US Van Lines

Reviews

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1. B

   Bob S.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Orlando, FL

   9 Jun 20212-bedroomPaid $3,800

   U.S. Van Lines - St. Louis, 1785 Pennsylvania Ave. St Louis DOT 913954

   When you contract with a mover, most people expect four things: on-time pickup of furniture and possessions; on-time delivery to the new address; a minimum of breakage and other damage; and a company that stands behind its work. Late last year, my sister-in-law hired U.S. Van Lines – St. Louis to move the contents of her two-bedroom townhome from St. Louis to Orlando. To say the move was a disaster is like comparing COVID to a mild case of the flu. While the pickup came off as scheduled, the contents arrived late and, too often, in pieces. And the co-owner, Chuck Vilnai, did his dead-level best to get out of paying for any of the damage. My sister-in-law’s furnishings were loaded into a U.S. Van Lines truck in November, at the height of the pandemic. Everything seemed to go smoothly and professionally. As I witnessed, her furniture and boxed-up possessions were stacked neatly in the truck. They were to be held by U.S. Van Lines in storage until December, when they would be trucked to Orlando. More than a month later, a U-Haul truck pulled into my sister-in-law’s apartment complex. It was two days late, the result of a breakdown of the truck that had left St. Louis with her furniture. The U-Haul was rented as a substitute. And, it was clear, her furniture and possessions had literally been thrown into the truck. The interior of the U-Haul looked like a landfill – boxes cascading every-which-way; furniture stacked on its top, bottom and side; loose packing paper and cardboard strewn across the floor. And as the truck was slowly unloaded, the extent of the damage became obvious – and staggering. The front leg of a loveseat was snapped off. The curved glass to a curio cabinet was shattered; so was a custom-made, six-foot piece of glass that fit on top of a dresser. The corner of a bookcase/wall unit was crushed. Silk lamp shades were shredded. Pictures had been ripped out of their frames. A tea cart was simply missing, as were other pieces. A steel stepstool was bent at bizarre angles, indicating it had sat beneath an extremely heavy object. Many, many other items were cracked, chipped or otherwise damaged. The driver of the truck – a contract employee named Josh, who was from North Carolina -- repeated over and over, “There’s no excuse for this.” Our preliminary estimate of the damage was $30,000. But when we called Chuck Vilnai, and sent two dozen pictures of damaged items, he offered to compensate my sister-in-law … $200. He reminded her that she had failed to take out insurance on the load (because of the pandemic, she had rushed through the final signing of her contract to keep contact with the driver at a minimum and had skipped over the insurance option.) When we threatened to go to arbitration, as the contract allowed, he raised his offer to $600. After months of haggling, we finally did go to arbitration – and ultimately won a settlement of $1,500. My sister-in-law thought she’d vetted U.S. Van Lines carefully. The company is A-rated by the St. Louis Better Business Bureau. But clearly, this rating meant little. And we also discovered that federal and state law gives moving companies extensive protections when consumers complain. My advice: do NOT hire U.S. Van Lines St. Louis to handle your move. Before the move, take pictures of your furniture and accessories. If you can, take your most precious items with you; don’t give them to the mover. And whatever mover you choose, carefully explore your insurance options to ensure that you’re protected in case of damage or loss. In the event of a disaster like this one, you’ll need an insurance company on your side.

2. V

   Veronica N.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · New York, NY

   26 Sep 20201-bedroomPaid $4,500

   I should have read the reviews.

   All I can say is Mr. Edon.. thank you so much for being rude. You are the most rude person I have ever met, you shout at me and when I tell you to lower your voice you get upset and hang up. I hope this phone call was recorded. You are horrible.. very horrible. Stick to your management position and not customer service because you are a horrible person. Sharon has always been polite it’s sad that she doesn’t work weekends because you and your high rude tone of voice is not good for business. People like you do not deserve leadership and are very bad for business. As you said for the third time this week, the driver will call me today. If he doesn’t I will be calling you back, you can hang up on me again if you want. You are so unprofessional by the way. They need to train you on proper customer service and people skills before you get on that phone. I wasn’t upset until I talked to you . This is not a volunteer job. I am paying the company to move my stuff. But your rude self is what I will not tolerate. Grow up and get some emotional intelligence.

3. K

   Ken R.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Eureka, MO

   10 Nov 20194-bedroomPaid $4,250

   US Van Lines - St Louis.

