Local Move

The Abraham Group

This communication is intended to describe our brilliant experience with Northstar Moving.

In June, the expected (even if unwelcome) announcement was made that our office space had been sold to new owners. Lucky for them, goodbye ocean-view for us. And then, there was the move itself, to arrange.

As if on cue, Ram Katalan and Northstar Moving made our acquaintance. We had a walk-thru for an estimate to move our approximately 1,500 SF space, with typical office components and accessories: desks, computers, file cabinets, couches, tables, chairs, printers, copiers, faxes, paintings, coffee-maker, mugs, doodads, tchotchkes…it was endless. 

And who doesn’t remember packing up their first, small space or office, thinking that setting aside a few boxes and a couple hours “ought-a do it.” AND, your friend with an F-150 owed you a favor. Then, “reality” materialized. Probably several days, dozens of hours and that haunting, self-loathing (for discovering six reams of unused legal paper and a case of coffee stirrers), have left an indelible scar on your psyche. 

Such was the frame of mind. Ram was most nonplussed. 

“We’ll do that. We’ll do that. We’ll do that,” was his refrain to every gesture towards an unwieldy object or over-stuffed cabinet. And they DID. 

The crew came, assessed, packed and moved it all in a day. No muss, no fuss, and best of all, no damage. Just like they said. 

All the while, I kept expecting an unwelcome surprise, an unexpected complication – didn’t happen. 
Having been the veteran of a number of personal and professional moves, I’m qualified to say that Northstar Moving has been the best experience I’ve had. 

With gratitude to Ram Katalan and his crew, 

Maureen Ruiz
The Abraham Group

Recommendation Letter from The Abraham Group

Rebecca Hasson

Both the loading and unloading service crews were extremely professional, friendly, and efficient!

Jess G.

I have used Northstar to move twice. Both times the teams were prompt and professional. They took great care of my belongings and managed relatively tough moves (into a 3 story walk-up the first time and out of it the 2nd) in the minimum time (3 hours). (For comparison’s sake, it was a 1-person, small 1 bedroom move with no large appliances.) When I called to book the movers, a Northstar employee directed me to their Yelp coupon, which she didn’t have to do, as I was already using their service. Would highly recommend them to anyone.

Katie J.

The people at North Star are so amazing! I absolutely love them.

We booked them about two weeks ahead of time and they called us the night before to confirm.

That Saturday morning and they were suppose to come between 8am and 10am. They called us at 7:30am to give us a heads up that they would be coming closer to 8am.  Felipe Salamanca and his team of two other guys rolled up at 7:50am. I seriously LOVED that they were there early.

We had put all of our boxes in the living room, so they got right to work carrying all the boxes down to the truck. While two of them were taking the boxes down, Felipe starting wrapping all our furniture in plastic wrap and blankets. They also dissembled our bed and some of our bookcases, so that they would be easier to move. The side tables and coffee table in our living room have glass tops, which they removed and then wrapped in TONS of blankets to protect them. They also took the clothes that were hanging in our closet and put them in wardrobe boxes that we were able to use during the move (free of charge). They also did a great job of labeling the wardrobe boxes which made it really easy to figure out where the contents of each wardrobe box should go in our new home.  

They also moved our massive couch, mattress, refrigerator, washing machine and dryer around some sharp corners and down a flight of stairs. If we hadn’t hired them, I have no idea how we would have gotten them downstairs ourselves.

Felipe and his guys got all of our items safely to our new home (about 30 minutes away) no problem. They do charge double drive time (but so does every other moving company as I believe it is CA law).

They unloaded all of our items safely and carefully. They put plastic wrap down on our new carpet to help keep it clean. They also made sure to ask us where we wanted things and then placed them in each room accordingly. They even made suggestions like putting some of the boxes in the garage, so that we would have space to move around in the rooms that were already full of boxes. Those types of  suggestions made me notice how thoughtful they were about our move.

All three of the guys were very polite, well dressed and friendly. It was a bit hot on the day of the move, but all three guys really hustled the whole time.

