Standard Van Lines

Reviews

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1. R

   Richard L.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Sherrill, NY to Largo, FL

   9 Jan 20223-bedroomPaid $589

   Refund

   I contacted Standard Van Lines in September 2021 to help make moving arrangements for a elderly family in NY on welfare and unable Standard required a deposit to put together a proposal. I gave them my personal check by email. When I did not get a call back, I called They took the info and said they would send contract which they did send. I spoke to their agent few days later and they said they did not have a mover in NY available until some time in the future. They agreed to allow me to find another mover. Thank I found another moving company for the family and Standard said they would not process my deposit check and cancel our arrangement. Checking with my bank I seen where my check was cashed by Standard Van Lines I called their customer service and she apologized and said they would send a refund. Concerned I asked for that refund promise be in writing. She sent the promise to refund in writing right away. 5 months later, 37 telephone calls, 49 emails, 5 of these inquires and 5 letters, still no refund or response When I call I am put on hold with no one ever coming back or referred to accounting who never answer All I want is the lousy $589 I paid in good faith Why can Standard meet their promise and responsibility?????”

2. T

   Terry A.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · San Jose, CA

   8 Jan 20221-bedroomPaid $2,100

   Beware of this company - Bad News

   Beware of Standard Van Lines bad business practices. Have had quite a few cross country moves completed with others but dealing with this company was the worst. Summary of my experience is below but before you give this company one cent, please note the following: - Despite the 4+ star ratings on this site, they have a very poor rating with the BBB. Please look at the BBB site before you decide to do business with them. - Based on my experience, I can not believe the positive reviews are real. - The organization that regulates the long haul moving industry (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) indicates that Standard Van Lines has a large number of complaints filed against them and would not endorse doing business with them. Seven days into 2022 and they already have 4 complaints filed against them. - Please visit fmcsa.dot.gov and look up Standard Van Lines in their search tool - Check registered movers database (https://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/hhg/search.asp?) to see the list of complaints before you decide to do business with them. My experience: Paid deposit for move of storage unit California to Dallas - Contract terms provided a cancellation window of 72hrs from date of deposit for refund. Additionally, there was a clause in the contract that stated no refund if pickup was within 5 days. - Notified by Standard Van Lines on 12/9 of the carrier assigned to my move. - Upon further investigation into the company assigned, learned that they had less than 2 star ratings for all reviews in 2021 on the site that Standard Van Lines (Robert) recommended (www.mymovingreviews.com) that I use to check the quality of the movers. - Also learned that the company assigned to the move has a large number of complaints registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). The organization that long haul moving companies must be registered with. - Per FMCSA, the company assigned has a history and track record of hostage complaints where they pick up your items and demand a higher price for delivery. - The FMCSA agent on the phone recommended not doing business with this carrier due to the large number of complaints and seemed to imply that there were other investigations related to this company also but was not clear. - Sent an email requesting the move be canceled due to my findings and concern of having my items picked up and then held while demanding more money. Requested to have my deposit refunded. Standard Van Lines refused but offered a different carrier and upon looking into that carrier, their complaints were just as high with FMCSA as the previously assigned carrier. Thank you for the additional input but we need to clarify some things for accuracy: - Regarding the complaints are due to a company with a similar name: It is true that there was a company with a similar name in Florida (US Standard Van Lines). However that company went out of business in mid 2021 per your conversation with me and their site is no longer active so you can note at least that the complaints filed in 3rd and 4th quarter are against Standard Van Lines should be accurate. Additionally, in the complaints submitted through the BBB, not any of your responses indicate that you are not the correct party for the complaint. You have earned your the rating with the BBB through bad business practices not because people have you confused with a different organization - Regarding my issue and the cancellation window: If I need to post the contract in this space I can but I did cancel within the 72hr window in the contract as soon as I learned that my move has been assigned to a carrier with a track record of holding customers items after pick up and demanding more money for the move. As for the several attempts verbiage in your response, to be accurate, you offered one other option with a moving company with a track record just as alarming as the first. Not willing to be lured into a scam that you appear to be complicit in and losing even more money. Not sure why others having bad ratings is relevant. Standard Van Lines are doing bad business.

