MOVING? Hire these guys. Period.

I first called the highest ranked company on yelp, Delancey, but they were booked. So, I called NorthStar.

Fate.

They showed up to my first apartment EARLY, but didn’t charge me for the time that they were just waiting around for me to get there. I had already packed all my stuff with Earth Friendly Moving boxes (highly recommended), so the 2-man team just loaded everything out. I tried to help, since I wanted to keep it at the 3-hour minimum, but they insisted that I just relax…they powered through!

My bed frame needed to be disassembled to fit through the doors, but they put it back together for me at my new place. They had a great attitude, were extremely professional and very fast. They kept it under 3 hours!

At the end of the move, they rang up my total at $100/hr which was more than they originally quoted me. One of the movers called the office and it was settled immediately.

I have a large collection of crystal glasses. I wrapped them all in the paper and packed them in the boxes supplied by Earth Friendly Moving and NON were broken. I was a little nervous when NorthStar even stacked the ‘fragile’ labeled boxes on top of each other, but was so happy when i unwrapped everything and all was good.

**a note about moving. if you dont want your stuff broken or damaged, pack it yourself. these guys move FAST. If you expect them to gingerly wrap every glass, and then pack it, then unwrap it, the move is going to take hours, then you’ll have to pay a lot. Do as much pre-packing as you can, and I gaurantee the move will be inexpensive, and less stressful too! You can always get friend to help you pack and upack your stuff, its the lifting and physical move that is the biggest burden…

Using NorthStar and Earth Friendly Moving boxes (which I packed prior to the move), I was able to move my one bedroom apartment across town in 3 hours.

The grand total was $432.

The first time I ever remember moving was when I was 5 years old. My parents have never moved since. Yes, they still live in the same house. I do recall one of the guys ended up with a serious back injury from moving the piano.  That’s another story in itself. Suffice to say, as a kid, it was traumatic to see, a human in so much pain. Maybe that’s why I ended up working in a hospital?

I wanted give my parents my refrigerator & I had some other items to move. The last moving company I used went out of business. It’s too bad, they were wonderful. 

This moving company was very prompt . Moreover they were responsive on the phone & in person. They asked all the right questions. They asked what size place I was moving from & going to in order to determine how many men and what size truck to bring. Multiple stops were needed, from my studio to a 1 bdrm., to a storage place that my friend let me use, to my parents home. I asked “would you please send some really nice guys?” Through it all, they were pleasant, patient & good natured.

I would suggest you know as much as possible, how you want your belongings packed, because they are lickety split, ever so speedy fast. Closely supervise too, because they will ask questions, “is this ok or no?”

They called & forewarned me they were stuck in traffic but would soon be at the 1st stop. They arrived within the originally alloted timeframe at my studio. 

They wrapped whatever was necessary, packed what I was too tired to pack (1 closet) & assured me it was going to be fine. They were very quick. Perhaps it didn’t look like a lot to them, but it sure did to me. They said, “don’t worry maam, we have lots of room in the truck.” When I peeked inside the truck, they had about half the truck empty!

I had a bed, padded head & foot board, loveseat, refrigerator, numerous boxes, bins, containers, plants, & wardrobe boxes. I thought I would need 2-3 wardrobe boxes. Ha Ha. They stuffed 9 wardrobe boxes, ca ching.

I had my closet divided into work clothes & play clothes. One of the moving men remarked, “nice work clothes”, I said “thank you.” Then he glanced at the play clothes before loading them into the wardrobe boxes & smiled, “soft & delicate!” 

They worked really hard, their attitude was a “can do with a smile, just you sit back & relax.” Even when they discovered a dresser mesh bin assembly that had a wheel which was already broken from years ago, they took it in stride. They didn’t ask me, “why don’t you just get rid of this thing?” Instead, they coaxed the old dresser mesh bin assembly in a gentle manner till it made it onto the truck. 

2nd stop was my new place. I requested moving blankets be spread out on my new carpet. They honored that request, again with a smile as they said “no problem, nice place.” 