   I hired US Van Lines to move our household goods about 10 miles from our old house to our new house in the St Louis area. My wife and I packed a lot of the items but left a number for the movers. It was alarming to see that the stuff we packed arrived undamaged, but a number of items they packed did not. Here's an incomplete list - NOTE: I did not claim everything: 1) Broken base for the ping pong table. It was NOT broken until it arrived at our final destination. 2) The 29 1/8 x 47 3/8 glass top for my office desk was cracked and chipped. This was packed by the movers and was in good condition prior to the move. 3) The floor lamp is missing a locknut and the bulb housing itself will no longer hold a light bulb. The movers disassembled and packed this lamp and it was in good working condition prior to the move. 4) 1 of the 12 tiles for the patio table tops was broken. Movers packed these as well and there were no broken tiles prior to the move 5) One of our nightstands had a damaged drawer front and broken front facing of lower shelf. This was not damaged when it was packed by the movers 6) There is a very noticeable gouge in the kitchen table top that measures approximately 1 inch x 1 inch in size. There was no damage prior to the move. 7) There is damage to the sides of a coffee table. This occurred sometime during the move. 8) Visible damage on the side of a bookshelf/TV stand. This occurred sometime during the move. 9) 2 noticeable gouges on the top of a dresser. Each gouge measures approximately 5 inches x ¾ inch. This occurred sometime during the move 10) Noticeable damage on TV stand. This was damaged sometime during the move 11) Noticeable damage on several pieces of our dining room set including: a. Table legs b. Chair backs c. Chair legs I contacted the moving company to register my complaint and was sent an email requesting a list of the damages with photos. That was emailed AND mailed, and yet nothing. The move was completed at the end of July 2019 and as of Nov 10, nothing has been done with it. Here's the contact information I was given: Claims Department US VAN LINES 866-300-1299.

4. T

   To B.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Lansing, IL to Douglasville, GA

   16 Aug 20192-bedroomPaid $1,340

   US Moving Van Lines Richard Russo Fraud.

   I spoke with Richard Russo several times to move my 74 year old mother from Chicago to Atlanta. He pretended to be an honest man. He said he was a family owned operation in business for 20 plus years. Richard quoted me $1340 to move my mom out of a 2 bedroom home with about 15 boxes, 1 bedroom set and a living room set. That seemed very reasonable so we paid the deposit. When moving day came the drivers said that Richard quoted us incorrectly and that the fee would be $4000. Richard has a scam operation where gives low quotes, hires a real moving company and lets the customer figure out the difference later. The actual movers said they have had a lot of issues with the jobs he's hired them for. Now my mom has all her stuff packed and no movers. Horrible Horrible person.

5. R

   Robert P.

   Source: MoveAdvisor

   21 Oct 2016Paid $660

   Damaged/ missing electronics.

   I set up a move through a very nice and professional Lady. The movers on time. They moved quickly. I was watching them as they lifted a cabinet with a fireplace insert and it fell out and crashed on the concrete. Foreman called office about repair gave type/unit #s. They called back. Not repairable. Will call me. Thursday. Monday no call back. I called. Immediately given # for claim company. They sent download for claim form. Tried 5 times to open. Adobe no MSWord no. Opened after new e-mail sent. The form is a nightmare. And that does not talk about the electronics that I packed the day before. 1t hard drive, digital computer camera/ wifi adapter, discs of homemade movies. Box got lost in 5.6 mile drive. Only box that didn't make it. OK a couple hundred $s but the data on hard drive grandkids, birthdays. We opened every box- claim form is a nightmare. I did not itemize every box. That immed kills the claim. I DO NOT RECOMMEND US VANLINES.

6. M

   Momwithbabies

   Source: MoveAdvisor

   15 Apr 2013Paid $6,835

   Scam at arrival date and insurance.

   Don't use US Van Lines in St. Louis office if you move long distance!  Scam of the moving dates and their insurance! Again, SCAM! Delayed 26 days from our preferred arrival date. Won't pay for the delay. The furniture packed and unpacked by them got damaged, did not get refund. We bought $20,000 coverage insurance through them! They politely and friendly got our business at first, smiled at us when packing and loading our belongs, after that, your move is doom! They don't have the arrival date! Although they said in contract to deliver within 14 business days from our preferred arrival date, NO! We received most of our belongs 5 weeks after the pickup date, 4 weeks after our preferred arrival date, 8 days after the latest contract date. With a 6 months old baby and 3 year old child, they did not care whatsoever, did not schedule a sooner delivery. We paid US Van Lines in St. Louis $6835.25 to move from St. Louis to Portland, OR. We did not have much furniture, the original quote (~$5700) was the medium price when we searched several companies. We chose them because they sounded polite and organized on the phone. Our furniture were picked up on July 27th, 2012. We have told US Van Lines that our preferred delivery date was Aug 5th. However, they never gave us an delivery date. I talked to them on Aug 5th and found out they did not have the truck! and they did not know when to have the truck!  They said they would call me when they had scheduled the delivery. We did not talk again until Aug 20th. US Van Line called me on Aug 20th and said the truck with our furniture had left St. Louis on Aug 19th. However, they knew it was going to delay but did not tell us. The latest delivery date as on contract was Aug 23rd, the 14th business day since Aug 5th. When I talked to the driver, he told me he had at least 6-7 other destinations to deliver before us, and would not arrive by Aug 23rd. They finally delivered on Aug 31st. We talked to the manager of US Van Lines in st. Louis office in Sept, 2012. The manager offered to send us a check of $300. The amount was sure not enough, but the check of $300 never arrives either.  In Oct 2012, after we sent the furniture lost and damage claim to their claim dept, we got an email saying they would pay only $126.80 for our over $1200 furniture damage and loss. But we need to pay $250 deductible. In April 2013, after we submit a complain to BBB, they responded and asked who said to refund you the $300? Basically, you will get nothing back. And, how could a few hundred $ can repay the moving delay?!

