ABF moving review

[awkwardsoul 20]

I moved my stuff from Vancouver to Southern California with ABF - wanted to toss out a recent review of the experience for anyone who is interested.

I was living in a 1 bedroom apartment, very little furniture (3 foldable tables/desk, 1 chair) was to come with me. I decided on the relocube option.

Doing the estimate was easy online - which is sent to your email. I emailed them back a few times to see other options which are cheaper:

http://www.upack.com/moving-services/small-moves.asp certain days are cheaper, also good to check Terminal-terminal price vs. having them deliver to your door. Keep in mind, they date you set it to is the date they DROP off the cube/trailer.

I moved mid-week, used Door-Terminal and it cost $1200 + change. They charge your credit card when your stuff is in transit to its destination. For my circumstance, it looks like an extra $200 to drop it at one's door each way vs. you pick up at terminal.

When I went to book it (having the estimate done already) they said they prefer 1.5 month notice vs. my 3 week notice. They were still able to secure me a relocube. Phew. When you book you can set the time they drop off.

From there, 7 days before they drop off you can cancel before you are SOL fee'd if you cancel.

I was nutty in when I was packing I taped off my carpet to see how much space I had in the relocube - be sure to check the measurements - take note to the height too.

I chose the 8am-12pm drop off time and they came at 11am.

They didn't mention the extra ####### you need for the relocube:

Pad Lock - there was none. I thought they had their own + I can put my own to be extra secure. You can put a pretty mean pad-lock on it. You DO NOT need to give them the key. They said they don't want it for reliability plus if customs wants in, they are just gonna chop the lock off. Though, I was reassured as long as my customs paperwork is fine, they won't hack up my cube.

Tarp/Bungee cords - if you aren't packing the cube tight and to the ceiling you NEED this. I got lazy and passed.

Since someone else is moving your stuff - they need customs form 3299. It's a pain to fill out and slightly confusing. I emailed customs but they replied late - thread here http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/359369-moving-personal-belongings-to-us/page__p__5275191__fromsearch__1#entry5275191 so check out the form, ask questions ahead of time to get it right. I also did the inventory/value for all my boxes as part of the 3299.

So - I had some headaches around them with my K-1 visa. On the phone with the main booking number they didnn't think I needed to fax in my I-94/stamped visa. I knew this was ####### so I called the local office and they said they needed my paperwork or my stuff wouldn't leave.

The local office gave me their email/fax to send in my I-94/Visa/customs form 3299 once I'm in the US.

When it came for pickup - you need to call the local office to set a time. Maybe I did it last minute since I called them once I was done packing it up, for the next day. Though, they really dropped the ball on picking it up. They were supposed to come the next day in the afternoon, but called me to say they were running late. I said it was okay to do it the next day in the morning, but no later than that. They didn't come that morning. I called them from the airport and they said "We are sending a truck right now" and this was 3pm. With that said, there was no sense of urgency for them to pickup - but they also knew they weren't moving it until I got my paperwork, but I was worried about break-ins to my cube.

I sent my paperwork the next morning and was told it would be moved that day (Friday), but it didn't move until Monday. The quote was for 3 business days but it arrived Thursday.

On the California side, they were great to arrange a moving time, since we were going to the shipping yard to unload my items. We took a few trips and the staff there was very nice.

Since I didn't tarp/bungee my stuff all the boxes were tossed around and others crushed. Please keep that in mind if you have lots of breakables.

Overall, the relocube concept was great and cheap (uhaul quoted $500 more not including food/gas/hotel for the drive). Found the local office I dealt with more knowledgeable on the customs process but customer service was kinda #######. The office I dealt with on the Southern California side was great to deal with. My stuff arrived in one piece but later than I was expecting.

I think I would of prefered to move with my things because form 3299 sucks to fill out and I'd get my things sooner, but I think I would of done it this way no matter what because of price.

[pocheros 101]

Great review, very helpful!

[Trishy_N_J 23]

On the ABF page in "Packing tips" it indicates that one should consider keeping CD's and software with them.

I just emailed to find out just how high the temperatures get. I just don't have enough room in my luggage for my CDs, DVDs and Video Games. This is annoying me ;

Did you ship any of that kind of item? Just seems like a pain in the butt if I can't move ALL my stuff without having to keep some on me.

Edited July 16, 2012 by Orchyd

[Colleens 40]

I just used ABF for a 2nd time to move back to Canada(edmonton) from Tennessee. I had a very good experience both times, although the local office in TN failed to tell me what paperwork I needed to provide to them so we needed to stop at Staples en route to fax them all the documents. Thankfully I had the documents ready since I knew that I needed to provide them when we crossed the border.

The first time I moved I just used the clip type lashing straps and found that some of them loosened a little and some of my stuff shifted a little. The 2nd time we used the ratcheting type and criss crossed them on every row that we packed and nothing moved.

I would suggest renting moving blankets from uhaul(it cost us $11 to rent a dozen for a week) to wrap any sort of wood furniture. I didn't on the first move and a lot of my pieces had spots where the finish wore off due to the vibrations. I wrapped them the 2nd time around and furniture faired much better.

I can't remember the price on the first move (it was door to terminal from Ottawa to Knoxville and I used 13' in a 28' trailer) I think maybe around $2200. The 2nd move was terminal to door, Knoxville to Edmonton, 11' in a 28' trailer and was $3400.