I Paid $3,330 to Move from California to Texas With Mayzlin
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Redondo Beach, CA → Bastrop, TX
$3,150
Cheapest of four, 4,500 pounds
$3,330
$180 over, for a long carry
1,500 mi
Delivered in four days
- I compared four quotes for my California to Texas move, and they ranged from $3,150 to $4,900.
- Mayzlin charged $180 over quote for a long carry my apartment complex made unavoidable. The car shipper they referred me to doubled its price at the last minute.
- I shared all of it, my quotes, my bills, and my ratings, as part of moveBuddha’s Better Moves Project.
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This account is based on a conversation with Michelle M., who moved from Redondo Beach, California, to Bastrop, Texas, in March 2024 using Mayzlin Relocation. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
My move from California to Texas
My fiancé got a career opportunity in Texas, so the two of us and our two cats headed 1,500 miles east from Redondo Beach to Bastrop. Excited and nervous in roughly equal measure, because I’d never moved this much across the country before.
It was only a one-bedroom apartment plus a garage, and the garage is what worried me. We were moving a 3D printer, a table saw, a lathe, and a chop saw, all of it expensive and none of it forgiving. I needed a crew that would treat that equipment properly.
I also needed to ship my 2018 Ford Fusion Hybrid to Texas, and I’d never used a car shipper before. I wanted a full-service mover who could point me at one.
I spent three weeks on Google, the Better Business Bureau, and the Department of Transportation SAFER database and still couldn’t tell which reviews were real or which companies were legitimate. Then a mover’s representative sent me a moveBuddha article about moving brokers, and I wished I’d started there. According to moveBuddha, users who compare movers this way save more than 30% versus taking the first quote they get.
My Mayzlin Relocation experience at a glance
Here’s what stood out most about moving with Mayzlin Relocation, good and bad.
- Communication: A 5. Proactive and friendly from the first call, which is exactly what I needed given how nervous I was.
- Pricing accuracy and transparency: I paid $180 over my $3,150 quote, all of it a long carry because the truck couldn’t reach my new apartment complex. The charge was explained and measured rather than sprung on me.
- Professionalism: Punctual, efficient, and careful with my things. The on-the-ground crew was the best part of the whole move.
- Timeliness: I rated this a 4 because I wanted my things faster. They arrived in four days across 1,500 miles, which I’ve since learned is unusually quick.
- Loss and damage: Wobbly desk legs and a crooked lamp. The 3D printer, the chop saw, and everything else in the garage arrived perfect. I didn’t file a claim.
- Would I use Mayzlin Relocation again? Yes. I’d skip the car shipper they referred me to, which is a separate story.
over my original Mayzlin quote
Find out what a move from California → Texas actually costs before a mover tells you.
Why I chose Mayzlin Relocation
I wanted to work directly with a carrier rather than a broker if I could, and that’s what drew me to Mayzlin first. They also came back slightly cheaper than everyone else. What actually decided it was the customer service agent on the phone. I was anxious about this move and I knew I needed calm, professional people in my corner, and that’s how the first call felt.
One thing I learned along the way: I’d hoped to get solid quotes online, and phone conversations turned out to be far better for discussing a move and getting accurate pricing. Every number I got over the phone was more realistic than anything a form produced.
I hired them for loading, transportation, and unloading. The $3,150 covered mileage, gas, taxes and tolls, an itemized inventory list on move day, moving blankets to wrap and protect everything, basic furniture assembly and disassembly, a standard contents protection plan, and a stairs fee. I paid a 25% deposit at signing, 50% on loading day, and the balance before unloading.
They were accommodating and proactive in the run-up, though they didn’t tell me much about how to actually prepare, so I used moveBuddha for that. I decluttered by selling and donating what wasn’t coming to Texas, then packed everything myself using free moving boxes I tracked down.
Mayzlin doesn’t ship cars, so they referred me to U.S. Auto Transport, who quoted $775 for open transport. I took the referral without doing my own research on them. That’s the decision I’d take back.
rating
- Family-owned, with locations covering the East Coast
- Full refund if you cancel within 7 days of your move
- Hands-on customer service
- 24/7 support
- Price-matching policy
My move at a glance
Here are the basics of my relocation, including what I was quoted and what I actually paid for my California to Texas move.
| Moved from | Redondo Beach, California |
|---|---|
| Moved to | Bastrop, Texas |
| Distance | 1,500 miles |
| Move date | March 1, 2024 |
| Move size | 1 bedroom apartment plus a garage (4,500 pounds) |
| Moving company | Mayzlin Relocation |
| Moving quote | $3,150 |
| Actual cost | $3,330 (plus $1,300 for car shipping) |
We found that when you use moveBuddha’s moving cost calculator, you can save 30% on moving costs compared to customers who go with the first quote they receive.
Quotes I compared
Here’s how my four quotes stacked up, cheapest first. All four sized my shipment at 4,500 pounds.
| Company | Estimated weight | Estimated cost |
|---|---|---|
| Mayzlin Relocation | 4,500 pounds | $3,150 |
| Golden Gate Moving | 4,500 pounds | $3,250 |
| American Van Lines | 4,500 pounds | $3,410 |
| Piece of Cake Moving | 4,500 pounds | $4,900 |
Three of the four landed within $260 of each other, which told me the number was realistic. Piece of Cake was the outlier at $4,900 for identical weight. When most of your quotes cluster and one doesn’t, the cluster is usually the truth.
