Long Distance Van Lines

Reviews

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1. L

   Lisa K.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Plainfield, IL to Carmel, IN

   4 Feb 20184-bedroomPaid $7,650

   The most unprofessional, irresponsible, rude,and unethical moving Co.

   Sales lied and misquoted first quote $6415 for 40 items. Customer service when through our MLS and gave new quote of $13000. Movers late >2hours wouldn’t complete move. Forced us to resign new contract at 3am for over $8000 if not they would not deliver and put in storage and charge rent. Didn’t deliver next day. When delivered majority of furniture damaged customer service refused 110%rule piano left in hot garage. 90-100 degrees. Many calls without any service. The movers were rude and used vulgar language when moving We still have PTSD from all of this. Major damage of our grandfather clock and fine furniture. We have more pictures if interested.

2. S

   Sarah

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Hopkinton, MA to Saint Charles, MO

   22 Jan 20182-bedroomPaid $8,700

   Stay Away.

   Long Distance Van Lines is a terrible company. The first people you speak with seem awesome and seem to be giving you a great deal. What they don’t tell you is that they low ball you and if your cubic footage goes over their estimate, you pay double for certain things (ex: packing materials. Price doubles once you go over their estimate). Let’s not forget that they do their estimates verbally rather than sending someone out. Initially the person I spoke with did my estimate incorrectly and 4 business days before Long Distance was scheduled to come out someone else did a second inventory, charged me a $250 fee to make the changes to my inventory, then charged an additional $1000+. I was annoyed but figured whatever..I can’t do anything about this because conveniently enough you can’t cancel and get a full refund unless it’s 7+ business days before your move. I see what you guys did there. Anyway, they came out the day of and informed me that they can’t take any liquids or lightbulbs. I was so angry as no one told me this ahead of time AND arhat isn’t mentioned in any of your paperwork or on their website. I called Lissa from QA the following day and she was beyond rude, giving me an attitude while demanding that she told me this when she called me the week before. She didn’t call me- I called her and she never told me this. If their calls are recorded like they say, you would think they wouldn’t be so rude. Oh! And I had more stuff than they estimated BOTH times so there goes about $250 charge and a total of almost $4000 more than my original quote. The only good part was that my stuff got here the earliest date they guaranteed. However, the movers packed my stuff and didn’t check to see if drawers were empty and ended up breaking things. All of my furniture arrived chipped or scratched. Their insurance doesn’t cover chips and scratches. This company is a bunch of rude, money hungry crooks who should never have ANYONE’s business.

3. C

   Craig

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Chicago, IL to San Francisco, CA

   20 Jan 20182-bedroomPaid $8,000

   Run For The Hills - Horrible!!

   In August of 2017, I hired LDVL to move me from Chicago to San Francisco. Their Salesperson was very accommodating and honored (or so I thought) my request to move on a certain date and time if I paid a premium which I gladly agreed to. On moving day, they were to arrive between 8 - 12 noon - they arrived at 4:00 p.m. with two gentlemen to fully pack, load and remove all of my belongings in a 4 story walk-up unit. Needless to say, they did not complete the move until nearly midnight and did a horrible job of packing my belongings and not wrapping any of my valuables. I am a corporate executive and don't own any IKEA-type furnishings. Everything I own was brand new or custom-made. I subsequently flew out to San Francisco to arrive a day prior to my move-in date. 3:00 p.m. came and no movers, so I called their so called customer service line only to discover that my belongings were still in Chicago and would not arrive for another 2 1/2 weeks (after I paid for expedited shipping). I was furious as I only had the clothes on my back and a small suitcase. I ended up staying in a hotel for two weeks at my own expense - a $3,500 bill which I had not anticipated. Hotels in SF are very expensive. When my belongings finally did arrive, have of my belongings were missing or damaged beyond repair. Once again, I immediately called their customer service department (Paula) who is the poorest excuse of a human being. She was rude, obnoxious, unhelpful, and a down-right "B..ch" to me on the phone. If she was my employee, she would have been fired on the spot! I eventually filed a claim with over $15,000 in damages - I received $700. It's an outrage! They should be out of business - DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY! Trust me, these other reviews must have been written by their employees - they are absolute snakes!

4. J

   Jeff

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Perry Hall, MD to Troy, NC

   31 Oct 20174-bedroomPaid $14,750

   A NIGHTMARE from beginning to bitter end.

