I relocated cross country - I was told by my compa...

I relocated cross country - I was told by my company that Plus would handle everything and my relocation line should cover the move, temporary housing, and help finding a place to live because of the special 'corporate rates' Plus got for them.

After an initial call, I was underwhelmed as the rep told me 'discount' corporate housing was available through them for the bargain basement price of $230/night with a 30 day minimum - higher than most hotels in the area. I was also told that help with an apartment search was a minimum of $1,000, took two weeks, and did not provide on site photos/visit by the company, assistance holding the unit for lease, or any kind of priority access to units. They basically provided a list of units from Craigslist and Market Listing Services. I was hopefully though as the rep told me the move for my one bedroom apartment with a month of storage in transit would not cost more than $4500-$5500 so I would have funds remaining to fly out, get temporary housing, and fly back to bring my pets out.

It took 2 weeks for their 'moving partner' to finally get in touch with me. I had gotten quotes in the interim but was assured that their 'partner' would offer a lower price so I let the quotes expire. Their 'partner' refused to do an on-site survey, did not offer a 'not to exceed' price (aka expect to get gouged on delivery, and took an additional week and change to get me a quote. They came back more than double every other quote. The special 'corporate discount' is that both Plus and their 'partner' but a massive markup on the quote from the local office. When I complained, the same rep who guaranteed that the move cost wouldn't be above $4500-$5500 denied ever saying that and said that $12,500 was 'standard' even though it was double what every other national and local mover had given me.

At this point I was less than a week from my move date, all of my other quotes had expired, and Plus' response was 'take what we offer or not-our-problem'. After I called my new company and explained what was going on, Plus came back and offered to 'see if they could massage the quote'. I sent them the other quotes I got and they told me it was dangerous to use the other companies as nothing was included like in their quote (newsflash: it was). Finally two days later they came back with a quote of $8,000 with a caveat that the other services I would need (crating of glass table top, storage in transit, and shuttle service at both ends) would cost an additional $4,500. Basically, they wasted two days doing nothing.

I had to scramble and call all the other companies I got quotes from back - thankfully Suddath Moving in Wayne, NJ offered to honor the original quote and after some back and forth waived the close in fee, although I still had to change my move date and push it back by 4 days.

The only good thing Plus did was offer to cover the difference between my original airfare and the final airfare that had to be booked last minute because of their delays (around $200).

Overall the experience with Plus was incredibly negative to the point that it made me reconsider taking my new job while dealing with them. If you have a blank check to move, great - use them. They will rip your company off instead of you. If you have a maximum for the move or are paying any amount out of pocket - run. They make their money by marking up quotes and taking a cut - companies use them because there is no fee to them. I can honestly say I would have been better off - financially, stress-wise, emotionally, and scheduling - to have never had to deal with them. In the future, I will be sure that any new jobs will not use them for relocation or will pay 100% regardless of cost.

tl;dr: Plus super-inflates quotes to make money off of you. Don't trust them, their quotes, or their timeliness or you will get screwed.