In July of 2018, we contracted with International Van Lines to move our furnishings and items from Norwalk, CA to Conover, NC. We were quoted a price around $3000. Based upon concerns I had from other reviews of various moving companies, I had asked about sub-contracting the move. I was promised that IVL would handle the move themselves.
The movers came out and did a very good job of packing furniture. We did have more than originally quoted so we expected to pay a little more. We ended up paying over $5000. We were told that the china hutch we had would be crated. It wasn't. The representative from MAP (the movers who showed up to pick up the load), said he did not have any information about crating. The hutch did arrive ok.
The movers took some boxes that we wanted to take with us. They were so fast and efficient in loading we didn't catch them picking up the extra boxes, even though I had them separated from the other stuff. We were also told we could pay by credit card with part at pickup and part upon arrival. The rep said we have to have cash or postal money order when load arrives.
When we told him what we had been promised, he made a call, then said we could pay by credit card but there would be a surcharge. Because we had given notice of our move to the landlord, we were sort of held hostage. It would have been a huge battle to reject this mover and find another mover. We get to North Carolina, and we find out that a week later our load is still sitting in California.
Of course they had language to cover this we found out. When the load arrived, in NC, the mover (an independent truck driver not IVL) showed up with two helpers who he had apparently picked up. I ended up helping them with some of the unloading. The one young man looked like he was going to pass out.
While most of the furniture arrived undamaged, there were a couple of boxes missing. In addition, the washer and dryer we had were dented. Also, there was a tea cup that had been packed inside one of the boxes, that was sitting up on top of other boxes. After complaining to Mike Jacobs, our representative at IVL, he said they owed us some money and would pay us.
It seems like Mike was only available like once a month. I would get an email from him and then not hear from him for awhile. I've finally given up. I had requested $1000 to satisfy the missing items and the overcharge. Since then we have received no contact from anyone at IVL. I have sent letters to the Florida Dept. of Justice and to the DOT.
The last thing I was told is to write my congressman to complain about the moving regulations. IVL is supposedly one of the top movers according to one or two web sites. Yet they did not provide us the level of service they promised. They did not handle the load directly as they promised. And then they have totally ignored us since about October of last year.
It would not be worth the time and effort to file a small claims suit in Florida. I'm sure they know that and are probably counting on this. As a former truck driver, I understand that movers need to have some leeway, especially when they have LTL (partial) loads. But to lose stuff, or have it stolen which appears probable here, and then totally walk away without any responsibility is unacceptable.
I don't like to post stuff on the net. Anyone can make a mistake. But to totally bow out and ignore the customer is wrong. Do not use International Van Lines or MAP Moving and Storage.
- I have over 14 major moves in my life, some were International moves. My recent move from Nebraska to Virginia using IVL was the worst move I've ever had/
- Pack was supposed to take 2 days but the packing crew showed up in a Budget rental truck at 2 PM after driving for 9 hours from Chicago. 3 guys to pack us out in 2 days, hmm. They worked the first day from 2 till around 7:30PM when I asked them to wrap it up for the night. They put some stuff on the truck that they had packed and promised to return next morning between 8-9AM. They never showed me an inventory of what they loaded onto the truck that night. THEY DID NOT return the next morning. Instead, another crew called me around 10AM on the way from Chicago also and said they would be at our house around noon. They said the first crew left last night and drove back to Chicago (with part of our stuff). So, the first crew lied to us and also did not show us an inventory. They also put some things on our truck that we did not intend to ship.
- Crew two got to the house around noon and was surprised to see so much stuff remaining to be backed. This was 3-man crew too. We let them work till 9PM and then they had the truck full (another Budget rental truck) and had not finished. They called dispatch and said a semi driver was coming through next morning between 7:30-8:30. They would meet him at their hotel and offload their truck onto his and come back.
After repeated calls and text to them I finally heard back from them around noon and said the semi had just gotten there and they would put our stuff on his truck and come back to the house. they got back around 2PM and back to work, ran out of boxes too and had to go get more (too several hours). Around 6 or 7PM they said the truck would not hold the rest of our stuff so we moved some remaining household things into the garage and the head of the packing crew assured us that he would come back from Chicago and pack the remaining items the next day. This did not happen.
