I chose Upack as the moving company to move my things from one state to another state due to its price and reputation compared to other moving companies. I called Upack on July 27 to see if I can use their services on August 31. I wanted to make sure that if there were any problems, then things can be dealt with at a reasonable time or that I can have time to find another moving company. Talking to the representatives on the phone has always been pleasant. The only part that was not pleasant was the lack of correct communication that was going on between Upack and with the ABF company. Also to be fair on them, I actually thought that Upack did everything meaning that they collect the money for their services and that they use their own trucks. Later on, I got corrected by a representative from ABF in that Upack deals with the scheduling the services and the money transactions while ABF are the ones that have the trucks.
The first time I spoke to a representative on July 27 went very well. I told him my situation in that I needed their services on the Saturday of August 31 to move my things since I live in state B and will fly out to state A to take my things out of the storage unit to put in the ABF truck. The representative said that should be no problem but that I should call the ABF company from state A to make sure that they will be open on Saturdays since that was on Labor Day weekend. I called ABF from state A on July 31 to verify that it was okay to get the ABF truck to my storage unit sometime on Saturday. The representative told me that they can get a truck to the storage unit location but they cannot pick the truck up on the same day; they also cannot leave the driver there for an hour or 2 to wait for us to load up the truck and then drive away. So we both concluded that in order for this to work out, I will need to somehow get my stuff to an ABF location. I was fine with that and then I started to make reservations to rent a Uhaul for that day.
The week of August 26, I received a phone call about my upcoming scheduled service on Saturday. I appreciated the follow up call to make sure that everything was going as planned. Later on, ABF and I continued to communicate through emails. I mentioned that I can be there between 2 to 3 pm. The representative responded back to mention that time will be fine. Then later on that day, the representative emailed me back to see say that it is fine to come between that time frame from the days of Monday through Friday but on Saturday, I will need to come in by 10:00 am; but if 2 to 3 pm is only time to do so, then I can come in on Friday. At this moment, I was upset. I felt that way because I scheduled this whole thing a month in advance to avoid situations like this. At this point, it will be difficult for me to find another decent moving company at the last minute. Instead of canceling the whole transaction, I wrote a long detailed email to explain why I cannot move my things on Friday nor can I move my things by 10:00 am on Saturday. The good news was that the representative told me that she got informed that their supervisor should be at the ABF facility until 4:00 pm on Saturday so that I can still load my things at the time frame that was discussed earlier.
On Saturday afternoon my friends, parents, and I went to the ABF building to load my things into one of their trucks. One of the guys, who could have been the supervisor, mentioned to me that nobody did not tell him that someone was going to load their belongings into one of their trucks that day. Nevertheless, he was really nice and helpful to prepare the truck for us to load my stuff in.
A week later, I see that for their transit status shows that the truck is still in state A even after 4 days have passed. I called Upack to see what was going on. At first, they did not know where my stuff was at. I called back a little later and spoke to another representative who informed me that they find where my stuff is at. Somebody forgot to document on the computer that my stuff was ready to go to state B. Three more days passed and the transit status showed that my things were still in state A. Therefore, I called them again and a representative from the ABF location in state A said that she will let them know that my stuff has not left their facility yet. It took almost 2 weeks for my stuff to finally arrive at state B. Retrieving my stuff from state B's ABF facility was a breeze.
Overall I believe that the Upack service was great to use but also had me to feel stressed at times. Next time that I decide to do a big move, I may end up having either my family members, friends, or I drive something like a Uhaul to bring my things from point A to point B. I will still recommend others to use their services if they do not want to move their own stuff in a moving truck. read more