The Pain of MOviNg (part 2)
About to do a BIG move? Read on…
Part 2 of 4 moving from NY to SF. I’ve moved so many times (within a city, down the block, from east coast to west coast, from one side of the earth to the other) in the last 10 years, I thought I document a bit about my latest move from NY to San Jose which was the most painful of all my moves.
Picking Moving Company for The Household Stuff
Originally I read this site and came across this page to get a list of moving companies. But let me tell you, it really doesn’t matter which company you pick.
Moving across the country is really about the same as moving within state. Anyone you call will greet you with the warmest welcome and give you all the attention 24/7 until you put down your deposit with them. No matter what they promise you, the cost is basically X amount per cubic feet plus tips. They will either come and give you a free estimate or just have you send pictures, just keep in mind it will cost more. I recommend letting them come and give you an onsite estimate as that is a much better guess as to what you will end up paying.
As for tips, yeah, they will all tell you tips is not required and in the end, the foreman who is in charge of your move will come to you and make you a deal — I will take X cubic feet off and it’s up to you if you want to tip or not.
What happens after they pack your stuff into a truck? They combine your belongings with the belongings from other people until an 18 wheelers is filled. This can take 5–10 days depending on how fast the 18 wheeler gets filled. The group driving your belongings across the country is different from the group who came to your house and did all the moving. There’s no update after this point and you just wait. You can choose to keep calling the moving company (the person who initially took your down payment) to see if the truck has left your origin state. Or you just wait until one day someone calls you and lets you know your items are arriving in the next couple of days.
I misspoke at first, there is no group driving your belongings across the country, it’s just one guy. This one guy will call for local help to assist with the unpacking. They basically split the remaining part of the moving payment which you will pay by cash or money order (they only accept USPS money order!). Again these guys are professionals, fast and efficient. Yes, you get to tip again. Oh, all the packaging materials, you get to keep. It took us a few weeks to throw all the unused boxes and tapes away.
One of the question you may have is should I buy moving insurance. Moving across the country, we definitely had some damages to our stuff, luckily we can kind of overlook the damages. Some of the boxes were really mangled too. Some of the other reviews I saw weren’t so lucky. Like all insurance, you’re betting against lady luck.
Picking Transport Company for the Car
This one was tough cause there are no reliable info about this online. I guess the market and demand to move personal cars across states is not big enough. The first place I contacted said they can do the household items move and the car move. Another place later told me, by law they can’t do both, usually there’s a sister company that does one or the other.
I had a coworker who just moved from SF to NY and gave me this page to start my investigations. Basically, you work through a broker. The transportreviews page is a page which helps you look for a broker. The price estimate on that page is all wrong. What you can use this page for is to find a broker. A car move is a very different from a household items move as we learned at the end of this expensive lesson.
Car transportation is a very shady business. Due to the cost of moving a vehicle, most people will not do it. We had to do it because our car was leased and was locked into the lease for another 2 years. In hindsight, I should have just bought out the car and sold the car. Would have saved this step plus some of the pain which will come later with DMV. Because the demand of moving a vehicle across states is not there, that’s why there’s not a lot of info readily available.
How this really work is you give the broker your first available pick up date. A day or two before your date, the broker will broadcast it to some secret channel they have with truck drivers. Now these truck drivers are constantly trucking cars back and forth, most of them do actually have a legit operation, and picking up your car is a side gig. You see all those trucks towing a bunch of cars on the freeway, some time they have an empty slot or two so they pick up your car for some extra cash. If a truck comes in your direction and has the space, they will report back to the broker with their price. The broker will call you and say, it’s X amount on a certain pick up date. If you agree, then you pay the deposit which can be via credit card to the broker. The rest you pay in cashier check or cash when they deliver your car.
Once you agree to the price and date, it’s basically up to you and the truck driver to communicate the exact date and time. You don’t have to be the one to wait there to deliver the car. As long as someone over 18 hands over the keys and all this is prearranged, it is ok as well.
You do have a choice of not wanting the price or the date. After a couple of times, the broker will get annoyed though. The price is not going to vary too much between driver and driver. They know the market and will charge about the same. And when I say the price is very different from the online website, it’s about $500+ difference depending on your car.
The broker initially made a big deal about my car being a minivan and will cost tons more than say a Corolla. When I finally saw the truck delivering my car, it really is all the same. Another scam to get more money off of you.
Working out the pickup date and time is not going to be fun. Same thing with dropping off the car. It’s really on you to keep calling and asking and confirming. Remember, you’re just a side gig for them. The truck driver will take very good pics of your car. I think it’s more to protect themselves than anything. Unless the whole truck flips over on the way, your car should be fine.
No one will explain any of how this actually works to you up front. The broker company will make you sign an agreement to only solely use them. I did talk to the trucker when they dropped off my car and they said next time skip the broker and go directly to them to save some cost. No tips for this part of the move.
Part I: Preparing for the Move
