Moving Company from California to Colorado
Question:
I would like to have the former, not the latter. I have also researched all three companies at BBB but that provides little information. So, I am loking for any personal experience with these companies or recommendations for other companies which move between CA and CO.
Answer:
A lot depends on the quality of the driver and his crew. At this time of year, moving with major movers, you should get a quality driver and crew, because the majors like to keep the quality people employed during the "slack season" (now) to keep them from going to another moving company. It's when you move during summer "crunch" time that moving becomes a crapshoot. Note that the local moving company is not going to provide the actual long haul service. The drivers for long haul service are dispatched by the central dispatcher somewhere in the Midwest. Some other tips: Pack your own boxes. For the most part moving companies hire day laborers to pack boxes. Do you really want some illegal immigrant hired off a street corner to be pawing through your most personal possessions? Don't pack valuables in those boxes. Take all valuables with you in your luggage. Don't mark boxes with what's in them if what's in the box is in any way valuable. For example, don't mark the box that has the stereo in any special way. Take any personal papers with credit card numbers, social security numbers, birth certificates, blank checks, etc. with you in your luggage, or shred them if you no longer need them. There have been instances where boxes burst and moving company employees helped themselves to documents that allowed them to engage in identity theft or simply passing bad checks under your name (which is a nuisance at the very least). Remember those day laborers hired off the street corner? Guess what, they haven't been vetted in any way, and there's no way that the moving company is going to be able to track them down if one of them steals some identity papers from your load. Make sure everything gets tagged on the way out and that you get a complete list of the contents of the move. Make sure everything gets checked off on the way in. Don't sign anything until you've read it, and don't sign that you got everything in good condition if you didn't. Don't be hostile checking the boxes and furniture for damage, just do it. If a box is crushed or damaged in any way, insist upon opening the box and making sure its contents are not damaged before you sign that it was received in good condition. Videotape the condition of everything as it enters and comes off of the truck on both ends. Tell the driver you're doing this because your homeowner's insurance requires you to do it as part of the homeowner's insurance coverage. Keep friendly and non-judgemental but firm with the driver on that point. Don't bother with the "insurance" ("released value coverage" is the correct term) offered by the moving company, ask your homeowner's insurance company for a policy to cover household goods in transit. The "released value coverage" (paying for the privilige of putting a bigger number on the bill of lading) is useless. It is not insurance, it is not regulated by any local, state, or federal agency, and the only thing it gives you is the right to sue for a larger amount of money if the mover loses or damages your goods. Note that federal law limits any damages assessed by a court against a mover to the amount listed on the bill of lading, meaning that it usually is not useful to file a lawsuit against a moving company. Your homeowner's insurance, on the other hand, is regulated by state insurance commissioners, and is real actual insurance, covered by your state insurance commission's reserve fund (to handle claims if an insurance company becomes insolvent). None of those apply to the "released value coverage" sold by moving companies. Customers of Bekins found this out the hard way when the holding company that owned Bekins became insolvent and sold the company back to the individual franchisees. The holding company had not paid claims under the "released value coverage" for months, and state regulators had no authority to force them to do so. Buy a tape drive. It always astounds me that people will put data on their computers that their career depends upon, yet not back that data up to removable media on a regular basis. (Sorry, I'm in the archival storage business, that's a pet peeve of mine, even though my current employer doesn't sell tape drives).
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