best rates?
specials?
secrets to making things cheaper?
companies to avoid?

need to move the equivalent of 2 rooms from raleigh, nc to atlanta, ga - bedroom/living room and approximately 10 boxes - anything else can and will be put in 2 cars - i am going to be doing a lot of back and forth inbetween raleigh and atlanta over the next 2 months and have the luxury of moving over time as opposed to all at once in a day

i have the labor in both locations to use a rental truck but if it's not that much more would possibly use full service movers

i will not use a pod/storage system - please don't recommend them

to hopefully stop people from posting this over and over...
i know which option is PROBABLY the cheapest - the rental truck will win most of the times but cheap - everyone knows this...please don't tempt me to suspend you

4/4/2007 11:09:13 PM

Don't use All-American/Mayflower, whatever you do.

4/4/2007 11:22:18 PM

i had no major issues with mayflower.

[Edited on April 4, 2007 at 11:39 PM. Reason : rental truck will be a lot less though]

4/4/2007 11:39:13 PM

Rental truck will be a lot less - I've got no beef with Mayflower per se, but their Raleigh group, All American, can fucking suck it.

10 boxes? I'm pretty sure you'll fing you've got a lot more than that.

4/4/2007 11:51:45 PM

Guess I'll hop onto this thread...

I'm interested in full service movers for a move from Cary to Durham in a few months and looking for suggestions of who to use/not use.

4/5/2007 12:00:58 PM

Don't use AAA Van Lines. My parents hired them to move some stuff from Atlanta to Cary when they moved and gave me their furniture. The movers were assholes, they lost some stuff, broke other stuff and they tried to make us double pay the extra cost for taking the stuff up the stairs.

4/5/2007 12:27:45 PM

I had an issue with Budget claiming that we caused damage to the truck that was already there. Sure, my fault for being in a hurry and not making sure the damage was marked on their sheet at pickup, but we had obvious evidence that the damage was pre-existing and they still would not budge on the claim. Bunch of scamming idiots in my opinion.

4/5/2007 1:02:43 PM

no matter who it is, i've always heard you should make sure and tip them.........ya know, since they have all your shit and all

i hate tipping

4/5/2007 4:56:46 PM

will 2 guys and a truck travel that far?

4/5/2007 5:13:35 PM

Quote :

"I had an issue with Budget claiming that we caused damage to the truck that was already there. Sure, my fault for being in a hurry and not making sure the damage was marked on their sheet at pickup, but we had obvious evidence that the damage was pre-existing and they still would not budge on the claim. Bunch of scamming idiots in my opinion."

you cant call them scamming idiots and admit fault in the same breath. what kinda evidence we talking about.

4/5/2007 5:20:03 PM

Quote :

"you cant call them scamming idiots and admit fault in the same breath. what kinda evidence we talking about."

Dirt/ slight rust covering the damaged area of a front fender, evidence that they'd already repaired the bumper which was also bent but didn't bother to repair the dented/creased fender. There was a plastic trim piece which would normally be attached to the underside of the fender and hang in the gap between fender/front bumper. There was a clear overspray line where this plastic piece was hanging at an angle due to the damage, partially hidden behind the bumper. They spray painted the bumper so a portion of this plastic piece had no overspray... clearly documented in pictures. Yet they still claimed that the fender was freshly damaged. Scamming idiots. I guess the damage was so obvious that I was sure they knew about it, so I didn't even check the sheet since the girl claimed she'd done a walk-around earlier that morning.

4/6/2007 1:22:20 PM

have you ever heard of google?

idiot.

4/6/2007 2:23:15 PM

haha

4/6/2007 2:23:57 PM

how much are you supposed to tip movers?

4/12/2007 4:57:56 PM

How far in advance should you schedule movers?

4/12/2007 5:11:00 PM

at least 4 weeks in my experience

4/12/2007 5:22:04 PM

penske, they service their own trucks and have really low rates, they'll drop theirs if you can provide a competition's own a receipt or something, oh yeah, and they care about you as a customer, most other places will just leave you out in the dark if you have a problem

they also do local rentals (where you return the truck to its rented location) and one ways (where you leave it in a destination city if its a long move)

[Edited on April 12, 2007 at 7:25 PM. Reason : more]

4/12/2007 7:24:17 PM

I just moved to Pennsylvania in January, and I used Penske. They had the best price of what I checked.

Also, here's a trick. Since I was driving the truck to PA and back to Raleigh, it looked like the round trip option was what I needed. But it was actually cheaper for me to do a one-way rental. The trick was to do a one-way rental from Raleigh to Wake Forest and use the unlimited miles for the round trip

edit:
\/, yeah, everything was peachy in the agreement, it surprised me

[Edited on April 12, 2007 at 7:41 PM. Reason : \/]

4/12/2007 7:33:20 PM

Wouldn't they notice the extra miles?
Was your registration good for going out of state?

4/12/2007 7:37:32 PM

i'll definitely check with penske - if it's going to be more then $250 dollars cheaper - i'll drive it back to raleigh -but i'm not planning on driving the truck back

anyone else had experience with penske?

