Modern Piano Moving Review
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I posted this at PW last year, and just C&Ped it at PT, but I thought I would share it here as well since the question of piano moving kind of comes up a lot.
My piano was finally delivered (yay!) I used Modern Piano Moving (MPM) company, so I thought I would share a review here in case anyone is needing to move their piano across several states. (IOW, this is about moving a piano you already own).
Let me start by saying that I absolutely would recommend MPM, they did a great job taking care of my piano and that is the most important part. But I really don’t like their system. :whom: Mainly because you have zero control over the pick day and delivery day. If you had a very tricky (or strict or demanding) work schedule, this system might not work for you. Let me explain.
In my case, they were able to give me a pick time that was only a few weeks out from when I confirmed with them, so that part was fine.
But for the delivery, they give you a 7-day window, and they say "you or someone else will need to be available during the entire estimated window." You don’t find out the specific day it will be until 2-4 days in advance. If you aren't available (for even one of those days, IOW if you aren’t available for the entire window), then you have to wait until the next delivery trip, which is generally a month later, although their info says it could be up to 90 days later.
In my case, the first delivery time they gave didn’t work for me (long story, but it would have been impossible to take delivery on that day) and although I asked, they wouldn't push it back a day or two. So they said I had to wait until the next trip. And initially they said that could be between 30 and 90 days out. Yikes!
They also say that they "pick up and deliver pianos seven (7) days a week from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m." and as far as I can tell, you really have zero control over when the piano will be delivered, so it could be on a Sunday at 9pm (which would be far from ideal IMO)
But in the end, the next delivery window I got was almost exactly 30 days after the first delivery window, and then I got an update with the specific day, and they came as promised, so everything was fine.
Oh, one more detail. If you can't take delivery in the first window they give you, they don't charge you to store the piano until the next delivery window. I think they only charge you if you say you can take delivery, they load up the piano, and then you say you can't take it (because they have to unload). Or if you can't take delivery during that second window, then they charge you storage, although it's not a lot as far as I could tell. (And of course, you are without your piano that whole time.)
But all's well that ends well. The piano seems to be in good shape, it’s not even all that out of tune. The movers for the pickup and the delivery obviously knew what they were doing. And they had all the equipment needed, including lots of things a generic moving company wouldn't have. The pianos are stored in climate-controlled facilities and their trucks are climate-controlled, which I think is why my piano isn't more out of tune.
In case anyone is wondering, I also got a quote from Walter Piano Transit, that's the other big company that seems to get recommended a lot. The price they quoted me was $600 more than MPM. But it wasn't price alone that decided it for me. Walter says that they use "local movers," but I couldn't figure out who those movers would be, so that made me nervous. (This might be better in a bigger city) MPM users their own employees throughout. And Walter offered worse options in terms of when they could pick up the piano, and no guarantee that they would come in the suggested time frame. Since we needed to have the piano out of the house by a specific day, I went with MPM because they were able to do that.
So as I said, I would recommend MPM. The piano got here safely and that's the most important thing. And I do have the impression that they try to make sure you get your piano within a month, so as long as someone had a little flexibility or could ensure someone could be at the house to take the delivery, then MPM's system isn't so bad.
And I understand why they do it the way that they do, it’s kind of like they have several trucks in different parts of the country, and they drive around and load up the trucks with pianos, take them to be stored until there are enough going in the same general direction, and then load up the pianos again for delivery and deliver a bunch of pianos all in the same general area/direction. This makes it much more affordable than if they sent out one truck to one house and did a door-to-door delivery in one trip.
Thanks for reading, I’m going to go play my piano now! l
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Interesting to learn about this business and how it operates. I/d be curious to hear Big John's take on piano moving, given his hand's-on experience in the business.
Big Al
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Oh yeah! I would love to hear his comments!
The way MPM does their business is pretty interesting, I believe Walter piano transport does something similar in terms of loading up the truck with multiple instruments.
For our next move (very soon now!) because it's in town, we're using a local company that does all the piano moving for the music school here, and they all do regular moves, so one company is doing the whole thing. They came highly recommended but I'll be glad when it's done!
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BTW I just checked, MPM charged me $1695.00.
Very reasonable IMO.
