U-Pack Moving

I am so glad we chose U-​Pack for our move from Denver, Co to Oregon! I looked into other companies like Uhaul and Pods, but U-​Pack was the only company that would let us pack up our stuff and store it for an unknown amount of time without an ending address. We hadn’t secured a place to live in Oregon yet and needed our entire house packed up and stored while we traveled/​figured out where we were going to live after selling our house. In both Colorado and Oregon, they showed up right in the beginning of the time frame they gave us, which was extremely helpful. Every single person, whether it was on the phone or someone driving a forklift was super helpful and friendly. They dropped the boxes off in our driveway and managed to fit them into the parking spaces we reserved at our new apartment complex to unload. They made this very difficult move much easier and if we ever had to move like this again, we would definitely use U-​Pack. They were amazing!

Highly NOT RECOMMENDED! I encourage you to find another company to handle your moving needs. I WILL NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY AGAIN!
Right off the bat they did not deliver the 28 foot trailer within the 4 hour window they gave themselves. I was quoted delivery between noon and 4pm. It arrived after 5:30pm. The company never offered to take a dollar of the bill or any other kind of compensation for HAVING TO WAIT AROUND FOR NEARLY 6 HOURS before I was able to start loading our belongings. VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE!
This made it extremely difficult to schedule/​hire moving help because no company wants to send movers out when you have no clue when they will be able to get to work.
On top of that, this company apparently is perpetually overbooked and their drivers are overextended to the point of always running late whether it’s delivery or pick up. They offered no intelligible explanations for this either. I simply received a matter of fact message from some mouth piece stating the trailer would be late. A POORLY RUN COMPANY ACROSS THE BOARD.
Once I called for the trailer to be picked up at 11:30am it wasn’t picked up until 8:15pm! To add insult to injury the driver who picked it up PEELED OUT after hooking his rig up to the trailer and we literally heard the crunch of our belongings shifting and smashing against the bulkhead. I can only imagine how the trailer was driven throughout the rest of its journey. (BTW, Our belongings arrived at the destination covered in a filthy film of grime with many of our boxes damaged and/​or smashed.)
The destination experience with this company was even worse (see my review of ABF UPack Tucson Arizona). If you absolutely must use this company for your moving needs I recommend you use their moving pods/​cubes instead of the cheaper 28 foot trailer especially if you’re moving from an apartment complex. It’s huge and very challenging finding a legal place to park it for 2 – 3 days. Plus its serious work using their extremely heavy, dangerous and awkward loading ramp and bulkhead contraption. The only instructions you receive on how to operate these things are verbal suggestions from the driver, if you’re lucky.
AN ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE COMPANY WITH CONSISTENTLY LATE DELIVERY AND PICK UP AS WELL AS INCOMPETENT EMPLOYEES WHO DO NOT COMMUNICATE OR COORDINATE LOGISTICAL INFORMATION ACCURATELY OR EFFECTIVELY. CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED.

This is the second time I have used ABF U-​pack for a cross-​county move. Although, I hope to stay put for a while, using ABF U-​Pack was worth every penny. In addition, their quoting system had a computer glitch with an extremely low quote if we loaded terminal-​to-​terminal (great for us, bad for them) but they honored it. If the quote weren’t such a great deal, I would have paid a bit extra for the door-​to-​door like we have done In the past, but we are talking thousands of dollars in savings. We are now in our new city. The entire process was smooth, and everything arrived safely and in a timely manner. We are so pleased! Thanks ABF U-​pack! By the way, it’s not just their location in Portland, OR that is great. I have had great success in Colorado Springs, CO and Kansas City, MO, as well.

Wow — honestly, I have ZERO complaints about our choice to go with ABF/​U-​Pack for our recent cross country move (from Portland, OR to Ann Arbor, MI). We have a very difficult driveway to navigate, and I was kept up the night before their arrival worried that they would refuse to park in it (our neighbors, who use the same driveway, had a company that wouldn’t park their moving truck in it). Needless to say, not only did the driver navigate our driveway (like threading a needle, seriously) he had a pleasant attitude the entire time (it took an hour).
We packed it up, it was picked up and delivered on time and I really appreciated all the reminder emails/​phone calls — it made me feel like my stuff was safe and my schedule was important to them.
Look no further, this is the company to go with!

