First National Van Lines

Reviews

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1. J

   John B.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Chicago, IL

   13 Mar 20232-bedroomPaid $1,100

   estimate was wrong and movers were late

   I'm happy to say that the movers were hard-working and professional. Unfortunately, the representative incorrectly calculated our quote by telling us that 3 movers would be able to complete our local Chicago move within 4 hours. The movers arrived two hours late. When they saw our boxes and furniture, which were in the exact amount that we'd stated in our quote, they said they would need NINE hours to complete the move. As a result, we had to wait an hour for their supervisor and an extra mover to arrive to re-negotiate. Once we talked through everything, the crew moved ~1/2 our stuff in 4 hours. When we discussed this with the representative, they suggested that we book the crew for 4 hours the next day to complete the move. We declined and rented a Uhaul to finish the job ourselves, which is what I wish we'd done in the first place, for 10% the cost.

2. C

   Cheryl A.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Savannah, GA to Augusta, GA

   26 Feb 20232-bedroomPaid $5,800

   Estimate was FAR too low

   My final price ended up being more than DOUBLE the original estimate. The scheduling etc and the contractor who actually did the work were great but the final price was very painful. Do NOT use them unless you have money to burn.

3. B

   Brooke R.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Vernon Hills, IL to Henderson, NV

   21 Feb 20243-bedroomPaid $9,670

   Worst Moving Experience Ever.

   Initially, at the time of sale with First National Van Lines, Jordan in Sales told us that the disassembly of our beds and desks was included in our pricing along with professional packaging/furniture padding for our TVs, Monitors, wall art, furniture, and mattresses. Jordan also told us that First National Van Lines was not a Brokerage and does not outsource to other moving companies. This later turned out to be false. The moving company (Wild Safari Moving) called me the day before our scheduled pickup date (Friday, January 12th) to provide the time of pickup for the 13th. The estimated arrival window we were provided was between 10 am and 12 pm on January 13th. We had to call multiple times to see where the movers were at because it was now 1 pm and no one provided an update. The movers finally arrived around 3 pm. They arrived in a rental Penske truck with little to no packaging materials. They also didn’t lay down any plastic or protective covering to protect floors/walls from damage. The men showed up without an Allen wrench or basic tools and they asked us to go to the store to buy tools because all of ours were already packed away in the truck. So, we went to Menards and bought some basic tools, and borrowed a screw gun from a family member close by. We ended up having to disassemble our bed frames and desks because there were not enough workers to complete the job in a timely matter (there were only 2 people for a 3 bed 3 bath 1900 sq ft townhome). Total pickup took 6.5 hours to complete. During delivery, we were then told they wouldn’t help us re-assemble our beds because we had done it ourselves and it was a liability. We were pigeonholed in this situation and were forced to do the work ourselves once again late that night. We called John Allen from First National Van Lines who works in Dispatch immediately to let him know that our belongings were not being properly packaged. He was very quick to dismiss our concerns and told us to “trust the process”. Like the pickup, there were not enough resources when they arrived for delivery. This time, there was only 1 worker to move in all our belongings. The moving company ended up calling two people locally to help at the last minute; they arrived 3 hours late. Once again, the movers didn’t put down any protective padding for flooring or walls during pickup and delivery. We now have a couple of small dings on the walls of our new home. After watching them drop our dinette table in our doorway and continuously hit the table against our door and walls, I asked them to leave it where it was, and I dismantled it to move it myself. At the time of delivery, I sent images to Kenny (at Wild Safari Moving) to let him know of the damage and find out where I could submit our claim. Later that day, one of the movers told us that we were being nit-picky about our things being damaged… It saddens us to see that our brand-new dining table, dining chairs, TV stand, coffee table, side tables, rugs, lamps, computer monitor, and more are now damaged. We decided to spend more money on the moving service in hopes our belongings would be taken care of. However, many of our belongings are now damaged in some form due to the lack of care and packaging materials used by the moving company. This entire operation was poorly managed, and we did not receive any of the services we paid for and were promised. Moving from Illinois to Nevada started as an exciting new chapter but shortly turned into a very stressful endeavor when dealing with First National Van Lines and Wild Safari Moving. Two days after I posted my initial review online, I was reached by a third-party mediator to resolve the issue. I was told that both First National Van Lines and Wild Safari Moving had agreed to make the situation right on their end. I agreed to take down my reviews to be civil in the matter. At first, I was told they rejected any compensation for our damaged belongings and the poor service we received. Today I was just told they would compensate us $1025. I respectfully declined this amount as this doesn’t even cover a fraction of the damages they caused. At this point, we just want to spread awareness about this company because every moment dealing with them has been one lie after another. Don’t waste your time and money on this company.

