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My Honest Review of U-Pack
Main Post:
I recently moved from California to Texas, and I want to share my experience using U-Pack. I called many, many moving companies, most of which were sketchy brokers, and I want to save others the trouble from sorting through this mess.
I spent a lot of time looking for a moving company. Most of which were pretty pricey (upwards of $6000) and I don't have that much stuff. Just a 1 bedroom apartment. I considered renting a truck and driving across the country, or selling my furniture and mailing the rest through USPS. I saw U-Haul handles shipping containers, and then I found U-Pack as an alternative.
The difference between U-Pack and a regular moving company is that you have to load and unload the storage cube yourself. Also, they promised 7-9 business days to deliver, unlike other companies that promised 21 days with no guarantee. I thought, "ok, I'll try this weird thing."
I did some research and couldn't find any red flags, so I called U-Pack and asked the sales rep a few questions. It sounded legit. I put my credit card down to reserve a shipping container, and he assured me my card wouldn't be charged until the shipment leaves (and he was right).
U-Pack gave me access to an online dashboard that showed everything I needed to know about the move. Wow! It had the estimated pickup and delivery dates and phone numbers to call for each step. Other companies had nothing like this.
I called the freight center near my apartment in California to schedule delivery. They promised a 4 hour window, and they would contact me at least one day before the scheduled delivery. Everything happened as expected. I was able to call of freight center on delivery day to check when the cube would arrive and narrow down the delivery window.
The cube arrived. It was 6 ft long, 7 ft wide, and 8 ft tall. My friends and I loaded the cube that evening. Unfortunately my couch didn't fit, but everything else did. (Note: you need to provide your own padlock!) U-Pack picked up my cube two days later.
Later, I realized that there's no space my new apartment building to place a shipping container overnight. I called U-Pack and they said I could pick up my stuff from the freight center. That also dropped the price by $450, but I had to find another local moving company to move my stuff the last 5 miles.
Additionally, the cube arrived in Texas 1 day early. U-Pack only holds your cube at the freight center for 2 business days, and each day after that costs you an additional $250! I needed to move fast. Fortunately, the local moving company had availability.
Final moving day. I got to the freight center and signed some papers. I finally opened the cube in Texas and found nothing had shifted in transit. Awesome!
The rest of the day went smoothly. I was worried that my stuff would get stolen, or the truck driver would say, "give me $1000 or I won't deliver." None of that BS happened with U-Pack or the other company. Here I am, a week after delivery, finally done unpacking and nothing went wrong.
I ended up paying U-Pack $3400, and all my stuff arrived, unbroken and on time, so I feel like I had a good moving experience.
Top Comment: I used PODS which is similar to move my dad to FL and the cost was $6,000 for 2 PODS. Not one problem at all. The quote for a legit company to move him was $30,000.