How We Are Different from other International Movers
It used to be that when you wanted to move your precious household goods to or from Mexico, you had only Four Options:
- Don’t move your household goods at all, because it’s too expensive. For many people, this can be an unexpected realization and also a heartbreaking one.
- Take so few items that you can move them in your own car, van or pickup truck. Usually this means moving just your very most important sentimental items, while leaving your other less sentimental items behind. This is perfectly legitimate, because you are not a “mover for hire”; the items you’re transporting are yours; and you have a very small amount. You wouldn’t even need a menaje de casa or a customs broker.
- Turn over the precious goods you took a lifetime to accumulate to “A Guy with a Truck” who will try to sneak your items across the border. “The Guy” may not tell you that he is breaking the law in both the US and Mexico; that he’s not using a customs broker, or that there is no way he can offer insurance on your household goods. (Ever wonder why he cannot offer insurance and how you would feel if something happened?)
- Utilize the services of a big, well known, antiquated moving network like Allied, Mayflower, or United with all their outdated and expensive methods, less than stellar customer service, and uneven results that you can read about in their reviews.
Starting in 2018, you suddenly had another option - the Best Mexico Movers Option.
How is our option different?
- Because we generally charge a lot less than the Antiquated Movers, you may not have to give up moving your cherished household goods, after all.
- While we may not charge less than "The Guy with a Truck", that's because The Guy doesn’t have all the costs we do in order to protect you by being legal and legitimate. Our price is usually not that much more, which could make you less desperate and willing to accept a lot of risk and just pray that The Guy can come through and you’ll see your household goods again.
Our process was conceived and constructed to strike the perfect balance to achieve the lower costs compared with the Antiquated Moving Companies and lower risks compared with The Guy with a Truck while providing the highest quality, personalized service. When you move with Best Mexico Movers, you don’t give up anything, except for risk and high costs.
So, let’s talk about that process and our service. We won’t bother to contrast against The Guy with the Truck because each Guy is different and by now, you know the risks. So we’ll just contrast our process with the other choice that many people consider - the Antiquated Moving Network. While most people aren’t aware of how they really operate, almost everyone has heard their names: Allied, Mayflower, United, etc.
Origin Agents
How Antiquated Movers Do It:
Antiquated Movers use a network of agents. There is an Origin Agent, the network in between, and then there is a Destination Agent.
The Origin Agent is the one who will come to your home or do a survey over the phone. That Origin Agent almost never knows anything about moving to Mexico and couldn’t care less; they’re just the agent for the Antiquated Moving Network in your area in the US or Canada.
The Origin Agent will want to do all your packing and loading because that’s the only way that they make their money and sometimes they will come up with some pretty inventive reasons (many not true) for why this has to be the case. They charge a fortune to the network that then charges you, which is one of the reasons why moving to Mexico with Antiquated Movers can be so expensive.
But that’s not the worst of it. The worst of it is that sometimes they do a good job packing and loading, and sometimes they don’t. You don’t get to choose who your Origin Agent is; one is assigned to you. That’s part of the reason why you see such uneven reviews of the Antiquated Moving Network. If the Origin Agent did a good job, the move will start off well. If the Origin Agent did a bad job, there is nothing the rest of the Antiquated Network can do.
How Best Mexico Movers Does It:
We do not use Origin Agents at all. Instead, we connect you to small independent packing and loading services.
There are lots of good, independent packers and loaders who are not part of the Antiquated Moving Company Network. They tend to be smaller companies (lots of times, you can talk to the owner), they tend to be more interested in doing a good job, and they tend to charge about half as much as the Origin Agents from the Antiquated Moving Network.
So, with the Best Mexico Movers process, you get to choose who comes into your home, you can do as much or as little of your own packing and loading as you wish, and you can pay less. In the Best Mexico Movers Process, you pay your packers and loaders directly. We don't make one penny, but we will introduce you to several packing services from which you can choose, and we will work with them on your inventory, menaje de casa, and insurance. With the Best Mexico Movers Process, you win, and the Origin Agents from the Antiquated Moving Network don’t.
Transloading and Consolidating
How Antiquated Movers Do It:
When the Origin Agent from an Antiquated Moving Company loads your items into their truck, they don’t go where most people think they go. They go to a warehouse, where they take your precious household goods back out of the truck and put them into the warehouse, usually using a forklift and those big wooden boxes they like to put your items into at your home. This is called “transloading”.
Then, they wait for enough other people’s household goods to arrive so they can combine your household goods with other people’s items into a big, 53-foot trailer and load up everything for transport to the next warehouse. That’s called “consolidating”.
They then transport your household goods along with others to the next warehouse, where they do the entire transloading and consolidating process again - taking your items back out of a trailer and putting them into a warehouse, combining your precious household goods with other people’s, and trucking everything to the next warehouse along the path.
It depends on where you’re coming from and where you’re moving to, but in general, you can count on this process of transloading and consolidating happening anywhere from four to six times before the last truck arrives at your new home.
Ever hear about items getting “lost” during a move? Or someone getting household goods that are not theirs? Transloading and consolidating is how a lot of that happens. Is it possible that everything could go fine? Yes, it is. However, nothing good happens when your items are continually forklifted into and out of warehouses throughout two countries. You can imagine.
If you wonder if the moving company you’re considering is transloading and consolidating, just ask them how long it will take for your precious household goods to arrive at your new home. If you get an answer along the lines of “From two to six weeks”, you will know what they’re doing.
How Best Mexico Movers Does It:
Except for when we import our clients’ household goods through San Diego, Best Mexico Movers does zero consolidating and only one crossload (from one truck to another). Here’s how it works.
There are several ways we can pick up your household goods from your home in the US or Mexico, but however we do it, after your precious possessions are loaded into our truck or trailer, they are never touched until they reach our customs broker’s facilities.
