U-Pack Moving

I was very nervous going into a cross country move and basically every step of the way U-​pack made me feel much better. They were always on time and absolutely everyone I can in contact with was very professional and good at their jobs. I would recommend them to anyone looking to save some money on a big move.

U-​Pack overcharged us $ 300 for a pickup from a location that never happened. Originally, the representative told us we could have a trailer placed at our house one one day and then moved to a storage facility the next day since we had items in both locations. They called this a «split pickup». When we called the storage place to arrange that, they said they don’t allow trailers to be parked there. We called Upack back and were told there was «nothing they could do» and that they would cancel the second pickup. We asked if they could have the driver stay with the trailer for a quick load at storage and they said they didn’t do that despite the website saying they did. We ended up having to rent a van and have movers put stuff into the van and drive it to the trailer at the house in a few trips.
After the chaos of the move, we were getting paperwork together for taxes and noticed the split pickup charge had never been removed! When we called to ask for a refund, we were told the move was «archived» and there was «nothing they could do about it» and we «should have noticed sooner». Awful customer service.
Aside from that, there were other issues. Each terminal has a phone number and there is also an 800 number. None of them know anything about each other so you get bounced around and told to call somewhere else if you have an issue or a question. Our stuff also got covered with muddy sludge on one side of the truck, but otherwise everything made it. Next time we will use another service that doesn’t sneak charges on to the bill during a very stressful time.

This is long. I’m sorry. But so is the catalog of disasters caused by UPACK.
When I first called UPACK, I informed the gentleman on the phone that neither my pick up or drop off location could accommodate a Pod and therefore I wasn’t sure if UPACK could assist with my move. He very confidently stated that it was no problem whatsoever. He informed me that if I reserved a space in a truck, I would be given a time window of four hours at both ends, during which time the truck driver would be present, and movers could take care of packing up and unloading the property. He informed me that UPACK worked with Moving Staffers and he would arrange for them to be present during my move. This guy was such a great salesman, I booked with UPACK immediately. This was the last time I had any positive feelings towards the company.
The day my furniture was picked up in Brooklyn, the (very courteous) driver showed up, but no movers ever came. I called UPACK who told me this was not their problem. They sent me to Moving Staffers, who informed me that they had canceled my booking because I «never confirmed» with them. UPACK had at no point informed me that this was a necessary step in ensuring the movers were present. As a result, I had to load an entire apartment onto a truck by myself using only the assistance of a couple of dudes I found on a street corner (one of whom stole from me) — a necessary move since I would never have managed on my own.
Days later, now at my destination in Austin, I was excited to find out that my belongings would be arriving with me on Thursday, March 31^st. When I called UPACK to find out a delivery window, the response was, at best, obtuse. «Between 8am and 5pm» they said. I informed them I needed to give a solid window to Moving Staffers at least 24 hours in advance. «We don’t do that,» UPACK said. I wondered aloud at that point how a trucking company and moving company that apparently work together could have such non-​existent communication skills and opposing moving policies. At that point, I was forced to drop Moving Staffers and find someone more flexible to work with. Little Guys Movers ultimately went above and beyond in their attempts to fix the mess caused by UPACK. Why UPACK recommends Moving Staffers is entirely beyond me.
I made multiple calls to ABF in the days running up to the delivery, as I tried to find out when my 4 hour truck window would be. It was only during the very last phone call — on the DAY OF THE MOVE — that someone (Eddie) informed me of ABF’s intention to leave an 18-​wheeler truck at my complex, OVERNIGHT. When I told him that was never the plan, he scoffed and said «Yes, it was.» (Super helpful.) I told him that was in no way possible. I also requested that a driver stay with the vehicle for a couple of hours, which had been the plan from the very start. He said no and I’d have to send someone to pick it up. Zero flexibiliity, shocking customer service. On top of it all, he was incredibly rude. ABF’s inability to leave a driver with a truck for even a two-​hour window, especially when I had been discussing a delivery time over the phone for days, was and is absolute lunacy to me. Why would I have repeatedly requested a specific delivery time if I knew a truck was being dumped overnight?
I wondered at that point whether I would’ve been treated with a little more respect if I was a man. So I put Little Guys Movers directly in touch with ABF since they would now be doing double the work for me (at my expense, of course). Because of the insanely short notice, the soonest Little Guys could handle the pick up from ABF was Saturday, April 2^nd. This is the part where ABF’s treatment of my belongings gets TRULY mind-​boggling. When Little Guys tried to organize a Saturday pick up, ABF suggested that my worldly belongings be left in an unsecure location, in an unlocked trailer OVERNIGHT on Friday, so Little Guys could get it on Saturday morning. Does ABF have any idea how completely insane that is? ABF also suggested that if I didn’t like it, I could go buy a lock and secure the trailer myself… as if I have the first clue what kind of lock would be required, or where to acquire said lock when I am new in town and currently without vehicular access.
UPACK (and ABF, and Moving Staffers) have been an absolute disaster for me. It has cost me more in moving costs. It has cost me days and days of inconvenience and delay, and it has even worsened a back injury of mine by delaying delivery of my bed.
I am absolutely astonished that a moving company could have such a — pardon my French — wholly shitty attitude towards both my belongings and my schedule.
AVOID! AVOID! AVOID!

