I was severely overcharged for my interstate move by this business. I research their previous business practices and they were highly rated by the BBB. However, I did find a similar complaint of overcharging that was similar to my experience. I was pressured to pay more at pick-up when I had to leave my recently sold house. The carefully calculated estimate I did calculated about 1045 cubic foot. It took them over 30 days to deliver my belongings. There contract reads "weekends and holidays" included. I was charged even more for "extra packing". These materials were not authorized by me, the team simply began using boxes while I was still reeling from the added costs.
They added even more money for delivery of my items. Most of the money is certified funds (except deposit) so credit card dispute is not possible! They claimed they could not get the truck in my apartment driveway. I have a statement from the apartment manager that they have had many full size moving vans here.
They added a fuel charge that they contract indicates was included.
I have missing items and damage that I submitted a claim for and have had no response for more than 1 week.
I measure every item and box after delivery. I used an spread sheet that has been checked for accuracy by others. I even added 10% factor and it is still far from what I paid. I paid $5900 to them for what they estimate at 1200 cubic foot. My actual measurement came to 536 cubic foot.
My wife and I chose to move with Heartland Van Lines in June of 2015. The purpose of writing this review is to save others from experiencing what we did during our move. We STRONGLY DISCOURAGE anyone from booking a move with the following companies:
HEARTLAND VAN LINES (also known as TRANS VAN LINES, or AVIS VAN LINES)
CLASSIC VAN LINES
ORANGE VAN LINES
Further, you will want to AVOID doing business with the following agents/dispatchers:
Avi(HEARTLAND VAN LINES)
Avi seems to be the owner of Heartland Van Lines, though he denied this when I asked him about it. The owner is listed as “Aviad Lankri” online.
Jay Mitchell(HEARTLAND VAN LINES) – 312-690-4144
Isaac (CLASSIC VAN LINES) – 818-725-1225, 214-774-4636
Lior (ORANGE VAN LINES)
My wife and I were convinced to contract Heartland Van Lines for our Michigan to California move by an agent named Jay Mitchell. Jay was very friendly, helpful, assuring, and responsive as we discussed the move, and the price offered was lower than other options that we found. We briefly researched Heartland Van Lines, and found that they had an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. We felt this was the company for us.
Concerns began to surface as the pick-up day approached. We were given a three-day pick up window, and promised that the driver would call us 48 hours prior to his arrival to let us know when he would be coming. We received a call just after 3 PM on Sunday afternoon, June 21, from a driver who informed us that he would be arriving for the pick up at 8 AM on Monday morning, which was only a 17 hour notice. Not a big deal, but the 48 hour notice as promised would have been appreciated so that we could plan accordingly.
When the driver arrived, we were surprised to learn that he was driving for Classic Van Lines rather than Heartland Van Lines. Heartland had subcontracted the job without our permission, and without letting us know. The crew from Classic then informed us that we would be charged an additional $125 for packaging materials, even though Jay Mitchell had promised us that we would not be charged for any of these types of items. We attempted to contact Jay, but were not able to reach him. We told the movers from Classic what our arrangement with Jay had been, but they did not care. They became increasingly rude as the pick-up job progressed, blatantly ignoring general conversation and move-related questions. Once the truck had been loaded, they provided a number of documents that needed to be signed. They refused to provide carbon copies of some of them, and were very impatient with my wife as she took pictures of all documents that we were signing. It was also very difficult to obtain credit card fee information from them, though they had the document in their truck. The positive feeling that we had about signing with this moving company was quickly diminishing.
In the following days we called and e-mailed our agent from Heartland, Jay Mitchell, multiple times but with no response. I called Heartland’s general number to inquire about Jay, and was told that he had experienced a death in the family, but would be back to the office soon. At this point I was transferred to Avi, who said that he could answer any questions that I had. I let him know about the additional packaging charges and the rude movers from Classic. He offered an insincere apology and informed me that he couldn’t do anything about the packaging charges. I asked when Jay would be back, and was told “soon.” I continued calling and speaking with Heartland’s secretaries and Avi, who assured me Jay would be back “soon” or “tomorrow.” On Thursday afternoon of the same week, Avi informed me on the phone that he “just checked, and Jay is no longer with the company.” I asked him what had happened, and he said that he had no idea. He let me know that from this point forward, he would be handling our move. Within 20 minutes of receiving this update from Avi, I received a call on my cell phone from none other than Jay Mitchell. He apologized that he had been dealing with some personal things, and wanted an update on how the move was going. I let him know about the concerns and the additional packaging charges, but did not tell him that Avi had just told me that Jay didn’t work for Heartland any longer. Jay said that he was surprised that Classic performed the pick-up rather than Heartland, and that he would work on getting the packaging charges removed right away. Now we were obviously suspicious about what was going on with Heartland.
