Saving on moving costs by getting a binding quote

My wife and I just moved to a new city 350 miles away from where we had previously lived, which meant either getting movers or renting a truck and doing it ourselves.  We moved to a fairly major metropolitan area so parking the truck would have been a challenge and the thought of driving the truck through the city when I am not a very confident driver in such a big vehicle scared both of us.  It would probably have been the cheaper option (the cost of renting the truck was about $400 and then we would have hired movers on both ends for what we estimated would probably run about $800-$900 including gas and totals and hiring movers).  

As is my practice I did a little research and filled out a form on some website where you could get quotes from multiple companies by filling out some basic information. I got calls from a bunch of different companies, very few of whom had any online ratings, with two of them giving me quotes for $1400 based on a flat hourly rate, assuming 10 hours drive time there and back (completely unrealistic in a large truck) and four hours of loading and unloading (again completely unrealistic considering we moved into a 5th floor condo).  A couple others estimated much higher, with two in the $2700 ballpark. 

In talking over the situation with my wife, she was skeptical about relying upon quotes over the phone that relied completely upon me reporting what we had to move versus a professional coming to see what we had and giving us an estimate based on that.   We called around and had several of the local moving companies come out to give us in person estimates and ended up going with one that quoted us $2100 (the other two were around $2700).  However, each of them confirmed what my wife had thought-it is completely useless to have someone give you a quote over the phone because they have no idea what you really need moved.  Even more importantly, each of the moving companies told us independently to be wary of a company that doesn't give you a binding quote but instead tells you they think it will cost x dollars per hour and estimating how long it will take.  Their point was that you have no idea if they're going to drag their feet and end up blowing the time estimate by hours and hundreds of hours.  Each of them offered the ability to go on the hourly route for price but also offered a binding price option, regardless of whether their truck got pulled over, if they blew a tire, etc.  

We chose to go with the binding quote based on an in person estimate and I would recommend that approach if you are moving any time soon.