I would recommend U-​Pack to ANYONE. my wife and I are currently int he process to move to San Diego, from Portland. And i must say they have been the most flexible and courteous people I have worked with. Gave accurate values and no hidden fees! Was able to work extra just to help me out with submitting my gypsy moth. I spoke to a Bo and Kendall and they went out of their way to help me. Kendall even provided a personal email to make sure my gyspy moth was submitted in a timely manner. They were even kind enough to drop off the pod to my storage unit to save my wife and I a huge hassle. We are only half way done packing and sending to Cali, but if the terminal is half as good as the one here in Portland, I am in good hands.
***** Five star service

U-​Pack was the right choice for me. I researched alot of alternatives like PODS, Pat-​rack, etc. They were very friendly, helpful and I was pleased to actually get a bill that was less than I anticipated (as I did not fill the ABF trailer all the way). Pickup and delivery went off as anticipated. They picked up the trailer the day I called them. Delivery was on time and was much faster than the PODS competitiion — and cheaper. I highly recommend U-​Pack.

The most reasonably priced of any moving option. These experts make things go smoothly.
We have run the «cost» test on two different moves. One from Portland, Oregon to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The other from Bountiful, Utah to Portland Oregon. It cost less to have this professional driver deliver than to drive a rented truck yourself. We went with ABF, u-​pack moving, for both moves.
This review is for ABF.
They drop the trailer off and give you reasonable time to load. Packing a truck for a move is not always the best day of ones life. The attitude of the drivers is tops. The company is patient and happy to answer every question.
The only things they could improve would be to rent straps and moving blankets. I spent almost $ 100.00 for straps I don’t see using again. (Maybe get into the box delivery business, along with the truck. Looks like u-​pack sell’s boxes… wish I’d known; I spent a $ 650.00 on quality U-​haul boxes. Not sure how u-​pack relates to ABF. Never knew of u-​pack before trying to write review for ABF.) Keeping prices lowest in the market with quality… these bonuses would be dreamy.
Have referred many friends all of who can’t believe they didn’t know about ABF. With quality like this word can’t help but spread.
This needs to be listed as ABF not u-​pack moving.

Thank you Upack for doing the right thing! My experience was not as simple and smooth as I hoped it would be. When I arrived on Nov 21 to load my belongings onto the truck there was no one present to give me access. It was locked up tight! This was only the beginning of a long chain of mishaps that ended in me being charged more than double the amount I had budgeted for. Two and a half weeks later we have come to a resolution. Thank you Brittney for you help. I will definitely use Upack again.

When I was looking at my move from Orange County, CA to Oregon, I was looking for a cheap way to do this while eliminating my stress. I called and talked to Michael with ABF and he was very helpful (I’m sooooo indecisive and had called multiple times with every question you could think of) and we finally got me set up with a terminal to home move with a quote of $ 915. I was set to take my stuff in on Thursday and was told my stuff would arrive between Tue-​Thu, I asked if they could hold my stuff for the weekend as I’d be away for training and they said no problem and it wouldn’t be an additional charge.
Upon arrival at my apartment Sunday morning, I realized that there would be NO way a trailer could be parked at the complex for 3 days to unload. I immediately called U-​Pack and found out that my stuff was already there! I was in a panic thinking I was going to be charged more money and wasn’t sure what to do. I talked to Steve, at the Portland terminal, as well as Joanne and they both assured me that there would be no extra charge since I can’t be punished for it arriving early. I also explained my issue of having to switch my move from terminal to home to now having to be terminal to terminal. They didn’t even question is and said I’d be refunded to the new price of $ 626. My refund automatically showed up a couple days later and I couldn’t have been happier with the customer service.
The refund easily paid for Northwest Movers to come and quickly get my stuff :)

