Mayflower moving discount for DO students?

[wertyjoe]

I was reading LECOM SGA meeting minutes from last fall and there was something in there about a possible 62% discount from Mayflower. It was some kind of deal arranged for students and employees at all the osteopathic schools. Apparently it was supposed to be finalized this spring. Anyone here of this? It sure would be a great deal for all us moving this summer for school. 🙂

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Members don't see this ad.

 

[Megalofyia]

Please be true...please be true.. please be true...

 

[wertyjoe]

Heres the website where I got the info.
http://www.lecomsga.com/november_2004.htm

I hope someone knows something about it!

 

[box29]

Heres the website where I got the info.
http://www.lecomsga.com/november_2004.htm

I hope someone knows something about it!

Eventhough the school has recommended it, I would double check with the people who used their services. In addition, I would check the Better Business Bureau for any complaints. I remember that last summer, Mayflower had a number of complaints and was focused on by the news and other television shows. It doesn't hurt to be thorough.

 

[tkim]

A good place to check out moving companies is:

http://www.movingscam.com/

Good general primer on moving, and the forums to ask specific questions. Mayflower is a national company with local affiliations, so one region's service may vary from another's.

 

[Diane Moore]

I was reading LECOM SGA meeting minutes from last fall and there was something in there about a possible 62% discount from Mayflower. It was some kind of deal arranged for students and employees at all the osteopathic schools. Apparently it was supposed to be finalized this spring. Anyone here of this? It sure would be a great deal for all us moving this summer for school. 🙂

Hi to all - actually this deal is being discussed on MovingScam.com as we speak, on this thread - http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3995 (I'm a long-time volunteer on that site; "tkim6599" can vouch for me.)

An osteopathic student from Omaha got a flyer describing it and asked about it. In her case they told her she would get a 56% discount. Just to let you guys know, the norm in the industry is to give every customer anywhere from a 50% to 65% discount off the printed tariff rates, sometimes even more in the slow season. The fact that there's a discount reflects the byzantine nature of the moving industry. Mid-century, people paid 100% of the published tariff rates, but once movers started giving discounts, it just went from there. Now, everyone gets a sizeable discount.

I'm not in the industry, but I asked some of my advisers who are in the industry about this deal. They said that it's legitimate, but they wanted to investigate Premier Moving (the company running the ad) a little more because Premier has been a Mayflower agent for only a short time. They added that Premier would probably not be actually moving someone in Omaha (for example) but would arrange for another Mayflower agent to move her.

One thing to know is that somebody off the street can just call a Mayflower agent and get a discount similar to the 56% that was offered to this student in Omaha. It's nothing special. What may make it different, according to my advisers, is that sometimes companies offering such deals will give people free full replacement valuation coverage (similar to insurance but not the same thing) as part of it. Also, don't be afraid of Mayflower because of the case in Chicago last summer. That was a very isolated incident.

Nevertheless, we on MovingScam.com continue to believe that ABF U-Pack and Broadway Express are the best ways to go for people looking for reliability, prompt delivery, damage-free moves, and low cost. We now have 87 good reviews of Broadway Express and 18 reviews of ABF on the website. You might want to check them out - http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1935 for BE and http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2050 for ABF U-Pack.

Why do we like these companies rather than conventional full-service movers like Mayflower? (1) certainty of price--you pay by the linear feet of trailer space you use and nothing more (no hidden costs); (2) fast delivery--conventional moving companies can have long delays in the summer, especially for small moves such as a 1BR or 2BR apartment, while they're waiting to fill the truck; (3) no transferring of the goods--transfers are the point at which damage frequently occurs; (4) low cost--you will pay an average of 30%-40% less with ABF or BE than for a full-service mover, and even less than for a rental truck if you figure in all costs; (5) much better control--you are the one who either supervises or actually loads and unloads your own goods, whereas with a full-service mover you hand over control to unknown "helpers" from the beginning. In addition, with Broadway Express you get hand-holding and personal service--the driver who picks up your things is the driver who delivers them and he can also be hired to help you load for a small hourly fee (VERY worth it).