   Moving with Long Distance Van Lines of either Columbia MD or Davie FL was a nightmare from the beginning to the bitter end. In the bid / comparison phase, they low-balled us on estimates, ran down the competition, and used very high pressure sales tactics. I went with them in spite of my misgivings because the price was cheap and they claimed to have 5-star ratings (shame on me for not reading the real reviews). To give you an idea, Mayflower came to my house and gave a binding estimate of $11,000. Long Distance did not come to my house and used Mayflower's estimate of weight and space to give a price of $9,000. In the loading phase, the first bad sign was two smaller rented trucks showing up (Long Distance doesn't own their own trucks). Five Russian speaking loaders loaded all day, and - surprise, surprise - they filled the two trucks and had a lot more furniture to go. It seems they were going to have to bring a THIRD truck hopefully the next day. NOT at THEIR expense, but at MINE. Now, the cost was going to be $14,750 and they wanted half of that RIGHT AWAY. I don't believe the packing was efficient and space well used. After all, what motivation do they have to use two trucks when they can charge you for three? In the shipping phase, things got VERY bad. Mind you, we were moving 400 miles, 3 states away. We arrived at our new empty home and waited for our furniture (AND clothes!). Our driver had PROMISED us that he was coming straight to our home with no additional loads (no room for it anyway) and NO STORAGE. After all, he said, could they afford to load and unload our stuff TWICE? And haste paid for them because they rented their trucks. Long story short, TWO WEEKS later, no furniture. MULTIPLE calls to what is called "Customer Service." They couldn't even tell me where my furniture WAS. The salesman INSISTED they would get it there BEFORE two weeks because it was "in the contract." The NEXT THIRD week was TORTURE. I read the fine print (PLEASE read it!) and discovered that they had "THIRTY DAYS" and told Jay the salesman (I could hardly ever get customer service) and he insisted, No, it was two weeks (while I was looking at the contract and reading 14 days). I let it go hoping that they THOUGHT it was 14 days. But they were counting 14 "BUSINESS" days so weekends and the holiday didn't count! Thus my furniture finally came THREE WEEKS to the day later exactly 14 BUSINESS days later so they didn't have to pay the - get this - $30 a day fee. Oh, that $30 would "kill" them on my $15,000 move! Now the delivery phase was where the REAL suffering kicked in. I talked to the driver. Discovered he was on vacation. AND that the furniture had been in storage, loaded and unloaded TWICE (and of course twice as damaged!). I was quite angry but trying to be nice as I wanted my furniture handled well. He wanted me to sign the RECEIPT that all my furniture was there and in good condition BEFORE they UNLOADED!! Of course I refused. DO NOT DO THIS! The shipment was NOT in "good condition." The boxes were crushed (I am attaching pictures - PLEASE look at the pics of boxes marked "FRAGILE" that are absolutely demolished and re-taped up like mummies). One clueless Russian loader came in with one of my wardrobe boxes (CLEARLY marked "This side up") on a dolly UPSIDE-DOWN. If you don't know, wardrobe boxes contain a bar on which you hang up clothes. Needless to say, all of my suits were wrinkled and in need of dry cleaning. Boxes were NOT put where they were labelled - if the TOP box on a load on a dolly said "Attic," the Russian loader put all five or six boxes up there. I carried boxes to their proper room for at least a week. What made me MOST angry was a damaged WET box of books clearly marked for the library hidden upside down in my daughter's bedroom closet. Clearly trying to hide the damage until after the receipt had been signed and they had left. The same kind of deception was used to cover a huge CHIP on the desktop covered with a box. Oh, yes, furniture was DAMAGED. Glass broken out of the dining room hutch - both sides. Crushed corners on my wife's bedroom dresser. Scratches on dressers and bookshelves. Worst of all, my wife's favorite piece - our one-piece olive made-in-Italy $3000 table had a leg broken off. How did I discover it? I walked on the truck to see a worker feverishly trying to SCREW it back together! Would they have told me about it? Not according to the deception described above. My wife was in tears. Her three favorite pieces were all damaged. Not to worry, said the driver. He was taking pictures of the damage (I believe just to make me feel good - because the company never got them) as was I. He said the carrier's insurance would pay for all repairs. The nightmare was over, right? No, on to the damage reimbursement phase. They want you to jump through hoops. I had to supply original receipts (you have that for everything in your home?), and three estimates (I pay for the estimate charge - $75) all notarized. It took me over a month to get it all done. And the ultimate insult came yesterday with their "resolution" (so they called it). They took the lowest bid on each piece and cut it IN HALF and then HALVED it AGAIN and offered - if we would sign a release (so that they could be done with us and we couldn't sue) - a check for ONE QUARTER of the few damages we filed for. Don't SIGN that release! Don't know how the arbitration or lawsuit will settle out, but I'm tired of waiting for real "resolution" to give the review and WARN potential customers: STAY AWAY from Long Distance Van Lines! RUN the other way! I know they say “you get what you pay for.” NOT with Long Distance Van Lines! I'm pretty sure the 5 star reviews on here are from them. BEWARE!