4/13/2007 10:59:52 AM

is there anyone who rents big trailers for one-way moves?

UHaul doesn't offer anything bigger than a 6'x12' trailer, as best as I can tell. That's not gonna be big enough...I totally filled a 16' Budget truck last time I moved, and I have just as much stuff this time.

oh, and it has to be an enclosed trailer...I'll likely be driving from Pensacola, FL to San Diego, CA, then up the west coast to Whidbey Island, WA.

[Edited on April 13, 2007 at 11:06 AM. Reason : asfd]

4/13/2007 11:05:56 AM

Just know all you can about who you hire and look up reviews online. also be aware of how people charge. Some companies charge by weight so if you go over your estimate they hammer you. Others charge by volume so if you end up getting more boxes or get some idiots who dont know how to box a truck you get hammered. There are a few guaranteed price movers out there. If you look online theres a moving company "black list" of companies to avoid.

4/13/2007 11:12:32 AM

Make sure they do their security tags on the hand truck and the blankets. I rented a U-Haul and they didn't tag it on the way out and they charged me for it when I returned it.

I spoke with 3 different people on arguing that I never did use the hand truck, but they absolutely would not budge.

4/13/2007 4:23:45 PM

appreciate the recommendation on penske - looks to be the cheapest and has a AAA discount to give me unlimited miles and a 12% discount

4/16/2007 11:24:29 PM

bttt

4/30/2007 10:47:53 PM

I've heard really good things about two guys and a truck. Any comments on them?

4/30/2007 10:48:58 PM

Anyone?

5/8/2007 1:56:56 PM

i've heard good things about them too

[Edited on May 8, 2007 at 2:05 PM. Reason : i am using Allied next week to move from PA to charlotte]

5/8/2007 2:04:40 PM

i used penske last weekend and highly recommend them for merely a truck rental

5/8/2007 2:06:37 PM

Quote :

"I've heard really good things about two guys and a truck. Any comments on them? "

ex roommate of mine used them in the past and no complaints on price or the actuall move.

5/8/2007 2:12:47 PM

Did he use the ones in Raleigh?

[Edited on May 8, 2007 at 2:18 PM. Reason : ]

5/8/2007 2:17:25 PM

Allied screwed my family pretty bad, although 95% of the stuff made it undamaged.

Also, I used budget to move stuff last week from Cary to Fuquay and it worked out really well.

Mike

5/8/2007 2:48:51 PM

^^^^

Did you load and unload the truck yourself? If not how much was that? Im looking into driving the truck to Blacksburg, VA myself but paying loaders and unloaders.

5/8/2007 2:57:08 PM

Quote :

"Did he use the ones in Raleigh"

yes SHE did

5/8/2007 3:01:57 PM

Just found some good info

http://rightchoicebusiness.com/member/?m=15

5/8/2007 4:57:26 PM

yeah - friends helped up here and family helped down there

5/8/2007 5:19:49 PM

moving is a massive pain in the ass, Penske seems like the best bet tho

Quote :

"the rental truck will win most of the times but cheap - everyone knows this...please don't tempt me to suspend you"

power going straight to the head...

5/9/2007 2:02:36 PM

I'm thinking about using DC Movers, a local company in Raleigh, for a move from over by NCSU up to Lynn Road. They charge $299 for moves less than 25 miles and that includes three guys for three hours. This seems pretty reasonable to me. Anyone have any input on this?

7/7/2007 11:27:52 PM

That's a pretty good rate. Two men and truck charge ~$130 per hour for 3 guys.

7/8/2007 12:02:20 AM

^^ what happens if they go over 3 hours? can they fit everything on 1 truck load? do they only load/unload or do some packing in that 3 hours also?

^ heh 2 men and a truck quote prices for 3 people?

7/8/2007 12:06:45 AM

^^^you can do that move for about 60 bucks. We moved from north raleigh to cary with me and my roomate plus (1 helper) and it took 4 hours (granted we lived at seperate places).

299 for 3 guys and a truck sounds ok, but will they be able to load/drive/unload in that time? what happens if they go over? If you dread doing it yourself, can't find a few helpers, you don't have much, and you taking a day or weekend off is worth a lot then that doesn't sound like a bad deal.

[Edited on July 8, 2007 at 8:33 AM. Reason : .]

7/8/2007 8:31:44 AM

I had two sleeper sofas and lived on the third floor with 2 flights of half stairs. It was well worth the cost.

7/8/2007 10:17:28 AM

good luck with your move omarbadu

7/8/2007 11:14:33 AM

i moved 2 months ago...

7/8/2007 11:39:51 AM

e-move.com lists a bunch of local movers - i used them moving from wisconsin to ohio and they were great on both ends

7/8/2007 1:11:18 PM

Penske has the best rates on trucks, $116 for 2 days

7/8/2007 1:32:42 PM

If they go over, it's $95 an hour charged in 15 minute increments.

They said they have 24 foot trucks so they should definitely be able to accommodate all my stuff which is about a 1-bedroom apartment's worth of stuff.

Thanks for the input guys.

7/8/2007 5:15:12 PM