As the next few days passed and I did not hear back from Jay, I decided it was time to contact Heartland again. I tried to reach Jay by phone and e-mail, but was unsuccessful. The secretary told me that he was out of the office and wasn’t sure when he would be back. I was again transferred to Avi, who wanted to know what date we would be available in California for our things to be delivered. I asked him how long it would take for the delivery to occur after our first available date, as Jay had told me the window would be 7-10 days. On this occasion, Avi told me that he thought it could be up to 14-17 business days, but he would have to check to know for sure. I asked him again shortly thereafter, and he said that it could actually be up 21 business days. This large timeframe forced my wife and I to rethink other travel plans that we had, so that we could be available by July 13 in California, as we would be beginning work/school at the beginning of August.
Having arrived in California by July 13, we settled in to wait for our delivery. By the end of the week, the dispatch department for Classic Van Lines informed us that our delivery would occur on either July 26 or 27. My wife and I decided to take a small road trip the week of the 19th, returning to our new home on the 26th for the delivery. The week of the 26th is when things really got frustrating.
As the week began, dispatch began seeming less certain of when our delivery would arrive. Additional frustrations resulted from the ineptitude and irresponsibility of Classic’s dispatch department as they were uncertain of where our delivery was, and would say that they would contact the driver and call us back. Never once did they actually return one of these calls. They began to slowly push back our delivery date, one day at a time. It became a pattern that they would inform us the delivery would occur “tomorrow.” We were basically stuck at our house during this time with an air mattress, camping chairs, and a card table for furniture.
On Wednesday, we were put in touch with a dispatcher named Isaac, who told us that he would now be handling our move. Isaac let us know that the delivery should occur on Thursday, but if not it would certainly be Friday. We let him know (we had already informed both Classic and Heartland Van Lines) that we would not be available for Saturday deliveries for religious reasons, and that I was leaving for a business trip on Sunday, so a delivery by Friday was important to us. He assured us that this would occur.
On Thursday, I was able to get in touch with the driver of the truck that was carrying our things. He told me that he would make the delivery on Friday, as he just had 1-2 deliveries in Los Angeles and San Diego, and then was coming to our house. I let him know of the importance of his arrival by Friday, and we left it at that. I called him a couple of times on Friday for status updates, at which time he told that he still had four more deliveries to do before ours. I called him again on Friday evening to remind him again that we were not available to receive our things or discuss the move until Saturday night for religious reasons, which was the third time that I had told him about this. I told him that I would contact him Saturday night, and that we would be available early Sunday morning for the delivery.
As my wife and I were in church on Saturday morning, we received three consecutive calls from the driver as he wanted to make the delivery, despite my careful reiterations to him and his company that we were not available during this time. I sent him a text saying that I would call him that night, to which he responded that he wanted to do the delivery after 8 PM. I told him that would be okay.
We called the driver around 8:30 PM to check on his progress, and he said that he would be arriving at our house in an hour or so. Around 10:30 PM, we received a call from the driver who was very surprised to have learned that we live in Loma Linda, CA, not Santa Monica. Apparently there had been a mix-up between dispatch and the driver, and he was about 100 miles away from our house. The driver then informed us that he couldn’t make the delivery that night, and that dispatch would have to figure it out in the morning. The driver was apologetic and stated that he believed we should receive a discount for our trouble.
We woke up early Sunday morning to begin calling our dispatcher, Isaac. He finally answered his phone after we blocked our number from showing up on his Caller ID. He told us that the delivery would occur that day (which it did), but it was too late for me to get the things that I needed before my business trip. Isaac also apologized and accepted some blame, also indicating that we perhaps we should get a refund. I requested him to send me an e-mail stating that we should be entitled to a refund, and to arrange a discount before we paid the remainder of our balance to the drivers when they made the delivery. He said that he couldn’t do that, and that he would have the office send me such an e-mail. I told him that I didn’t believe him, and of course, the office never contacted me.
The delivery finally arrived very late on Sunday night. As I was now gone on a business trip, my wife asked the drivers to call their manager to request a discount. She spoke with a man named Lior who was extremely rude, even telling my wife that she has problems, and that he was “done with her.” We paid the remainder of our balance due, and the delivery went smoothly for the most part. The drivers did break some large glass item in the driveway, which they failed to tell my wife about. She had heard the crash so she investigated after they left, and ended up cleaning up glass in the dark for about half an hour at 2 A.M.
