The first time I ever remember moving was when I was 5 years old. My parents have never moved since. Yes, they still live in the same house. I do recall one of the guys ended up with a serious back injury from moving the piano. That’s another story in itself. Suffice to say, as a kid, it was traumatic to see, a human in so much pain. Maybe that’s why I ended up working in a hospital?
I wanted give my parents my refrigerator & I had some other items to move. The last moving company I used went out of business. It’s too bad, they were wonderful.
This moving company was very prompt . Moreover they were responsive on the phone & in person. They asked all the right questions. They asked what size place I was moving from & going to in order to determine how many men and what size truck to bring. Multiple stops were needed, from my studio to a 1 bdrm., to a storage place that my friend let me use, to my parents home. I asked “would you please send some really nice guys?” Through it all, they were pleasant, patient & good natured.
I would suggest you know as much as possible, how you want your belongings packed, because they are lickety split, ever so speedy fast. Closely supervise too, because they will ask questions, “is this ok or no?”
They called & forewarned me they were stuck in traffic but would soon be at the 1st stop. They arrived within the originally alloted timeframe at my studio.
They wrapped whatever was necessary, packed what I was too tired to pack (1 closet) & assured me it was going to be fine. They were very quick. Perhaps it didn’t look like a lot to them, but it sure did to me. They said, “don’t worry maam, we have lots of room in the truck.” When I peeked inside the truck, they had about half the truck empty!
I had a bed, padded head & foot board, loveseat, refrigerator, numerous boxes, bins, containers, plants, & wardrobe boxes. I thought I would need 2-3 wardrobe boxes. Ha Ha. They stuffed 9 wardrobe boxes, ca ching.
I had my closet divided into work clothes & play clothes. One of the moving men remarked, “nice work clothes”, I said “thank you.” Then he glanced at the play clothes before loading them into the wardrobe boxes & smiled, “soft & delicate!”
They worked really hard, their attitude was a “can do with a smile, just you sit back & relax.” Even when they discovered a dresser mesh bin assembly that had a wheel which was already broken from years ago, they took it in stride. They didn’t ask me, “why don’t you just get rid of this thing?” Instead, they coaxed the old dresser mesh bin assembly in a gentle manner till it made it onto the truck.
2nd stop was my new place. I requested moving blankets be spread out on my new carpet. They honored that request, again with a smile as they said “no problem, nice place.”
Here’s where I made a mistake. I wished I had asked them to wash their hands or offered them premoistened hand wipes to get rid of the grime on their hands before unwrapping & assembling the padded head board. The man who assembled the head board (upholstered) stained it slightly, however when I purchased it, I bought a lifetime guarantee on it, so it’s a minor issue. If I can’t get the stain out myself, the furniture company will replace the whole padded head board.
3rd stop was the storage space. Dropped off some containers. Here’s where the bill came in. They ran an estimate, because I was not going to the 4th stop. For all this an incredible $732.00
4th stop was a challenge. If you’ve ever been in L.A. gridlock, bumper to bumper, this was it. Just trying to get on the freeway must have been a nightmare. I passed them on the left & saw what they were in for, as the line to the onramp stretched on for miles. I don’t know how they managed it. However 2 hours later they made it to my parents & dropped off the refrigerator.
I figured it took them at least 8 hours. I had bugeted much more than $732 & I think I got a bargain. The moving men were really nice too. Absolutely nothing was broken, despite many bumps in the road & even the glass shelves for the refrigerator. Everything works just fine, even my precious powerful microwave oven.