4. C

   Chris S.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Kansas City, KS to Buffalo, NY

   23 Jan 20244+ bedroomPaid $17,000

   First National Moving was one of the worst experiences my family I hav

   First National Moving was one of the worst experiences my family I have ever experienced. I’m not even going to get into the first half of the experience, but I’m going to walk you through the events that unfolded with the delivery, unloading and unpacking. PII: First off, I got a call from our driver (same person who loaded the truck), trying to guilt me that he was working because he was supposed to be on vacation, I don’t see how that’s my problem but ok. He goes on to tell me that they will not deliver my families belongings unless I filled out a form he said he was emailing me. Once I got the email, it was just a basic word doc, asking for ALL my PII (Personal Identifiable Information) name, address, credit card infomration, CVV, signature, and Drivers license information. Now I’m not sure how many of you are aware, but this is a huge violation of consumer privacy practices in how PII is being handled. They are not allowed to store or have on going access to anyone’s credit card information and I was being forced to email it to a contract trucker for hire. The hired help: They assured me they are the best, and they have the best guys who will help us, etc etc. and when they showed up to unload the truck these people confirmed they were hired off Craigslist. None of them knew what they were doing, they stripped screws when reassembling things, and broke door and window frames throughout the process. One of the movers showed up with his wife and she kept asking people for rides until my wife felt so uncomfortable she finally got a Uber to get both of them off the property. Unpacking: This was the most unprofessional job I’ve ever seen. They basically just dumped stuff in boxes. They literally put dishes in a box, and either put or dumped a container of oatmeal that was spilled everywhere. They did the same thing with our daughters play sand container, just threw it in a box and it broke open so it was leaking everywhere in the house. Oh, and you know those tall garment boxes, with the bar at the top to hang clothes on when you move? We had a bunch of those…that they never put the bar in, they just threw all our hanging clothes in the boxes until they piled up to the top and taped it up, so that was really cool. Plus we are missing a ton of random stuff that we cannot even claim because you need pictures and I have no idea how to even begin to start a claim for things we cannot find even though we have opened and unpacked every box. Also, I cannot find our checks that I had in my desk, so I had to call the bank and cancel those, again, I am extremely worried about ID fraud coming out of this whole process. Insurance: So as I went to file my insurance claim, I discovered that I did not dig into this enough and found that items that were damaged are reimbursed at .60 cents per POUND. Nothing to do with the actual price of the item; just take whatever the item is, weigh it, and multiply that by .6. So if you have a $1,000 stereo that weights 10 pounds you would get $6. Most of the items I was going to claim are under a pound so there isn’t a reason to go through the process. My rep kept referring to the coverage saying “you have $115K in insurance coverage, do you think that’s enough?” To which I obviously said yes, but that is not how they calculate the payout. This was extremely stressful and painful; and when I say that I’m not talking about the move, I’m talking about First National. I was so stressed I would wake up in the middle of the night just worrying about this and whether or not our stuff would make it to our new house.

5. J

   Janelle M.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Greenville, SC to Tampa, FL

   7 Dec 20234-bedroomPaid $12,000

   SCAMMERS!!!!!

   DO NOT BELIEVE THE FAKE 5 STAR REVIEWS!!! Notice they have no Google listing cause you can’t fake reviews there. Quoted me $4,600 after a video showing of all items in house, arrives and says they made mistake and it is now going to cost $8,900+. They also had us pay for the fridge, washer and dryer then claimed that doesn’t include an additional miscellaneous $580 they have to add for moving a dryer. FIRST NATIONAL IS ONLY A BROKER!!! They don’t even do the move so you have no idea who will end up arriving and how much their cost will actually be. It is a huge SCAM. And you don’t find this out until you’ve already paid the down payment which is non refundable. So we were already in $1,600 and had to move forward with the price even though it doubled from what our contract listed. SCAM SCAM SCAMMMMMM!!!!

