rather than move things to the new place. IKEA furniture you put together isn't going to move well, so why pay to move it. Lots of things may be easier to replace than to move. And maybe some things you really just don't need. Couches and bedframes and matresses are a pain to move, and if you can avoid it, great.

Rent a 26' or whatever the biggest you can get without a special license is, and DIY. Or if you have kids or relatives in their early twenties, see if you can pay them to do it. It is still probably cheaper.

I have always moved myself (never with as much stuff as you have though) and I think I always will. Like you say, there is no real way you can trust the movers, you have to be there for the loading and unloading anyway, so you're probably not saving time and effort, other than a bit of lifting. And if you can't do that, still better to get a friend or paid local to help you.

If it's really not feasible to DIY, you'll have to bite the bullet and just use one of the sketchy companies. You could look for those containers that they drop off and you load yourself, that may give more piece of mind.

Even you and your family and maybe a few close friends, doing your absolute honest best, are going to lose and break some stuff. No one else will care nearly as much nor try nearly as hard.

DIY is the best solution, in the sense of "sucks least." Think hard about who you ask to help, too; needs to be people to whom you can confidently explain why they shouldn't touch "that box" or why there's bloodstains on the underside of the table.

On the underside of the table?

dog with ear hemotoma and a drain. it was the only place she could shake her head and not draw complaints; she was considerate that way.

the result looked like a horror movie prop.

I moved my family recently with a moving company, I think it was Upline, and we had a good experience, but I know it's hit or miss. I think the company I used said they used their own drivers. The more the moving company hires themselves, the better off it is to avoid the crazy brokering. Our delivery window was pretty good, I think it was within a few days from original estimation. All boxes were itemized by cost. I think it was around US$9000 after everything, including moving the family and hotels.

I think the 'belongings held hostage' stories are rare and there's probably some of the story missing. I think it has to do with shuttling if the trailer cannot fit. Always ask about shuttling fees and take pictures of the destination to make them say if they need to shuttle or not.

It's not a glamorous job. Pay the movers cash and tip generously.

I've never tried this, but I suppose you could hire a truck and trailer driver yourself, then hire local moving companies to load and unload. For one of our smaller moves, I did hire locally and they were excellent.

Good luck, it is stressful, my wife refuses to move again!

I used a company called worldwidemovingsolutions.com to move from Toronto to San Francisco (shipping 2 adults + 2 kids worth of stuff, plus a car). They quoted me CAD 4.8k, this was 4 years ago. They were very thorough, especially considering shipping a car across the border involves a bunch of paperwork. Took them 2 weeks to deliver, which is quite reasonable, given that Google Maps quotes it as a 39 hour car trip.

The bad: the car dashcam disappeared upon delivery (not a huge deal TBH, it was a cheap $20 one that I got it as a present from an acquaintance). Some picture frames broke (this has happened to me on pretty much every move using a company ever, and insurance won't cover it, so just be aware).

The good: I accidentally shipped my passport in one of the boxes (yes, stupid, I know) and managed to arrange to drive a rental car to their warehouse an hour outside town and get it back (so yes, they do seem to unload/reload for long distance moves for logistic reasons). No scamming/haggling/bait-and-switch shenanigans, pretty accurate quotes, thorough with paperwork. Overall, all things considered, I was pretty happy with the service.

Maybe call them and see if they would consider doing a US-only move. Indiana isn't that out of the way from Ontario, and my understanding is they have trucks all over Canada...

Another option: Last year I did a road trip (SF to Toronto - and back) and saw a lot of people driving uHaul trucks on some long stretches of road. I know from a recent in-city move that their medium size 15' trucks can fit 2 bedrooms worth of stuff. A drive from Indiana to Texas is honestly not too bad (it's two 8 hour days by car, so a bit longer with a truck). If you're on a budget and/or getting bad vibes from moving companies, it might also be worth considering.

I moved from the US to Hong Kong last year and I used a company called Santa Fe Relocation https://www.santaferelo.com/en/ They had positive reviews on a number of expat forums. I can attest that all my stuff got here, in the expected time frame, no hassles with customs. It was pretty painless. I recommend them. They do moves within the US as well. I paid a little over $3k USD, but I was not moving a lot of stuff (just boxes, mostly books, no big furniture).

9k is reasonable, I was quoted 20k by the national companies (United, Allied, Mayflower) for a similar move several years ago but decided instead to do the partial DIY approach where the company drops off a trailer, you load it up and pay for it to be hauled to the destination. Total costs for that move were just over 9k.

If you can arrange it, it's worth the money to hire a packer to show up and pack up all of your household goods.

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