Basically thieves. Items were incredibly damaged during the move and I was given a $ 140 check to cover thousands and thousands of dollar of damage and replacements.

I am in the process of moving from Austin to Oakland, CA. I underestimated the amount of stuff I had and needed a second pod day of for the movers that were on their way. The U-​Pack customer service agents and delivery drivers are ROCK STARS! Not only were they able to get me a second pod that day but also delivered it prior to my movers arriving. The pricing was reasonable to add an additional pod for a door-​to-​terminal transport. Thank you so much for making this process easy and affordable.

Man i thought i was going to save money but in the end all it did was cost me money. Should have paid more for more reliable service.

My experience started off good. In Montana the truck was delivered and everything fine. loaded and hauled awAy with no issues…
Texas was a different story… austin, they delivered the container and the delivery guy was great. He told us to call before we had it completely unloaded because they would swing by to get it, they have a driver in the area. I called by noon the same day, informed them we were done and they could come get it… street space is so limited, we wanted it gone… and HOA doesn’t allow that on the street either. I called again at 6pm and was told they can’t get container, too backed up. They don’t have drivers through the weekend so now it had to stay on street through The weekend. The neighbors weren’t happy about it, neither were we. I informed them of HOA rules and what would happen if I got fined. The gentleman was quite rude to me about the situation, very poor customer service
Monday came around, noon and container still there. I called and again told they «might get to it today». I just want the container gone… I don’t understand… we unloaded it in 2 hours and it’s sat there for over 3 days! It’s rediculous

I have used U-​Pack over and over, since 2003. Not anymore. Stay away from these people in Austin.
I used to be an evangelist of this service, because they took the pain out of moving. This was my fourth cross country move with ABF.
The move started out as planned. I got the quote, got the container dropped off, filled it and off it went from Seattle to Austin. As usual, because the street space was limited (as it has been in every other circumstance), the driver parked on the adjacent street and drove the container in on the fork-​lift. The WA ABF people were great.
Texas was a different story. When the container arrived I got a call on Thursday to schedule the drop-​off. I was told they had an opening between 9am-​5pm on Friday, and gladly agreed to have my container dropped off in my open parking spot. At 4:55pm I received a call that they were behind schedule because «it’s the end of the month so there are a lot of deliveries». I happily agreed that 6:30pm-7pm would be just fine.
At 6:55pm I received another call. «We aren’t going to drop off your container where you live. I’m looking on google street view (not at my house as promised?!) and my truck won’t fit into your parking lot.» We talked about several other options, but the man was not willing to entertain reasonable ideas. I mentioned that there are large trucks and dumpster trucks that deliver to my complex. No. I suggested he pull in next door, where he said he had delivered before. No. I suggested he pull in directly across the street, in the long open side road without traffic. No. It wasn’t lost on me that they had made no effort to even transport my goods to TRY and deliver them (they were lazily looking on google street view for an excuse NOT to 5 minutes before they had agreed they would).
In the end, I was told that they would leave my relocube in their parking lot 20 miles away, and I could figure out what to do. They gave me a «discount» to the «terminal to terminal» price, which barely covered the cost of the U-​haul I had to rent. In a city where I don’t know anyone I spent an entire day moving my stuff twice, alone, because these guys didn’t want to talk about rescheduling or doing anything that all the other terminals do as part of their business.
Had I known I was going to move myself entirely on the Texas end, I would have opted for a full service mover which was not much more expensive for my small load. If you expect to pay for convenience, be aware that it’s not assured and they don’t make any effort to fulfill what they advertise for.

