cheap way to move stuff cross-country??

[priscy921]

hi everyone, i'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for moving an apartment full of stuff across the country (northern cali to boston). getting a uhaul and towing my toyota behind it will cost $2000 in rental charges and probably like $500 in gas at least! i'm wondering if anyone has any other suggestions? i don't want to sell my stuff. i heard that there are movers who take several students or people's things across the country at once and you just have you pay your share... does anyone know anything about these services, who does it (starving students, united van lines, etc? i have no idea how it works... thanks for the help!!

 

[LA:)]

hey.
i don't know about the service you mentioned. as for me, when i moved cross-country, it was cheaper to buy all my cheapo furniture again than to move it. so, i sold what i could & trashed the rest. only took what fit in my car. i repurchased stuff once i arrived. really, it's not worth the toil, especially if it's ikea-esque stuff. good luck & congrats.

~renee

 

[Celestron2000]

Maybe you could go in with another SDNer? There seem to be alot of people here from Cali.

 

[priscy921]

thanks guys. i don't want to sell my stuff though and i'm already sharing the ride with someone who's going to go to MIT but it's still sooooo expensive, we're wondering how to cheapen it... any other thoughts about the other moving services that i mentioned above? anyone know the details?

 

[klonoff]

If most of the stuff you don't want to part with is small, if you can find someone to mail boxes to and store it for a few days, shipping per box isn't too bad. The hard part is finding someone across the country.

 

[Sharkfan]

I too have heard of those companies... but I don't know any details. A lot of moving countries will ship stuff cross country and pile it into an 18-wheeler with other people's stuff. Might be just as pricey though, but you could check into it.

 

[viking1224]

$2000 for renting a trailer? That seems high. I priced the same thing in the opposite direction (Boston-No. CA) and it was $500 (plus gas, of course). I think that was on UHaul. If it really is $2000, it's hard to believe it's worth it unless you have lots of fairly decent stuff.

Luck!

 

[viking1224]

My bad, I just realized you meant to pull your toyota. Did you think about a trailer? It's way cheaper.

 

[LoneCoyote]

Try this service. They will give you a quote. They bring a tralier to your house, you pack it, and then they drive it to your destination. You can just buy part of the trailer if you want. My friends just used this to move and it's much cheaper than the U-Haul and less work:

http://www.upack.com/

Also, you can check on Craigslist and there are often people looking to split a U-Haul with others.

 

[LoneCoyote]

Oh, and STAY AWAY from Starving Stuents movers. I know people who have had NIGHTMARES with them. In fact, if you google them you'll find whole webistes devoted to how sleazy and bad they are.

 

[priscy921]

viking, where did you find a $500 quote? even if i didn't tow the toyota, uhaul still gave me $1800 quote for a 10ft enclosed truck... hmmm... it's so complicated, i'm feeling overwhelmed


lone coyote, it's so funny that you said to stay away from starving students, i JUST got off the phone with them when i saw your post, what sorts of problems did they give your friends, now i'm freaked out about using them as an option... fill me in on the info...

thanks you guys for your input and suggestions!!!!!

 

[Megalofyia]

I've heard scary things about Starving Students too. Things getting broken or going missing.

 

[priscy921]

Originally posted by Megalofyia
I've heard scary things about Starving Students too. Things getting broken or going missing.

you guys are right, i just googled them, there's tons of bad press on them! thanks for the tip

btw, periodic, i tried to reply to your pm, but your mailbox is full...

 

[Brickhouse]

Originally posted by priscy921
hi everyone, i'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for moving an apartment full of stuff across the country (northern cali to boston). getting a uhaul and towing my toyota behind it will cost $2000 in rental charges and probably like $500 in gas at least! i'm wondering if anyone has any other suggestions? i don't want to sell my stuff. i heard that there are movers who take several students or people's things across the country at once and you just have you pay your share... does anyone know anything about these services, who does it (starving students, united van lines, etc? i have no idea how it works... thanks for the help!!

I'm moving from Cali to the east too. I have no idea what I'm gonna do, but I'll probably just pack my car up as full as I can and ditch the rest of my stuff. I have a friend who did find a company to move her stuff cheap and so I'll ask her what she did. How do you feel about moving cross the country? I'm freaking out....in a good way though.

 

[LoneCoyote]

Here's an article from KGO New 7 about them:

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/news/7oys/111103_7oys_starving_students.html

Here's an article from San Diego about how they overcharge people:

http://zakros.ucsd.edu/~arobert/starvingStudents.html

Here's another nightmare:

http://www.complaints.com/november2003/complaintoftheday.november1.25.htm

And another:
http://www.complaints.com/complaintofthedaymarch72001.17.htm

With my friends, they gave them a quote, it seemed good. This was to move w/in Northern California. They were like 2 hours late on the day of the move. They guys were pretty rude and were not very careful with the stuff. Some of their stuff got broken and some of it just never arrived. They hassled with them for several months and finally just gave up. A friend of a friend had one of these deals where they held the stuff "hostage" until they payed a big bribe. This company seems really sleazy.

