Van Lines & Moving Reviews 57

This is the worst moving company I've ever encountered! Still waiting on my belongings and keep getting put off. DO NOT USE!!!

AWFUL EXPERIENCE - DO NOT USE
My move from New York to France (Marseille area) was botched on a number of levels:
- refusal to bring a container to my premises in NY (easily enough space)
- repeated changes in departure dates, costing me $$$ in changes on the receiving end, then changes in delivery dates, mostly because...
- CONTAINER WAS LOST for ten days, no-one could tell me where it was until I tracked it down myself - it was sitting at the port of Haifa in Israel, nowhere near the route it should have taken
- several items stolen and quite a few broken (likely on container packing), and no-one at IVL cared - just shifted blame and refused to help
- local agent in France (not IVL) was ok, but IVL was hopeless, incompetent.
- overall stressful, unpleasant, really felt screwed over.

Worse experience we have with this company. We were scheduled to pick up our stuff from claifornia and move it to Indiana. everything was smooth, they got the money of 3k that we deposited and the delivery people came on the day they were assigned to come and within 15 minutes, they started stating they we have more stuff than what we told them when we did not. We went back and fourth with them and Chris who helped us. Delivery people left without picking up our stuff. We called the company again and they wanted us to pay more. Sure! We said no, the customer service we received after that was horrible. I spoke with their manager name Claudia- the first thing she said "she doesn't have the time" ok than may be you shouldn't be even doing this job. We tried to work with them but they refused it and we asked for ur refund and she said it's non refundable. Ok nobody told us that. it is just they kept lying about one thing after another and every single person we spoke with was rude. I don't know they run their business but if this is how they do their business, it's pathetic. I won't recommend them to nobody and we did not get our refund back. She kept saying they will not give us any money back no matter what we do. Sweetheart we know how to get our money back especially when your company canceled on us and refused to help us. This was such a horrible shitty experience.

These guys made moving a breeze, they handled everything with care and even wrapped everything that could open with a special wrap that they provided. They were polite and professional and finished everything in a timely manner!! This is my 2nd time moving with this company and they were accommodating and flexible. Gave me an excellent quote and were nice enough to wait until my pay day to pay for their services!! Everything was well taken care of, money well spent for sure. Highly recommended this company!!!!

Do not trust Van Lines Movers with your possessions. Not only did it take my items almost 2 months to arrive, but they lost a large carton of tools worth approx $1,000, and only compensate $11/lb. Horrible customer service and inefficient staff.

They are a nightmare! First off we paid much more than the price we were originally quoted. On the day of the move we were told we had to pay even more for items they were unaware of. Except I had sent pics of all items to my sales rep. They refused to listen and made me pay more money on the spot. Also they made me Zelle them money or pay cash. Refused to take credit card! We drove off to our new home, out of state and waited a few days for our items to arrive. When I called they could not tell me when my stuff would arrive. Finally they told me my items had not left the original state and had been unloaded in a warehouse. My sales rep knew I was expecting my delivery in approximately 4 days. Almost 30 days later my items showed up a damaged mess. The delivery driver was not send with any helpers so we assisted with the unloading. The driver was nice and did not ask for help. The lack of communication and the extreme rudeness of everyone we spoke with was astonishing. Please save yourself money and soul crushing disappointment, look elsewhere.

This service did not work out well for me. I foolishly didn't read all of these reviews. All seemed fine until two days before the move when I was told the movers would show up 24 hours early. I reacted badly (screaming I am ashamed to admit) that we were not ready for the movers to arrive one day early. The customer service response was Sorry but there is nothing we can do. Would you like to cancel the move? Previous reviews mention a lack of communication and customer service. Unfortunately, that was the case for me. The initial quote/estimate turned out to be literally half of the total cost of the move. $5,000 became $10,000 with tip included.

I eventually spoke to a supervisor who awarded me $200 for arriving 24 hours earlier. This amounts to a 2% reduction. Can you imagine being told two days before your move-out date that you are indeed moving the next day? I am 60 years old and just out of cancer treatment. This was truly a horrible experience for me. The lack of communication, the lack of customer service, and the addition of unnecessary stress and urgency were such a disappointment.
Should you choose this company perhaps you will have better luck than me.

