Moving with PODS or Door-to-Door...

[Brandon Burke]

Hey folks,

I've been away for about two months or so without regular Internet access and lots to do at work.

So I'm moving from Austin to San Francisco in the next couple/few weeks. I accepted a position at Stanford, setting up an audio preservation lab. Got tired of waiting for Library of Congress human reseources to figure out who they wanted to hire for their preservation spot so I said "the hell with it" and commited to Stanford. Should be fun.

I was wondering if anyone had used either the PODS or Door-to-Door companies. The only reason I'm asking is that I will need to take advantage of their stotage option, since I won't have a place to live for a few days--maybe a week--after I get there. In a perfect world I'd be able to just have a moving company do the whole thing but I've got about 15-16 boxes of LPs that can't go in the back of a moving truck. (Especially through New Mexico/Arizona/southern CA.)

So I submit to you these inquiries:

1) How good/bad is the PODS thing supposed to be? Any stories?

2) How much does it service cost? It's a real pain in the ass to get an estimate and I'm at work right now.

3) Any ideas as to how to move my records, short of simply renting a van and hitting the road?

Thanks as always,

Brandon

[bertrand]

Brandon,

Sorry the Library of Congress didn't pan out - the government is notoriously slow, and they lose a lot of good people by dragging thier feet. Stanford comes out the winner.

When is your last day? Let's try to get together before you leave.

Bertrand.

[catesta]

In your case, unless you could find a moving company offering some type of short term storage special, the cost will kill you. I've seen companies advertise 1 week free storage with a full service move. You might look into it.

My sister used a door-to-door service when she moved a few months back. She said it was great. They dropped the container off, she packed it, they picked it up and trucked it to the new pad.

I noticed the PODS website does not offer much information.

See

They have a warehouse right next to my office, I'll see if I can grab a pricing schedule.

I would worry about the record collection no matter how it was moved, unless I did it myself. If you don't have a lot of other stuff to move, this may be the best route.

[J Larsen]

When I moved out here from the west coast, I put everything I wanted to keep, including a huge number of records, in boxes with bubble wrap and packed it onto a freight train. It was ridiculously cheap (something like $1/lb), and everything arrived in time and in perfect condition.

[Brandon Burke]

Yeah, the PODS website doesn't offer much. Unfortunately, I've been putting in such long days at work that I haven't been able to call around. There's also the Door-to-Door company and their estimate was $1500 for everything: box rental, delivery, storage in SF for the first couple weeks, etc.

(The LPs are a different matter entirely.)

As for the fright train...I wouldn't even know where to begin researching that one. Who should I begin asking about rates, etc? Who would the official carrier be (i.e. who should I call)? How will I know that they will be stored in climate controlled cars?

Believe me, this is information I'd absolutely love to have because I'm less than thrilled about driving from Austin to SF by myself, just to take some damned records. I mean I'd love to see that part of the country and all but...c'mon.

Again, any ideas or leads--and I'd appreciate some more info about the train option--would be much appreciated.

-- Brandon

Thanks to those who've responded, by the way!