5. J

   Julie J.

   Source: MoveAdvisor

   29 Oct 20171-bedroomPaid $3,700

   A Terrible Experience, Part 2.

   It got even worse upon delivery (see my 1st review, my 23 year old daughter's move from DC to LA)..the driver said they couldn't fit on her street (a 4 lane road, really??!!), so they would have to unload elsewhere and shuttle her things (for an additional $500!!). BTW, they blamed her for not knowing that! So she tried to line up a U-Haul with less than 2 hours notice to move it herself instead of using their $500 shuttle; they penalized her $150 for being 20 minutes late (!!), and threatened her (!!) with a $1,500 penalty to store it overnight if she couldn't get there on time due to traffic (the driver told her he didn't actually have any more deliveries after hers, he was just "done" and ready to go home and didn't want to wait)! She ended up moving all her belongings herself. WORST EXPERIENCE EVER! THEY ARE HORRIBLE!!

6. K

   Kate P.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Knoxville, TN to Eugene, OR

   11 Sep 20172-bedroomPaid $9,700

   Bait and switch on price, took too long, damaged furnature.

   Hands down THE WORST experience I have ever had with any company ever. LIARS AND CHEATS! I'd give them a zero if I could. 1. Bait and switch. Quoted us one price then demanded several thousand more dollars when they showed up at the house before they would load the truck. 2. They took FOREVER to deliver only HALF of our things. They didn't know where the other half was or when it would arrive. We were not notified of this. 3. Our "representative" Paula was the most useless person on earth she was a liar and eventually started dodging our calls. 3. When the first half did arrive, half of our boxes were crunched and they didn't wrap half of the furniture so it's all scratched and dinged. 4. Dodged calls and would not tell us when or where the rest of our things were. FINALLY located it sitting in a warehouse in Indiana (we moved from TN to OR) and were notified that it would "probably leave in 5-7 days" 5. When that finally arrived, more crunched boxes, more dented and scratched furniture 6. They didn't wrap or protect in any way my clearly antique, 90 year old doll house, made by my great grandfather, tossed it in the truck, then broke it and lost the piece that they broke. 7. Every complaint we've had with them has somehow, according to them, been our fault. I am beyond livid.

7. C

   Christine

   Source: MoveAdvisor

   27 Jul 20172-bedroomPaid $7,000

   Ripped and damaged delivery.

   We had a tough time with Long Distance Van lines for these specific reasons: - Customer service would give timelines and call time details and then not call at those times / Customer service was vague with contract details and over promising verbally - Quotes for pricing were changed several times by customer service and then on day of by movers there to pick up our stuff, resulting in a much more expensive move - Boxes arrived damaged, crushed, ripped open, and with rat feces inside on our clothes - Boxes were upside down, sideways upon arrival (we were told by customer service that the boxes being ripped and smashed was our fault for not using enough paper inside the boxes) - Mattress bags arrived ripped and mattresses were dirty - Boxes arrived without numbered stickers that were given by movers to account for our things - Couches, lamps, and furniture were ripped and broken - contract states bumps, chips and cracks are not the movers fault and therefore not covered - It was very difficult to submit a claim due to the lengthy claims form that includes a notary stamp, three estimates for repair costs per item, and weights of "leg of chair" only vs. whole chair - when the return is .60 cents on the pound - Movers damaged wall bringing in the couch, and then shrugged when asked about it - Refused to put together furniture that previous team had taken apart even though contract includes assembly of furniture - All in all very expensive for 1,000 cubic feet furniture with terrible customer service and package delivery quality.

8. K

   Kathryn

   Source: MoveAdvisor

   10 Jan 2017Paid $7,000

   Run!!

   This mover is VERY shady!! Yes, they change names and won't even respond to Better Business Bureau! Where's the accountability!? They refuse to pay for repairs for items they broke, and will try to get customers to sign documents to prevent them from writing bad reviews. I had a terrible experience with this mover and have moved with the military MANY times! They ripped me off!

