The short answer
A $99 headline is a door, not a price. It usually means one of three things: a minimum that covers almost nothing, a small fraction of a truckload, or a starting point that gets re-quoted on your back porch once the crew has seen the sofa.
Here is the honest version for Chicago. The minimum for a visit is $75. A sofa is $126. A queen mattress is $103. A standard refrigerator is $164. A quarter truck is $241 and a full truck is $732. Those are the numbers, they are published, and they do not move when the crew gets a look at your back staircase.
What $99 would actually buy
Set the ad aside and look at the real list. Under a hundred dollars in Chicago covers a genuine but short set of things:
- A twin mattress at $82
- A small junk pile at $82
- A box spring at $92, any size
- A snow blower at $71
- A recliner at $98
- An armchair at $77
- A set of four tires at $87
What it does not cover is the thing most people are actually calling about. The sofa is $126. The washer is $133. The refrigerator is $164. A one-bedroom's worth of furniture is a quarter truck at $241. If a headline says $99 and your job is a sofa and a mattress, the headline was never describing your job.
Minimum versus price
The distinction that matters: a minimum is the floor for showing up, and a price is what the item costs. Ours are both visible.
The minimum is $75. If you only have a $57 nightstand going, the visit is $75, because a truck and a crew still crossed the city for it. If you have a $126 sofa going, the price is $126 and the minimum never comes into it. You are never told the minimum and then handed a different number for the item.
This is also why it is worth looking around the apartment before you book. If the nightstand is a $75 visit on its own, and the $68 area rug in the same room was going eventually anyway, you are better off sending both: $57 + $68 = $125 for one stop instead of two.
The volume version of the same trick
The other shape a teaser takes is a fraction of a truck. Somebody advertises a low number, and the low number turns out to be a small share of the load. Then your pile is bigger, and the price is whatever they say it is now.
The ladder here is fixed and published all the way up, so there is nothing to find out later:
| Truck fill | Flat price |
|---|---|
| 1/4 truck | $241 |
| 3/8 truck | $338 |
| 1/2 truck | $431 |
| 5/8 truck | $513 |
| 3/4 truck | $587 |
| 7/8 truck | $661 |
| Full truck | $732 |
A Chicago single-car garage off the alley, cleared to the walls after a winter of accumulation, is usually a half truck at $431 or three-quarters at $587. You can look at that before you book and decide whether it is worth it.
Disposal is in the number
The second place a cheap headline gets topped up is disposal. The load has to go somewhere, that somewhere charges, and if the quote did not include it, it arrives at the end as a separate line.
Ours does not work that way. The carry-out and the disposal are inside the flat price. A refrigerator is $164 and that is the whole refrigerator transaction. A queen mattress is $103, wrapped, down the back stairs, gone. Nothing is added when the truck weighs in.
What to ask anyone quoting you in Chicago
Four questions, and they work on any hauler:
- Is that the price or the minimum? If the answer is complicated, it is the minimum.
- Does it change for a third-floor walk-up or a basement? It should not. Ours does not.
- Is disposal included? If it is not, the quote is incomplete by definition.
- What happens if there is more than we discussed? The good answer is a published next step, like the move from $241 for a quarter truck to $431 for a half.
Anyone who can answer all four in one sentence each is quoting you honestly. Anyone who cannot is going to finish the sentence in your alley.
Two real Chicago totals
October 1 lease flip, one-bedroom in Lakeview. Sofa at $126, queen mattress and box spring set at $143: $126 + $143 = $269. One stop, booked around the freight elevator window if you are in a tower.
Two-flat basement in Humboldt Park after the water table did its thing. Washer at $133, dryer at $128, rolled carpet at $68: $133 + $128 + $68 = $329.
Neither of those is $99. Neither of them was ever going to be $99. The useful thing is that you knew that before the truck pulled in.
Frequently asked questions
So is there anything you will do for under $99 in Chicago?
Yes. The visit minimum is $75, and plenty of single items sit under $99: a twin mattress at $82, a box spring at $92, a snow blower at $71, a recliner at $98, a small junk pile at $82.
Why is a sofa $126 and not the advertised number?
Because $126 is what it costs to carry a sofa out of a Chicago building and dispose of it, and we would rather print that than print something smaller and revise it on your back porch.
Will the price change when the crew sees my building?
No. There is no stair charge, no walk-up fee and no long-carry fee. Three-flat back staircases and bungalow basements are the normal job here.
Is disposal extra?
No. Transfer and disposal are inside the flat price. There is no dump fee added at the end of the job.
What if my pile is bigger than I said?
You move to the next published truck-fill step, and you are told before the work starts. The ladder runs $241, $338, $431, $513, $587, $661, $732.