I did have one friend who used themn in Boston and had a good experience with no problems but I have mostly heard nightmares.

 

[XCanadianRagwee]

I got a great deal with my U-Haul trailor $275, when last year in the opposite direction it was $550 (but split between two people). Glad i do have the truck, even though I'll be paying an arm and a leg once gas prices go above $2/gallon for the cheap stuff in my neck of the woods.

 

[mosoriire]

Thought about renting a minivan? Your drive will probably be a two-three day drive, depending on stop overs.

I would do the following:
* Assess everything that I can mail: books, electric equipment, etc, and just mail it UPS. (I did that moving from mid-west to East Coast.
* Then pack everything else that wont fit into a minivan, and
* Dump anything that wont fit...LOL! Just kidding... on the last one

 

[amd263]

Try Penske rent a truck. Their rates are much cheaper than uhaul, but they dont have as many drop off locations. they also give a 10% discount for booking online and a 10% discount if you have AAA. Heres the link-

http://www.monstermoving.monster.com/Moving_and_Planning/Department/Truck_rental/


There is also a link on that page for ABF moving, which sounds like somthing that someone was talking about (sharing a trailer)

Hope this helps

 

[priscy921]

thanks guys, i called UPACK through the link that lonecoyote posted, they gave me a great price and i'm pretty happy with their description of how it works. if anyone hears horror stories about them, let me know before i book. you guys have been an immense help!!!!!!! i'll try penske also... thank you!!!!!!!!!!

 

[japhy]

uhaul sucks ass! i would recommend penske all the way. their trucks are nicer than uhaul and they cost a few hundred less as well. i think i paid around $1500, which still hurts. as far as the price differences go, it all depends on where they need trucks. if you are moving someplace where there is high demand for trucks it will be super cheap.

i towed my volvo behind a 15' this past summer. the penske had no problems doing 75-80mph most of the way. plus, i can't tell you how many uhauls i saw broken down on the side of the road.

as far as the upack or similar services go, i would be very hesitant. a friend moved out to dc lastg year and used one of those services. once the truck arrived in dc, they refused to unload her stuff until she paid them more money (cash, of course). she finally ended up getting her stuff months later, and much of it was ruined.

 

[Xmulder]

Originally posted by priscy921
hi everyone, i'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for moving an apartment full of stuff across the country (northern cali to boston). getting a uhaul and towing my toyota behind it will cost $2000 in rental charges and probably like $500 in gas at least! i'm wondering if anyone has any other suggestions? i don't want to sell my stuff. i heard that there are movers who take several students or people's things across the country at once and you just have you pay your share... does anyone know anything about these services, who does it (starving students, united van lines, etc? i have no idea how it works... thanks for the help!!

I am also in a similar boat, and am currently close to securing an option... For me, re-purchasing new furniture would be too costly since i have many custom designed Italian pieces, such as sofa, etc (I have been out of school for many years Selling them, then rebuying would be a huge hassle as well as expensive.

Re: Starving students, i have had a lot of experience with movers and in general, most movers with the cheapest prices all play the same tricks, most notably the "hostage" situation to extract more $ from you. There is really little you can do. Just wanted to point out this occurrence is not isolated to Starviing students.

Shipping via mail is also not pratical since weight is very expensive and adds up quickly.

Feel free to PM me if you like.

 

[toomuch]

I moved to Boston a long time ago. It is much cheaper to buy new stuff than trying to haul it cross country. I know this is the same advice as before, but you should fit as much in your car as possible with a trailer or something. The best thing I found for stuff that I wasn't to worried about breaking such as clothes bedding, etc. was shipping by train, but I didn't start from cali.

 

[CAGetaway]

I priced out the major truck rental companies for moving from Atlanta to SF. Budget rent-a-truck turned out to be much cheaper (by about $200) than either UHaul or Penske. Plus, they give you a $50 discount for reserving online. A 15 ft. truck (for two people) was in the mid-$700s, and dollies to tow your car are $200 each. If you don't have a full bedroom set you could probably get a trailer, though.

 

[priscy921]

i just read a whole bunch of reviews on ABF upack, on e-opinions

http://www.epinions.com/hmgd-Moving.../display_~reviews/1_~opinion_list/pp_~3?0=sec

people seem really happy with them. my toyota tercel is sooooo small, there's no way that i could even fit all of my clothes and shoes in there (the curse of being female). so that's why i'd need to rent something even if i did sell all of my furniture, because just driving my car won't be able to carry all of my necessities. i can't wait til september when it's all over!!! then the fun really begins

 

[chameleonknight]

Originally posted by Brickhouse
I'm moving from Cali to the east too. I have no idea what I'm gonna do, but I'll probably just pack my car up as full as I can and ditch the rest of my stuff. I have a friend who did find a company to move her stuff cheap and so I'll ask her what she did. How do you feel about moving cross the country? I'm freaking out....in a good way though.

Yo, Brick!

Are you going with a furnished or unfurnished apt? Or have you even decided yet? Yargh. So much to decide...at least I only have half the country to cross.