National Van Lines

19 november 2020, 12:28

I wish I could give them negative stars.

We moved from CA to FL. It was a nightmare. I booked with a small local company who outsourced our move to them and we had no clue who was in charge of what part.

1. We were already in FL and called them after a week and learnt that our stuff did not even leave CA. I called them every day and they kept making excuses. Yes, the emailed me often as status update (like every 2 days) which said “we are still locating trucks for your upcoming move”. Seriously.
2. Every time I called, I got a new person and no progress on my move. They told me that I had spoken to EVERYONE in their office. That is how much they gave me run for my money.
3. There was totally broken communication between their head office and actual movers who actually deliverd our stuff to our apt.
4. On the day of delivery, movers arrived 3 hours late.
5. My BIGGEST complaint is about attitude of the movers who delivered our stuff to our apartment. They were late by FEW hours. As soon as they arrived, they wanted to rush as they were already late for next delivery. They yelled at me. It is a 1 bedroom apartment and they were so lazy that they threw everything right in front of door. My poor husband had to MOVE EVERYTHING. And at top of it, they kept complaining of everything (too many boxes, this bag is way too heavy, you delaying us), singing songs and the older gentleman who seems to be the one running the show just kept blabbering in strange English that neither one of us could understand.
6. They were missing our mattress (the biggest item).
7. They could not put together 1 basic futon frame. My husband had to do it with them. Our futon frame was the only piece that required assembly and part of their job, but they complained non-stop about it.
8. After whole day of trying to talk with their head office who had no clue of anything, truck driver finally located our mattress around 5:30pm and promised to bring it within 1 hour. My husband called him directly every half an hour and he kept saying he is on his way. He arrived at 9pm.
9. Driver came alone (his helper was gone) and told my husband that “YOU CAN JUST CARRY IT BY YOURSELF” in pouring rain. This is not my husband’s job, who still helped the guy in carrying the mattress in our apt. There was no dolly, no wheels (as driver was too lazy) and they had to carry it from parking into our apt. The protective cover of mattress was missing.
10. They did not wear masks or gloves.
11. All of our stuff smelled of rodent pee, including our mattress. 2 additional items were broken.
12. We had bought extra insurance and filed the claim.

10 october 2017, 17:41

I made the move from WA to CA and researched multiple moving companies. I decided to use National Van Lines because they were the cheapest(at first) with somewhat decent reviews. Once National arrived, they brought a semi to load everything. My goods were pretty much already packed, but the hardest items to load was my gym equipment. I was hoping to have at least 3 people for the load since I have a lot of abstract goods, but only brought 2. All of my boxes were loaded and the last job was my gym. My gym set was already disassembled, but the driver said it needed to be taken apart more for some reason. The two guys brought the equipment downstairs, only hitting the walls a couple times and loaded it in the semi and took off. A day later I got an email from National saying the total weight exceeded my 3,000 lb limit and increased my cost by almost $600. Now it's more expensive than the other estimates I received and I already paid for the move. I basically said whatever and paid extra because it's too late to dispute. I finally moved to CA and a few days later had my goods arrive. Everything was unloaded and immediately noticed items missing like my 45" tv and my Glock 19.  I addressed it to the driver and other helper. I did like how the driver was fairly attentive on trying to find it, but no result. The driver left and called me back about an hour later saying he found my tv and will figure out how to send it back. It's been almost a week and still no word. I want to just go through insurance and buy a new tv and gun, but they base insurance by weight so I wouldn't get much back. Overall, it's like you can never find a really reliable moving company. The driver was really nice, but everyone makes mistakes. I just wish I can find a moving company that doesn't. Maybe next time I'll just use PODS and hire day laborers to pack.