In fact it was two more days before anyone came back and we had already departed, leaving access to our home to the realtor who is selling our house. We had extra expenses for additional hotel stays and had to hire a cleaning crew to clean our house after we ran out of time to do it. On top of this, Crew 2 said we owed more money because our cubic feet was over by about 500 CF, so it cost me an extra $1400 just to get them going.
This was also after IVL sent a person to our house and did an on-site estimate and came up with the cubic feet. About a week after we arrived to our new home in Virginia we contacted IVL to ask when our belongings would be delivered, the response was "Are you actually in the house now waiting for delivery?" We said yes, had been here over a week and no one had contacted us for date of delivery. The person checked with her dispatch person and he said he did not know we were ready for delivery either so had not scheduled us.
I told them to check their paper work, our desired delivery date was on THEIR paperwork. Later they replied back to me that it had been an oversight, an OVERSIGHT. They finally delivered our stuff 20 days past our stated delivery date. We have had damages due to their poorly packed boxes. Many boxes just had our stuff tossed into it with little to no wrapping paper or other protection.
My military shadow box was supposed to get a special pack, hmm, it was placed in a large box with other stuff just shoved in around it and it was a miracle that it was not damaged. We are missing several items, maybe more that were brand new, still in the box unopened. One was a vacuum cleaner that cost around $200.
IVL said they would give us $.60 a pound for damaged or missing items. We also told them about several items that came to us that were not ours. They will eventually send someone to pick up those items. We have pictures of many of the boxes that show how they packed stuff. My wife and I are in our 60s and we have pets. There has been a lot of stress on us and our pets due to the incompetence and mismanagement of our move by IVL.
For a company that is supposed to be near the top of the best moving companies in the USA, they certainly did not show it with our move. They showed a total lack of respect for our belongings by the way they handled our things and the way they packed us out. Do not use this company to move you. We will be filing a claim with them and also asking for compensation due to mismanagement of our move and the associated stress.
They crushed the screen on a big-screen smart TV by stacking other items on top of it (after their "professional" packing job), put holes and rips in a box-spring/mattress set, broke several ceramic and glass items, destroyed several plastic totes rendering them useless, and ripped/frayed our gas-grill cover. The gas grill cover had foot prints on top of it where someone had apparently used it as a ladder/step-stool. Luckily the grill is a Weber and was strong enough to withstand it with no damage. Their negligent and careless handling majorly crushed/ripped several additional boxes, but our careful packing based on experience with several previous moves prevented thousands of dollars in additional property damage.
We gave IVL a (conservative) estimate of $500 including the TV to settle the matter. They offered $350 contingent on us signing a waiver releasing IVL from any further liability and a commitment we would not write a bad review. Well, we politely told IVL we can't be "bought off" and we understand how they apparently maintain their BBB and online-review ratings.
IVL's front-end planning and estimating went well and the moving crews on both ends were great guys and hard workers, but this experience did not end well and IVL sealed the bad experience over $150 and a waiver demand. Very short-sighted!
Moving day in FL was fine but delivery to VA was delayed two weeks. Every day we had to call and get an update on their schedule, while living in temporary housing. Some days they did not return our calls. The day our van finally arrived, it was the wrong household. We were getting things from people who lived in the midwest. The moving company had to take it all back and go find our belongings. All of these mishaps are perhaps to be expected in moving. However, the packers were TERRIBLE. Our belongings were in many cases DUMPED into the boxes without protection. For example, my expensive jewelry, which was organized for the move inside a very nice portable wooden jewelry cabinet, still cannot be found. I do not understand why it was removed from its jewelry cabinet. I am so afraid that it was dumped into the moving paper and that tiny items like rings and gold chains were accidentally thrown away with all the moving paper.
A $8000 quote turned into a final bill that they now estimating will be between 19k. Please note the following horrible interactions that describes not only taking advantage of senior citizens but also HORRIBLE customer service and POOR actual moving services.
To book this company two movers had to be involved and they WOULD NOT come out to provide an in person physical estimate. All items were estimated by a phone call, and a disclaimer signed electronically during the phone call protects them with this practice. I have moved from NY to CA 2x and have never worked with any company that wouldn't come out to physically inspect the items to have a more accurate estimate. BUYER BEWARE all moving companies that I have contacted have said that this is a highly unethical practice and this can lead to these grossly underestimated BINDING moving estimates. Let's be clear if the estimate were not the lowest my parents would've used another company. My father took detailed notes about what he told them. This is an ethical and unlawful practice. IT'S a scam!
