Holy Shit! Moving Companies

How Do Moving Companies Survive

Basically, moving companies work like this:
- You google moving companies and the big names show up.  Allied, Mayflower, Graebel, etc.
- They schedule some sort home visit to roughly figure out how many boxes it takes to move you and look for odd ball stuff
- Quote you and then feel free to shop.  

So our experience?  Well, we went off a friend's recommendation and called Graebel.  They used them to move from here to there.  Our guy showed up about a week after I called them to spend about 20 minutes on an iPad telling me I have X boxes.  At the end, he sent us a quote to the wrong email address, followed up on where the quote is... yeah.. some other guy named Tommer.    Anyways.. the quote was for roughly 10,000lbs of our crap at around or not to exceed $11,000.  Yes.... $11,000.   Now... its not that bad when you find out that the government will basically let us write it off. (posts to come on this topic). But you still need to pay for it.. (ching, ching... Chase Sapphire points).  So what does $11k get you?
- King Bed, Queen Bed and (2) singles
- Couch, Love seat, chair, chair
- Misc dressers
- Framed Pictures (we have a few odd ball and large)
- I was going to pack all the TVs and then found out its $200+ per tv.  Only taking the new one. :)
- Typical garage stuff..  lawn mower, my trusty and loyal companion 4 cycle blower, tools, etc.
- Complete packing of the kitchen and "other"
- Unpacking at the new house or maybe unloading.  The fine print goes on.

So how does the process work?  Well I found out the hardway.    Trying to time this entire move has been a nightmare with all sorts of shifting dates, jobs, driving across country, etc.   We finally boiled down to a date.  Sept 7th, lets drive that morning.  Put on the Project Manager cap.. we roll back the schedule and setup the movers on the 6th, etc.

I call to the movers and say, lets do this.  Oh and when will our stuff get there if you load on the 6th.   Umm.. not until 14th, 15th or 16th.  Wait.. what did you say? Your Truck driver takes more time to drive across country than me, my 2 kids dog and wife?  Turns out.. they only drive about 500 miles a day (bullshit).  And also stop to pick up or drop off stuff along the way.   And if you want your own trunk, pony up around $25k.   
Tighten the PM cap and recalc the schedule.   The movers are now coming on 4th to pack and 5th to load the truck.   That means we stay at a hotel on the 5th and drive out the 6th... we estimated getting there around 11th.   Pushing the moving company to commit to an earlier drop off date got us to 12/13/14.  Still.. better, but want a two day window...    
And the $11k questions?  when do we know they will show up.. well..apparently they will call 24 hours in advance before drop off.  Hopefully we are not still in Nashville buying cowboy boots and hats for Cash to complete his country western name.