Graebel Van Lines

10 october 2017, 17:45

There really should be an option for "zero stars" on Yelp, given how utterly incompetent the back office staff at this company has been. Although there were several missteps, my chief complaints are:1. Even though the estimation and pick-up parts of the moving process were solid, the delivery and billing parts were farcical.2. The communication skills and responsiveness of their "customer service" was an absolute joke.We moved from Marin to Cincinnati in November, 2016. After doing some research on cross-country movers, we saw that Graebel (as a whole) had a great reputation, so we decided to choose them, even though they were (by far) the most expensive. The estimation process was great, paying the pre-paid estimate was easy, and the team of people who picked up our stuff (based out of Sacramento) were absolutely wonderful. In fact, the guys that picked up and packed our belongings told us that we were *way* under the estimated weight that we paid for, so we would be getting a decent amount of money back after our move was complete. So far, everything was wonderful.Then it all went to hell.First, the delivery date at our new house was scheduled for November 1st. Unfortunately, due to "an unknown problem" (their words, not mine), we didn't get our belongings delivered until a full week later. We spent the first week in our new house sleeping on the floor, having nothing in which to cook food, and having nothing to sit on. Super fun if you long for the days of Little House on the Prairie, not so much otherwise.Second, once the delivery crew showed up, their on-site coordinator could not have been more inept. There were many anecdotes from that day, but the first (and biggest red flag) was when they blocked our entire driveway with the delivery truck upon arrival, and I politely asked the coordinator if they could move their truck back temporarily, so my husband could get out of the driveway to drive to work. Keep in mind they had *just* arrived. They hadn't even opened doors yet. Her response was, "Do we have to? We're only going to be, like, maybe an hour or two." (Um ... WHAT?!) After my brain processed her ridiculous response, I told her that unless she wanted to be the one to call my husband's boss and explain why he was two hours late to work, they should move the truck. She rolled her eyes, and begrudgingly told the driver to move it. Nice.Third, even though it only took three people 90 minutes to pack and load the truck in California, it took six people 180 minutes to unload (and *not* unpack) the truck in Ohio, including four(!) breaks. We moved a minimally furnished two-bedroom apartment, by the way.Fourth, after waiting a week or so after delivery for the credit to appear on my credit card for the amount we were to be refunded, I decided to call "customer service" in the office handling our move (which is this one, in San Jose). Long story short, over the course of six weeks, we emailed and/or called "Rachel" over a dozen times, each time with her responding that she promised to get to the bottom of things, expedite our request, and give us a call back. We never once received a call back or even a response email. She finally stopped answering her phone altogether.I finally had enough and disputed the charge through American Express (who have utterly amazing customer service), and within a couple of days, they had attempted to contact Graebel to resolve the issue. They, too, didn't hear back after repeated tries, so they credited my account.So, while I ended up getting a substantial refund eventually, the entire process took from November, 2016 to March, 2017. Avoid this company at all costs.

review from yelp.com

10 october 2017, 17:45

We are moving from the Charlotte NC area to Wooster OH!Its a corporate relocation! Worst experience ever! The estimator comes to the house to do the walk through. We get a call from the company to send out the crating guys for the tvs! They say you have 2 BR and only one tv? How does the estimator miss 2 tv(55" and a 43")tv!We should age known at this point this was going to be trouble! So the bright spot of this cruel adventure was the packing crew! Danny and the crew rocked! Highly professional and great to work with! We had a great time. This was Thursday Dec 29th. And then the trouble began. The movers are scheduled to be at our house between 8-10 on Dec 30th. We only learned this after a follow up packer call. Well needless to say that didn't happen. We began calling abt 9:30. We get the computer glitch response and we are trying to get a crew to come to load! We call again at 12, same story! Now it had been explained that one of the locations had to be emptied by 1 pm. House was sold and closing was completed at that point. We paid $250 extra for this "extra" stop that was less than 1/8 of a mile away! Finally at abt 3 pm after my wife was speaking to the manager at the national number. The manager, A female at 206-348-7661, says to my wife, "maybe you should get another company to move you" Wow, after your stupidity and poor scheduling you say this to us on a holiday weekend. So now we are in a hotel, all bedding is packed, with our dogs. Not freaking fun! The relocation company that my wife's employer uses (Altair) bent over backwards to get another company to show up Saturday morning to move us! But I wouldn't hire Graebel to move a bucket of crap from one compost pile to another. Due to the delay we will both have to take vacation days on Tuesday to get the house organized and unpacked. What are the odds getting reimbursed for that? Slim to none! Just sad customer service! I truly don't know how they are in business!

