🚀 go-pugleaf

	A month or so ago, I asked for recommendations on moving companies
for my move from Brooklyn to City Island in the Bronx.  Thanks to the
various folks that responded.  We ended up going with Rainbow Movers, as
recommended by Jan Edler, and were very happy with the service we got.  I
recommend Rainbow (19 Leonard St, NYC, 212-431-8550, DOT #1747) highly to
anybody looking for a moving company.

	Leonard Sass (the owner, I believe) came to our apartment to see
what had to be moved and give us an estimate.  He was reluctant to give us
a flat rate (what the DOT calls a "Binding Estimate), but after we
recounted our horror stories of the last move, he did agree to put a
reasonable cap on the number of hours we would be billed for (barring
unforseen disasters).  We checked with the NYS DOT and found that they had
only 1 complaint registered against them in the past year and a half.  Many
of the other companies we checked out (the ones with the full page ads in
the Yellow Pages) and dozens of complaints.  Of course, it's hard to
normalize the number of complaints to the number of moves the company does
but all things considered, 1 is better than 30.

	The truck showed up right on time on moving day, the guys on the
truck were smart, friendly, and amazingly fast and hard workers, and got
everything loaded up in just about the amount of time Leonard had estimated
it would take.  At the other end, we ran into a problem that was not the
fault of Rainbow: the elevator broke down.  This was the sort of thing that
made the cap no longer valid, but as it turned out, even with the guys
carrying everything up 3 flights of stairs on their backs, it didn't take
too much longer than the estimate (another hour or so).

	Nothing got lost or broken (we've still got some boxes to unpack,
but we've already unpacked the fragle stuff like the china and glass) and
the charges we had for packing materials and boxes were quite reasonable
(we did most of the packing ourselves, but left a few large, fragile, or
awkward items for them).

	Some general stuff I found out:  It's cheaper (at least with some
companies) to move in the middle of the month.  Everybody wants to move
near the end or beginning of the month (we did) and some places give you a
substantially lower rate if you move between about the 7th and 20th of the
month.

	You have more stuff than you think (corollary: you will need more
boxes than you possibly imagined you would, and it will take longer than
you thought to pack them).

	Call lots of movers and get real, written, estimates, preferably a
"binding estimate", flat rate, or some sort of cap.  If an estimator won't
come to your home to see what the job entails, call somebody else.  If you
get what seems like a low hourly rate (we saw anywhere from $66/hr to
$114/hr), find out why it's so low.  A typical crew seems to be 3 men and a
truck for about $90/hr; you may do better with 4 men at a higher hourly
rate since it will take less time to load and unload.  Remember, though,
you're paying for the 4th guy for all the time he's not working (like
getting to and from the job, and in transit between your old and new
place).

	Check out every company you consider with the NY State Department
of Transportation (718-482-4810).  The DOT folks there were extremely
friendly and willing to give me info on as many companies as I wanted to
ask about.  Unfortunately, they don't seem to be allowed to just give you a
list of companies that don't have any complaints about; you have to keep
feeding them company names.  Ask the company for their DOT number; you may
need this for the DOT to find their file.  If they won't give you their DOT
number (or claim not to have one), pass them by.  We had one company
(Father and Son, who actually came highly recommended by a friend who used
them several times) which not only wouldn't send an estimator or give us a
written estimate, but wouldn't give us their DOT number and wouldn't even
tell me where their offices were located.  F&S then actually called us up
the day before the move to "confirm" the appointment tommorow.  When I told
them that we wern't using them, the woman got upset, and said "well, when
did you plan on telling us?"  I pointed out that I had only called them to
get an estimate and hadn't signed a contract, or given them a deposit, or
anything.

	Talk to the movers about things like insurance.  Are you covered if
they lose or break something?  If it just falls off the truck?  If the
truck gets hijacked?  You may only be covered against breakage if they
packed the item, but at the hourly rates they charge for packing, it may be
worth the risk to just pack it yourself.  Ask for references.  If they
won't give you references, call somebody else.  In general, if anything
seems sleezy about the company, just try somebody else.  There are so many
moving companies out there, you can be picky about who you use, and should
be.
-- 
roy@wombat.phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith)
Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA
"This never happened to Bart Simpson."