Just before your household goods arrive, we call for the truck that will be delivering your household goods to your home in Mexico. That truck comes up from Mexico and goes over the border to our customs broker’s facility. The truck that came from your home in the US or Canada and the truck that will transport your household goods in Mexico are both pulled up to a dock so we can walk between them. Your household goods are then moved, one time, from one truck to another. Your precious items are not put into a warehouse, and they are not mixed with other people’s possessions; they barely touch the floor.
Then we send the truck over the border, and right after it clears customs we attach a numbered tamper-proof seal to the door. This is the seal that they break in front of your new home in Mexico. The truck is for your exclusive use. No stopping to put your items in a warehouse or to pick up or drop off other people’s items.
The procedure is slightly different in San Diego, but not much. Please ask us about it.
If we are moving you from Mexico to the US, the process is essentially the same, but reversed.
Charging by Weight or Volume
How Antiquated Movers Do It:
Antiquated Moving Companies normally charge by weight. What happens when you get an estimate based on weight? Do you know how much your household goods weigh, so that you can check your estimate against the estimate from the moving company? If you can, you possess a very unusual ability.
Too often, the Antiquated Moving Company will give you a quote at least in part based on the weight of your household goods. Then, after they load your items in their truck, and on the way to the first warehouse where they plan on transloading and consolidating your household goods, they weigh the truck. What happens if it turns out (surprise!) that your household goods weigh more than in your quote? You could owe many thousands of dollars extra. Good luck negotiating that, now that your household goods are out of your possession and loaded into their truck.
How Best Mexico Movers Does It:
Best Mexico Movers charges by volume (cubic feet), instead of weight. Why? Because while virtually no one knows how much their household goods weigh, pretty much everyone can see how much room they take up in the truck. What you see is what you get. We wouldn’t do it any other way.
Insurance on your Items
How Non-legitimate Movers Do It:
Do “guys with trucks” offer insurance on your precious household goods via a reputable, third-party insurance company?
Ask them. You may not like the answer.
And don't let them answer something along the lines of "Yes, we have insurance for our driver or and truck". That is not the question you’re asking them. You are asking if they insure your household goods.
If any supposed “moving company” does not offer insurance for your household goods through a reputable third-party insurance company, you are not talking with a legitimate moving company. All legitimate moving companies offer insurance of one kind or another. If the company or person you’re considering using does not, it almost certainly means that they cannot get insurance, which almost certainly means that no insurance company would take the risk to deal with them.
If the insurance company considers them too risky to insure against a claim, why wouldn’t you consider them too risky to be in full control of the possessions you accumulated over a lifetime?
How Antiquated Movers Do It:
There are two ways Antiquated Moving Companies offer insurance: by weight, or by declared value.
If the Antiquated Moving Company tells you that the price of your coverage is included, without you valuing your household goods, that probably means that your insurance coverage is by weight. The coverage is usually 60 cents per pound. (Yes, you read that right.) This means that if your 9-pound television is destroyed you get $5.40. Does this sound like good insurance to you?
Some Antiquated Moving Companies offer the same insurance as us. See that described next.
How Best Mexico Movers Does It:
Best Mexico Movers does not offer insurance by weight. Instead, we offer insurance be based on the value of your items.
When you do business with us, we offer you several different policies from a legitimate, third-party insurance company based in the US. As part of working with our team's insurance specialist, you will assign a value to your household goods. Depending on which policy is right for you, there is a factor that we multiply the total value by, and that’s how much you pay for insurance. Transparent, smart, and useful.
How We Keep Track Of It All
There are lots and lots of details that have to be done correctly in order to properly move your precious household goods from the US or Canada to Mexico or back. To keep track of it all, we utilize project management software. With between 20 to 30 moves in process at the same time, how else could we do a good job?
When you work with us, you’ll get your own Personal Moving Assistant (see below). Your personal moving assistant will create for you a customized checklist, which will show every significant event of your move, and when that event is scheduled to happen. That way, you’re informed and you’re comfortable, because you know the plan. We don’t like surprises, and we’ll bet you don’t like them either, especially when the surprises are about the transportation and importation of your precious household goods.
And that brings us to our most important asset - our people; the ones you would work with directly, and the ones working on your behalf behind the scenes.
Given that we started with one employee, (the founder, in 2018) we have been able to very carefully decide who to add to our team. Here’s what we look for:
- Extreme competence, knowledge, ability, and organizational talent
- Bilingual and bi-cultural
- Patience
- Empathy
(They are also a lot of fun and great to be with. Here’s a link to their profiles ).
Your Personal Moving Assistant
When you do business with us, we assign you a dedicated Personal Moving Assistant (PMA). Your PMA will be in charge of every aspect of your move, from supervising the packing and loading, to when trucks arrive, to all document submissions, your insurance, etc. (You get the picture.) Your PMA will guide you and be with you every step of the way. We don’t leave you to fend for yourself or to wonder what’s happening next.
For those of us working at Best Mexico Movers, this is not just a job; without sounding overly dramatic, it is a bit of a calling. Each of us is extremely aware that moving your household goods to or from Mexico is one of your biggest life events and that how we handle that event will in some part either set you on a good path in your new country, or leave you with a bad feeling, which could affect how you view things later. This is the driving force that makes us all care so much and to put in so much effort into making one of your first and most important events here in your new home in Mexico or the US a positive one. We do our best.
Here’s a link to meet your Personal Moving Assistants.
So now you know how Best Mexico Movers is different and how we may be able to help you with your move. Here are some Testimonials of the results we’ve gotten for several clients, just like you. And if you’re interested in learning more or getting an estimate, please fill out our Contact Form.