   Response from US Van Lines

   Wow. That sounds horrible! I am very sorry you had a bad experience in July of 2012. We do between 1000-1200 moves a year. Unfortunately a very small percentage of that very large number have a negative experience. It is my job personally to make sure our customers have the best experience possible. That also means when something goes wrong I do everything I can to make it better. We have redesigned the infrastructure of our operations, placing the customer right at the top of our list of priorities. I will also say that we don't do "refunds" from our office. We have a claims department that handles this. We have never given a hard date for a long distance move based on how difficult these transports actually are. This is written in bold letters at the top of your long distance contract. Anything can throw it off, from bad weather to a driver needing to take a break from the road. I'm sure you can understand the importance of an over the road driver obeying the law and only working the maximum hours allowed per 24 hour period. But, none the less, if you feel you weren't given the service you deserved, I want to formally apologize on behalf of US Van Lines. If you do decide to use us again in the future, I would love to offer you a huge discount. If you need to discuss this further, please call me directly at (314)773-9200. Thanks for your candid review. Missy Zarbock Marketing Director US Van Lines.

7. I

   Iamsmart

   Source: MoveAdvisor

   5 Jul 2012Paid $2,000

   Wirst move ever.

   DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. They are so unprofessional and rude. Our goods arrived late, were lost in transit and nobody knew where they were. When the partial shipment arrived, furniture was missing, goods were damaged, boxes were open and crushed, plastic boxes had footprints on them AND we even got somebody else's goods mixed in with ours. Who knows where our furniture is now. Claim took 2 months to process and we only got pennies in the process. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY.

   Response from US Van Lines

   Iamsmart, I am very sorry you had a bad experience. I tried to look up your account, but was unable to find you. If you can email me your contract, I would be very happy to help you iron this issue out. Thanks, Missy Zarbock Marketing Director US Van Lines STL MO.

8. E

   Emmanuel

   Source: MoveAdvisor

   4 Mar 2012Paid $3,600

   Non Delivery of my Property.

   RE JOB NUMBER K223262 OF 8/19/2011. I entered into contract with this company through their representative at St Louis office to move my property from Overland Park,Kansas to Winston -Salem,North Carolina in Aug 2011.Their agent came and moved my property but they never delivered my lawn mower.Their representative initially denied and insissted it was delivered.Later he sent me an email that he found it and that it will be sent to me with the next available truck.This was in sept 2011.Today is 3/4/12,they have not delivered it and no body is willing to help.Beth refused to help saying the agent is not their company.I did not contract with this guy,he came saying that he was vanlines agent and van lines never informed me that they were going to subcontract it to somebody else. I NEED MY LAWN MOWER.IT IS WITH VANLINES.I PAID CASH FOR THE DELIVERY AND ALL MY PROPERTY NEEDS TO BE DELIVERED TO ME. AGGRIEVED CUSTOMER EMMANUEL  .

   Response from US Van Lines

   Emmanuel, I am very sorry to hear you had a negative experience. I tried to look up your account but was unable to locate it in the system, so then I went out to the paper files in the warehouse for Sept 2011 and was unable to locate your contract there. I believe you when you say your lawn mower wasn't returned but I don't think our company is the company responsible for it. No one named Beth works here. It is not our practice to subcontract moves to other companies. We do allow customers to pay cash for delivery but there would have had to have been a credit card for the pick up and there is no record of you here at all. Once again, I can absolutely understand how frustrated you are, I would be too. But I think you may have either used another company or your entire account is under someone else's name completely (although I looked through the entire month for a claim for a lawn mower. There were only two claims and neither of them were for a lawn mower.) If you can produce your contract number I will give you the phone number to our claims department to get this taken care of. Once again, I'm very sorry that this happened, but I'm not sure it was our company. Best Wishes, Missy Zarbock Marketing Director US Van Lines.