So now that it’s pretty clear they are not going to make up for the damage they did, nor the items they lost, I feel like it’s safe to make a review. We were moving from Chicago to British Columbia, from a 1300 square foot 1 bedroom, 2 office condo to a 900 square foot apartment. The greatest hits:
Less than a day before they were to come to pack, we are informed we need to give them $400 cash or the whole thing is off because the truck won’t fit on our street, something they apparently didn’t realize until the day before the move, despite us doing a video walk through weeks in advance.
They are 4 hours late on the day of the pack.
The driver, regularly, told us he had never been involved in a residential move so asked us for clarification on how to fill out the customs forms. We hired you guys and gave you $8000 because WE ARE NOT EXPERTS AT INTERNATIONAL MOVES AND YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE.
He kept bragging about driving the truck under a bridge the truck was too tall to fit under. Like legit 4 or 5 times mentioned the bridge height was too low for the truck but he drove it under anyway.
He mentioned several times he had had a stroke while driving (not during our trip, I think, but recently).
The people actually doing the packing were from some sub-sub contractor called the A-team, which was funny because they:
Kept leaving rooms half finished and then saying they were done.
Straight up shattered a family heirloom because they just wrapped it in a furniture pad instead of packing it.
Tried to leave a full cabinet of dishes unpacked.
Left a painting, at eye level, unpacked.
So I guess it’s less that they were The A-team and more that they were a team available at the time. I love that we carefully vetted a moving company and they subcontracted out somebody who had never done a home move and a profoundly sloppy crew of packers, thereby negating any effort we had put in.

The movers on the receiving end were better, in that they were horrified the state of our moving inventory, the state of the heirloom that was broken, they apparently had moved homes before and thought of things like putting down mats so they weren’t tracking stuff in to our new place. They did drop some racist ‘immigrants are stealing our jobs’ stuff, which is wild given we are, by definition, immigrants, ostensibly stealing jobs from Canadians. We did need to pay another $600 on delivery for a second Uhaul because the truck again wouldn’t fit, which is wild because semis drive down our street regularly, there’s no overpass or anything, so I cannot imagine what truck our stuff was on for the middle part of the journey (during which we received zero communication where our stuff was). The movers on the receiving end ended up staying for multiple hours to go box by box to make sure every line item was accounted for. Given every line item said ‘personal effects’ it didn’t really matter, but at least we knew every number on the sheet was accounted for in the apartment. If the packers had done their job correctly, this wouldn’t have been this bad. So we at least got vindication on the receiving end that they had done a terrible job packing our condo.

THIS MOVING COMPANY REFUSED TO REIMBURE ME FOR $thousands of dollars in damaged household belongings.
My contract with them clearly states they will cover >.60/ pound of goods damaged. They offered $75 towards approx. $2,000 worth of damaged belongings.
Very deceitful and IMPOSSIBLE to communicate with.
Don't believe the obviously fake good reviews being posted- no way that this company is capable of it.

after giving me a quote that was 2x other offers and trying to bad mouth the competition, was hung up on in the middle of trying to respond.

i know it's just the tip of the funnel, but impressions matter

NEVER USE THIS COMPANY.
I will try to make it short... but it is hard.

1. Moving date.

We knew we'd move in July and wanted all our furniture and goods to be there by July 1st when we could have a team of people receiving the goods and we could enjoy some holidays after a hard time with the moving news and two teenagers. I contact them on January 11th. Their commercial guy, Nico is really nice and responsive and offers me to pick up in May, saying it is then sure we get the goods on time.

2. Estimation of containers.

They never come home but send you a file to fill it up and estimate the number of containers. They are the expert. I fill it in and it includes a motorcycle since the beginning. He estimates one container and work on this. You get the bills really soon, in invoicing they are pretty good...

3. Pick up date.

After some delays (and me asking constantly to my non-existing-never-answering moving coordinator, Lisa) we arrange it for May 15th. Then comes the epic part.

I pay all invoices (NOT CHEAP) , and the insurance. I go through all the info about the picking day and prepare my whole house with all the furniture and items to go ready and some labels about the destination room to make it easier to deliver.

When they come (NY Movers, hired by Intl Van Lines) for the pick-up they pack things in a total chaos, I tried to manage to label every box with the destination room to make it easier to unpack and place in Barcelona, but somehow, they were rushing and even forgot pieces of furniture that I had to put together. The clothes they mixed up with kitchen supplies, and fill every box to the top with folded leather bags. They don’t make any inventory, rush from one room to another and just write “Clothes” “Shoes” or “misc” in every box. Additionally, plates, glasses and cups broken.

Furniture was damaged, boxes were broken, clothes in terrible shape. I have a claim going on with the insurance but it’s not only money, is the stress and the terrible, TERRIBLE service given.

They spend 11 hours at home and complain bc now with the motorcycle they should ask for a second container. The motorcycle was planned since the very beginning. When they finish and ask me to fill in the survey, I didn’t dare to complain bc was just me at home and three men looking at me while I was filling it in. They were rude and complaining about how many boxes I had.

