I would not recommend using Nationwide Relocation Services. My experience involved moving a one bed-room apartment from Chicago to San Francisco. This is how the process works: After providing a brief description of my apartment over the Internet to get a quote, I was contacted by Gian Morales, one of their sales agents. Although being very friendly and helpful on the phone, he failed to disclose that the company was only a broker and would not be doing the moving itself. The company makes you place a large "deposit" which they fail to mention is their commision. This deposit is calculated as a percentage of your "estimated" moving costs. So, they try to add on extra services, such as shuttle services, to get this deposit amount as high as possible. The shuttle service was not used by the moving company in Chicago yet I had no success removing it from the tab after the fact.
A few days before the move, a surly guy named Erik Boxer calls you up and "updates" your inventory. Gian had lowballed the estimate for the number of boxes I had and Eric ended up adding another 500 pounds which resulted in another deposit for Nationwide. The moving company that picked me up/was hired by Nationwide was Best Price Moving in Chicago. The guys who picked up my boxes were not very professional (very little english comprehension, one guy took a dump in my bathroom) but they did a good job except for a broken light bulb in the elevator. They were very quick. They took my stuff and all seemed well in the world...
Then I began my dealings with Mary at Best Price Moving. She was the most incompetent person I have ever dealt with. She was very apathetic and was never able to give me a straight answer as to when my stuff would arrive. I think she just didn't care. I had to call once a day, sometimes twice a day to finally get her to give me a window of four days: the Sunday to Wednesday before Memorial Day weekend. First of all, a four day window is rediculous, especially if you live in an apartment buidling where you need to reserve an elevator for the day. Then she gives me a number of the "truck driver" who explained to me in very broken english that he had pickups to do in Washington and Oregon and wouldn't be there till Saturday. I had explained to Mary that I would be out of town on Memorial Day. I kept calling Mary to reschedule. She kept giving me the okay...call back tomorrow and I'll have an answer. She never had an answer. The stuff finally arrived the following Tuesday from Gold Star Moving based in Santa Clara, CA. The guys who unloaded it were good so no complaints there. Their dispatcher was very unhelpful though.
So the stuff did arrive. My intial estimate was $2800. It ended up costing me about $3900. When you use nationwide, once they schedule the move and get your deposit, they are powerless and really have no interest in helping you. I had to pay the movers in a Postal money order which was sketchy too. When you use Nationwide, you don't know who you are actually getting to move your stuff. It could be anyone. Best Price moving gets a zero for customer service. Mary doesn't care about you and just wants to get you off the phone! Don't use nationwide. It is better to contract directly with the moving company.