I have hired 10 moving crews and the crew that loaded us in Sacramento, CA area was the worst. I have NEVER had a crew take 12−½ hours just to load. It should have at most taken 8 – 9 hours if they had sent an experienced crew! Instead we got 2 men and a boy who had never loaded done this before! I also have never had so much damage that could have been avoided.
To make matters worse ABF sent us a trailer that leaked. They had to send out a repair guy to fix the leak that we could have put am five gallon bucket under. They said they take care of their trailers. I asked them if duct tape falling off the roof was their idea of taking care of their trucks. We have about $ 100 worth off damaged property due to the spray they used to patch the trailer. When I asked ABF about covering the damaged items I got the spiel about $.10 a lb. for damage. I explained that the damaged caused had nothing to do with the move. Two weeks later and the promise of compensating for the leaky truck hasn’t happened.
I would never use ABF or their loading contract company. If you choose to use them… expect their estimate to double!

I would highly recommend U-​Pack if you are moving long distance. With my last long distance move another company we used loaded the truck for us then stated we owed twice as much as the quoted price even though they didn’t even take all the item listed on the quote. They would not give us our belongings until we payed the extra cost. With U-​pack you load the truck your self and you see exactly how much space you used. They were also the cheapest of all the companies I looked into and stuck to their price. Customer services was also very helpful.

The only reason I am giving U-​Pack 3 stars is because of the friendliness of the people i dealt with on the phone. I just recently moved, and my experience was less than amazing. I set up a trailer to be delivered on a Friday, and was told that morning that delivery would be between 12 – 5. Vague, but fine. The trailer didn’t show up until 6:30, and it was like pulling teeth trying to get any information on its whereabouts while I was waiting.
Immediately after loading the trailer that night, I called to schedule the pick up for the following Monday. I was told that it would indeed be picked up Monday and estimated drop-​off was Wednesday. Monday evening rolls around and the trailer is still there. I called the «origin terminal» and was reassured that somebody would in fact pick it up that night– however nobody came until late Tuesday night. New ETA for destination was Thursday. Again, inconvenient but fine. I called Wednesday evening to schedule the Thursday delivery only to find out that now the delivery would be Friday «at the earliest” — unacceptable.
I understand that all of these days are only estimated and things can change– but my entire move was set back several days and not ONCE did somebody take a minute to call me and let me know. Again, the people in the call center were very friendly and genuinely seemed concerned with helping me, but the logistics of the company are a mess! Next time I move, I’ll go with another company.

My girlfriend and I recently relocated from Cleveland, OH to Austin, TX so there will be very similar reviews for both locations as we had encounters with both.
I must say the whole experience was awesome just about the whole way through. The price was very reasonable and comparable to driving a Uhaul, with the gas a mileage charges except you do not have to drive everything across the country.
The only reason they got 4 instead of 5 stars is that we called to say we would be there to pick up cubes between 2−4pm with our movers so the cubes would be ready so we wouldn’t have to wait. But when we got there at 2:30pm we had to sit around and wait for 20 – 30 minutes with our $ 80/​hr movers waiting for cubes to be pulled out of storage. Other than that … awesome experience. Would definitely recommend.

