Relocating from one end of the country to another, even across town is anything but fun. In fact, moving from house to house is often one of the most difficult and stressful challenges you could ever go through, especially after you spent hours finding the perfect home for you and your family. Therefore, if you want to be able to move to a new home with a minimum of fuss and without all of the usual chaotic scenes of panic and anxiety that usually accompany a change of home, you need to make sure that you choose a professional, reliable moving company like Big Man Movers that you can depend on to do the job right.
By making the right choice, you and your family will feel a huge weight lifted from your shoulders and the stress of moving will be eliminated. And to help you with that, here are a few things to look for in a moving company when you decide to move to Orlando.
Location
What locations does the moving company service? This is important because you need to determine if the company is at all familiar with the area where you will be moving to. The last thing you want is to turn up late to your new home, arriving in the middle of the night and still having to face all that unloading.
Cost Estimate
If you have to, request a written estimate, but also bear in mind that there is a chance with all moving companies that the job can suddenly become much more difficult than the movers first anticipated. Moves can run into unforeseen problems, such as difficult access including narrow or winding stairways and too small doorway openings for extra-large furniture pieces. Moving companies base their estimates on the information you give them, so your honesty is important. Inform them not only what you are moving, but also if there are any difficult problems they may encounter.
Insurance Policy
Check for details of the companys insurance policy. The last thing you want to do is hire a moving company that is uninsured or under?insured, thus putting your lifes possessions into an unreliable person. All legitimate moving companies carry minimum carrier liability insurance according to the State of Florida, and also offer you the choice of purchasing full valuation insurance. You will need to put a total value on all your goods, not just certain pieces. The deductible will be determined as per the valuation you choose.
Staff Training and Experience
Its important that the moving company employees who come to carry out the job are actually qualified to do so. While its easy to think of moving is just lugging things around, the fact is that there are many situations where an element of skill is required. You need a fully qualified moving company so you can be sure they will do the job in a timely way, and without damaging any of your possessions. Ensure that the moving company you choose has qualified staff and can produce documentation of this. Smaller, less expensive moving companies often get their extra help from labor pools, thus offering you a lower price.
Also important to find out is whether the moving company staff is fully employed or just casual laborers. A full employee is much more likely to be concerned with doing a good job and taking care of your possessions than a casual laborer. Make sure that your moving company only uses full time workers. You can get a good feel for this by visiting the companys website and reading their reviews. It is always a good idea to visit their location, see how they look.
Vehicles Operated
Ideally, unless you really have a staggering amount of possessions, you want to get the job done in just one trip, and this is why its important to know the kind of vehicle they will use. If the company only uses small vans, many trips could be required, which will draw out the time it takes to complete the job and make things more complicated than they need to be.
A moving company that uses large trucks, on the other hand should be able to handle even the heftiest of moving jobs easily, especially where there is a number of large appliances and pieces of furniture to move. Many local companies use older trucks. In this case, you need to find out whether they are in good running order, clean, sanitized and well equipped with pads and dollies.
Moving Equipment
A professional moving company should have a good range of equipment at hand. These may include a GPS Navigator to enable the driver to find your new home easily. Moving pads and proper dollies are also important. Pads are used to wrap furniture to stop things from getting chipped or scratched. Lastly, rope and straps are also important because some things may need to be tied in place in the truck to avoid them sliding around while on the road. Little things like this often make all the difference between a bad move and a good move. Make sure your moving company has these items and have experienced help to properly use them. If you can, take a look at their trucks as well. Are they clean, do they exemplify a quality company? Are the movers in uniforms? Do they take pride in their work?
Method of Payment
A lot of rogue or unprofessional companies will ask for cash only a sure sign they are not as legitimate as they make out. Any reputable moving company will be happy to accept credit cards, debit cards and checks. The method of payment should be determined prior to moving day. Unprofessional movers will demand to be paid before they unload anything. This causes frustration and delays which they may try to charge extra for. Having a credit card on file with the moving company, much like you do with a hotel reservation will make this easy.