review from yelp.com

10 october 2017, 17:45

There is NO WORSE way to experience moving out of state than to have Graebel in San Jose, CA pack your stuff for you, break your stuff, deliver it to the wrong places and make a bunch of promises they can't keep.From the start, the Graebel employees were between 20 min and two hours late to the appointments that were scheduled for assessment and pre-packing. On packing day, they were twenty minutes late, but forged the time on their clipboard so as not to get in trouble; I should have known that disaster was imminent.On moving day, I provided food and drinks throughout the day - the reason I mention this is because I don't want to give the impression that I was an overly-expectant and ungrateful tyrant to the workers. I appreciate hard, manual labor - I've been there. With that said, four men showed up and only one spoke/understood English. He was attempting to translate my requests for the other three, but as you will soon read, it was futile. I thought I would be ultra-prepared and smart, so I labeled everything with its intended destination before the movers arrived, but the labels served as nothing more than colorful post-its littering my home; useless to someone unable to read English.I had three designations for items to be packed and shipped:1) Things that were staying in the home in San Jose, CA; 2) Things I needed moved to temporary housing for three months; and 3) Things going to storage (to be moved to permanent housing within three months).Sounds simple enough, right? Nope. Even with color-coded post-its, numerous items were packed for and shipped to wrong destinations. To make matters worse, the supervisor of the crew, Mario, lied to me about making it right later! When I was attempting to double-check packing, he told me he had double-checked as well and that everything was boxed for destinations I had labeled. This couldn't have been further from the truth and I knew it as soon a they arrived at the temp housing destination. In lieu of taking the stuff with them to storage, Mario stated it could be later re-shipped from temp housing to permanent housing! A month and a half later, ON THE DAY I WAS MOVING to permanent housing, I found out Mario's promise of transferring incorrectly shipped items was a lie, which ultimately left me and my company with another moving bill! Even the Graebel guys in Seattle, Washington (completing the permanent move) felt badly for me! One nice gentleman offered to assist me with his personal vehicle! Seattle Graebel will get a separate review...Here are some of the issues caused by San Jose, CA Graebel movers:* Delivered 14 boxes to wrong location. Neglected to deliver spices, food, coats, soap, shampoo, and hair products to temp location.* Each shoe AND HAIR BAND (cloth) were WRAPPED INDIVIDUALLY in at least 15 pieces of paper!!! I think I accidentally tossed away Lululemon hair bands as a result.* Broken large picture frame - shattered glass.* Broke a wheel off of my computer chair. * Three of six table lamp glass shades were cracked or broken.* A large, expensive bedroom mirror was scratched right down the middle.* When I unpacked personal items I asked them not to touch (I had them shipped instead), I found they had been rifled through and re-packed by the movers. Not cool.* TiVo was packed with wine bottles, but without power cords. The box was marked "wine."* Blue ray was packed in box marked "small pillows."* My table lamps were completely and unnecessarily dismantled. I still haven't found all the pieces.* One medium vase and faux flowers were packed in a giant wardrobe box, alone... with about 10 pounds of packing paper. * Shelf brackets disappeared and are still in an unknown location* Knife holder was sent to temp housing, without knives. Knives were packed in an unknown box and sent to storage.* Mixer was sent to temp housing in a box with all my scarves. Mixer bowl and attachments were in 3 separate boxes, in storage.* Boxes marked as "clothes" were actually computer equipment and cords!* They packed my garbage! Literally stuffed trash and rotting potatoes into a box with my food processor!* They didn't remove and consequently killed all batteries in all 6 remotes and all 4 auto soap dispensers (40 batteries I had to replace at once)* Poor planning and improper/non-existent staging (as well as taking hours to rifle through my personal items and wrap each headband and shoe), caused them to tie up the elevator and loading dock for more than 6 hours! Property Management was pissed!To top it all off, when I called to check on whether they were going to compensate me for the damage, they said it was too late to file a claim! Nobody told me I had to file something separately than the damages paper I signed and pictures I submitted to Mario! So, I received ZERO restitution, zero apologies! AWFUL COMPANY! It's 8 1/2 months later and I still get heated thinking of this experience. If you're in San Jose, find another mover!

review from yelp.com

10 october 2017, 17:45

These guys were outstanding! They helped me with packing up my home and loading my belongings into the moving fan and were done in under two hours. I highly recommend them!

review from yelp.com

10 october 2017, 17:45

Set up for an appointment. Left work early to be home and meet with the estimator. Never showed, no phone call, no email, no explanation. I had spoken to 2 different people at the company on two different days to set up and confirm the date and time so I know they had all my contact information. I guess some people are making so much money they don't need the business.

review from yelp.com