Among other issues they were drinking all of my beer cans (I bought them food and offered water and soda, not beer) and left the house full of empty bottles. ABSOLUTELY

4. SHIPMENT AND DELIVERY

The Vessel didn’t ship for some weeks, I never received any information unless I sent a lot of emails to Julie, or Lisa and usually they only answered back if Jason (the general manager looks like) was in CC. Finally, the ship arrived in Barcelona on July 14th I think, and at my home a week later. I had started all this in January to make sure we could have some holidays but not, we had to stay unpacking what was supposed to be done earlier by other people helping us. Additionally my son says he misses a wallet with $70 ... which is peanuts compared to all but you'll understand why I am stating it here later on.
As I said, furniture were broken and the VERY PROFESSIONAL COMPANY workers that received the goods and delivered at home (TG they were so good!), WILL MOVE , were absolutely astonished of how bad it was everything packed and were the ones encouraging me to take all these pics.

5. CLAIMS

Of course I have claimed to the insurance, lots of paperwork and still no answer. But what no one will give me back is the peace of mind, the holidays and the relax I should have gotten using a professional company.

I sent an email as well to the owner, founder or both, Joshua Owens (find it in Linkedin), and got an email from... Jason, the guy who at the end is the one to blame. I have been in business for a lot of years and so my husbands, in positions and companies much more relevants than this one but... the answer I get is that Josh is on holidays with no access to internet and the company has forwarded my email to the GM. Well... if we are in charge of a company as we are and have been, believe me WE TAKE THE COMPANY SERIOUSLY and read through, find out why things don't work as they should and fix it. The last but maybe more ridiculous answer comes from Jason, the GM... proposing I get back the $70 from my son...

I am now studying to go further legally, in the meanwhile trying to stop anyone else using this shameful company.

6. FREIGHT SHIPMENT.

I had to do a second shipment, freight of just 7 boxes of clothes. Again, same guys to pick up, again 14 days late and again aweful packaging, lots of clothes to throw... of course I hired this second one in the beginning otherwise I would never have done it.

If anyone want to get anymore details please comment it here.

They destroyed most of our boxes and stole our box that had all of our crystal. They said it was said but they won’t do anything.

Relocating across the ocean to another continent is a daunting task but IVL staff made it so much easier for us. Their prices were competitive and they communicated with us throughout the process. Both the movers they selected to pick up our household goods in the US and deliver them in Europe were professional and efficient. Their contact in Europe was knowledgeable and made it going thru customs a breeze. We are delighted that we selected this company because they handled the logistics of this complicated task magnificently. Our household goods arrived in perfect condition and we are so grateful to IVL for all their work in accomplishing this difficult task. We would personally like to thank IVL staff for always responding to our emails and phone calls and making us feel like a most valued customer.

Very deceitful company. Once you’ve paid them they aren’t interested in you and don’t return your calls. I did two shipments with them - one was supposed to be air freight and it ended up going to Spain with the rest of the journey by road instead of flying straight to Portugal. Also they are CLUELESS about international paperwork. Had it not been for the Portuguese agent we would’ve been in deep trouble with customs. IVL
are just agents who contract everything out. My advice- contact at least 7 companies and read TrustPilot. Terrible company- don’t give them your money.

The cost ended up being double what we were quoted when we put down our deposit. they told us that foreign port fees / customs charges would be covered -- only to later reverse this stance, telling us that there were additional unforeseen costs that they won’t cover on their end. A really awful experience that was deceitful and just truly upsetting and disappointing. We feel completely taken advantage of.

Absolute scam of a company. Once they have your money there is no communication. They hire complete derelics (literally not figuratively) with no moving experience to deliver (or more appropriately stated, destroy and damage your furniture). All boxes were severely damaged. There was hardly anything that wasn’t damaged including the new construction we moved into. Do not use this company!!!!

I have had a horrible experience with this company. At pick up the truck was 5 hours late arriving. I was told that by the movers that my items were heading to Houston. Per the contract, my items would be delivered to my new home in VA in 2-21 days from the initial delivery date, which was 1 week after the pick up date. This was an 1800 mile move. I reached out on day 2 (after the initial delivery date) to see what the expected date would be and was informed that "the truck to VA has not arrived and once it did arrive it would take 1-3 days to load and then it depended on where the items were on the truck". They could not provide me with a date for when the truck would arrive at the warehouse. On day 9, I reached out again. I received the exact same answer. On day 18, I reached out again. The answer I received stated that the truck for VA would not arrive at the warehouse for pick-up for another 1-2 days. Once the truck was loaded (1-3 days), I would then be notified for delivery. I do not anticipate that I will receive delivery for another 7-10 days, well outside of the 21 days in the contract. So if choosing to use this company, get written into the contract that if they do not deliver within their time frame, that they will reimburse you. This is a shipping company, they should know where their trucks are and when they will arrive at their warehouse. They should be able to provide a more accurate time frame to the consumer when questions are asked, not "we don't know". Also, as the consumer, I should not have to be reaching to receive information. On the "sales end" of the transaction, they were very pro-active in sending e-mails and picking up the phone to communicate. On the delivery end, crickets. Not a great way to run a business. If I had known that it would take more than 30 days from the time they picked up my items I would have chosen a different company.