The actual horrible moving company is named American Family movers and is based in Ga.
Day 1: Movers showed up after lunch on moving day.
Day 2: The truck broke down on day 2 and they did not come out at all.
Day 3: A full crew came back on day 3
Day 4: the crew showed up at 6pm!
- by this time the lights and power were cut off because the move should not have taken 4 full days and should not have required any nighttime work. The crew worked until 3am, by cell phone light to finish. My parents never got copies of the inventory from the last day because at 74 years old they are not able to stay up until 3AM in the dark.
Any special accommodations or support offered?
My father Got attitude and belligerence from the supervisor when He told him this service was unacceptable. He was hung up on by a supervisor at the company. My dad ran a small business in the local Huntersville area for many years. He's pretty diplomatic and understanding, and has trained many employees on customer service skills. On day 1 and 2, he left an email and 2 voicemails to International with a formal complaint and request for an explanation.
No response.
It then took American Family over a week to call my father back about the delivery. No chance of delivering by 10/2, as promised. This is when he told my father the overage (DOUBLE the estimate of 8k and now up to 19k!!!!) No bill of sale from the actual pick up- NOTHING IN WRITING. The total bill needs to be paid in cash or they don't give the belongings. No accountability for their horrible service, disastrous customer service, and SCAM of under selling and then hiking up the rates. Have you know shame? Taking advantage of senior citizens.
We used International Van Lines for our move from Virginia to Texas. They were awful! Pickup was ok. Delivery was horrible. I called to give them a delivery window only to be ignored and finally told we will deliver your furniture sometime within 30 days. They refused to answer calls or return messages. They finally called to say they were loading the truck and coming this way. Then the truck broke down for two business days and the weekend. When they finally arrived, the driver tried to add fees for walking the furniture down the driveway. Apparently, the driver hired temp workers to move the furniture into the house at which point he went back to the truck and stayed. No one supervised the delivery. The movers knocked a hole in the foyer wall and stacked furniture in the rooms without unpacking. We soon discovered that our furniture was water damaged and molded. When the blankets came off everything was covered with mold. Mattresses and box springs were multicolored with mold. Pictures and mirrors were broken. Linens and clothes were water stained. Everything smelled of mold and mildew. Paint was peeling off of the furniture. A leg was torn off a writing desk. The computer, televisions, printer, and clocks are all damaged beyond repair. Sterling silver is missing from the place settings. Items from our inventory are completely missing and we receive other peoples items (Kahseam, I have your summer clothes). We had to move everything back out of the house for fear of getting ill. International Van Lines has yet to admit fault. Their response to say the were sorry and fill out the claim form so they can review them. They have yet to make an effort at restitution. They will not answer or return calls. Run from these people.
Date where I was ready to accept my shipment was April 29th.
It is currently June 9th.
I've been told two time that it was shipped and on its way and i could expect it the following week, and yet, those dates came and went and my stuff hasn't arrived and I sit in an empty apartment.
I am going to limit the length of this review as I fear going into the details of the hassles I’ve had over the weeks will make people not read my review as the length of complaints is overwhelming, but trust me there are many.
Their sales team is friendly and professional, they will do everything right to get your business from there it’s all downhill. Your “binding” estimate is worthless as they change it the second you have a single change in your shipment. Are you confident in your ability to estimate your move down to the very last box? You better be because they rely on you to provide an estimate of the shipping load. They also measure in cubic feet which no other mover I can find does. The driver taped off an area of his truck and said that’s what I paid for, you just have to take their word for it. No weight tickets or anything resembling official weights and measures will be used.
Surprise, surprise, my estimate went up nearly a $1000 on moving day. They then require your pickup and drop off payment in cash so you have little recourse when they fail to perform.
They sent what look like convicted felons to pick up and drop off my shipment, they have no problem dropping expletives and racial slurs around your family, and told me which labor I could and could not tip (i.e. everyone but the black man, coincidence?). They then went well over the verbal estimate of the delivery date they said they would hit, and NOBODY returns calls or emails once they have your shipment. When you do get a hold of someone they can’t give you any information where your stuff is or when it will be there.