The experience that one person above said she had with ABF's dirty trailer is not at all typical. No doubt it does happen, but I moved with ABF myself, and the trailer was extremely clean. There are close to 80 reviews of ABF on Epinions.com and only two or three mention dirty trailers. ABF now has a 6-foot minimum door-to-door rather than 5 feet as someone posted above, by the way. It changed last September. You can still do 5 feet if you take your things to an ABF terminal and pick them up there, and ABF also now has a mobile container service that might appeal to some of you - http://www.upack.com/moving-services/container.asp There is at least one review of it on MovingScam.com.

Some of my comments above actually refer to this parallel thread on moving companies on this website - http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=191716 Please go there and you will understand all of the references to unseen posts above.

That's my spiel for this year. On MovingScam.com we love students and we invite all of you to come there to run the names of your movers by us before you commit to them. We have information on Penske discounts on this thread - http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2060 And please, avoid www.moveamerica.com. Some companies advertise that they have lower minimums than 10 feet, but then they jack up the price per foot or give inferior service. Don't fall for it. And the person who posted that PODS is expensive is right. At least, that's what people tell us on MovingScam.com. Good luck with your moves!

 

[keithslc]

I checked with u-pack and they wont move all the way to Kirksville only to St Joseph which is 150 miles away. BE quoted double the price of u-pack, and claimed that u-pack has alot of hidden fees(ramp rental,moving pads,seperation bars,etc..). U-packs price was excellent about the same as a uhaul quote,but what good is it to be 150 miles from your destination.Anyone have any good freight moving recommendations into Kirksville??

 

[MJB]

I checked with u-pack and they wont move all the way to Kirksville only to St Joseph which is 150 miles away. BE quoted double the price of u-pack, and claimed that u-pack has alot of hidden fees(ramp rental,moving pads,seperation bars,etc..). U-packs price was excellent about the same as a uhaul quote,but what good is it to be 150 miles from your destination.Anyone have any good freight moving recommendations into Kirksville??

Where are you moving FROM?

 

[keithslc]

salt lake city

 

[raspberry swirl]

weird . . . i wrote those sga meeting minutes 🙄 wow, someone actually read them! the deal with Mayflower actually did go through, LECOM students just got an email about it last week, so if you're school hasn't announced it, i'd check with your SGA prez. as far as it being a scam, i didn't read the whole post above because it was too long, but from what i skimmed, it seemed true- i know that premier wont always move you, they will contract whoever is locally in your area and available (apparently premier owns just about all moving companies) but i wouldn't go so far as to call it a scam, since they were very open about it and the details when they spoke with us. aacom is also getting a small kickback, i believe, if you want to talk about a scam, but they were very open about that too, so i guess its not that scammy. the contact guy at mayflower is named shannon price, and he sounded like a pretty nice guy when he spoke with us in san fransisco in the fall, however, i know it took some finagaling to get the deal through, so its probably not the same deal he told us about at that time.

 

[Diane Moore]

weird . . . i wrote those sga meeting minutes 🙄 wow, someone actually read them! the deal with Mayflower actually did go through, LECOM students just got an email about it last week, so if you're school hasn't announced it, i'd check with your SGA prez. as far as it being a scam, i didn't read the whole post above because it was too long, but from what i skimmed, it seemed true- i know that premier wont always move you, they will contract whoever is locally in your area and available (apparently premier owns just about all moving companies) but i wouldn't go so far as to call it a scam, since they were very open about it and the details when they spoke with us. aacom is also getting a small kickback, i believe, if you want to talk about a scam, but they were very open about that too, so i guess its not that scammy. the contact guy at mayflower is named shannon price, and he sounded like a pretty nice guy when he spoke with us in san fransisco in the fall, however, i know it took some finagaling to get the deal through, so its probably not the same deal he told us about at that time.