We used a relocube to move our household belongings from Portland, OR to Austin, TX. We had about 70 boxes and no furniture. We had looked into the costs of driving it ourselves, PODS, Uhaul’s pod-​like service, private shippers on Uship, and ABF had the best price. There were no hidden fees, pricing was transparent and they didn’t charge our card until cube was in transit. Customer service was excellent each time I called. I was very impressed by the professionalism of the ABF drivers. They were friendly, prompt, dressed neatly in uniform, very precise with the forklift and placement of the cube, and seemed to take pride in their work. The driver offered some tips on how to pack the cube to avoid shifting and damage during transport. We had the cube picked up on March 15^th, our belongings were delivered to us in Austin on March 25^th. It took a little longer than the estimate, but that was fine. When we opened the cube, it looked just like how we left it in PDX. ABF U-​pack offers to arrange separate loading/​unloading services, which although convenient, were very overpriced. So we arranged our own loading and unloading help for much cheaper. We did have some broken small items but I’m sure that is due to our not packing things as well as we should have. All in all we were very satisfied with the service and would recommend it.

We moved from Sunnyvale, CA to Austin, TX and we decided to use these relocubes, and we have nothing but good things to say about this company and the service.
You know the cost when you book, no hidden fees and easy to get ahold of when you had questions or wanted your cubes delivered from storage to new home.

This is an updated review. I am still not super happy with the whole situation, but after leaving a harsh review for the business there was some work to help remedy the situation on their end. Since I have used this company multiple times, I would say that on average they do a good job.

I used ABF for my move from Austin back to Los Angeles and am very pleased with thier service. They bent the rules a little bit for me and allowed me to pack up and have the pod removed the same day. At first I thought the pod looked tiny and was afraid none of my things were going to make it. We got everything in!!!
Back in L.A., they stored the pod for me until DH and I got settled in. The drop off was on-​time and easy. I hired two guys to unload it and NOTHING was damaged en route to Cali. I would definitely use them again. They are a bargain for the level of service.

I was initially pretty excited about the good price and excellent customer service that I received from UPack.
That was until my furniture arrived — broken and smashed — literally — it looked as though my belongings had been through a tornado. They were also covered in dirt.
I took GREAT pains to protect my furniture — I rented several packs of furniture pads from UHaul, I bought rolls upon rolls of bubble wrap and news print to wrap things in, and somehow, quite a few of my things were destroyed regardless. For example:
1. I had a lovely large dresser mirror that matched my other bedroom furniture — securely wrapped in furniture pad and placed between my bed mattresses — not only was the mirror shattered, even the wooden frame was broken.
2. I had an expensive TV/​fireplace stand — the top of it was smashed.
3. I had a sturdy wooden bookcase — a large chunk of wood was somehow missing.
4. Wine glasses that were wrapped in paper and packed in a divided box were smashed.
5. A lamp that was bubble wrapped and packed in a box — broken.
6. A sturdy office box with a lid on it — crushed.
I would not recommend this company to anyone who values their belongings.
The story gets worse: After I filed the claim, a week later I got this incredibly callous and insensitive response from claims representative Joyce:
March 26, 2012
Dear Ms:
We have received your claim filed for damage in the amount of $ 810.00 in reference to the above shipment.
Our records indicate that this shipment was tendered to ABF on ABF Trailer 501 797 to which your personal belongings had been loaded by either you or your representative (s). Our records also indicate that this shipment did not transfer during transit and was delivered to your Austin, Texas, location in the same trailer to which it had been loaded in Rochester, New York. We also do not find that this shipment was involved in any type of accident, vehicular or otherwise. As such, we must refer you to the attached copy of the U-​Pack Bill of Lading Contract under the heading of PACKING, LOADING, and UNLOADING, which states, in part: «Customer is responsible for all loading and unloading. The customer is responsible for packing all personal effects using proper containers and protective padding supplied by the Customer. Customer is responsible for installing the bulkhead, an
ABF-​supplied wall that separates Customer’s goods and other cargo on trailer. The bulkhead is not designed to withstand the entire weight of your belongings if the load shifts in transit.»
Based on the above information, we do not find that carrier liability has been established in this matter; therefore, we must respectfully decline participation in your claim. Thank you for your consideration in this matter.
Respectfully,
Joyce
I’m very disappointed with the service and response I got from this company. I would definitely never use them again, and recommend that you don’t either.