I had a horrible experience with this company, probably the most incompetent and unprofessional service I have ever received. For a move from New York to Mexico, they first sent my shipment to Germany, causing a delay of months (and many thousands of dollars in additional living expenses during the delay). Their local agent in New York did a terrible job with the packing: many items arrived damaged or broken. When my shipment finally arrived at port in Mexico, their local Mexican agent took forever to clear customs and then their delivery truck broke down, causing yet another delay. I reached out to IVL's owner requesting help in resolving my issues, and he never responded. Avoid this awful company at all costs.

IVL provided a terrible moving experience lacking in service, professionalism and basic competence.
• They broke a floor lamp by bending the top at an angle
• They broke my 65” TV – could have happened at any point during the move, given the lacking competency, but when the mover delivering my belongings at my new house was unloading, he leaned the 65” TV on its short end against a pole at an angle, which caused visible bowing, so if the TV wasn’t already broken from earlier in the move, this would do it
• They didn’t even start shipping my belongings from California to New Orleans until a full two weeks after they picked everything up. For those two weeks it just sat in a warehouse in California going nowhere.
• During the process, it took numerous emails, phone calls and voice mails to get any sort of response (days would go by with no answer to my requests for status updates). Once my belongings were finally en route they notified me and had the gall to give me attitude when I asked for a location update after my belongings had finally been on the road for a few days
• The packers in California did a subpar job, I’ve used packers for four moves so far, and these folks’ work was abysmal. They also left a full closet worth of items untouched. I should have checked every closet before they left, but honestly at that point I hadn’t realized how deeply incompetent the IVL folks were from top to bottom and it just didn’t cross my mind that professional packers could overlook an entire closet
• The delivery folks showed no concern for any of the items I was paying close to $10K for safe delivery. The TV, as noted above, of course, but also many boxes marked “fragile” or “this side up” that they would just haphazardly drop with no attention to what they were doing
• I was quoted a price around $5K when I first went through the items list with the sales person. When I finalized the list, I asked one of the reps if I needed to include thinks like “mixing bowls” and “kitchenaid mixer” – the first sales person I spoke with did not indicate I needed to include the usual household bricabrac like that. I added a bunch of these smaller items that one would assume are present in a number of kitchens, etc. The new price quoted was over $8K and by that point in the process it was too late to engage another company
• When I spoke with the sales person originally, she said the delivery window is 1-3 weeks and when I was surprised by the 3 weeks, she heavily emphasized that 1 week was much more likely (I acknowledge she didn’t guarantee, but she forecast extreme confidence that it would be closer to 1 week). In the end, they didn’t even deliver my items within 3 weeks of the pick up.
Very nearly every part of this transaction was incredibly difficult and costly. The IVL actions (or lack of action in some cases) have been so deficient in basic competency and ability it has almost felt malicious because I find it hard to believe so many people can be so bad at their jobs at so many levels. Strongly recommend literally any other moving company.

Used this company due to its recommendation on Forbes. This was a mistake. I wish I'd never heard of them. I wish I could give them negative stars. I hope this review convinces at least one person to not go with them.

After taking our deposit, they didn't communicate until less than 48 before the move only to double the price, then tell us that because it was less than 48 hours before the move we couldn't cancel without losing our deposit. Upon review (once we weren't scrambling to get things done), they had doubled or tripled the counts of several of our items, and as they said, "if we overestimate your move cost, we will not refund you." Somehow re-packing (literally putting smaller boxes into larger boxes) reduced the cost by $4k without removing anything. Magical.

On the day of the move, the movers took all of the furniture we were planning to throw away at no additional cost because they recognized that we'd been overcharged so much.

Our items did not begin to ship until 3 weeks after we arrived at our new home. They arrived 20 business days after our scheduled date, 1 day before IVL would have been in breach of contract. No communication, no returned calls or emails.

IVL was the worst and most stressful part of our move. Do not use this company.