I am so impressed. I always thought moving states was going to be a giant hassle with lots of stress, but the move was a lot easier than I expected. We looked in to every way to move my things from Oregon to Colorado, including using our own truck and trailer, but U-​pack was a lot more cost effective. The reservation was easy, they even offered a student discount, and my stuff arrive in Colorado way before I expected (They said to expect 6 – 8 days for arrival, but I was notified that it was here within 4).
I had to load at the loading dock in NE Portland instead of having the cube dropped off at my place because there was no level ground to place it on — I lived on a hill. The ABF warehouse personnel were all really nice, let me make trips and even let me tell them when my things were ready to go after I was comfortable with it. Really no hassle at all. When everything arrived It was barely shifted, partially because we packed it up and secured everything really well inside, but there was no indication that the pod was mishandled in transit or at all tampered with.
We unloaded in Colorado Springs at the docks again and it was as simple as could be. Since the pod arrived early I couldn’t get there to unload for a couple of days, and there was no problem or extra fee for that, which was really nice.
I never saw a charge I didn’t expect, everyone was always nice when I called with questions, and the pod was always easily accessible while we took care of moving what we needed to move. Loading and unloading at their dock turned out to be really simple and saved a lot of money, but I could see the benefit of door-​to-​door as well.
A couple of tips from a frequent mover: The better you pack your own stuff, the better your experience will probably be. I over wrapped all breakables and loaded the cube so that nothing had room to shift inside. I think that made all the difference.
If there was anything I would say that I was a little uncertain of the size of the cube and was told that it generally fit a one bedroom or studio apartment, but there is no way that thing would handle couches. I moved a full sized bed with headboard, footboard and mattresses, all of my clothes and gear, a ton of kitchen stuff, and some smaller home furnishings like lamps, books and artwork and the cube was very full. If you have more than a bedroom and kitchen to move I recommend getting more than one Relocube.
If I move again I will surely contact U-​Pack. They were exceptional.

We recently moved from San Jose to Portland and decided to use 2 shipping pods from ABF. They were really late for pickup which was a hassle since someone had to remain home till they arrived. We drove our own cars up to Portland later in the week and after 11 hours on the road, we arrive and open our containers only to find a lot of our stuff damaged. I packed these pods really really well because I know items might shift a little but not at this extent. Our couches we scratched up, tool box and lamps scratched, everything knocked over, completely cracked our big bookshelf, a black dust throughout the pods, and even the locks we bought to lock the pods were damaged and smashed. We filed a claim and ABF says that they aren’t liable and can only give us some money according to the weight which is $ 66. $ 66? That can’t even replace 1 item out of the many that they damaged. Would’ve been better to sell all our items and save the $ 1800 they charged us. We basically paid someone $ 1800 to break all our stuff. How is this even legal? I will never use this crappy company again.

Huge mess, I recommend paying extra for a competent moving service instead of being lured in by the cheap ABF rates. After going the extra mile to explain our need for specific weight tickets for a military move, the trailer showed up with improper paperwork and malfunctioning bulkhead equipment. This may sound like a small thing, but certain documents are required for military PPMs, and the delay has set off a chain reaction of SUCK. I called multiple times to make sure ABF understood what we needed and was assured each time it would come as we requested. We are now delayed at least a day and as such, had to cancel (and pay a fee) to our scheduled movers, re-​book last minute movers at a premium rate and deal with rescheduling other personal tasks this week, as well as accept a completely wasted day off work for me. I tried to keep a calm, cool demeanor when working through these issues on the phone with the ABF terminal, but was met with less than pleasant customer service. When there is a huge disruption in service that will cost my spouse and I additional time and money, please don’t treat me like a nuisance — and call back when you say you will to resolve the problems your company is responsible for! The «A» most certainly does not stand for Accountability. Go elsewhere with your money.

U-​Pack will remain tops on my list if ever I need to ship furniture across country again. After scoping out various you-​drive rental options and other moving companies, U-​Pack seemed the most cost and time efficient. Never using such a service before, it felt like a gamble.
From beginning to end the service was fast, clear, and efficient. The company has the process down, from showing up at the pick up destination, to delivering The Cube to our home.
Tips: We didn’t pack our cube so we needed to imagine how the contents might need to be secured. We purchased bubble wrap, and used heavy-​duty straps. The Cube did have hooks inside its walls to secure these braces. The padlock we used to lock the outside door was significantly mangled, I imagine as a result of it being stacked beside other heavy objects. It stayed locked, but we needed a bolt cutter to get the lock off. Don’t know how we could have made it more flush. We learned that winter is a down time for them, so it was less expensive shipping prior to spring.
Hope this is helpful to anyone trying to figure out how to move across country.