6. K

   Ken C.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Plainfield, IL to Newnan, GA

   4 Oct 20233-bedroomPaid $13,000

   Customer Service

   Be very careful with First National Van Lines, they are not a moving company. There are brokers. I first question I asked my rep Andrew ** was "Is your company the only company I will deal with because if not I will find another company?" He answered me, yes, and that he will be my rep throughout our entire move. Not true. So that is how my relationship started with this company. My move happened on a Saturday when a different company showed up to pack our things, so I was not happy and called customer service, Andrew and his supervisor only to find out that they are closed on the weekend so I was stuck with this moving company and out of luck, my house was closing on Monday and I had to accept the new total. I feel that I was lied to and deceived by this company, after several calls and emails I was told that I was not lied to or deceived. The answer I received from the First National Van Lines was "deceived my ***!" and then hung up on when I was in the middle of a sentence. Terrible experience to go thru and it just seems they just don't care. I gave them a oner star because zero or negative is not an option.

7. E

   Erin B.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Chicago, IL to Herrin, IL

   25 Nov 20221-bedroomPaid $4,400

   I have been scammed

   I have had the absolute WORST experience with First National Vine Lines. I am literally shaking from frustration and would need to write a novel to explain all the reasons why. I am in a mission to prevent anyone I possibly can from making the same mistake I have made. Please believe that they are complete scanners and stay far, far away!

8. J

   Jeremy S.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · New Orleans, LA to Scottsdale, AZ

   24 Aug 20221-bedroomPaid $3,000

   DO NOT HIRE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE!!

   Hear me loud and clear! Under zero circumstance should you do business with these scammers. They are not a moving company. I repeat they are not a moving company. They are sheisters who have the paperwork to provide you a dirt low quote for your move but they will not be doing your move. Once you sign on the dotted line, they will then look to hire a moving company in your area and use that company no matter how low that companies rating is to handle your move. First National Van Rentals will now outsource your move to that company and keep your deposit. Once the hired moving company arrives they will then attempt to get theirs by telling you the amount you paid is too low because your inventory is larger than they were informed or they will do your move, hold your belongings hostage and squeeze more money out of you and only deliver once you give them more money. Your best case scenario if you do fall for the "First National Van Rental Scam" is on the day of the move after you realize no one is showing up, you make about 30 calls to anyone you had contact with along the way (Michael Durrell, Will Ables, Daisy), none of whom will answer your calls, respond to your emails or texts. And eventually land on someone after hours and hours of phone calls who will inform you that no movers are showing up and they will provide you a full refund on your initial deposit. You won't get notice or any type of courtesy days before, it will be on the actual day! So if you had to be out of your place the following day, you're now left with the task of finding someone to move your stuff in the next 12 hours, vile scum. First National Van Lines is a straight up scam, read all the yelp reviews, read the reviews on the better business bureau. You have been warned, under zero circumstance should you work with these scam artists. Just animals trying to get your money with zero regard for your time, your belongings. These are sub humans who could care less about you or the things that are most important to you.

9. R

   Robin R.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Rincon, GA to Norwood, MA

   19 May 20223-bedroomPaid $6,000

   Scammers- STAY AWAY. This company violates every FMSCA regulation

   Six weeks later I still do not have my household property and this deplorable scam fly by night company does not respond to emails or phone calls

10. L

    Lynn B.

    Source: MoveAdvisor · Newton, NC to York, PA

    16 May 2022Partial movePaid $10,000

    Bate and switch

    Do not hire or trust this company!! They quote one price but don't tell you that they are giving your job to inta-movers who arrive 3 days late. Then when they load the truck, you find out that they have a different charging process by square ft. So now your $3,200 price is $10,000. Your stuff is already loaded!! This is called (bait and switch) Beware!!!!!