Can anyone recommend a particular cross country van lines based on your own experience with them? I hope to be coming to Sun City by early part of 2015 from North Carolina. My name is Cathy
Hi Cathy, We are not in Sun City yet, but working towards it. 16 years ago I was involved in a corporate move from CA to CO and the company used United Van Lines. They did a nice job overall and arrived right when we needed them. We did have some minor damage to a cabinet that they took care of. As I said that was many years ago, but we were happy with their service.
When I moved from the state of Washington, I checked out several moving van companies. They were all very, very, expensive. Also I have heard of people "losing" items. I arranged to get a U-Haul. Neighbors helped me load it and my son drove it to Arizona. I did not have an entire houseful of furniture and could have gotten by with my car pulling a truck. I'll bet "Emily" on this forum will have good information since she moved from that area.
Yes, I would recommend moving anything that you do not want to lose or have go missing by yourself if at all possible. As I said in my earlier post, I strongly recommend that you sell most of the large items like furniture that you will not need. We have some great thrift shops and furniture places here in Peoria and Sun City that sell furniture for a fraction of the price. As far as Van Lines, when we moved from NJ to NC, we used a place in Parsippany called J.D. Carton & Sons. They were fantastic. I think they worked through Allied Van Lines for our move, if I remember correctly. Everything came through great from start to finish. If I had it to do over I would have parted with most of my stuff before the NC move, but we had thought it would be our last move. Turns out I was wrong.
I see how my post wasn't clear toward the end. We thought that our move to NC would be the last and that we would stay there even after retirement. But then the economy shifted and housing tumbled here in PHX metro and the Southwest, (where we originally wanted to live), and we were able to afford AZ or NV. We were priced out of the market here and in NV in 2003, 2004. I am just glad to be here.
Most of the major movers are the same. It depends on the Driver and his crew. We have moved with almost all of the majors. Allied, Mayflower, United etc. Mayflower I feel was one of the better moves and it was a 1500 mile move. You need to interview a couple of different movers. Good luck!
You are welcome. One thing - if you are going to move yourself. Give yourself two days to pack the moving truck. We only had one and it was crazy. Hire someone to help you pack and load. Also, if you are traveling with animals, give yourself four overnights. We did three overnights and wore ourselves out.