Completely satisfied. We moved from albuquerque to Portland, OR and had a great experience with ABF/​Upack. Pods were dropped off Friday afternoon in Abq, one of them had a small hole in it but Upack had no problem dropping off a brand new pod on Saturday. Pods were picked up in timely fashion, stored for 2.5 months and dropped off at our new apt in Portland looking great. We only gave them 2 days notice at our new location and they had no problem with it. They did a great job figuring out where to park the flatbed and get into the driveway on a one way street. We finished emptying the pods on the same day and they picked them up at 8am the next morning (on a Sunday). Never had to be on hold on the phone. Great customer service. Straps and blankets are not a part of the pods, which is the only improvement I could suggest.

This is now the second time I’ve use ABF — the first time I used their freight trailer option to move from CT to OR. The most recent time I chose to go with 2 cubes on my move from OR to OH. What impresses me most with this company is the customer service. There’s is zero hassle, and incredible flexibility. I needed to move both the pick-​up and drop-​off dates by 1 and 2 days and they were super accommodating. No charges and run around. They show up when they promise and the drivers are professional. Equally important is the cost! I did a fair amount of research and ABF is by farrrrr less expensive than similar moving companies. I have a 1 BR apt (mattress, frame, sofa, armoire, arm chair, 4 bar stools, island, foosball table, 2 small bookshelves, 3 bikes, and about 40 – 50 boxes. With all of that I needed 2 cubes. But had I not needed the second, they would’ve picked it up with no charge.
For my next inevitable move, I’ll be using ABF without a doubt.

So after only 9 months in Portland, I decided to move back to Vegas and of course opted to use ABF again after such a great experience in March. I was smart this time and paid extra for door to door — soooo worth it. They’ll park it anywhere you want in front of your house, and you have up to a week to pack/​unpack at your leisure ²⁴⁄₇. City of Las Vegas doesn’t care, but be sure to check whether your other city requires a parking permit for the container (Vancouver, WA did). $ 25 for a right of way parking permit is better than a yet another stupid parking ticket.
I moved with furniture this time, so needed a 2^nd container — it was under $ 400 extra. If you have any doubt that all of your crap will fit into one container, just reserve a 2^nd in case. There’s no charge if you don’t end up using it, but there is one for them to drop it off on a 2^nd trip.
I said it before, and I’ll say it again — pack everything as tightly as you can, and use clothes in trash bags to fill any gaps. Since I could pack and repack at my leisure this time, things were in there TIGHT and everything barely shifted. Another thousand mile trip with nothing broken!
Everyone on the phone at the Portland and Las Vegas offices (and 800#) were extremely nice, helpful and flexible with changes. They did same day delivery/​pick up both times — depends on their schedule, but shouldn’t be longer than the next day after you call.
Only minor issue was that the day of delivery, someone called to say they were 20 min out. I rushed home, waited for an hour and called the Vegas office when nobody showed up. Dispatch had no clue who called, and someone came a couple hours later. Not a big deal and I love them anyway.
I’m determined never to move out of state ever again, but I do recommend ABF to anyone who says they’re moving. Good or bad — if anything is broken, you know it’s probably your fault.

My partner and I just relocated from Chicago to Portland, OR. We looked into all options, including renting a U-​Haul, but when you factor in all expenses, ABF ended up being the most reasonably priced and convenient!
The relo cubes are smaller than PODS, but you can use two or three if need be (we only needed one). They were awesome. we did a live load in Chicago and a live unload in Portland… all our stuff arrived safely and on time!
My only advice is consider how you will pack TALL since the actual area of the cube is small… you will have to stack things up, volume wise. So, make sure boxes are secure and strategize how the heavier stuff will go on the bottom.
The driver in Chicago had a little attitude problem at first which was actually his sense of humor that, under all the stress of moving, we didn’t find amusing. That said, everything got shipped off fine and the driver in Portland was prompt, friendly and helpful. GREAT OPTION FOR MOVING!!!

