DO NOT EVER HAVE A MOVING COMPANY MOVE YOUR STUFF!!!!
Is that clear enough for you? You're only inviting a nightmare.
When my wife and I moved to Georgia from Lake Tahoe, we had contracted a moving company to pack our stuff and drive it here. From the moment the packers/drivers showed up it looked like a racket.
First of all, they showed up with a truck that in no way would have held all of our stuff. This was after they had sent a man out to do a visual, and gave us an estimate. Like they were really going to fit 100 lbs of stuff into a 50 lb bucket.
When the guys opened the truck (which, again, was way too small) I saw that it had already been half-loaded with someone else's stuff...so now that were planning to fit 100 lbs of stuff in a 25 lb bucket. No way!!!
The crew, who barely spoke english, tried to explain that this was normal business. anything that didn't fit would be loaded onto
another truck that would show up the next day...by another crew!!!
When we called the company, we weren't allowed to speak with the guy who did the estimate....they refused to let us. Instead, they directed our call to a really friendly guy who told us that, in no uncertain terms, if we cancelled this contract, we would lose our $1000.00 deposit! BULL*****!!!
Long story short, we sent the guys packing (no pun intended) and hired a local crew to pack our stuff. We ended up using TWO U-Haul trucks, one of their biggest models, and one, the next size down. We had no problems with either truck for the entire trip. And fortunately, we had charged the deposit on our Capital One card....got every cent of our deposit back, no worries.
Oh...I forgot to add, when the crew that showed up to pack our stuff got there, they immediately went into their routine of, "Dat wuz not on list." "Dis wuz not on list." They were racking up extra charges even before they put a single box on the truck!!!
Once the moving company has your stuff, they can hold it in storage until you pay, in cash, in full for it;s release. And until you pay, you're adding up storage costs too. It's just not worth it. Hire a crew to pack and load/unload everything..on both ends, and you'll sleep much better at night.
Just my .02!
Randy