Pickup day
Mayzlin’s customer service called first to confirm my addresses and give me a rough pickup timeline. Then their quality assurance team called to go through my inventory list, ask about changes, and walk me through how the whole process would work.
They called two days before with a confirmed time. I’d have liked more notice, and I’ve since learned that a day or two is the norm in this industry rather than a lapse. Plan to be ready at any point inside the window you’re given.
On the day they called from 45 minutes out and arrived at 10:20 a.m., on time. The crew wrapped the bulky pieces in blankets before securing them in the truck and handled everything well. I couldn’t have asked for a better team. Loading took just under two hours while I packed my van and prepped the car for shipping, and I paid the 50% by Zelle.
The car shipping went differently. I’d paid a deposit to U.S. Auto Transport to hold the date and then couldn’t reach the broker at all afterward. Right before my reserved date a different representative called out of nowhere to tell me the rate would be $1,300, not the $775 I’d been quoted. I needed my car in Texas and I had no time, so I agreed.
He said the driver would call the next day to collect it. Instead they called at 9 p.m. that night to say they’d be there in 10 minutes. The timing happened to work, so I rolled with it.
Delivery day
My things reached Texas in four days. I’d expected faster, and reading the fine print afterward taught me that a mover can take up to 30 days, so four is genuinely fast. Plan to be without your belongings for a month and be pleasantly surprised.
They called 24 hours before arrival and again a few hours out. There was no GPS tracking on the shipment, which I’d have liked.
Then came the hiccup. The 18-wheeler was too big for my new apartment complex, so the crew parked outside and carried everything in. Mayzlin measured the distance and charged $1 per foot beyond the first 75 feet, which added $180 and brought my total to $3,330. I paid the balance by Zelle and they unloaded and reassembled my furniture in three hours.
A desk came out with wobbly legs and a lamp was crooked. Everything was there and everything else was in one piece, including all the garage equipment, so I didn’t bother filing a claim.
My car actually arrived in Bastrop the same day I did, two days after pickup, which is very quick. The shipper let me put 100 pounds of belongings in it at no extra charge, and it arrived undamaged. They also didn’t communicate once during transit and simply called from 30 minutes out.
Final thoughts
Here’s how I rated Mayzlin on a scale of 1 to 5: communication 5, timeliness 4, quote accuracy 5, and overall experience 4.
Mayzlin did well by me. The crew was excellent, the quote held apart from a long carry that my building made unavoidable, and the charge was measured in front of me rather than invented. My 4 on timeliness is about my own impatience, and my 4 overall is partly the referral rather than anything they did with my furniture.
On the car shipping: I want to be precise about what went wrong, because I initially blamed it on U.S. Auto Transport being a broker. That isn’t right. Plenty of good companies in this industry work through brokers and partners, and a lot of them are highly rated. What happened to me was one company quoting $775, going quiet after taking my deposit, and coming back with $1,300 when I had no time left to shop. That’s a company problem, not a business-model problem.
The real mistake was mine. I researched my mover for three weeks and accepted a car shipper on a single referral. Car shipping deserves the same scrutiny, and moveBuddha keeps a list of the top car shippers I should have started from. If you’re doing both, treat them as two decisions.
Two other things I’d pass on. Phone estimates beat online forms; every quote I got by talking to someone was more accurate than one I got by filling in a box. And packing takes far longer than you think, so get organized early rather than scrambling at the end. This was trial by fire for me, and educating myself on moveBuddha before I committed to anything is what made the difference.
Moving and shipping a car? Use moveBuddha’s moving cost calculator to price the move, and research the car shipper as carefully as the mover.
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Tips for future movers
These are the practical steps we recommend based on Michelle M.’s experience:
- Research the car shipper as hard as the mover: Michelle M. spent three weeks vetting movers and took a car shipper on one referral. The quote went from $775 to $1,300 days before pickup. Start from a vetted list and get your own quotes.
- Ask whether the truck can reach your new address: An 18-wheeler couldn’t get into Michelle M.’s apartment complex, and the long carry cost $180 at $1 per foot past 75 feet. Ask your building’s management about truck access before you book.
- Get quotes by phone, not by form: Michelle M. hoped to do it all online and found that talking to someone produced far more accurate pricing. Three of her four phone quotes landed within $260 of each other.
- Expect your pickup window two days out: Michelle M. wanted more notice and this is standard. Be packed and ready before the confirmation call rather than after it.
- Plan to be without your things for a month: Michelle M.’s arrived in four days and her contract allowed up to 30. Keep anything you’d need in that window out of the truck.
- Treat a clustered set of quotes as the real number: Three of Michelle M.’s four quotes sat within $260 for identical weight and one came in $1,750 higher. The cluster is usually right.
- Don’t confuse a bad company with a business model: Michelle M. blamed her car shipping problems on brokers generally and later concluded it was that one company. Judge the company on its own record, not its category.
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