They finally delivered my stuff late and demanded full payment before unloading the truck, for what I would discover later was an incomplete shipment. The delivery driver rushed all of the items into the house and didn’t complete an inventory as they were doing so, then aggressively pressured me to sign the inventory list stating that I had all my items. I told him that I couldn’t attest to that and he became more insistent, saying “it’s all here” repeatedly in broken English. I insisted on verifying each inventory item, and noticed items missing. At this point, his memory suddenly became clearer and said he “forgot” that he couldn’t take some of my stuff. He was unable to state where it was or when I would receive it. He refused to refund any of the money I gave him due to not delivering the full shipment despite my repeatedly asking him. This was despite the claim that “Your mover can only collect the charges on the percentage of the shipment that was successfully delivered” in the rights and responsibilities packet they provided.
The team delivered many battered and torn boxes and turned them upside down for unknown reasons. Boxes marked as fragile were battered and had other boxes stacked on top of them. Items were taped off using yellow tape that leave permanent bright yellow residue behind on the item. The delivery driver left all their trash at my property, they hid it in my garage and stuffed my recycle bin to the brim with unrecyclable garbage.
Once all is said and done I tried to work with customer service to rectify everything. Despite clear language “If your move exceeds 21 days you're entitled to compensation by IVL” in the Binding Estimate language, my written request for compensation went without response until I finally forced the conversation, at which time the customer service specialist refused to offer anything because it was now “a negotiation and I don’t want to show my hand.” Absurd.
I’m not quite sure where to start with this review. The short version is as follows. My wife and I paid IVL over $7,000 to move us from New Jersey to Indiana. We were told that the movers would wait to deliver our items to the destination until we arrived a few days later. The next day, I received a call telling me that they were going to deliver the items the following day, with or without us.
Since we were not present for the delivery, the movers were downright careless with our items. Many hard plastic boxes were broken, and virtually all of the cardboard boxes ended up in terrible shape. Several pieces of furniture were also destroyed.
Furthermore, the movers ignored our request to spread the items across the storage unit so that they would be easier to access. We had arranged for a unit that was roughly twice the size that we needed in order to make this task easier.
In spite of this, the movers stacked our items haphazardly on top of each other, with furniture piled on top of fragile items, all the while leaving half of the floor space unused. We had to hire local movers just to rearrange our items in such a way that we could access them. Those movers said that the way that the IVL movers had arranged our items was “scary” and felt that their behavior was downright dangerous.
When I voiced my displeasure to the company, I was initially ignored. Once I was finally spoken to, the manager attempted to intimidate me into accepting an appallingly small sum of “hush money.” He assured me that their lawyers would bully us into either accepting a pitifully small settlement (and signing an agreement preventing us from telling anyone about our horrifying experience) or take them to court, which he assured me would be stacked against us.
My conscience prevented me from taking the deal. I felt obligated to let others know about our horrendous experience, in the hope that future customers will be able to avoid this misery. This is not a company that can be trusted to handle your belongings, and it is not a company with enough integrity to fix their mistakes. Do not, under any circumstances, entrust your possessions to them.
International Van Lines of Coral Springs Florida [also goes by Ocean Star International and others] is a SCAM. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY.
"Movers' picked up our things 3 weeks ago for an interstate move in an unmarked cube truck-suddenly these two hispanic male movers demanded payment of 4 times the original quote based on "cubic Feet used".
It is illegal in the US to charge by cubic foot as of 2005.
Also, no return phone calls, entire company is VERY sketchy.
They still have our things and will not return them until "full" payment in cash is received. They also demanded a downpayment, apparently a widely used scam in this industry.
They appeared proffesional at first, even fooling the most seasoned individual-upon picking up our items and demanding 4 times to original quote this professioanlism all fell apart. None of the people spoke to will return our calls nor answer the phones nor respond to emails sent [MULTIPLE ATTEMPTS]
Do not use these scammers unless you want this to happen to you.
We are speaking with legal counsel and the government agency involved to get our things back.!!!!!!!