Now that I have had time to unbox my kitchen and fragile items, I can safely say that all of our items made it through the move in perfect condition. I would 100% recommend NorthStar and will definitely use them again in the future. 

Here is the breakdown of our move:

Loading = 3 hours (majority of the time was getting the big appliances around corners and down the stairs)
Drive Time= 30 mins X 2 = 1 hour
Unloading= 2 hours (this time includes reassembling all of our furniture that they had taken apart in order to move it– yes, our bed too)

Total Time= 6 hours X $115 per hour = $690
Materials (Plastic wrap, tape, etc) = $69
Total= $759
$50 for $100 Voucher= -$50
Total price after voucher= $709

We also gave them a 20% tip on top of that (because they SERIOUSLY deserved it).

Just as a side note, when we were paying the bill at the end of the move, I tried to use the $100 for $50 voucher that I had purchased earlier, but I hadn’t printed out the actual voucher. I only had the confirmation number. They charged us the full price ($759) on the day of the move. Later that week, once I printed the voucher to pdf, I called the northstar office (talked to Ashley Cole), emailed her the pdf and they refunded me the $100. I thought it would be a total hassle, but it wasn’t at all. Ashley was super nice and she emailed me back very quickly with a copy of the refunded amount. No hassle at all.

So, yeah, to sum it up, I love Northstar.

David B.

Three years later and I’m still using Northstar, which says a lot right there.  For a moving company to offer  not only excellent service but also timeliness is practically unheard of, but with Northstar that’s what you’ll get each and every time. Just made another move last month and again had the pleasure of working with Ted in the office.  Booking process was again very easy, as well as price quote and confirmation.  Super professional and friendly, which is just what I needed when dealing with yet another stressful move… Once again the movers showed up precisely on time (actually 10 minutes early), totally rocked the joint and got everything out well under the estimated timeline.  What pleased me the most was the absolute CARE they took of everything they moved – unlike other companies I’ve used that just throw the stuff in the van hoping for the best, these guys really go out of their way to take expert care of your furnishings. Ted, looks like we’ll be doing another move in April of next year – I’ll be giving you a call!  THANK YOU AND YOUR STAFF FOR EVERYTHING!

W L.

I’ve moved over 10 times the last 10 years and Northstar has been THE BEST moving company I have worked with. They are very professional, on time and provide very fair pricing. I have been swindled by unreputable moving companies in the past. Northstar sends an person to estimate the move, is very clear with what the estimate includes, what the contract spells out and after everything as moved and unpacked, the final price was a little lower than their estimate! Felipe, Roberto and Juan were a great crew, very professional, and performed quality work. I will definitely use them again.

Andrew S.

I had NorthStar move me into a storage space, and they were VERY easy to work with. Their estimator came out and said that it would cost $1800 to move my two bedroom apartment, but that if I was all packed up and ready to go, I could save myself some money. Well, my sister and I wrapped all my furniture in shrink wrap from Lowe’s, piled the boxes up in the garage, and did everything we could to expedite the move. The crew threw in some free tape and extra shrink wrap on the house, hauled their butts, and did the move in three hours under the estimate. After the cash discount and Yelp coupon, I ended up paying a little more than half the estimate! NorthStar took good care of me, was very reasonable, and handled my belongings with expertise. I would heartily recommend them to anyone looking to make a local move!

Andrew S.

NorthStar took good care of me, was very reasonable, and handled my belongings with expertise.  I would heartily recommend them to anyone looking to make a local move!

Leslie Z.

Great customer service and movers. Even the customer service agent came during our move to see how things were going and gave us a goody bag! Soooo worth every penny.

Mika W.

Used them for a second time to move to our new home 10 minutes away (and used the Yelp Deal.) They sent 3 guys and a truck. Again, they did a fantastic job. Broke one of our ceiling fans but immediately offered us $50 credit (and I was planning on selling it anyways so I was kind of glad that happened.) Would definitely recommend them to anyone that is moving. They may not be the cheapest but definitely worth it to deal with such a quality company. They even called afterwards to follow up and make sure we were happy with the move. Thank you NorthStar!