reliable movers?

[diatomacearth.livejournal.com]

Hi all,

Can someone recommend some professional movers? I'm about to move from Somerville to Maryland, and since I don't know anybody in the MD area and my employer is covering my moving expenses, I thought I'd do myself a favor and hire someone, instead of just renting a truck. I've never hired movers before, though, and I'd like to make sure I don't end up locked outside of my apartment in my underwear while some guy demands an additional $500 if I ever want to get my stuff out of the truck.

I'm moving from one apartment to another, and I plan to fly down with my cat and meet the moving truck in MD, so I need to get the timing just right--preferably out on July 31st, can't move in until August 1st, etc. I'm leaving the bulk of of my heavy furniture behind, so it's going to be a relatively small load (lots of boxes of clothes and books and kitchen stuff, a desk, a few pieces of small furniture), rather than a whole house's worth of stuff, if that makes any difference.

I don't care if the movers themselves are based in Somerville or not, as long as they will work in the area, are reliable, and won't break the bank.

Comments

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

My friends and I have had very good experiences with Nick's Moving - http://www.nicksmoving.com/ - they do both local and long-distance but we've all done only local moves with them.

[printf.net (from livejournal.com)]

Also had a good experience with Nick's Moving, after they quoted a quarter of Gentle Giant's price for the same move. (I guess GG must have misunderstood our move?)

My move ended up costing more than their quote, but I think that was certainly because everyone was moving into the extremely large apartment building (with only two elevators) on exactly the same day, Sept 1st. It was a total zoo.

[zenala.livejournal.com]

I think Gentle Giant does out-of-state moves now, and I've used them several times (locally) and only had good experiences. No idea what the charge would be for a long haul what with gas mileage, but for the moving in and moving out parts, they charge by the hour, and I've ended up paying *less* than their estimate if things went quickly--their estimate might be a bit higher, but they definitely won't try to rip you off. (And the first time I used them I lived in a studio, so they do smaller moves.)

[dphilli1.livejournal.com]

I have a negative rec for gentle giant -- they totally screwed a friend. Agent came, inspected the house, said it was ok. Movers came, started packing, told friend to go away for a while. Friend went to coffee shop. 3hrs later, got a call from agent saying "The loaders have walked off the job." Not only did they walk off the job, they left the house unlocked with the front door actually sitting open.

[zenala.livejournal.com]

That's quite different from my experience with them (in 2000, 2006, and 2010), but I've also always hung around (but out of the way) when the movers are there--they've never asked me to go away or anything like that. (and I'm not quite sure what the agent is in this case... real estate agent? what does the inspection have to do with the story?)

[dphilli1.livejournal.com]

agreed. We used GG to move some heavy items (tv, chest freezer, etc) and they did a good job.

agent -- did a walk-through of the house and gave an estimate of how much it would cost. To be fair, the movers said they left due to "severe allergies", but the agent knew that there was pet hair in the house and should have picked out a crew that didn't have a problem. Also, the crew should have at least closed the front door behind them.

[gandalfgreyhame.livejournal.com]

I've had multiple very good experiences with Gentle Giant, but all local.

I think multi-state moves with a moving company will /always/ break the bank, though - different set of laws kick in when they cross state lines.

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

We moved locally with Bigfoot Movers last year and they were fabulous.

Definitely get several estimates, and check out the reviews and advice on movingscam.com before you commit to anything.

[canongrrl.livejournal.com]

I just used these guys: http://www.intelligentlabor.com/longDistance/ after being a big fan of GG for my last few moves. Intelligent is cheaper and just as good with the basics - all my stuff arrived and arrived well (though they went a little overboard on the plastic wrap). If you have a lot of fragile, expensive stuff I'd still go GG as they do specialize in that but for everything else, intelligent is about 30% less and very good.

[bostonartist.livejournal.com]

I also used "Intelligent labor" for moving a delicate 300lb+ printer up a flight of stairs, in to my studio. They handled it like true pros!

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

whatever mover you eventually go with, please be sure to acquaint yourself with the hard facts of how little responsibility interstate movers take for all your stuff, and how little recourse you have if anything goes wrong. i moved from boston to austin a while back, and if I had it all to do over again, i'd rent the truck and drive it myself (which is what i did do to get back).

[42itous.livejournal.com]

I've had good experiences with Gentle Giant (local and long-distance) and Isaac's Moving & Storage. All very professional, careful and efficient.

[enveri.livejournal.com]

We used Moovers Inc (www.mooversinc.com/) on a personal recommendation when we moved from Illinois to Somerville. I cannot speak highly enough of their professionalism.

It was under $4k for a 3 story house with heavy furniture, and they packed our kitchen.

Keep in mind though that yours may not be the only items on the truck, and they keep their rates down by combining moves. When they picked our stuff up, they had a family from Colorado's belongings on the same truck. Our arrival was delayed a day because they had to drop off a load in Albany.

[vibrantabyss.livejournal.com]

I will sing praises for Gentle Giant. I've done three moves with them, know several other people who have used them as well. The only time they ever did damage during a move was to the inbound *house*, and they squared up with the landlord in under two weeks, no fuss no bother.

Which says they not only work well, but deal gracefully when things go wrong.

[mjrocks98.livejournal.com]

across state lines I have usually had to go with a national company (they have to charge by mileage and pounds not hourly across state lines). I believe last time I used Allied and they were awesome. They came a week before to look at everything gave a solid estimate and since they over estimated slightly I owed nothing at the end other than tip. You're cutting it close with a July 31 move. To give an estimate when I moved from and area of PA that was just above Baltimore to MA in 2007 I believe it was $2600.

Locally I have used Troy's movers out of Lowell who have been great for 2 local moves

[aurelia johnson (from livejournal.com)]

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[katomoving.livejournal.com]

You can try Kato Moving (http://www.katomovingcompany.com).