International Van Lines Reviews
In July of 2018, we contracted with International Van Lines to move our furnishings and items from Norwalk, CA to Conover, NC. We were quoted a price around $3000. Based upon concerns I had from other reviews of various moving companies, I had asked about sub-contracting the move. I was promised that IVL would handle the move themselves.
The movers came out and did a very good job of packing furniture. We did have more than originally quoted so we expected to pay a little more. We ended up paying over $5000. We were told that the china hutch we had would be crated. It wasn't. The representative from MAP (the movers who showed up to pick up the load), said he did not have any information about crating. The hutch did arrive ok.
The movers took some boxes that we wanted to take with us. They were so fast and efficient in loading we didn't catch them picking up the extra boxes, even though I had them separated from the other stuff. We were also told we could pay by credit card with part at pickup and part upon arrival. The rep said we have to have cash or postal money order when load arrives.
When we told him what we had been promised, he made a call, then said we could pay by credit card but there would be a surcharge. Because we had given notice of our move to the landlord, we were sort of held hostage. It would have been a huge battle to reject this mover and find another mover. We get to North Carolina, and we find out that a week later our load is still sitting in California.
Of course they had language to cover this we found out. When the load arrived, in NC, the mover (an independent truck driver not IVL) showed up with two helpers who he had apparently picked up. I ended up helping them with some of the unloading. The one young man looked like he was going to pass out.
While most of the furniture arrived undamaged, there were a couple of boxes missing. In addition, the washer and dryer we had were dented. Also, there was a tea cup that had been packed inside one of the boxes, that was sitting up on top of other boxes. After complaining to Mike Jacobs, our representative at IVL, he said they owed us some money and would pay us.
It seems like Mike was only available like once a month. I would get an email from him and then not hear from him for awhile. I've finally given up. I had requested $1000 to satisfy the missing items and the overcharge. Since then we have received no contact from anyone at IVL. I have sent letters to the Florida Dept. of Justice and to the DOT.
The last thing I was told is to write my congressman to complain about the moving regulations. IVL is supposedly one of the top movers according to one or two web sites. Yet they did not provide us the level of service they promised. They did not handle the load directly as they promised. And then they have totally ignored us since about October of last year.
It would not be worth the time and effort to file a small claims suit in Florida. I'm sure they know that and are probably counting on this. As a former truck driver, I understand that movers need to have some leeway, especially when they have LTL (partial) loads. But to lose stuff, or have it stolen which appears probable here, and then totally walk away without any responsibility is unacceptable.
I don't like to post stuff on the net. Anyone can make a mistake. But to totally bow out and ignore the customer is wrong. Do not use International Van Lines or MAP Moving and Storage.
- I have over 14 major moves in my life, some were International moves. My recent move from Nebraska to Virginia using IVL was the worst move I've ever had/
- Pack was supposed to take 2 days but the packing crew showed up in a Budget rental truck at 2 PM after driving for 9 hours from Chicago. 3 guys to pack us out in 2 days, hmm. They worked the first day from 2 till around 7:30PM when I asked them to wrap it up for the night. They put some stuff on the truck that they had packed and promised to return next morning between 8-9AM. They never showed me an inventory of what they loaded onto the truck that night. THEY DID NOT return the next morning. Instead, another crew called me around 10AM on the way from Chicago also and said they would be at our house around noon. They said the first crew left last night and drove back to Chicago (with part of our stuff). So, the first crew lied to us and also did not show us an inventory. They also put some things on our truck that we did not intend to ship.
- Crew two got to the house around noon and was surprised to see so much stuff remaining to be backed. This was 3-man crew too. We let them work till 9PM and then they had the truck full (another Budget rental truck) and had not finished. They called dispatch and said a semi driver was coming through next morning between 7:30-8:30. They would meet him at their hotel and offload their truck onto his and come back.
After repeated calls and text to them I finally heard back from them around noon and said the semi had just gotten there and they would put our stuff on his truck and come back to the house. they got back around 2PM and back to work, ran out of boxes too and had to go get more (too several hours). Around 6 or 7PM they said the truck would not hold the rest of our stuff so we moved some remaining household things into the garage and the head of the packing crew assured us that he would come back from Chicago and pack the remaining items the next day. This did not happen.
