steve00 said:
Go to the websites of the major national van line companies (United, Allied, Mayflower, etc.) and fill out their online forms to start the process on getting quotes. I have found that paying the extra money to have them box up all your stuff the day before is totally worth it. Much easier and less stressful. My cross-country moves have generally been around $10-15k total.
I know people that have had success with UPack as well, where they drop the truck or the pod in front of your house and then pick it up when you are ready. Then you just hire local movers for labor on each end.
Do not fill out any forms on websites that promise to get you lots of quotes from different movers. These are scams. You will get tons of phone calls and seemingly great quotes. They add a lot more when it comes time to pay, they don't show up when promised, and they break/lose a lot of your stuff. That was a difficult lesson I had to learn once.
I learned this lesson too. Gave what we thought was an accurate estimate of our inventory (with video) and then still showed up with a truck too small. Loaded it, ran out of room, and then held our stuff hostage until we agreed to pay for second truck. Only took cash. Were late with delivery. Showed up with one truck at our new place and demanded full payment to unload. I refused and gave only half because I was worried they would disappear and not come back if fully paid. Also tried to jack up the price when unloading because of stairs. I argued again that they knew this (as well as what size truck to bring) from the beginning and I wasn't paying another cent. Took a threat to call police and ICE (these were Russian dudes from NY who were assigned) to get them to agree.
They did deliver almost everything except two hand-trucks, which I am still pissed about. Didn't notice until they were long gone.
