NationStates Jolt Archive

Well, here we are in the busy season of the industry I work in; the moving industry. (If you can call it an 'industry'.)

Moving is one of those things that almost everyone can relate to. Anybody on this site ever work for a moving company? Or perhaps have been moved by a professional moving company, and have some horror stories to tell (or perhaps some sucesses?)

I've been in this biz for over 7 years. Started packing boxes, graduated to 'box boy', then graduated to 'driver's helper', then warehouse manager, and now I'm part owner of my own business. I've seen it all, and I've heard all the horror stories and listened to all the scams; local, long-distance, commercial or international.

What's your story?

What's your story?
I have several online gaming clanmates who are part of the same extended family and jointly run a removal business. It's cool in a way, because sometimes they are all online with the rest of us, bitchslapping n00bs, but sometimes they have to get into their trucks and disappear for several days.

When my parents moved to Ottawa when I was a child, I remember my father telling me that at the time, he had to hassle with the moving company because they were late delivering our possessions. Now you have to imagine, this is with two adults who are in the middle of a messy divorce with a young child (7 years old) who needs her stuff to feel comfortable in a strange new city.

They took like 2 weeks to finally deliver everything.

For that reason, when we moved back to Toronto (this is well after my parents divorced and my mother decided to stay), he made the choice to use U-Haul and enlisted the help of a friend. It's interesting moving your own furniture. For one, you can make sure that frgile stuff isn't damaged.

Manual labour? Eeeuw!

I kid, partially.

Last time I moved house I was 18 months old. My experience is, therefore, somewhat limited.

I have several online gaming clanmates who are part of the same extended family and jointly run a removal business.

I always get a giggle when I hear English people refer to it as 'the removal business'. I had a kid working for me from that side of the pond. We called him 'English Jake'. Kept going on about 'lorries'.

Humidity got to him over here. He couldn't hack our splendid Canadian weather.

When my parents moved to Ottawa when I was a child, I remember my father telling me that at the time, he had to hassle with the moving company because they were late delivering our possessions. Now you have to imagine, this is with two adults who are in the middle of a messy divorce with a young child (7 years old) who needs her stuff to feel comfortable in a strange new city.

They took like 2 weeks to finally deliver everything.

For that reason, when we moved back to Toronto (this is well after my parents divorced and my mother decided to stay), he made the choice to use U-Haul and enlisted the help of a friend. It's interesting moving your own furniture. For one, you can make sure that frgile stuff isn't damaged.

Ouch. You have my sympathies. Moving is one of the most stressful times in one's life, and it's complicated by divorce quite frequently. I'm guessing that you moved with one of the major van-lines. Part of keeping the cost down is to have a shipment travel with other people's belongings in order to reduce costs and maximize profit. Sometimes, this means a driver waiting to pick up more weight before he heads off to destination, or sometimes dropping your goods off in a warehouse where it sits until a different driver can pick it up. It gets ugly sometimes.

Still, if the company is doing its job right, it should be hassle-free.

Manual labour? Eeeuw!

That's funny. That's what my one of my employees said to me this morning. Looking for work?

Ouch. You have my sympathies. Moving is one of the most stressful times in one's life, and it's complicated by divorce quite frequently. I'm guessing that you moved with one of the major van-lines. Part of keeping the cost down is to have a shipment travel with other people's belongings in order to reduce costs and maximize profit. Sometimes, this means a driver waiting to pick up more weight before he heads off to destination, or sometimes dropping your goods off in a warehouse where it sits until a different driver can pick it up. It gets ugly sometimes.

Still, if the company is doing its job right, it should be hassle-free.
Hassle-free in the eyes of a Torontonian means "as far as possible!" or at least it is for my dad.

Then again, we were moving out stuff from a 3-floor 3 bedroom single-family home, so we had no shortage of accumulated shit. I remember the truck being full... since we had taken the appliances (in the 80s when it was normal to keep appliances given to you).

Of course, it doesn't help that my dad goes ballistic over little shit. My mother didn't seem to care. She would just go over to her sister's house...

It still sucked.

I had professional movers twice, it was great! They came in packed everything up, moved it, unpacked some of it, all I had to do was check off sticker numbers!!

I will be moving soon, I wish I had professional movers this time :(

Every single move I have ever done without professional movers


I lose a box with important stuff (like my tools, or my taxes or something)
I find the box of important stuff I lost last time, but now it's not important anymore
I break something priceless (usually something that's not mine)
Someone else breaks something of mine
It takes more time then we thought it would
Somebody ends up going to the ER


I am not looking forward to this move...........I hate moving. Once I get into this house, I am NEVER MOVING AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had professional movers twice, it was great! They came in packed everything up, moved it, unpacked some of it, all I had to do was check off sticker numbers!!