Heartland Van Lines, LLC Reviews
I was severely overcharged for my interstate move by this business. I research their previous business practices and they were highly rated by the BBB. However, I did find a similar complaint of overcharging that was similar to my experience. I was pressured to pay more at pick-up when I had to leave my recently sold house. The carefully calculated estimate I did calculated about 1045 cubic foot. It took them over 30 days to deliver my belongings. There contract reads "weekends and holidays" included. I was charged even more for "extra packing". These materials were not authorized by me, the team simply began using boxes while I was still reeling from the added costs.
They added even more money for delivery of my items. Most of the money is certified funds (except deposit) so credit card dispute is not possible! They claimed they could not get the truck in my apartment driveway. I have a statement from the apartment manager that they have had many full size moving vans here.
They added a fuel charge that they contract indicates was included.
I have missing items and damage that I submitted a claim for and have had no response for more than 1 week.
I measure every item and box after delivery. I used an spread sheet that has been checked for accuracy by others. I even added 10% factor and it is still far from what I paid. I paid $5900 to them for what they estimate at 1200 cubic foot. My actual measurement came to 536 cubic foot.
My wife and I chose to move with Heartland Van Lines in June of 2015. The purpose of writing this review is to save others from experiencing what we did during our move. We STRONGLY DISCOURAGE anyone from booking a move with the following companies:
HEARTLAND VAN LINES (also known as TRANS VAN LINES, or AVIS VAN LINES)
CLASSIC VAN LINES
ORANGE VAN LINES
Further, you will want to AVOID doing business with the following agents/dispatchers:
Avi(HEARTLAND VAN LINES)
Avi seems to be the owner of Heartland Van Lines, though he denied this when I asked him about it. The owner is listed as “Aviad Lankri” online.
Jay Mitchell(HEARTLAND VAN LINES) – 312-690-4144
Isaac (CLASSIC VAN LINES) – 818-725-1225, 214-774-4636
Lior (ORANGE VAN LINES)
My wife and I were convinced to contract Heartland Van Lines for our Michigan to California move by an agent named Jay Mitchell. Jay was very friendly, helpful, assuring, and responsive as we discussed the move, and the price offered was lower than other options that we found. We briefly researched Heartland Van Lines, and found that they had an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. We felt this was the company for us.
Concerns began to surface as the pick-up day approached. We were given a three-day pick up window, and promised that the driver would call us 48 hours prior to his arrival to let us know when he would be coming. We received a call just after 3 PM on Sunday afternoon, June 21, from a driver who informed us that he would be arriving for the pick up at 8 AM on Monday morning, which was only a 17 hour notice. Not a big deal, but the 48 hour notice as promised would have been appreciated so that we could plan accordingly.
When the driver arrived, we were surprised to learn that he was driving for Classic Van Lines rather than Heartland Van Lines. Heartland had subcontracted the job without our permission, and without letting us know. The crew from Classic then informed us that we would be charged an additional $125 for packaging materials, even though Jay Mitchell had promised us that we would not be charged for any of these types of items. We attempted to contact Jay, but were not able to reach him. We told the movers from Classic what our arrangement with Jay had been, but they did not care. They became increasingly rude as the pick-up job progressed, blatantly ignoring general conversation and move-related questions. Once the truck had been loaded, they provided a number of documents that needed to be signed. They refused to provide carbon copies of some of them, and were very impatient with my wife as she took pictures of all documents that we were signing. It was also very difficult to obtain credit card fee information from them, though they had the document in their truck. The positive feeling that we had about signing with this moving company was quickly diminishing.
In the following days we called and e-mailed our agent from Heartland, Jay Mitchell, multiple times but with no response. I called Heartland’s general number to inquire about Jay, and was told that he had experienced a death in the family, but would be back to the office soon. At this point I was transferred to Avi, who said that he could answer any questions that I had. I let him know about the additional packaging charges and the rude movers from Classic. He offered an insincere apology and informed me that he couldn’t do anything about the packaging charges. I asked when Jay would be back, and was told “soon.” I continued calling and speaking with Heartland’s secretaries and Avi, who assured me Jay would be back “soon” or “tomorrow.” On Thursday afternoon of the same week, Avi informed me on the phone that he “just checked, and Jay is no longer with the company.” I asked him what had happened, and he said that he had no idea. He let me know that from this point forward, he would be handling our move. Within 20 minutes of receiving this update from Avi, I received a call on my cell phone from none other than Jay Mitchell. He apologized that he had been dealing with some personal things, and wanted an update on how the move was going. I let him know about the concerns and the additional packaging charges, but did not tell him that Avi had just told me that Jay didn’t work for Heartland any longer. Jay said that he was surprised that Classic performed the pick-up rather than Heartland, and that he would work on getting the packaging charges removed right away. Now we were obviously suspicious about what was going on with Heartland.