In fact it was two more days before anyone came back and we had already departed, leaving access to our home to the realtor who is selling our house. We had extra expenses for additional hotel stays and had to hire a cleaning crew to clean our house after we ran out of time to do it. On top of this, Crew 2 said we owed more money because our cubic feet was over by about 500 CF, so it cost me an extra $1400 just to get them going.
This was also after IVL sent a person to our house and did an on-site estimate and came up with the cubic feet. About a week after we arrived to our new home in Virginia we contacted IVL to ask when our belongings would be delivered, the response was "Are you actually in the house now waiting for delivery?" We said yes, had been here over a week and no one had contacted us for date of delivery. The person checked with her dispatch person and he said he did not know we were ready for delivery either so had not scheduled us.
I told them to check their paper work, our desired delivery date was on THEIR paperwork. Later they replied back to me that it had been an oversight, an OVERSIGHT. They finally delivered our stuff 20 days past our stated delivery date. We have had damages due to their poorly packed boxes. Many boxes just had our stuff tossed into it with little to no wrapping paper or other protection.
My military shadow box was supposed to get a special pack, hmm, it was placed in a large box with other stuff just shoved in around it and it was a miracle that it was not damaged. We are missing several items, maybe more that were brand new, still in the box unopened. One was a vacuum cleaner that cost around $200.
IVL said they would give us $.60 a pound for damaged or missing items. We also told them about several items that came to us that were not ours. They will eventually send someone to pick up those items. We have pictures of many of the boxes that show how they packed stuff. My wife and I are in our 60s and we have pets. There has been a lot of stress on us and our pets due to the incompetence and mismanagement of our move by IVL.
For a company that is supposed to be near the top of the best moving companies in the USA, they certainly did not show it with our move. They showed a total lack of respect for our belongings by the way they handled our things and the way they packed us out. Do not use this company to move you. We will be filing a claim with them and also asking for compensation due to mismanagement of our move and the associated stress.
They crushed the screen on a big-screen smart TV by stacking other items on top of it (after their "professional" packing job), put holes and rips in a box-spring/mattress set, broke several ceramic and glass items, destroyed several plastic totes rendering them useless, and ripped/frayed our gas-grill cover. The gas grill cover had foot prints on top of it where someone had apparently used it as a ladder/step-stool. Luckily the grill is a Weber and was strong enough to withstand it with no damage. Their negligent and careless handling majorly crushed/ripped several additional boxes, but our careful packing based on experience with several previous moves prevented thousands of dollars in additional property damage.
We gave IVL a (conservative) estimate of $500 including the TV to settle the matter. They offered $350 contingent on us signing a waiver releasing IVL from any further liability and a commitment we would not write a bad review. Well, we politely told IVL we can't be "bought off" and we understand how they apparently maintain their BBB and online-review ratings.
IVL's front-end planning and estimating went well and the moving crews on both ends were great guys and hard workers, but this experience did not end well and IVL sealed the bad experience over $150 and a waiver demand. Very short-sighted!
Moving day in FL was fine but delivery to VA was delayed two weeks. Every day we had to call and get an update on their schedule, while living in temporary housing. Some days they did not return our calls. The day our van finally arrived, it was the wrong household. We were getting things from people who lived in the midwest. The moving company had to take it all back and go find our belongings. All of these mishaps are perhaps to be expected in moving. However, the packers were TERRIBLE. Our belongings were in many cases DUMPED into the boxes without protection. For example, my expensive jewelry, which was organized for the move inside a very nice portable wooden jewelry cabinet, still cannot be found. I do not understand why it was removed from its jewelry cabinet. I am so afraid that it was dumped into the moving paper and that tiny items like rings and gold chains were accidentally thrown away with all the moving paper.
A $8000 quote turned into a final bill that they now estimating will be between 19k. Please note the following horrible interactions that describes not only taking advantage of senior citizens but also HORRIBLE customer service and POOR actual moving services.
To book this company two movers had to be involved and they WOULD NOT come out to provide an in person physical estimate. All items were estimated by a phone call, and a disclaimer signed electronically during the phone call protects them with this practice. I have moved from NY to CA 2x and have never worked with any company that wouldn't come out to physically inspect the items to have a more accurate estimate. BUYER BEWARE all moving companies that I have contacted have said that this is a highly unethical practice and this can lead to these grossly underestimated BINDING moving estimates. Let's be clear if the estimate were not the lowest my parents would've used another company. My father took detailed notes about what he told them. This is an ethical and unlawful practice. IT'S a scam!
