See Part I, here.
Chicago Move
K's company gave us a significantly greater amount to move to Chicago. I was SOOOO grateful for this! As apposed to in Utah and Seattle, we weren't going to know anyone once we got to Chicago, so we were going to need to hire help. This is where this post gets a little tricky. I want to be honest, but I also don't want to be rude. It's a fine line I'm going to walk because this is the part of the move where things got cray-cray (that means crazy, Dad).
U-pack:
We had heard great things about both ABF and PODS and weren't sure who to go with. Once we factored in the cost of the relo cubes, travel time, and size of cube versus all our stuff, we decided to go with ABF. How this works is, they drop off a cube (for us it was 2) to where ever you live and you have three days to pack the cubes up. If you remember from here, our move date was moved up by about a week or two, so we hired movers to come load the cubes the very day they were dropped off so that they could be picked up the next day.
We had heard great things about both ABF and PODS and weren't sure who to go with. Once we factored in the cost of the relo cubes, travel time, and size of cube versus all our stuff, we decided to go with ABF. How this works is, they drop off a cube (for us it was 2) to where ever you live and you have three days to pack the cubes up. If you remember from here, our move date was moved up by about a week or two, so we hired movers to come load the cubes the very day they were dropped off so that they could be picked up the next day.
ABF's drivers were on-time and very friendly and professional. As someone with a CDL, I'm here to tell you that they can manuver their trucks and fork-lifts like there is no tomorrow! It was quite a sight to see! ABF's customer service from their call center to their terminals was phenominal!
My major beef with ABF is that they LOST one of our cubes! Every cube has a tracking number on it and it gets checked in at each terminal it goes to (ours went from the Seattle area, to Salt Lake City, to South Chicago). Apparently, in Salt Lake City, one of the drivers wrote down a "6" when there should have been a "0" (or something like that), so our one cube was left in SLC! Why they don't use some sort of digital scanning system is beyond me!
Imagine my surprise when I got a call from their South Chicago Terminal a few hours after I had called to schedule the drop off.
ABF: Mrs. Nelson???
Me: Yeeeess...?
ABF: How many cubes did you say you had again?
Me: Two.... why..??
ABF: I'm only showing that we have one in our terminal here in Chicago.
Me: Well where's my other cube?
ABF: *long pause*...I don't know.
Me: ....
ABF: They'll unload the truck tonight and I'll be able to see if it's on there and if there was some confusion, but I remembered you said you had movers coming, so I just wanted you to have a heads up. We might not have one of your cubes. I'll call you as soon as I get in at 6:30 am tomorrow and tell you what I find out.
To make a long story at least somewhat short, the Branch Manager of the Chicago area and I became great friends and he eventually found our cube. The crazy part? The only reason they found my cube was because of this:
This picture was the only confirmation of our actual tracking numbers and saved our lives! I did finally talk them into giving me $50/day that we didn't have our second cube. $50/day is what they charge you if you keep the cube too long. The good news is that they don't even have a procedure for if this happens--so I'm assuming it doesn't happen too often. Despite all of this, because of their outstanding customer service, I would still recommend ABF to other people!
Stay tuned for the last installment, Part III.
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