   Response from Standard Van Lines

   Terry, Our company has received many complaints against us because another company has a similar name. We have challenged the validity of a large number of those complaints and are continuing to work tirelessly to have the rest removed. We are not able to issue a refund as we have attempted to facilitate your move several times and you have decided to cancel the entire move outside of the cancellation window. There is no company that is ever completely safe from receiving negative reviews. Research any company, whether it's Walt Disney World or Standard Van Lines, and you'll find negative reviews. In spite of the best efforts of all companies, there will always be situations outside of their control that result in a negative complaint. In the last year, Mayflower, one of the largest and most well-known companies in the industry, had over 20 complaints under the multiple DOT numbers they operate under as well as a 1.5 rating on this site. Please feel free to contact customer service if you wish to discuss this matter directly.

3. N

   Natalia W.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Austin, TX

   7 Jan 20223-bedroomPaid $5,900

   WORST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE

   ALL POSITIVE REVIEWS ARE FAKE. WORST Experience. Standard Van Lines made my life a living hell. They are just brokers and set you up with a random moving company last minute days before the move. They set me up with the WORST moving company "Brooklyn moving". The moving company lost 1/3 of my furniture, they lost three mattresses, one box spring, a bookcase, a dinning room chair, two boxes; and delivered 1/3 damaged: Broken elliptical machine, broken frames, broken dishes, broken wooden bed, broken wooden TV stand. They also lost the screws to my TVs making them unable to stand up. Standard Van Lines just wants your deposit and don't care who they hire to do the work. They also delivered two months late. Don't use them. Save yourself the heartache, stress and money by choosing someone else.

4. J

   John M.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Brooklyn, NY to Watkinsville, GA

   31 Dec 20212-bedroomPaid $1,500

   They start out nice, but then....

   We canceled our contract within the 72 hour limit stated on the contract when we discovered they are a broker, not an actual movers. You can verify yourself by looking up their DOT number. They turned mean and kept our $1500 deposit. They ignore all calls and emails. Stay away. Move yourself or pay for a more reputable company.

5. C

   Cynthia H.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Greenville, SC to Daytona Beach, FL

   23 Dec 20212-bedroomPaid $2,500

   Unethical Company

   US Van Lines stole my deposit. I canceled my order within the guidelines of their contract Terms and Conditions (paragraph 8) and have not received my deposit. A woman from the company called to say I would get my deposit but that was back in September, and I still have not received it. I have called numerous times, and no one answers the phone. Avoid this company!

6. D

   Daniel D.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Brooklyn, NY to Ventura, CA

   21 Dec 20211-bedroomPaid $4,250

   If I can get one person to avoid this company I will be happy

   This company is a total scam. They are not a moving company, they are a broker that will say anything to take your money and then supply no help or support when a third party moving company comes to your house and charges triple what they quoted. I paid them a thousand dollars for literally nothing and will be disputing the charge.

7. C

   Chris F.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Dupont, WA to Wilmington, NC

   16 Dec 20213-bedroomPaid $12,278

   Avoid at all circumstances!

   DO NOT USE! WILL OVER CHARGE! Had a horrible experience with Standard Van Lines out of Florida. Had a move from Washington State to North Carolina. I went to a website to get a quote for moving from companies. Standard Van Lines kept calling me and doing the typical high pressure sale approach. They gave me a ridiculous low offer of around $3,000.00 tomove from Washington to NC. I knew it was too good to be true cause I a m not an idiot, but I bite. First the wanted a security deposit upfront and which went from around 1500 to around 2200 due to some BS. Standard Van Lines is not the actual mover and just a broker. The contractor mover shows up for my 3 bedroom home and now wants an additional nearly $5000.00. They load my stuff into 26ft van. I get to North Carolina the movers do not show up on Dec 10th, 2021 as agreed and then get less than 24 hours notice they are arriving. Can't take off from work the next day under the short notice and they now charge me a $500.00 overnight fees. Now, my goods are somehow on a Semitruck somehow despite loading on a 26ft Van and the Semi cannot make it into the facility. Gets better, now I have to rent an additional truck out of my own pocket to move my belongings in a Walmart parking lot to my apartment a few miles away. And I have to pay an additional 300.00 dollars for the additional movers. In the delivery driver whom was completely different from the pickup driver naow.charges.me roughly $5,500.00 additional and he even told me that Standard Van Lines was doing something fishy. So in total, my estimate of about $ 3,000.00 went to about $13,000. Do not use them period. Horrible company in my opinion.