Here’s where I made a mistake. I wished I had asked them to wash their hands or offered them premoistened hand wipes to get rid of the grime on their hands before unwrapping & assembling the padded head board. The man who assembled the head board (upholstered) stained it slightly, however when I purchased it, I bought a lifetime guarantee on it, so it’s a minor issue. If I can’t get the stain out myself, the furniture company will replace the whole padded head board. 

3rd stop was the storage space. Dropped off some containers. Here’s where the bill came in. They ran an estimate, because I was not going to the 4th stop. For all this an incredible $732.00

4th stop was a challenge. If you’ve ever been in L.A. gridlock, bumper to bumper, this was it. Just trying to get on the freeway must have been a nightmare. I passed them on the left & saw what they were in for, as the line to the onramp stretched on for miles. I don’t know how they managed it. However 2 hours later they made it to my parents & dropped off the refrigerator. 

I figured it took them at least 8 hours. I had bugeted much more than $732 & I think I got a bargain. The moving men were really nice too. Absolutely nothing was broken, despite many bumps in the road & even the glass shelves for the refrigerator. Everything works just fine, even my precious powerful microwave oven.

This was not the first time I used NorthStar Moving.

I used this moving company a few times in the past, and they always came thru for me in a big way.

It is very refreshing in this day and age to see a company that is so excellent at what they do, and is so concerned with their customer needs and feedback. 

The people on the phone are always very nice at NorthStar. They always truly listen to my needs, and then come up with the best moving solutions.

They provided me with their moving services from one place to another in Los Angeles, and then they moved me from Los Angeles to West Lake Village.

The guys that actually show up on the moving truck on the day of the move are always great. They are enthusiastic and always are professional and nice to deal with.

NorthStar Moving is the best moving company in Los Angeles! I will always use them for any move I will ever have, and I will recommend them to anyone that needs a moving company.

Ok, now I’ve been around the block…and I don’t mean in that slutty kind of way!  I’ve just had my fair share of movers, especially in Los Angeles…ok, 6 different sets of movers to be exact.  Oh all right…5…one company I used twice….you got me there.

Anyway…hands down…and I don’t say this lightly…NORTHSTAR IS THE BEST MOVING COMPANY I’VE EVER USED!

I’ve had some pretty darn Gawd awful experiences with movers and am understandably skeptical when it comes to picking a reputable one.  So….I went on-line and after perusing Yelp, I did a Google search and saw some stuff, cough cough, on that OTHER site…City Search…grrr…touting NorthStar as the #1 moving company in the LA area.  Well, that just wasn’t good enough for me..had it been Yelp touting it…well, then I would’ve picked up the phone right away!  So anyway, I dug a little further…turns out that NorthStar has like an A +++ on the Better Business Bureau’s website!  Holy HELL!  I think Starving Students had a D or lower which was shocking…so the A +++ totally caught my attention along with the aforementioned Top Ten mention.

So I bit the bullet and called NorthStar…

Seriously, I got the MOST attentive and charming individual on the phone and you could just tell there was pride in his voice…he really loved his job…you could tell!  I’ve never heard such enthusiasm…he gave me the low down regarding my move:

minimum of three hours
three guys
white glove service
no hidden charges
packing supplies would be extra…boxes, tape and the like…
wardrobe boxes would be supplied
they’d call me the night before with the exact time in the 2 hour window…
yada yada yada

And you know…they DID!  Not only did I get an email confirmation when I got off the phone after booking my moving appointment…I got a call the night before to confirm AGAIN!  And my window was 8-10am and they showed up at 10 minutes til 8!  Crazy!!

So a one bedroom apartment consisting of a sectional sofa, a SOLID teak armoire, a fridge, a bed, dresser, boudoir, and tons of heavy boxes and misc. furniture moved from a first floor one bedroom apartment to a 2nd floor (with 17 stairs straight up no less!) apartment took just over 3 hours and cost me $375!!

The three guys, bless their hearts, wrapped up everything…EVERYTHING…with moving blankets and tape so it was protected AND they got that heavy ass armoire up the stairs without a scratch!

The move took place on the 5th and today, the 9th, I received a HAND-WRITTEN thank you note from them hoping that all was well, that we were happy with our move and that they looked forward to working with us again in the future.

Now how’s THAT for service?!

Thanks Northstar for making an otherwise stressful occasion a very, very pleasant one. 🙂