Movers Insurance - a good idea?

[volcs0]

Our movers have "included" insurance, which is basically covers us for about $8000, say, if the truck were to blow up.

For $600, they offer $75,000 protection.

My questions:

1. Does my home-owners cover anything?
2. I'm paying for the move with my Amex. Does that cover anything (I have not called them yet, but will).

I'm not really a risk taker, but $600 on top of a $9000 move sounds like a lot of money.

Thanks for the advice.

[mjgkramer]

I don't know if you are covered or not, but be sure to have some kind of extra coverage. It doesn't take much loss or damage to amount to $600. Something else to watch out for is that the driver, at least in our experience, will often note a condition on the inventory that suggests that items are in much worse condition than they are. That way he is not responsible for damage that does occur.

Many years ago, we had bought a house full of Ethan Allen furniture just before being transferred from Oklahoma City to Los Angeles. I didn't pay attention to the condition of things that had been noted until after arrival. Instead of having a load of essentially brand new furniture the inventory made it appear that we had just bought it from Good Will. Go over the inventory with the driver and make sure you agree with any condition that is written down.

We had several cross country moves and always sustained a good bit of damage, even using major carriers. I don't know if they do it now, but the driver would pick up day laborers who had no training in wrapping and packing stuff. On one move one of the packers smelled of booze and I asked that he not allowed to pack our things.

[AlphaDog]

I think you better be checking with both Amex and your insurance company instead of asking here!

I don't see anything within my Amex agreement that would cover the value of the items being moved, although I suppose, through a big stretch, they might cover the cost of the moving services you charged on your card if your stuff never got to the other end. If you read the cardmember agreement, references are generally for tangible items purchased with the card within a given timeframe.

And the first question that popped into my head when I saw the question about the homeowners coverage was "What home?" With a couple of exceptions, the household items covered by your policy are pretty much assumed to be damaged or destroyed at the same time as your home sustained damage. If your household items are in a moving van, they're no longer a "matched set" with the house.

Calls to both are in order, but you might want to begin preparing yourself mentally for coughing up the other $600. They are interesting questions, though, so when you get an answer, let us know.

[kap]

My friend should have before her thousands of dollars worth of antique furnitures were damaged beyond repair by the movers.

[Yoyodyne ArtWorks]

I wouldn't even think of moving without replacement value insurance from the mover. I'd say the odds of the movers doing at least $600 damage to your property are pretty good (sadly).

[John B.]

The moving company's insurance also often helps if the movers damage the building at either end of the move. When I moved a couple years ago, the movers punched two fist-sized holes in the drywall moving a desk up a stairway. As an insured, interstate move, I just contacted the moving company and they sent out their local repair contractor to patch the holes...a lot easier for me than trying to find someone in a new city to do it (actually, I would have done the repairs myself had it not been for the insurance).

[mjgkramer]

On our last cross country move from LA to New Orleans, the company (Shell) paid to move our Triumph Spitfire sports car and small tent trailer. The van had enough room so they put both into the van with our household goods. Somewhere along the way, they managed to rip the exhaust system off the car and punch two holes in the side of the tent trailer with the fork lift they were using to move it. They had also packed the seat part of a four legged Ethan Allen stool in the same box with wife's ceramic kiln. The fire brick did wonders for the stool's finish.

We experienced the least damage on our overseas moves from Houston to Muscat (Oman), from Muscat to the Hague, and from the Hague to Austin, TX.

[space-time]

sounds like a lot of people have had at some point some unpleasant experience with movers. we moved last year from CT to NJ, and the moving company (Graebel) did an outstanding job at packing, moving and unpacking things. The driver came with two other guys to pack, they were a team, definitely not day labor guys. One of them had a personal thing to attend the next day, but the driver and the other guys came to the new place in NJ and unpacked things without any visible damage, in fact the furniture was in such a good shape that I would not even tell it was moved from one place to another. They packed everything in *thick* blankets, and treated everything so gently like it were ethan allen furniture, yet it was mostly cheap junk from the everyday furniture store...

I highly recommend Graebel, based on this limited experience. They may suck in most cases and somehow I got lucky, I don't know, that could be, but like I said, I was 120% satisfied with them on this occasion.

[S.Taylor]

Be sure to check for missing items at the other end too. My brother in law had some (expensive) items that "mysteriously disappeared" somewhere between Georgia and Texas.

[mjgkramer]

The advice on missing things reminded me of the advice we received when loading to leave from Oman to relocate in Holland. The first advice was from our Indian house boy (43 or so years old) who insisted on packing our things himself, which we allowed him to do. Only one bowl was broken in transit. The other advice was to take pictures of major things such as silk carpets, which sometimes disappeared. The household goods were temporarily loaded onto a truck and then packed in a sea container at the port without the owner being present so there was plenty of opportunity for things to go missing. We had bought a few expensive silk carpets and had two that we were transporting for my ex-boss. I filmed the rolling, wrapping, and carrying of the carpets into the van. I also filmed the crew boss and tipped him well. Everything made it to Holland.