The actual horrible moving company is named American Family movers and is based in Ga.
Day 1: Movers showed up after lunch on moving day.
Day 2: The truck broke down on day 2 and they did not come out at all.
Day 3: A full crew came back on day 3
Day 4: the crew showed up at 6pm!
- by this time the lights and power were cut off because the move should not have taken 4 full days and should not have required any nighttime work. The crew worked until 3am, by cell phone light to finish. My parents never got copies of the inventory from the last day because at 74 years old they are not able to stay up until 3AM in the dark.
Any special accommodations or support offered?
My father Got attitude and belligerence from the supervisor when He told him this service was unacceptable. He was hung up on by a supervisor at the company. My dad ran a small business in the local Huntersville area for many years. He's pretty diplomatic and understanding, and has trained many employees on customer service skills. On day 1 and 2, he left an email and 2 voicemails to International with a formal complaint and request for an explanation.
No response.
It then took American Family over a week to call my father back about the delivery. No chance of delivering by 10/2, as promised. This is when he told my father the overage (DOUBLE the estimate of 8k and now up to 19k!!!!) No bill of sale from the actual pick up- NOTHING IN WRITING. The total bill needs to be paid in cash or they don't give the belongings. No accountability for their horrible service, disastrous customer service, and SCAM of under selling and then hiking up the rates. Have you know shame? Taking advantage of senior citizens.
We used International Van Lines for our move from Virginia to Texas. They were awful! Pickup was ok. Delivery was horrible. I called to give them a delivery window only to be ignored and finally told we will deliver your furniture sometime within 30 days. They refused to answer calls or return messages. They finally called to say they were loading the truck and coming this way. Then the truck broke down for two business days and the weekend. When they finally arrived, the driver tried to add fees for walking the furniture down the driveway. Apparently, the driver hired temp workers to move the furniture into the house at which point he went back to the truck and stayed. No one supervised the delivery. The movers knocked a hole in the foyer wall and stacked furniture in the rooms without unpacking. We soon discovered that our furniture was water damaged and molded. When the blankets came off everything was covered with mold. Mattresses and box springs were multicolored with mold. Pictures and mirrors were broken. Linens and clothes were water stained. Everything smelled of mold and mildew. Paint was peeling off of the furniture. A leg was torn off a writing desk. The computer, televisions, printer, and clocks are all damaged beyond repair. Sterling silver is missing from the place settings. Items from our inventory are completely missing and we receive other peoples items (Kahseam, I have your summer clothes). We had to move everything back out of the house for fear of getting ill. International Van Lines has yet to admit fault. Their response to say the were sorry and fill out the claim form so they can review them. They have yet to make an effort at restitution. They will not answer or return calls. Run from these people.
Moved from LA---> to STL
Date where I was ready to accept my shipment was April 29th.
It is currently June 9th.
I've been told two time that it was shipped and on its way and i could expect it the following week, and yet, those dates came and went and my stuff hasn't arrived and I sit in an empty apartment.
I am going to limit the length of this review as I fear going into the details of the hassles I’ve had over the weeks will make people not read my review as the length of complaints is overwhelming, but trust me there are many.
Their sales team is friendly and professional, they will do everything right to get your business from there it’s all downhill. Your “binding” estimate is worthless as they change it the second you have a single change in your shipment. Are you confident in your ability to estimate your move down to the very last box? You better be because they rely on you to provide an estimate of the shipping load. They also measure in cubic feet which no other mover I can find does. The driver taped off an area of his truck and said that’s what I paid for, you just have to take their word for it. No weight tickets or anything resembling official weights and measures will be used.
Surprise, surprise, my estimate went up nearly a $1000 on moving day. They then require your pickup and drop off payment in cash so you have little recourse when they fail to perform.
