Moving Reviews

Since we enlisted the help of several different companies for our move, I figured I’d review them all. This is a little late because well… Auto & Boat Relocation Services is awful and we just got my car. But I’ll get to that a little later.

Ohio Valley Moving Co. 

We used their services when we were moving into the house in WV, when U-Haul had recommended them, and were so impressed (they unloaded all of our stuff in two hours then) that we hired them again for moving out. They don’t seem to have a website, but they are located in Bridgeport, OH and were great. Professional, timely, courteous, and the one gentleman who helped us was pretty funny to boot. Their rates were $75/hour for a two-man crew with a two-hour minimum and it took five and a half hours to move all of the stuff from the two-bedroom house into the truck. This was very reasonable, considering the amount of stuff we had, including a beast of an elliptical machine and upwards of 150 boxes and most all of our furniture. Also, U-Pack quoted us for 13 linear feet of truck, and we ended up getting a bit of a refund from them because the movers used less space due to some tetris magic. If you are moving somewhere in the Ohio Valley, I would highly recommend these folks. 

U-Pack

U-Pack provided a truck and driver to haul our stuff across the country from West Virginia to Washington. They were reasonable, comparative to other avenues we explored (for example, Pods). They dropped off the trailer on 6/18, picked it up a few days later (I think the 23rd?) after it was loaded, drove it here by 7/2, and picked up the empty trailer the next day. Their time estimates were pretty spot on, and they kept us in the loop regarding the timeline of delivery and when the drivers would be there to drop off/pick up. It was such a tremendous relief to not have to drive an enormous truck across the whole country. If you're moving and don't want to drive a truck, these are your guys. 

Moving Staffers

Moving Staffers of Seattle helped us unload at the other end of our journey. They I was a little dubious when the two lankiest young dudes I'd ever seen pulled up, but they proved to me again that one should never judge a book by its cover. Those guys could lift, and they were nice young lads too. I can't find the receipt, much to my chagrin, but I think they took about four hours to unload and were reasonably priced. They were recommended to us by U-Pack and I don't regret going with them. 

Auto & Boat Relocation Services

And now, we get to the sh*t. Auto & Boat Relocation Services is by far the worst. The WORST company I've ever dealt with in my entire life. Hands down. So be prepared for a long-winded rant. Or just glaze over it and know that you or anyone you love should NEVER NEVER use them. Maybe recommend them to your enemies whom you do not wish to have a car for extended periods of time. That would be acceptable.

We dropped my car, the most expensive thing I own, off to a towing place as directed by Lauren, our representative, on 6/20. The woman, whose name I wish I could remember to give her kudos on my blog that no one reads anyway, working at the desk at the establishment we dropped the car off at (Valley Towing, Auto Repair & Auto Glass in New Martinsville, WV, if you were interested) was very helpful. However, Auto & Boat Relocation Services had told them we were going to be dropping off our car, but didn't fax them the appropriate paperwork nor did they tell them when their truck would be there to pick up my car for relocation.  Also, Lauren the Terrible was on vacation, so The Wonderful Front-Desk Woman at Valley Towing could not get in touch with her or anyone else about our car. However, she assured us sweetly that we had enough to worry about with moving across the country, and that she would take care of it. And she did. 

My car was supposed to arrive here on 7/11. Since we dropped it off on 6/20, this seems like a very ample amount of time to deliver my car. For example, we could have driven it from West Virginia to Washington and back twice in that amount of time if we were putzing around. 

We heard from Lauren that the initial carrier canceled. The delivery date was subsequently delayed around three times. Lauren was in sparse contact with Topher throughout this snafu. Our car was finally delivered Friday, August 1st. 

For giggles, let's break that down. We were without my car for 41 days. I tried to get google maps to give me driving times to get to the bottom of Argentina, but it wasn't down with us driving through South America, for whatever reason, so Costa Rica it is. Costa Rica is 65 hours of straight driving from West Virginia. At 8 hours of driving per day that makes 8.125 days, which means we could have driven my car to and from Costa Rica about 2.5 times. Costa Rica! Maybe that's what they were doing. Hanging out in Central America with my car.

Topher has tried to call four or five times to see about being compensated for our inconvenience and left messages several times. Lauren the Terrible has not returned his calls. Today he tried to call the general number to get a supervisor for this woman but no one answered. 

Basically, they're the worst ever. We paid about $2,000 to wait 41 days to get my car. I'm going to wait to see if they're willing to resolve this nicely or if I should rain the wrath of the internet reviews down upon them.

RARRRR!

Jax