apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Sounds lo-tech, but turn to your Yellow Pages. Shipping, and Moving & Storage.

Also consider some of the container-ized storage places.

I wonder if Amtrak offers any kind of shipping?

Also inquire at your local UPS Store/Mailboxes Etc.

Does Craigs List have a section for "move sharing"...? (Maybe someone is moving a less-than-full truck or container the same way.)

If you are NOT in a hurry, you will have more options, too...

Fed Ex is usually very reliable. It's our preferred way of shipping art everywhere. While going ground is definitely cheaper than air, the potential down side is that the longer the pieces are out on the road, the more chance they have of getting knocked around, etc. Make sure you have the right insurance coverage and that the chairs are packed professionally.

Have you checked out any art handlers who make regular cross country runs to see if they will ship furniture?

Years ago, back in 98 to be exact, I used Amtrak to send all my belongings from DC to LA. It was cheaper than a moving company. Everything arrived fine, I just had to be there to pick it up when it arrived. I don't know if they still do this.

There is a HUGE difference between FedEx Overnight and FedEx Ground. The latter is atrocious. I've had several shipments literally destroyed by their handling. These were all double-boxed. In one instance, handling was so rough the outer box was deformed and it was jolted with enough force to break six connecting screw heads to the front of a computer case. Upon returning it to the original shipper via FedEx's pickup service, he found it to be further abused in transit and the item literally broke into two pieces.

I've had better luck with UPS Ground as that is what they are primarily geared to handle.

Also the insurance claim process with FedEx ground is ridiculous and they will try to give you as much of a runaround as possible.

For furniture, go with a good freight carrier and secure them to a pallet with a LOT of packing material all around. It's both cheaper and safer.

Any ground shipping (FedEx, UPS, ect.) is generally a bad idea. I used to work for a large chain furniture store and had to ship a client two chaise lounges from New York to Texas. Three weeks after the item was supposed to arrive the client called to tell me he had refused delivery of two badly damaged boxes. I was told by the shipper that a folk lift had been rammed through the pair of them. What was worse, we couldn't collect insurance because after the shipment was refused, it was thrown out and we didn't have any pictures of the damage. The cost of all this: $600.00.

Just fyi...Fedex Ground lost a table my husband bought when we were dating and it was never, ever found. I told our FedEx guy, and he said FedEx Ground is a completely separate company (I think they were acquired) and that they are, in his opinion, totally incompetent.

Are they small enough to be shipped on Greyhound? I'd try that. I'd never, ever ship anything FedEx Ground again. He eventually got reimbursed, but it was a NIGHTMARE.

I had a terrible experience shipping furniture fedex. They refused to tell me when it would be delivered to my home so I could plan to be there, refused my request of a certain time, refused to ship it to my workplace instead, refused to ship it to my local fedex/kinkos as they origianlly promised, then refused to send it out again after the 3 day period was up as it sat in a nearby warehouse that I couldn't get to. I eventually had it sent back to the seller where they were kind enough to eat the costs.

the shipping company is called plycon and they quoted me the price of $380 which included insurance. fed ex ground quoted me somewhere around 100 bucks (also including insurance, though i have a feeling it will be a bit more as the dimensions i gave them didn't include the packaging.)

per the comments above, i'm not going to use fed ex group, but the plycon quote seems a bit high or am i just being unrealistic.

Try Bax Global - great service and prices.

http://baxglobal.com/CorporateSite/?Clear=1

Good luck!

The Plycon quote sounds about right, for full-service (they pack it etc), door-to-door delivery across the country. And they know what they're doing, fine furniture and antiques-wise.

I can't believe Fed Ex would ship TWO CLUB CHAIRS for $100 across the country. Really? They must take up a huge crate or two, unless they're demountable.

I have to the second the negative comments about FedEx ground. Out of four Danish modern rosewood dining chairs sent to me via FedEx ground, two arrived with their legs broken off. This was despite extensive bubble wrap, foam padding and double boxing. Based on the damage to the boxes, the chairs were likely crushed by a fork lift.

FedEx ground is not the FedEx that we all know and use. It is a separate trucking company that specializes in less than load (LTL) freight. Run like a typical trucking company, it shows no mercy to fragile items.

Unfortunately, when dealing with furniture and shippers, things could arrive fully intact or they could arrive completely mauled. There is no sure fire way to know. I work at a modern furniture store with products shipped from Portugal, Brazil, Italy, Denmark..etc, etc.
First and foremost, its all in the packing.
Select someone who knows how to pack furniture and who knows which parts of the furniture need to extra protection. Corners need extra padding (and not just plastic, get some real sturdy cardboard corners or foam and SECURE it to the sofa with plastic wrap). If you can double box it, do so.
As for freighting, have you seen gas prices lately? We have noticed a SIGNIFICANT increase in our freight bills.

Ooooh. Pay attention. I just used this.

UPS bought the second largest trucking company in the US (called Overnight Freight, now going-all brown-truck). As of a few days ago they were having a 1/2 half off promotion. http://www.upsfreight.com/

Alternatively..go to www.freightcenter.com and get an online quote (which is pretty accurate).

If you're shipping a whole apartment there are better, cheaper methods. But...a couple pieces....these two resources are the sweet spot.

fyi -- pottery barn recently charged me $420 to ship two arm chairs.

when shipping with a freight company be sure and check references as well as with the bbb.

I learned about furniture shipping the hard way--and actually, Plycon's quote seems suspiciously cheap. I paid $750 from Florida to New York, and my stuff was still destroyed. (This was Craters and Freighters)

It's worth extra money to find someone who really knows how to pack furniture. I lost part of an heirloom, and it would have saved me money in the long run to use a more expensive service that would have been careful.

My advice with Plycon is to see if they subcontract. My damage occurred when my package was handed off (which apparently happened 2 or 3 times) to other trucking companies across the nation. See if that's the case, or if it stays on the truck. Otherwise, it's almost impossible to track where the damage happened. Oh, and my stuff also sat in water somewhere.

I too have had some horrible experiences with FedEx ground. When shipping a hutch cross-country they practically destroyed it and left it on the front porch without so much as a mention to the fact that contents were literally falling out of the box. Of course they said they would ship another one for free, but what a hassle!

After that incident I suppose our names got put on a "bad sender" list because a few days later my sister received a FedEx package, opened it, and found a rock inside. Yes, a rock! She thought I was playing a joke, so she called to ask about said rock. I did not send her a rock.

We finally tracked down who was supposed to receive this mysterious rock and it turned out to be some fossil that was to be delivered to a cancer insitute. Seriously, wtf????

I bought an Overman sofa from a guy in CA and used Greyhound to ship it.

From LA to NYC it was less than $75. I did lose a foot, but that was due to the incompetence of the person wrapping it. Not the geryhound folks. If it had been blanket wrapped, as promised, it would have arrived in mint condition.

You do need to drop it off and pick it up at the bus station.

http://www.shipgreyhound.com/