We just moved from nyc to Portland using the ABF Upack Relo-​cube (options are cube, or pack a portion of a freight trailer). Service was amazing from start to finish — all contacts with the call center, as well as the terminal locations, were professional, helpful and the info we were given was accurate.
We packed our cube in about two hours — an entire studio worth of furniture plus odds and ends like bike’s, etc. There are so many options for loading an unloading (at your place, or at their terminal) as well as affordable storage for your items.
I can’t say enough good things about this process. Sometimes I like to complain, but I can’t even make something up here. Feel free to send me a Unilocal message if you want more info about our experience using the relo cube.
L

I would never recommend ABF to anyone, unless i hated them.
I guess, if for some reason you’re compelled to use ABF, pay extra for the improved insurance. The trailer our stuff was in leaked, causing water damage to several pieces of furniture. The default insurance pays a whopping $ 0.10/lb for damage, even when caused by ABF’s own negligence. This means that because ABF has poorly-​maintained vehicles, my possessions got damaged, and i got all of $ 17 to replace two huge bookcases.
Of course, once you buy the extra insurance, it’s not so cheap compared to the competitors.
Also, my stuff looked like the truck had been transported through time, space, and the 4^th wall so that the driver could participate in that interstate chase scene in the Matrix movies. I’ve moved 10x in the past 10 years, and four of those were cross-​country moves. I know how to pack my stuff so it’s pretty stable. I might as well have packed my stuff into a cement truck for all the agitation it seems to have suffered. The furniture that wasn’t damaged by the water was nearly all damaged by apparent violent shaking and at least one sudden, hard stop. Of course, i couldn’t even get my $ 0.10/lb for the damaged furniture and some destroyed dishware because ABF can claim that i didn’t ‘properly secure the load’.
I’ve done a move with PODS, and a PODS knock-​off, and they were as good as ABF in every way, and better in most. The only thing ABF got right was removing my empty trailer in a timely fashion, and that’s pretty pathetic.

Wow. I never imagined that moving thousands of miles could be so easy! A few months ago, when reality set in that I would have to move all my stuff from Austin to Portland, I had a minor freak out. I had no idea how to get everything there. The one thing I knew was that I did NOT want to drive a moving truck or attach anything to my little honda civic.
I looked into PODS. They seemed to be a big name and reliable. But, they wouldn’t let me use the little sized pod to go across state lines. Since I don’t have much stuff, I didn’t want to waste the money or the space to rent the big size.
My boyfriend found ABF. I had never heard of it. I was skeptical (as usual). But I read some online reviews (none from Unilocal yet) and decided we would do it.
I am so glad I did! The «relo cube» (not a «POD») came on a Friday morning. The man in Austin was friendly and awesome and I had a great time watching the whole cube unloading process. The cube sat in front of my house until Wednesday. Slowly but surely we filled the cube. In the hot Austin summer, it was soooo nice to be able to do it at our own pace. We filled a little, rested a lot, filled a little. (I mean who wants to do a huge move when it is more than 100 degrees outside?!) When we finished we called and they picked up our cube.
Then we drove my little car to Portland stopping all along the way. I guarantee we could not have gone to Yellowstone in a moving van and the steep drive into East Oregon would have been a whole lot scarier if we had a car hitched to the back of a U-​Haul.
We got here and had the cube placed in storage until we found the apartment of our dreams (that can be another review later). In the meantime I heard horror story after horror story about moving companies. I started to get a little nervous.
Then ABF reassured me again. When the first contracted month of storage came to the end, they called me! I didn’t have to call them… they called me to see if I wanted to arrange a delivery or if I wanted to extend my time. What other company would do that?!? Most places would probably hope you forget so they can trick you into paying for another month. Reassured we signed up for another month until we found that perfect apartment.
The perfect apartment was found and we called for delivery. As always the customer service was wonderful. They came and dropped off our cube without any problems. And… everything was in the exact condition it was in when it left Austin.
They sent us a survey after it was all done. I thought to myself «Yes! I can tell them how wonderful a job they did!» Unfortunately, the survey did not ask any questions that would allow me to compliment them so highly. That is why I turned to Unilocal.
Amazing. I recommend this to everyone and I hope if you have to move you will have the same awesome experience I had.