I will be moving soon, I wish I had professional movers this time :(

Every single move I have ever done without professional movers


I lose a box with important stuff (like my tools, or my taxes or something)
I find the box of important stuff I lost last time, but now it's not important anymore
I break something priceless (usually something that's not mine)
Someone else breaks something of mine
It takes more time then we thought it would
Somebody ends up going to the ER


I am not looking forward to this move...........I hate moving. Once I get into this house, I am NEVER MOVING AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ah, if I had a dollar everytime I heard that one... Well, I'd have a lot more dollars at any rate.

Why no professionals this time around, dare I ask? $$$?

Also, I've had to rush someone to the ER on a professional move before. More correctly, the ambulence rushed him off to the ER and I chased the ambulence in the company van, to make sure he was alright, and that he would have a way home from the opposite side of Toronto. (First day on the job, didn't tell me he was diabetic, and worked all day in the sun without insulin or bringing a lunch... )

We moved from England to Brazil, using freight forwarders rather than a moving company. What we did was to pack only those items that we would not be able to easily replace (Books, Records, Photos, some clothes, items of sentimental value). We had to create a detailed manifest for customs, but that was no great problem. This then got shipped off, and we sold everything else or gave it away if we couldn't sell it - and as we were living next to a major university - that was easy.

We kept our HDs but sold the rest of the computers. The HDs we took as hand luggage on the flight.

When we arrived in Brazil we had our goods stored until we found somewhere to live (other than at my in-laws) which took about a month. Then arranged for it to be delivered to us. It cost less than $500 in total, for all the shipping and storage. The customs clearance in Brazil cost three times that, but that cost would have been incurred anyway.

We could have used a moving company, but as we had no address to which we were moving, and Brazil at the time was notoriously difficult to clear gods into, the ones we spoke to were not very interested and implied that it would be very expensive.

Ah, if I had a dollar everytime I heard that one... Well, I'd have a lot more dollars at any rate.

Why no professionals this time around, dare I ask? $$$?

Also, I've had to rush someone to the ER on a professional move before. More correctly, the ambulence rushed him off to the ER and I chased the ambulence in the company van, to make sure he was alright, and that he would have a way home from the opposite side of Toronto. (First day on the job, didn't tell me he was diabetic, and worked all day in the sun without insulin or bringing a lunch... )

no $$, the company hubby used to work for paid for the movers the other times, it was over 10K each time, I think it's probably because we had a lot of crap and also we moved cross country.

I wonder how much it would cost for them to come in and pack and move us now though......we are moving 3 1/2 miles away, I wonder.........

It takes more time then we thought it would

Every single time. When you have packed almost everything and think that the rest fits easily on one large box, you're picking blood ffrom your own nose...

I've moved -hmm- 14 times in my life. 8 times with my family, 6 on my own. We've used professionals only once and that was the hardest one of them all. It's much easier to move "slowly", not everything packed on one truck, from an empty house to an empty house. Sometimes you can't avoid it (mainly because of the distance) but in general I prefer to do it myself.

the last time I moved, I moved all by myself (with my parents SUV, 5 times 540 km) It's amazing how much you can lift and carry if you just want to, large tv, double bed...just don't spare your swearwords :D

I have several online gaming clanmates who are part of the same extended family and jointly run a removal business.

That may be what movers are called there, but if you mention your family is in the "Removal business" here people will look at ya like you're a damned hitman.

Both of the times my family moved, we just moved cross town, and wound up getting a U-Haul for most of the stuff. We did get movers for some of the heaviest furniture, but it was a one truck-one trip deal. They did a decent enough job, and didn't scratch the piano. Which we did manage to do when we changed the room we had it in.

Both of the times my family moved, we just moved cross town, and wound up getting a U-Haul for most of the stuff. We did get movers for some of the heaviest furniture, but it was a one truck-one trip deal. They did a decent enough job, and didn't scratch the piano. Which we did manage to do when we changed the room we had it in.
yeah we are doing the whole U-haul thing this time I think, we did the "borrow someone's truck and 14ft trailer" last time and it was a pain in the ass.

I am thinking I will donate all but the essentials to charity and then I will have to move less stuff, I am working on selling my living room suit this weekend, I don't ever want to move that thing again, I have no clue what I was thinking when I bought it, but it's big and heavy and you have to take the door off the frame to get it into a house (and even then you have to wedge it through the door carefully)

Well, here we are in the busy season of the industry I work in; the moving industry. (If you can call it an 'industry'.)

Moving is one of those things that almost everyone can relate to. Anybody on this site ever work for a moving company? Or perhaps have been moved by a professional moving company, and have some horror stories to tell (or perhaps some sucesses?)

I've been in this biz for over 7 years. Started packing boxes, graduated to 'box boy', then graduated to 'driver's helper', then warehouse manager, and now I'm part owner of my own business. I've seen it all, and I've heard all the horror stories and listened to all the scams; local, long-distance, commercial or international.

What's your story?
There are scams involving moving? What do they do, sell your furniture?

yeah we are doing the whole U-haul thing this time I think, we did the "borrow someone's truck and 14ft trailer" last time and it was a pain in the ass.