As the next few days passed and I did not hear back from Jay, I decided it was time to contact Heartland again. I tried to reach Jay by phone and e-mail, but was unsuccessful. The secretary told me that he was out of the office and wasn’t sure when he would be back. I was again transferred to Avi, who wanted to know what date we would be available in California for our things to be delivered. I asked him how long it would take for the delivery to occur after our first available date, as Jay had told me the window would be 7-10 days. On this occasion, Avi told me that he thought it could be up to 14-17 business days, but he would have to check to know for sure. I asked him again shortly thereafter, and he said that it could actually be up 21 business days. This large timeframe forced my wife and I to rethink other travel plans that we had, so that we could be available by July 13 in California, as we would be beginning work/school at the beginning of August.
Having arrived in California by July 13, we settled in to wait for our delivery. By the end of the week, the dispatch department for Classic Van Lines informed us that our delivery would occur on either July 26 or 27. My wife and I decided to take a small road trip the week of the 19th, returning to our new home on the 26th for the delivery. The week of the 26th is when things really got frustrating.
As the week began, dispatch began seeming less certain of when our delivery would arrive. Additional frustrations resulted from the ineptitude and irresponsibility of Classic’s dispatch department as they were uncertain of where our delivery was, and would say that they would contact the driver and call us back. Never once did they actually return one of these calls. They began to slowly push back our delivery date, one day at a time. It became a pattern that they would inform us the delivery would occur “tomorrow.” We were basically stuck at our house during this time with an air mattress, camping chairs, and a card table for furniture.
On Wednesday, we were put in touch with a dispatcher named Isaac, who told us that he would now be handling our move. Isaac let us know that the delivery should occur on Thursday, but if not it would certainly be Friday. We let him know (we had already informed both Classic and Heartland Van Lines) that we would not be available for Saturday deliveries for religious reasons, and that I was leaving for a business trip on Sunday, so a delivery by Friday was important to us. He assured us that this would occur.
On Thursday, I was able to get in touch with the driver of the truck that was carrying our things. He told me that he would make the delivery on Friday, as he just had 1-2 deliveries in Los Angeles and San Diego, and then was coming to our house. I let him know of the importance of his arrival by Friday, and we left it at that. I called him a couple of times on Friday for status updates, at which time he told that he still had four more deliveries to do before ours. I called him again on Friday evening to remind him again that we were not available to receive our things or discuss the move until Saturday night for religious reasons, which was the third time that I had told him about this. I told him that I would contact him Saturday night, and that we would be available early Sunday morning for the delivery.
As my wife and I were in church on Saturday morning, we received three consecutive calls from the driver as he wanted to make the delivery, despite my careful reiterations to him and his company that we were not available during this time. I sent him a text saying that I would call him that night, to which he responded that he wanted to do the delivery after 8 PM. I told him that would be okay.
We called the driver around 8:30 PM to check on his progress, and he said that he would be arriving at our house in an hour or so. Around 10:30 PM, we received a call from the driver who was very surprised to have learned that we live in Loma Linda, CA, not Santa Monica. Apparently there had been a mix-up between dispatch and the driver, and he was about 100 miles away from our house. The driver then informed us that he couldn’t make the delivery that night, and that dispatch would have to figure it out in the morning. The driver was apologetic and stated that he believed we should receive a discount for our trouble.
We woke up early Sunday morning to begin calling our dispatcher, Isaac. He finally answered his phone after we blocked our number from showing up on his Caller ID. He told us that the delivery would occur that day (which it did), but it was too late for me to get the things that I needed before my business trip. Isaac also apologized and accepted some blame, also indicating that we perhaps we should get a refund. I requested him to send me an e-mail stating that we should be entitled to a refund, and to arrange a discount before we paid the remainder of our balance to the drivers when they made the delivery. He said that he couldn’t do that, and that he would have the office send me such an e-mail. I told him that I didn’t believe him, and of course, the office never contacted me.
The delivery finally arrived very late on Sunday night. As I was now gone on a business trip, my wife asked the drivers to call their manager to request a discount. She spoke with a man named Lior who was extremely rude, even telling my wife that she has problems, and that he was “done with her.” We paid the remainder of our balance due, and the delivery went smoothly for the most part. The drivers did break some large glass item in the driveway, which they failed to tell my wife about. She had heard the crash so she investigated after they left, and ended up cleaning up glass in the dark for about half an hour at 2 A.M.