Review by Jackie K.
Another great find, thanks to Yelp!
As I was preparing for my cross country move from Los Angeles to New York, I was stressing out about what moving company to use to haul all the contents of my 1 bedroom apartment. After all, I had heard so many horror stories about how people were quoted one price, and ended up paying like 3 times as much after the move. Then I came across NorthStar Moving on Yelp, and decided to agree to do the consultation after reading all the positive reviews to get myself an estimate.
I informed them from the beginning that although I needed the pick up on March 30th, I wasn’t going to fly to NY until April 5th, and so I couldn’t receive the delivery until after the 5th. They were completely accommodating, and pushed back my delivery window to be between April 6-12. Furthermore, I didn’t have a destination address in NY when my stuff was picked up, but they didn’t make a big deal out of it at all. They just asked that I either email it to them or let the driver know when they call me a day before the delivery what the address is. 2 thumbs up for customer service already.
So it turns out there are 2 ways they can charge you for a long distance move…by weight (which they determine after they already pack your stuff and take it to their facility), or by a flat fee system they have that includes an estimated weight and a service fee. After getting my estimate for the flat fee system, I opted to get charged by weight, because I figured that it would ultimately cost me less. I was right. How did I find this out? I literally weighed every single box/furniture I owned by either putting it on my bathroom scale, or by carrying it on the bathroom scale and deducting my weight from it.
I did this, not because I’m OCD and have too much time on my hands, but because people try to take advantage of me and overcharge me everywhere I go. I have gotten into countless shouting matches with cab drivers who try to long haul me everywhere from LA to NY to Vegas. They must think, “Hmmm, asian girl probably has no sense of directions…after all, have you seen how they drive??” and try to always take the long way and charge me more. So for this move, I wanted to be cautious and be extremely aware of what ballpark figure to expect when they weighed my stuff. Turned out I had nothing to worry about, because the final weight was in the range of what I expected it to be.
On the day of the move, 4 people came, and literally from the minute they walked in the door, they were on top of it. They wasted no time, with each person getting right to work on their respective duties. I never knew furniture could get disassembled, wrapped in blankets, and taped up so fast. After we went over the inventory inside my apartment, they proceeded to load up the moving van. The movers were in and out of my apartment in 90 minutes flat. CRAZY FAST!!
Not only were they super quick when picking up from my apartment in LA, but they were just as great when they delivered the stuff in NY. I ended up putting my stuff in a storage unit, and even the guy working at the storage was like, “Wow, I have to admit, these guys work so fast…they’re good.” I’m sure the guys at the storage facility come across plenty of movers, and for them to be impressed, it goes to show how great the guys at NorthStar Moving were.
Everyone I came across at NorthStar Moving were super friendly, efficient, accommodating, and just overall awesome guys who make you feel comfortable with something as stressful as a move. I would absolutely use them again if I move, and would recommend them to anyone looking to do a long distance move.