I am thinking I will donate all but the essentials to charity and then I will have to move less stuff, I am working on selling my living room suit this weekend, I don't ever want to move that thing again, I have no clue what I was thinking when I bought it, but it's big and heavy and you have to take the door off the frame to get it into a house (and even then you have to wedge it through the door carefully)
Heh, reminded me of one cool "move" I witnessed in Barcelona. You know, they have tiny doors on old buildings so they have to move bigger things (large sofas, in this case flygel?!?! grand piano?!) through windows. From the fifth floor. That looked scary (and somehow very familiar -from movies)

There are scams involving moving? What do they do, sell your furniture?
once my aunt hired movers, and she said they jacked up the bill like 200% and said they would keep her stuff if she didn't pay.........although knowing my aunt she was just looking for some easy cash, if that happened to me I would be like "keep my stuff"

:p

once my aunt hired movers, and she said they jacked up the bill like 200% and said they would keep her stuff if she didn't pay.........although knowing my aunt she was just looking for some easy cash, if that happened to me I would be like "keep my stuff"

:p
Ok. I guess if the customer doesn't get the price in writing before the move that scam could work.

For as long as I can remember every time my family's moved the movers got to wherever we were going days after us, be it as long as Georgie to New York or New Hampshire to Conneticut, where I don't know how you could take more than half a day going that distance if you tried. I mean, it takes me 12 hours to get between Ohio and New Hampshire, 18 if I take the route that goes through NYC.
Anyway, we got tired of it and when we moved to San Diego just moved ourselves. It made for an interesting adventure, although we only came close to tipping the truck once xp

lat year i moved from holland 2 england and da movers were ace tbf.
but then last month i moved house again i my did insisted on doing it himself cus it was only a couple of miles.now if my dads sais he will do it mainly means he stands on he side pointing and yelling were i am doing the work :(
but he does give away alot of booze and money. good bless him:)

I wonder how much it would cost for them to come in and pack and move us now though......we are moving 3 1/2 miles away, I wonder.........

For local moves, most companies will charge on an hourly rate. Depending on the size of the move, you're looking at anything from $500 - $2500 for a local move.

It never hurts to have some one come in and do an estimate. No mover worth their salt will charge you for that. While they are at it, ask for a gaurantee within 10%. Most companies will honour this. Get comparisons. When an estimator knows that you're looking for a gaurantee, they will usually 'float' their estimate a little high just to be safe. That way, you know the 'ceiling' of your price, and if it takes less time, you pay less.

You can save a lot of money, by just being prepared; have everything packed in uniform boxes, keep all boxes in one convenient location, such as the garage, etc.

However, this doens't mean that you should go with the person who gives you the lowest gaurantee, espescially if it seems far different than what everyone else is estimating. Alarm bells should go off.

once my aunt hired movers, and she said they jacked up the bill like 200% and said they would keep her stuff if she didn't pay.........although knowing my aunt she was just looking for some easy cash, if that happened to me I would be like "keep my stuff"

This is more common than you might think, and it's not always about the movers trying to scam their customers (although, sometimes, it might be.)

Usually, what happens is that a salesperson comes by and gives a 'low-ball' estimate. They come in, take a quick peek, and give you the price you want to hear, without giving you a gaurantee. This is because most of them make their living off of comission, and they are just trying to fill up the schedule and make a living. Meanwhile, those in the Operational side of things, are left trying to explain to the customer that the cost of the job is per hour, and that they are paying for the actual time it takes to perform the move. This is why I highly recommend people ask for a gaurantee.

Ontario recently passed a law that fights this scenario. Strictly speaking, this means that any move originating in Ontario, by law, cannot cost over 10% of the estimate. Not everyone knows this, and it's a tricky situation for moving companies to deal with. A lot of people would sooner book by phone, and don't really care if anybody comes by and does an estimate. Try gauranteeing that!

There are scams involving moving? What do they do, sell your furniture?

Here's a scam that was going around in the southern US not long ago;

- Customer phones moving company in the classifieds. Finds one that is relatively inexpensive in comparison to the major companies.

- The moving company asks for a 50% deposit to book the job. Customer say's 'okey dokey'.

- Moving Day: Unmarked truck pulls up with 3 non-uniformed movers.

- Truck is never seen again. So not only did the customer have all of their goods stolen, they paid for the privelege.

The moral of this story; Do some research.

Here's a scam that was going around in the southern US not long ago;

- Customer phones moving company in the classifieds. Finds one that is relatively inexpensive in comparison to the major companies.

- The moving company asks for a 50% deposit to book the job. Customer say's 'okey dokey'.

- Moving Day: Unmarked truck pulls up with 3 non-uniformed movers.

- Truck is never seen again. So not only did the customer have all of their goods stolen, they paid for the privelege.

The moral of this story; Do some research.
Neat. I'm tempted to try that.

Neat. I'm tempted to try that.

LOL. People are naive, and anyone can pick up a truck and call themselves 'a mover'. We started our company with one truck, a cargo van and a couple of t-shirts and operated out of an office in our house. People have no idea who they are calling, and almost no-one actually visits the office where the movers are dispatched from.