6 Aug 2019 · MoveAdvisor
1.0 out of 51.0
If I could give this company 0 stars, I would. We very mistakenly used Long Distance Van Lines for a move from San Francisco to Chicago in July 2017. They drew us in with a really low estimate for our move (which of course turned out as too good to be true) and a charming sales person who immediately disappeared and could not be contacted after we signed up to move with them. We learned a good lesson for future moves that you should always get a home visit before signing up with movers so that they can provide you a reasonable cost estimate. The movers arrived 2 days late and then increased our moving estimate by $3000 after they had loaded all our possessions (some of which were hanging out the back of an unmarked van) into the truck. The movers spoke very poor English and when we tried to contact customer service (Paula), she was not accommodating, sympathetic, or flexible. Paula should not be in customer service - her personality is the antithesis of someone who should be in customer service. We felt that we had no option but to use them for the move (which was a mistake on our part), given that all our possessions were already loaded onto the truck. We were given a 2 week delivery range about a month out. This in and of itself is absurd. We had to wait at our parents' house in Minnesota while we waited to hear back from LDVL about our delivery in Chicago. As we got closer and closer to the end of the delivery date, I started calling them multiple times a day - about 95% of the time, I could not get in touch with anyone. When I did speak with Paula, she provided very little useful information about where our possessions were and when they would arrive. Because of that, we left on a week-long vacation thinking that we would be able to accept delivery of our possessions after we returned. Of course, while we were out of the country, LDVL decided to deliver our stuff. We PLED with Paula to change the delivery date so that we could be there, but she refused. On the first delivery attempt, the driver claimed that our alley was too small to fit a truck into, and they demanded $500 for a shorter truck to come in and deliver our stuff. That was a COMPLETE lie. I saw multiple large moving trucks in our alley successfully delivering other people's stuff for the 2 years that I lived in Chicago. On the second attempt, a successful delivery was made. When we returned, all our boxes were crushed, our white couch had 4 large black stains on it, nearly all our furniture was scuffed or scratched or damaged in some way (including a kitchen bench, our table, our dresser, our box frame, our couch, and our office desk). The movers also lost a box of expensive ski gear, including ski boots. The total compensation for this loss, plus the unnecessary request for $500 to get a smaller van? About $450. We had to threaten them with legal action to even begin the process, which took 6 months. PLEASE DO NOT TRUST THEM. They go through a few different names. Also do not trust reviews on Consumer Affairs - they are a scam review site and Long Distance Van Lines paid them to remove bad reviews. They go under multiple names and have switched names in the past to avoid issues. You can also refer to this website: https://medium.com/@ldvl.broke.me/the-sale-6876b14d02bb.
Read more