Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19970726205633.00996210@ius5.ius.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 1997 20:56:33 -0400
To: bovik@CS.CMU.EDU
From: Jennifer Kay <jennie@cs.cmu.edu>
Subject: Moving companies
Cc: stichnot@CS.CMU.EDU, tdafna@CS.CMU.EDU
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>From: Kyle Nelson <kln@accord.ece.cmu.edu>
>To: jennie@cs.cmu.edu
>Subject: Moving companies
>
>
>I moved from Pittsburgh to Minnesota with Allied.  I called my companies
>relocation office and they contracted with McNaughton Bros. out of Indiana,
>PA (I do not know why they did not use an agent out of Pittsburgh).  The
>man from McNaughton that packed all our goods was nice, friendly, courtesy,
>and careful - what more could you ask for?  The driver of the truck was 
>from Minnesota and he had two helpers from a local Allied agent help him
>load the truck.  The driver was in charge of packing the truck and he did 
>an excellent job.  His two helpers were slow and clearly novices.  The driver
>was less than happy with is helpers but because he 'ran the show' everything
>turned out ok.  Overall the move went smoothly and we were quite pleased
>with McNaughton Bros and the driver.
>

------

>Date: Tue, 8 Jul 97 19:37:39 GMT
>From: jdg+@DENGER.SCANDAL.CS.CMU.EDU
>Sender: jdg+@DENGER.SCANDAL.CS.CMU.EDU
>
>Based on old Bovik info, I contacted
>   Maroadi (Mayflower)
>   B.H. Stumpf (Paul Arpin)
>   South Hills Movers
>
>Stumpf was less organized.  All had comparable prices (South Hills had
>the lowest charges beyond the base tariff rate, but also the poorest
discount).
>I'm going to use Maroadi because they were able to handle my date constraints
>the closest.
>
>Via a moving site on the Web I asked for an estimate from Wheaton (again
>based on old Bovik info).  All-ways (Wheaton) eventually got back to me,
>but too late for me to look into them.
>
>jg
>

------
>Date: Tue, 8 Jul 97 12:17:08 EDT
>From: rubinoff+@anato.soar.cs.cmu.edu
>Sender: rubinoff+@anato.soar.cs.cmu.edu
>
>We used South Hills Movers when we did a local move, and we really
>liked them.  They were thoroughly professional, and they made the
>move easy (which I didn't think was possible).  I don't know who
>(i.e. which natinonal company) they're affiliated with, but if you can use
>them, I would highly recommend them.
>
>   Robert
>
>

-------
>From: sueo@top.cis.syr.edu
>To: jennie@cs.cmu.edu
>Subject: Re: Moving companies -- rec's requested
>Date: Tue, 8 Jul 97 14:12:18 EDT
>Sender: sueo@top.cis.syr.edu
>Source-Info:  From (or Sender) name not authenticated.
>
>Hi Jennie,
>
>I used Paul Arpin (local agents were Stinelli Brothers, or something
>like that) to move my stuff to Syracuse in February.  Overall, I was
>pretty happy with them, and I'd use them again.  I should probably
>mention, however, that I don't like shopping around to begin with, and
>as I was very stressed last December, I didn't do a lot of comparison
>shopping. 
>
>The (pretty minor) bad stuff:
> 1. I set up an appointment for 9:00 Tuesday morning (day after my
>    defense) to get a binding estimate.  By 9:30, noone had shown up;
>    rather aggravated, I called to find out what happened.  Apparently
>    the receptionist had failed to tell the appropriate person about the
>    appointment.
>
>    Surprisingly, though, this interaction made me feel better about
>    them: the receptionist was apologetic and _took the blame on
>    herself_ ("I messed up: he asked for his schedule this morning and I
>    told him there were no appointments.")  I was very impressed with
>    her professionalism and that she didn't pass the buck or use the
>    passive voice "mistakes were made".
>
> 2. They broke one of those particle-board telephone stands: the mover
>    told me he was carrying it, tripped, dropped it, ....   Actually, it
>    was a good sacrifice to the moving gods, because I had intended it
>    to stay in Pittsburgh anyway.
>
> 3. They lost the legs to an old formica-top kitchen table (one my
>    parents had picked up for me from a friend's garage sale).  For both
>    this and the telephone stand, the movers pointed them out and
>    started paperwork for them.  
>
>The good stuff:
> 1. I really liked the guy who came to give the estimate.  He was very
>    lowkey and didn't do a hard sell on the various insurance levels,
>    etc.  He also told me that they could probably get me some (free)
>    used wardrobe boxes and whatnot, but that if I wanted new boxes, I
>    was probably better off getting them from U-HAUL rather from them.
>    (That is, they could sell them to me, but I could get them for less
>    elsewhere.) 
>
>    He seemed completely unfazed by the fact that not everything was
>    going and had no problems with me saying "That goes, that stays, I
>    don't know about that yet..."
>
> 2. As it turned out, I left for Syracuse in January while my stuff
>    stayed in Pittsburgh.  Once I found a place to live, I then called
>    to organize the real move.  They dealt with this really well, even
>    though it required them to set up times with Jonathan while letting
>    me know what was going on as well.  They also revised (reduced) the
>    estimate once Jonathan was able to make the definitive statement on
>    what was to stay and what was to go.  (I was a bit worried about
>    this, but they had no problem having someone not legally related to
>    me releasing my stuff to them.)
>
> 3. Other than the telephone stand and the table legs, everything else
>    made the move in wonderful shape (including tv, stereo stuff, etc).
>    Very impressively, the movers managed to get my sofa (one of those
>    big puffy things that doesn't fit through narrow hallways) into my
>    apartment by pulling it up (via straps) over the (stairless)
>    second-floor balcony. 
>
>Feel free to ask specific questions; the above is what comes to mind
>during a lunch break.  By the way, if you plan to pass things on to
>Bovik (incidentally, I heard of Stinelli Bros through Bovik), let me
>know and I'll clean up some of the text :-)
>
>Good luck with all!
>
>- Sue
>

------

>Date: Tue, 8 Jul 97 12:10:52 MDT
>From: terry@cs.cmu.edu
>Reply-To: terry@cs.cmu.edu
>To: Jennifer Kay <jennie+@IUS5.IUS.cs.cmu.edu>
>Subject: Re: Moving companies -- rec's requested
>
>
>> Allied
>> North American
>> Paul Arpin
>> Wheaton
>> 
>> As I understand it, the local affiliate makes or breaks (possibly
literally)
>> the move. Anyone have any experience with any of the above in Pittsburgh?
>
>When we moved in February, we used Ryan Allied (based in Irwin). They were
>exceptionally wonderful on both ends. Both our move coordinator (a woman
>named Josephine) and the packers/loaders were extremely prompt, courteous,
>and professional. In spite of the fact that I rescheduled the pickup 3
>times, they showed up exactly (and I mean to the minute) on time: 9 am,
>Monday morning. The movers spent the entire day (9-5) packing & loading our
>stuff without a lunch break. Being from Pittsburgh, of course, they
>occasionally cigarette brekas...
>
>Anyway, they have my strongest endorsement...
>