We haven’t unpacked all of our items yet, but as we work on that, here are some thoughts about the move:
1/ Rob was responsive as we were planning the move and helped with a lot of my questions. Having a single point of contact for all of those questions was helpful.
2/ When the move was underway, Terrence was able to answer all my questions. Terrence and Rob seem like they were tag-teaming, so someone was always available.
3/ The moving crew, led by Jeff, listened to everything we were concerned about and took care of it. We had packed as much as we could before they arrived, but then they spent a very full day packing the rest of the house. I walked them through the house one time and pointed out a bunch of things and as far as I can tell, they listened to all of it and accommodated a bunch of special requests.
4/ We had four “high value” items that we asked them to be extra careful packing. None of the items has financial value — it’s all emotional value. All four of the items made it with no damage, including old glass and wood.
5/ The packing and moving crews were all friendly. None of them seemed like they were half-assing it or not happy with their work. It was helpful, given how long they were in the house and that they were handling stuff that, again, has little financial value but means a lot to us (children’s art, important papers, furniture that’s been a part of our lives) that they were easy to talk to and friendly. If they had a question, they asked. If I had a question, I could talk with any of them and they were super professional and upbeat.
6/ It was nice that all of the crew introduced themselves by name and then their photos were on the invoice. It was good not to feel like random people were walking through the house.
7/ The unload crew in Minnesota (The Move Crew) was just as careful, polite, and hard-working.
8/ We also worked with Gentle Giant in 2007 and 2009, and my former coworkers have had good experiences with GG. I’ve read a lot of really negative things about interstate movers like Allied, United, and Mayflower, so even though I think of GG as a regional company, and was apprehensive about working with the company for a move out of New England, I thought I’d rather stick with GG because the company has proven to be good in the past. I thought about it for a few weeks and think I called Rob three times to talk about how Gentle Giant would handle subcontracting the delivery in Minnesota. In the end, I wanted to avoid companies that may have more experience with interstate moves, but seem like they’re poorly run and probably don’t really care about our business or our homes.
I haven’t unpacked most of our boxes yet, so maybe something is broken and I won’t know for a week or two. But from what I can see, everything made it in good order.