I used Allied for my move in November 2008. Allied was very polite, worked quickly, and also thoroughly wrapped my items and placed them appropriately. I have no complaints and will use them again in the future.

I used Astro moving affliated of Allied and it was the worst experience of my life and my family. We worked with the hand and hand , the owner was a bad guy and the salesperson whom priced the job charged us additionally 40%. He said he make a mistake and it took to long. I moved less than 2 miles away!! Don't use this company. They go under ASTRO and are located in New York and FL . Good luck it's hard enough to move no less deal with rip off companies.

I cannot have had a worse move from a company. I used Federal Companies out of St. Louis, MO and they completely misquoted me. I spoke to the General Manager, who was a complete jerk. The delivery was late. The driver did not want to put my bed together. A few items got lost in the move and because they were not included in the record, I couldn't get any refund on them, even with insurance.

I hired Allied through McVay Transfer and Storage in Kent, Ohio, and all my interactions with them have been positive. The loading of my household goods in Ohio was done extremely well by a professional, experienced and fully-staffed crew.

Unfortunately, the unloading in Michigan was quite different. In my opinion the crew was too small for the job (only two people) and lacked the experience to do it well. While the workers were courteous and friendly, they seemed like a crew without a leader:

- The crew arrived late, and the unloading went very slowly. By late morning it became obvious that if the job was going to be completed in one day I would have to help. Therefore, I spent the late morning and afternoon as part of the crew, moving as much material off the truck and into the house as the crew for which I was billed.

- The crew managed to break our television (now inoperable) and also rip the front leg off our piano. I specifically asked the crew to handle the piano with care, but it looked as if they had never moved one before.

- We were also led to believe during our estimate that the movers would re-assemble items such as the bunk beds, bed frames, etc. upon delivery. None of that was done.

It was frustrating to pay more than $4000 for this move, and have an unloading experience that was not much different from renting a U-haul and unloading it myself with some buddies.

I would not recommend moving with Allied (via their agent, Beverly Hills Transfer and Storage)if you have a small shipment. I had a small shipment of about 50 boxes which I had already packed myself to send from the US to Australia and they didn't want my business! The guy on the phone pretty much said that I should send it UPS or Fed Ex. It seems that they want to maximize their profits by having their own people do the packing for you and couldn't even be bothered dealing with small fry like me. Another family I know used Allied to send a studio apartment to New Zealand and they charged an exorbitant amount - $5000 and my friend complained that they made up some things to add extra volume to the shipment. These guys are far too expensive.

I have been reading all of the comments on moving and just felt I had to add some of my own. I moved from Australia to Illinois approx 3 yrs ago and used Allied. Everything went like clockwork. The packers did a wonderful job though it did take a lil longer than they thought. Everything arrived in the same condition it left and on time. We are planning a move back to Aust end of this month and we won't hesitate to use Allied again.

The driver & his wife who moved us from TX to TN were personable and, supposedly, counted all the boxes they delivered. However, once they left, we realized that a couple of boxes (which our name was on in bold letters) was missing. Since the movers had only made one stop besides ours, it was obvious where the boxes must be but the moving company/agency would do nothing about it. We also found out the the driver's wife had been sitting on the wooden kitchen chair for a reason: the stain was off the seat of it! The legs of an antique storage table were broken and part of the computer desk was missing. The deductible precluded filing a claim. This was a nightmare!

I used Allied for a move from Atlanta to San Francisco, and the experience was pretty bad. The crew they sent to pick up all my stuff hadn't been told by my moving agent that they were supposed to pack up all my stuff for me, so they expected to find a bunch of boxes instead of an unpacked apartment. Naturally that caused some problems and dragged out the pick-up process to a full day (even though I don't have much stuff). Then one of the guys in the two-man moving crew claimed to have a bad back, so I actually had to help the other guy move my couch and a big chair. Also, the movers broke a bunch of my stuff: they dropped my TV stand (which smashed it), they dropped my CD player, and they crushed a lampshade that I can't replace. I filed for reimbursement for the damages, which required a lot of annoying paperwork, but they rejected my claim because it didn't exceed the deductable. Then, when they were delivering my stuff in San Francisco, they showed up a day early and blamed me for not being there. I told them I could be there the next day, so they said they'd show up at 8 in the morning. Well, of course they showed up at 7 and were irritated I wasn't waiting downstairs. Overall, the experience was pretty bad. But I'm giving them one star instead of two because everything is relative, and it seems like everyone I know has a nightmare moving story to tell.