I want to say first that I feel that there is much to be improved upon with this moving experience but overall I am satisfied. Costs to have goods moved used to be so outrageous that you were better off just buying new things where you went or moving yourself. Finally now the costs are down to a reasonable rate where it is competitive with renting your own U-Haul. I checked the links on rent.com for moving as a test to compare their costs, once again to that of what it would cost me to move it myself using a U-Haul truck from Everett Washington to Olathe, Kansas. It was $1500 to rent and insure the truck alone to move one-way a storage space full of stuff. Gas would have been additional $500. My quote was under $2000 and of course, I didn't have to fly there and rent hotel rooms all along the way. Done deal. I made every effort to anticipate costs so I wouldn't get zinged later, expecting that if they had to box something they would charge me an outrageous amount. I also made sure I understood what they meant by a "flight of stairs" so that I wouldn't get charged extra should I exceed it. My apt was on the third floor and there are two flights of stairs per floor so I had to pay an extra $35 for that extra flight. That was OK. What isn't apparent in the beginning is that WeHaul isn't a moving company. They are a moving contract company. All of their moving is handled by subcontractors. My move was handled by Trans-United, Inc / Miami. Nothing was damaged, well I had packed it myself, still it wasn't damaged and they didn't have to pack anything. I thought they might insist on packing a rug cleaner and vacuum cleaner. But the mover wasn't correct about these details later when I was expecting a refund for unused packing costs I had added. Something I was promised in signing the contract. The WeHaul customer service rep said that if I had called them the day that the goods were shipped and put the mover on the phone that it would have been handled correctly. How could I have known that? I am used to honest people. Given that compared to before I have saved myself $3000 I won't complain too loudly about $35. The biggest screw-up in this whole process was by Jarrett in sales at U-Haul. When he quoted me and reviewed the pre-contract concerns he mentioned that my storage space should be accessible by truck. Since my storage space could be accessed by a truck I said sure, no problem. When I got the contract it said semi-truck. Well that is a different story. I was clear that a semi couldnt get to this space. This then requires that the mover rent a shuttle for which there were costs at renting a shuttle, as well, certainly of the costs of time involved in getting it and returning it.in my case the storage facility has a moving truck that they lend for free to their tenants. I paid an extra $300 that I was promised I would get refunded for and never got it. One guy not only moved all of my stuff in to the shuttle, he also loaded it in to his truck. Thats how easy the move was. And, moving stuff from a shuttle truck to his semi just meant driving the truck across the street and backing it up to his semi and then moving the items 10 ft as he can back the shuttle right up to his truck. This is a cost that the moving company should bear as their hands are tied by their semi and it is the biggest I had ever seen. I wasnt given the opportunity to compare costs for the actual situation from the beginning. To summarize, it is the subcontracting situation that that creates most of the problem. Customer service at WeHaul is handled by a different staff person than sales. So Jarrett in sales can remain ignorant about the reality and can promise the moon. Second, the subcontractor firm really is an adversary to WeHaul. They really seem to resent the current payouts they are getting. With times bad they arent getting the money that they used to by charging companies high dollars for moves.in short Trans-United feels they should get paid like surgeons. So I feel that I was out an extra $350 over and above what they quoted for something that represented little extra cost to them. Once again though nothing was damaged and it was on time. The truck driver got stuck in a storm in the Rockies and had to stay over for two days for the road to get passable. It did work out. Hopefully this will help others in their moves and who they choose.
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