9. E

   Erwin C.

   Source: MoveAdvisor

   26 Oct 2016Paid $18,000

   Do not trust.

   This company (previously known as North Eastern Moving and Storage) lacks accountability. I am a real customer. I moved from PA to CA 6/19/15 - 7/4/16. (My move #MD7939160) Ask for three referrals and speak to them directly before deciding on this or any moving company. The initial price for a 4 bedroom house went from about $10,000 to a total of $18,006.70. The initial moving truck was too small, so they said another truck would come the next day. (nobody ever showed up without explanation) We politely asked the moving crew to remove the front door due to large furniture, but they said it would be ok. The door was damaged and the new owner of the house requested all three doors be replaced in order for us to sell the house. The 2nd moving truck finally came and damaged the driveway asphalt by going in reverse up our steep driveway. At the delivery house, the movers did not say they were obligated to re-assemble furniture even though I paid for basic reassembly. I did not expect any telephone customer service on the 4th of july delivery day. When upacking, there was a box with a knife pointing upwards! This box #120 which was packed by the packing company and can be verified by the delivery crew that were in shock to see this. This knife was not packed with any other knives and not even covered? I have young children and just this makes Long Distance Van Lines service unacceptable and dangerous. Also when unpacking, a women's hairdryer and purse was missing. We quadruple checked everything to make sure we were not missing something. We remember a man packing the master bedroom carried a personal backpack with him all moving day, so yes I am suggesting the personal items may have been stolen. I don't expect perfection, but there were too many mistakes. I am in the process of expecting reimbursement for their damage. I will defend my name and reputation. Will Long Distance Van Lines do the same?

10. G

    George C.

    Source: MoveAdvisor

    26 Aug 2016Paid $10,493

    Long Distance Van Lines- Moving Review.

    For making a critical decision on selection of a mover, these days I realize the importance of reading pertinent reviews on websites such as yelp.com, mymovingreview, consumeraffairs.com, ripoffreport.com beforehand. I come to agree with the reviews of MTJ (ripoff report #1243823), A.K. and Jose A. (yelp reviews 2/5/2016 and 7/6/2015) as a few examples given to the moving company- Long Distance Van Lines. My real-life experience with Long Distance VL is consistent with what’s in these reviews. I wished I had the realization of why a very low rating given Long Distance VL before. Long Distance Van Lines was hired to transport my household goods for a cross-country move; they had damaged many of my items during the process. I had to sue them in court because they failed to pay my submitted claim as required by our contract, and after months of repeated requests. In going over the mover contract and evidence on damages, the court judge (Superior Court of California; Small Claim case 37-2016-00329483-sc-sc-nc) rendered judgment against Long Distance Van Lines. Long Distance not only failed to appear in court on service; the company fails still to obey court ruling and pay court judgment months after verdict. Last year, as I was to relocate from Philadelphia area to San Diego area, I had to find a mover. A nationally known mover was first to give me a binding estimate, citing a quote of $13,100 after an in-house inspection. In subsequent search, I found Long Distance Van Lines with the lowest bid, giving over-the-phone a binding estimate of about $6,600. Blinded by this surprisingly low bid and by their appearance of being knowledgeable on the phone, I quickly signed an agreement with this company. Long Distance soon revised the binding estimate to about $8,000 after searching my house-sale-ad online; they re-assessed a higher volume for my furniture even though many of them were actually donated or not relocated. On the day of the move, Long Distance was quick to have me making additional payment and signing the lading contract. They were also quick to wrap my furnishings with taps, blankets, cardboards and more tapes. They had also changed the charge to $10,493 in the lading contract because of the volume increase, deliberately or not. As some movers charged by weight and some by volume, I would be somewhat OK with this final charge if no problem with move. However, many of my items were delivered damaged even with the supposedly heavy and careful wrapping. The company then required me to file a formal claim, which demanded much work in providing photos, old receipts, detailed descriptions and many paid notarized forms. Long Distance Van Lines then simply failed to pay for any of my losses. Sadly, this customer has to spend thousands to replace the damaged items, while some simply irreplaceable. Basically, at the end, Long Distance VL did a poorer job and costed me more than a normal reliable, reputable mover. Our website reviewers also mentioned Long Distance Van Lines using other company names (such as North Eastern Moving, Abbey Road Moving) and different addresses on the web before. I did find confirmation of these name-changes through online searches, going to individual Secretary of State website and looking into business registration of the company involved. I agree with the reviewers that such mover is irresponsible and unreliable.