review from yelp.com

10 october 2017, 17:41

Do NOT use them.  Read and listen to the reviews.  We used and sadly are STILL waiting for our furniture from our Chicago to New York move. We were told by our sales rep it would take less then a week, now we are going on 10 days.  Oh..ya, they keep pushing back the move they scheduled here in New York.  Problem #1 there.  Second problem, they took over 6 hours to move us out of what is essentially a one bedroom apartment with office.  We are moving to NYC, we got rid of 75% of our furniture and had only a bed, couch, and dresser as large furniture pieces.  The crew who moved us out of our place took over 6 hours because one guy felt the need to talk on the phone for the first two hours, the other just guy stood around aimless not knowing how to pick up a box and move it, and then one guy was actually working.  At about hour 6, I had to ask them how much longer as I felt more talking and goofing off was going on than actual work.  I myself started moving stuff.  Third problem, they broke a piece of glass furniture.  Thanks fellas for being careful...I can't wait to see what is broken when our stuff FINALLY arrives.  I assume I will be filing hundreds of dollars of claims because I see how poor you treat people's items.  They broke glass that shattered all over our front steps and sidewalks.  The guy took maybe two minutes to clean it up which was nothing because it is shattered glass...IT WENT EVERYWHERE!  So, here I am spending half a hour with a broom followed by vacuum cleaner trying to pick up glass so our future renters or a kid walking down the street do not get cut. In summary, they are the worse moving company I have ever dealt with.  I have moved from Florida to Atlanta, and Atlanta to Chicago, I get moving.  This company doesn't and their sales reps only care about signing you up, after that they could care less about customer service. Recommend anyone but them for cross country moves.

review from yelp.com

10 october 2017, 17:41

When I first started making inquiries about our cross country move, we were called by  National Van Lines, to make an appointment with their agent, Nate Volk, who came out (at the time appointed) to estimate the contents of our house.  (Not like some companies - where they wanted me to do the estimation!  Really?!) Nate was very thorough and spent about 90 minutes making an inventory list and explaining the procedure.The estimate was kind of on the high side, but I didn't want to risk going with a company that "guaranteed 10% lower than the competition" and our move was in July - busiest month. The agent explained that if the weight ended up being less than the estimate, our total would come down accordingly.  (My thoughts we "Yeah right!  Like that's going to happen!)  But in fact that did happen, and our final bill was over $1000 less than the original estimate.  I had read horror stories of companies adding on this and that, and in the end, when they have your furniture hostage, you are obliged to pay.When it came to the actual move, our driver and his helpers were extremely nice, efficient, and careful.  And our things arrived within the contracted period, and again, the driver did a great job of unloading, making sure he was placing everything in the right place, re-assembling beds and furniture, and allowing me time to put new protecting felt pieces under all the furniture. Definitely a 5 star move for us.  Not a single breakage.

review from yelp.com

10 october 2017, 17:41

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! They LOST (a.k.a., the source movers stole) a bunch of my stuff for a move from the Western US to the Central US. My stuff was stored in a warehouse for one day because the truck from CA was late arriving, and a bunch of stuff was missing upon arrival to me in Central US. They did not tell us the truck was late until the day they came to pick up my stuff, and we specifically wanted to avoid this "temp storage" situation. They said it would be stored in a warehouse overnight and picked up by the truck in the morning, a.k.a,. after they had time to sort through my stuff and steal a bunch of items !! I had an entire box of artwork missing, among which was a rare painting, a family heirloom; other items were a large outdoor bean bag by Fatboy, a Dyson vacuum, and several bins [clear bins!] with pots and pans, very expensive ones at that, Calphalon. They did not wrap certain items as they were supposed to (a Fatboy beanbag and a Fatboy island beanbag) and they were disgustingly dirty upon arrival, as if they had been dragged through DUST AND MUCK. The driver FORGOT that he had extra stuff on the truck and when I asked about it, he said he didn't have it, even though it was listed on the UNREADABLE manifest he gave me a copy of. When I said those items were missing, he didn't follow proper procedure and report it. When I called HQ to complain, they followed up with the driver  and he sheepishly admitted that he had it. Too bad I gave him a $25 tip that he didn't deserve. He made a HUGE deal about driving into my apt. complex, which was not that hard to maneuver around in, as if he was the King of Siam, it was gross. The local moving company in my original city ADVISED ME AGAINST getting the moving insurance. The local rep was also very rude to me and a family member---and snottily suggested that I was "price shopping" when I queried about moving the pick up date [The truth = I had to travel for work and might not be in town when my items arrived; every convo I had with him, he was rude beyond belief, as if I was wasting his time!].HQ out east handled matters-- andit took 3 months to resolve!----but you get pennies on the dollar for what you lose. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!

review from yelp.com