I didn't mean to imply that the Premier deal was a scam--it's just being DISCUSSED on MovingScam.com, along with a million other things like how to transport your pet and whether CDs will melt in a moving van. The deal is not a scam, and it's common, too, for an organization like AACOM to take a small kickback in such situations.

Just to explain, Premier Transfer is a relatively small company (located in Virginia) in the Mayflower family of companies. Those "families" are called van lines, and there are many other van lines besides Mayflower such as United, Atlas, and so on. So Premier doesn't "own just about all moving companies," but it has the ability to register moves through Mayflower headquarters if it can't do the move itself. You can see how it would be hard for Premier to send a truck to Omaha, for example. In such cases Premier will arrange for another Mayflower company (called an "agent") to do the move. This is completely legitimate and business-as-usual for moving companies. I don't know how many companies there are in the Mayflower family, but I would guess at least several hundred, and Premier is one of them.

A friend of mine in the moving industry told me today that Premier used to be called Blacksburg Transfer & Storage. He says it is very reputable and it has a long history as a Mayflower agent. He advises that anyone considering this offer should be sure to get an in-house estimate (not just a phone estimate) from the local agent being used, especially if the estimate is nonbinding, and he says that discounts are always negotiable. A Binding Not to Exceed estimate is always best because your cost can go down if your weight is less but it can't go up if your weight is more.

 

[wertyjoe]

weird . . . i wrote those sga meeting minutes 🙄 wow, someone actually read them! the deal with Mayflower actually did go through, LECOM students just got an email about it last week, so if you're school hasn't announced it, i'd check with your SGA prez. as far as it being a scam, i didn't read the whole post above because it was too long, but from what i skimmed, it seemed true- i know that premier wont always move you, they will contract whoever is locally in your area and available (apparently premier owns just about all moving companies) but i wouldn't go so far as to call it a scam, since they were very open about it and the details when they spoke with us. aacom is also getting a small kickback, i believe, if you want to talk about a scam, but they were very open about that too, so i guess its not that scammy. the contact guy at mayflower is named shannon price, and he sounded like a pretty nice guy when he spoke with us in san fransisco in the fall, however, i know it took some finagaling to get the deal through, so its probably not the same deal he told us about at that time.

Great news for all of us moving this summer. 😀 I guess I win the geek award for reading the SGA minutes. 😛

Hey raspberry, you didn't happen to give tours to people interviewing this past year. Just wondering if I met you or not. I interviewed right before Thanksgiving.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Diane Moore]

Just a quick note to say that one of our "undercover agent" volunteers on MovingScam.com has just visited the Premier Transfer office and warehouse in VA and has given a very positive report, as follows: "There were 8 or so Mayflower trucks parked there and their storage facility was very clean and organized. The woman in the front office was very friendly and willing to show me around."

 

[frank51]

Do they move cars as well?

 

[Diane Moore]

You should ask. Van lines like Mayflower do move cars but it tends to be quite expensive because they charge for the space as if the car were household goods, and in some cases they just broker your move out to a company that specializes in car moving anyway. There's no assurance that your car will go on the same trailer with your household goods, and there can be long delivery delays.

Even the volunteers on our website, MovingScam.com, who work for the van lines admit that the van lines aren't competitive when it comes to car move pricing and performance. Auto transport companies are really the way to go (Broadway Express also moves cars and that can be a good option if you're moving household goods with BE, because you can load things IN the car and ABOVE the car on a plywood platform that the driver installs).

The two auto transport companies that we on MovingScam.com have found have the best reviews and prices are Dependable Auto Shippers (DAS) and Tn'T (originally stood for "Truck and Train"--which was how the autos were originally moved). Both are brokers although DAS also has some car carriers of its own. Figure about $1000 to move a car cross-country on an open carrier. You can minimize delay and damage by taking your car to a terminal and picking it up there. We have a thread on auto transporters that has a lot more information from a lot of people at http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1470 Hope this helps. Contact information (websites) for the two companies can be found on that thread.

 

[frank51]

Thanks for the info.