Q: Tell us a little bit about your company Real Deal Van Lines.
A: We’re a small, quality based moving company in Gardner, Massachusetts. We’re focused on low prices and the highest possible quality.
We paint our own trucks, we don't damage things. Moving companies go out of business based on high insurance rates. We don't crash trucks, we don't damage furniture.
Q: Can you tell us more about the services you offer to customers?
A: We will move everything from a twin-sized mattress to an eight person hot tub. There's really nothing we won't move.
Q: What sets you apart from other moving companies?
A: The size and focus on quality. There's plenty of other fantastic moving companies out there, but I feel like the vast majority of the industry is based on just wham and jam, get it done as quickly as possible and make as much money as possible.
We're quality over quantity and I feel like a lot of other moving companies out there are quantity based.
Q: What about your free packing services?
A: We don't charge anything additional for packing, it's included in the hourly rate. One of the nice things, if you book a move with us, our materials are sold to our customers at half the pricing.
We currently get our boxes through Collin's in Boston. They're fantastic, their prices are cheaper than even Home Depot and the quality of the boxes is double of Home Depot.
If you start with good packing materials, you really save yourself a lot of time loading and in damages.
Q: Do you offer discounts to specific customers?
A: There is a 10% discount for seniors, graduates and students.
Q: What's the most important piece of wisdom you can give to someone currently planning a move?
A: The two things [are], really calculate how close the movers are going to be able to get the truck to the load and the unload location. People with a small amount of furniture often don't understand that if there's a 200-yard walk, it's still going to take some time to get the move done.
My second big piece of wisdom is that, you should really – even if you don't purchase the boxes from us – you should get boxes from Home Depot or Lowes. Don't go to a liquor store, don't get free boxes. It takes the movers so long to load those because everyone's a different size.
Save yourself money by buying boxes. It doesn't seem like it makes sense, but it does make sense. You can save yourself more money and labor time on a move.
Q: What's the most common mistake people should avoid when moving?
A: At the end of the bill, it's 10 percent extra fuel charge per man. So if they have a three-man crew, the bill is going to be 30 percent more expensive than they thought.
People really need to read contracts. Ours is very simple. That's why we named the company Real Deal Van Lines. We are the real deal, there's no hidden fees, there's no nonsense.
People really need to be careful. We get a lot of customers that have previous movers where they felt scammed.
Q: Is there a better time you would recommend customers move to save money?
A: Absolutely! The winter is the slowest season in Massachusetts, definitely. New England you want to move in the winter if you're trying to save money.
And in the middle of the month. The first week and the last week of every month is when a moving company makes all of its money. That's how we stay in business. If you're willing to move in the middle of the month you can save a significant amount of money.
Q: What is your most memorable moving experience?
A: I moved a MAC OS programmer and his wife – his wife was an author. Car wouldn't start or something like that and the husband had to ride in the truck and then I had to go with his wife.
It was about a 2 ½ hour drive and it was really nice, we had a really awesome conversation. She just had a lot of great insight about life. (I was a little bit younger then, it was about seven years ago.) She just gave me a lot of great insight about relationships and life and everything. It was really great.
We run into people like that all the time, just awesome, awesome customers.
That's one thing I really love about the moving industry is that I get to meet people from all different walks of life and all different industries and interests. That's one thing I love about moving.
Q: Anything else you'd like to add?
A: Call us at 1-(800) 919-7382, we're here from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. We have a 100 percent satisfaction guarantee – you'll very rarely hear that in the moving industry.
Our most important goal at Real Deal is customer satisfaction.