8. J

   Jerry H.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Butler, TN to Southport, NC

   9 Dec 20212-bedroomPaid $7,600

   move --from TN to NC

   Over charged- gave me one price then after dn payment increased it by factor of more than twice,(they farm out your move), lied about everything (said would have professional movers-they picked movers off the street; cashed a ck that they said wouldn't -took 2 months for money to be returned; their billing dept will never answer phone r return a call af leaving a detailed message ; customer relations is a joke, they do not help you if they ever do answer the phone. Had evidence that they cashed and tried to keep money that they were not due, had to get BBB involved to put some pressure on them and it still took 2 months, had every excuse they could make up--mail stolen, mail lost, in the mail but slow-etc.etc. Lied about no cost to move item upstairs, lied about 2-3 movers-actually had 1 + driver, lied about delivery time, pick up time and drop off times. Salesman Chris Morris lied and kept lying, as I found out--do not deal w/this person, the worst----he will say anything and then you find out it was all lies, untrue words come out of his mouth constantly. Could go into greater detail but hope this gives you the idea of what kind of company this is--the worst. Seriously, do not deal with this company, they are the worst

9. K

   Karen E.

   Source: MoveAdvisor · Mission, TX to Lancaster, PA

   30 Nov 20211-bedroomPaid $5,000

   SCAM

   Standard Van Lines - SCAMMERS Avoid Their contract allows them not to show up and still keep your deposit. AVoid them!!

10. B

    Bruce T.

    Source: MoveAdvisor · Royal Oak, MI to Tempe, AZ

    3 Nov 20212-bedroomPaid $6,200

    Terrible - go elsewhere

    My moving experience has been, by far, the worst transaction I’ve ever made in my life. It started off by being late when the salesperson with Standard Van Lines I spoke to told me that everything would definitely be picked up by a certain date so that I could book a flight. Turns out after I complained when they were late, customer service told me they never should have said that as they can’t guarantee pick up dates. So I wasted money on a flight, and the movers came about 8 days later. The next issue was that when the movers with Non Stop Moving finally did come, we came to find out that the salesperson botched my inventory by putting smaller items when the items should have been bigger (for example – I told him I had 20-25 plastic bins. He put those as small boxes, which is more than twice as small). This along with other mistakes caused my inventory cost to go from $3,900 to $6,200. When Non Stop Moving moved my belongings into the new house, as I’m unpacking I found that a bag of custom clothes were stolen, along with all of my watches that were in a watch box (which was taped up inside of one of the plastic bins – meaning someone went through my stuff). When I brought this up to the movers, all they could say was that “it’s not my responsibility” – how is it not your responsibility when you’re literally in possession of my items? When I called Non-Stop Moving about this, whoever I spoke to basically implied I was lying about what was missing and that there’s no way of knowing what was really in there. It’s been hard to get in touch with either company and whenever I finally do get in touch with them, they don’t really provide any help to rectify the situation. This all happened in mid-September. It’s not early November and I have yet to hear a thing from either company or claims. My claim was put in a month and a half ago and I’ve heard nothing. Expensive and sentimental items just gone with no way of getting them back. If I was to move again, I’m one of the laziest people but I would do it all myself rather than going through either of these companies ever again. This experience has wasted so much time and money.