We recently used two ReloCubes to move from Austin, TX to Portland, OR.
We could not be more satisifed with this experience.
The two cubes cost us about $ 3000. The man who delivered the cubes was named Mark and he was a terrific ambassador for ABF. So kind and informative! The cubes were delivered as promised, picked up the very next day (because we loaded them immediately!) and they were delivered to us in Portland as promised on the exact day we had requested. Don’t even bother using another company’s pods. The ABF cubes are INDESTRUCTABLE. So sturdy and well built. Even the movers we hired to load them said that ABF relocubes were the absolute best in the business.
We highly recommend ABF for your moving or storage needs. They are extremely professional.
PS… Don’t bother using their partner firm «Moving Staffers» to help you unload your cubes at your destination city. Do some Unilocal research and hire your own unloaders. The ones that Moving Staffers hooked us up with were expensive… and not very good at all.

If I could use ABF again for every move I do in the future, I absolutely would. My one and only complaint about them is that they only offer their services for very long-​distance moves.
I had to move a household from Texas to Oregon. I called around town and got estimate after estimate. Ultimately I decided to go with ABF since it seemed to be the cheapest option. Since they are a national chain, I wouldn’t have to worry about paying for a driver or two to get to and from Austin, and I could get the loading and unloading done for a lot cheaper than every other place estimated.
I rented one of their tractor trailers and did the U-​pack option. They charged by the foot, and they estimated my house would need 18 ft in their big green trailers. If I used less than that, they would give me $ 100/​ft back. If I needed more, they would charge $ 100/​ft. Ultimately I paid just shy of $ 3k for the whole thing (Texas to Oregon), and I ended up using 19 feet in the trailer.
They dropped off the trailer in front of my house for 3 days, and I hired some professional movers to load it. All I had to do was be there for them to drop it off so they could explain some of the equipment (they use a sort of «divider» to hold everything into place, so they have to show you how that and the ramp works). I called ABF when it was ready to be picked up, and it took 5 business days to arrive. They drove it from Texas to Oregon, and dropped it off in front of the new place for 3 days. The rest of the interaction was done over the phone. I faintly remember being there when they dropped off the trailer again to inspect it and sign for receiving it. I did have to make sure I didn’t park my car in front of the house and asked neighbors to please not park there as well while I was anticipating the trailer’s arrival. I didn’t have to be there when they picked it up at either location.
Little tip for movers: make sure you get rid of the stuff that isn’t going to be worth $ 100/​ft to move. I sold a sectional and 2 couches and saved probably $ 500 or more since they needed to be replaced any way. I sold them for $ 600, so I considered it to be a win. I only had one small thing broken, but that was because I didn’t pack it very well. Just make sure your movers use rope to tie everything down inside the trailer. It’s going to be a long haul, so you want to be sure everything is going to stay put. Also, you will have to supply your own padlock and give them one of the keys. Make sure you keep the second key for yourself juuuust in case. I didn’t encounter any problems with that, but I just like erring on the safe side.
It was very well worth it, and MUCH more affordable than all the other options I looked into.

I learned about this company while doing a search for PODS before my move. First of all, ABF was about ¹⁄₃ of the price of PODS for a door-​to-​door storage cube delivery. Being on a budget I opted to rent space on one of their trailers instead, which was even cheaper still. For less than 1000 dollars I was able to move all of my things from Orlando to Austin, which was even cheaper than renting a small u-​haul truck (I only brought enough things for a 1 bedroom).
The service was spectacular at both offices. My estimated arrive date for my belongings was on a friday, but they called me that thursday to inform me that I would not be able to pick up my things until monday (they are not open on weekends), which was not a problem, since I wasn’t able to move into my new apt until the following saturday. They actually waived the 50 dollar per day retention fee for the trailer for the entire following business week! That friday I inquired if I could pick up on saturday and they told me as long as I could come down and put my own lock on the trailer they would pull it out front so I would be able to collect my things at my leisure over the weekend.
I am so grateful for having found this place. Not only did I save a lot of money, time and trouble but my whole experience in dealing with the employees was great. They were so friendly and helpful, I would definitely recommend this company to anyone planning on making a big move.