They sent what look like convicted felons to pick up and drop off my shipment, they have no problem dropping expletives and racial slurs around your family, and told me which labor I could and could not tip (i.e. everyone but the black man, coincidence?). They then went well over the verbal estimate of the delivery date they said they would hit, and NOBODY returns calls or emails once they have your shipment. When you do get a hold of someone they can’t give you any information where your stuff is or when it will be there.
They finally delivered my stuff late and demanded full payment before unloading the truck, for what I would discover later was an incomplete shipment. The delivery driver rushed all of the items into the house and didn’t complete an inventory as they were doing so, then aggressively pressured me to sign the inventory list stating that I had all my items. I told him that I couldn’t attest to that and he became more insistent, saying “it’s all here” repeatedly in broken English. I insisted on verifying each inventory item, and noticed items missing. At this point, his memory suddenly became clearer and said he “forgot” that he couldn’t take some of my stuff. He was unable to state where it was or when I would receive it. He refused to refund any of the money I gave him due to not delivering the full shipment despite my repeatedly asking him. This was despite the claim that “Your mover can only collect the charges on the percentage of the shipment that was successfully delivered” in the rights and responsibilities packet they provided.
The team delivered many battered and torn boxes and turned them upside down for unknown reasons. Boxes marked as fragile were battered and had other boxes stacked on top of them. Items were taped off using yellow tape that leave permanent bright yellow residue behind on the item. The delivery driver left all their trash at my property, they hid it in my garage and stuffed my recycle bin to the brim with unrecyclable garbage.
Once all is said and done I tried to work with customer service to rectify everything. Despite clear language “If your move exceeds 21 days you're entitled to compensation by IVL” in the Binding Estimate language, my written request for compensation went without response until I finally forced the conversation, at which time the customer service specialist refused to offer anything because it was now “a negotiation and I don’t want to show my hand.” Absurd.
I’m not quite sure where to start with this review. The short version is as follows. My wife and I paid IVL over $7,000 to move us from New Jersey to Indiana. We were told that the movers would wait to deliver our items to the destination until we arrived a few days later. The next day, I received a call telling me that they were going to deliver the items the following day, with or without us.
Since we were not present for the delivery, the movers were downright careless with our items. Many hard plastic boxes were broken, and virtually all of the cardboard boxes ended up in terrible shape. Several pieces of furniture were also destroyed.
Furthermore, the movers ignored our request to spread the items across the storage unit so that they would be easier to access. We had arranged for a unit that was roughly twice the size that we needed in order to make this task easier.
In spite of this, the movers stacked our items haphazardly on top of each other, with furniture piled on top of fragile items, all the while leaving half of the floor space unused. We had to hire local movers just to rearrange our items in such a way that we could access them. Those movers said that the way that the IVL movers had arranged our items was “scary” and felt that their behavior was downright dangerous.
When I voiced my displeasure to the company, I was initially ignored. Once I was finally spoken to, the manager attempted to intimidate me into accepting an appallingly small sum of “hush money.” He assured me that their lawyers would bully us into either accepting a pitifully small settlement (and signing an agreement preventing us from telling anyone about our horrifying experience) or take them to court, which he assured me would be stacked against us.
My conscience prevented me from taking the deal. I felt obligated to let others know about our horrendous experience, in the hope that future customers will be able to avoid this misery. This is not a company that can be trusted to handle your belongings, and it is not a company with enough integrity to fix their mistakes. Do not, under any circumstances, entrust your possessions to them.
International Van Lines of Coral Springs Florida [also goes by Ocean Star International and others] is a SCAM. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY.
"Movers' picked up our things 3 weeks ago for an interstate move in an unmarked cube truck-suddenly these two hispanic male movers demanded payment of 4 times the original quote based on "cubic Feet used".
It is illegal in the US to charge by cubic foot as of 2005.
Also, no return phone calls, entire company is VERY sketchy.
They still have our things and will not return them until "full" payment in cash is received. They also demanded a downpayment, apparently a widely used scam in this industry.
They appeared proffesional at first, even fooling the most seasoned individual-upon picking up our items and demanding 4 times to original quote this professioanlism all fell apart. None of the people spoke to will return our calls nor answer the phones nor respond to emails sent [MULTIPLE ATTEMPTS]
Do not use these scammers unless you want this to happen to you.
We are speaking with legal counsel and the government agency involved to get our things back.!!!!!!!