United Van Lines

Prior to moving I was told that for $199, United Van Lines agents would pack 5 items and I would receive Full Value Protection. United Van Lines damaged and lost the shelf of my 52" x 28" x 16" Entertainment Center and permanently stained one of my 2 matching stuffed living room chairs. These items were in perfect condition prior to moving. United Van Lines was notified immediately of the damage and I filed the proper paperwork. United Van Lines sent a third-party damage inspection company into my home for photos.

I'm disgusted that United Van Lines blatantly lied about Full Value Protection to get my money. They won't reimburse for the insured damages that they caused. The third-party company sent me a check for a tiny amount with an enclosed letter stating the enclosed check was for $300 more. United Van Lines third-party company says, "Use the arbitrator." I searched to see who the arbitration company is - it's the Moving and Storage Association! The percentage of customers winning their cases was a mere 1% of the claims! United Van Lines agents and their protection companies are deceptive and fraudulent! Buyer beware!

We received an estimate from Horizon Moving/United Van Lines out of Flagstaff, AZ that gave us a price, loading and delivery date that we agreed to. We received the contract and it reflected this price and delivery dates to our destination of April 2-5. Our belongings went on the truck on March 27 and we were then told that the weight had been "underestimated" and would cost more to move. Also, the items will not be delivered until after April 5. Our belongings sat on a truck in AZ for more than a week while we frantically tried to contact someone at both Horizon and United who could tell us when our items would arrive at the new house. We have been in the house since March with no beds, clothes or cookware and are buying many necessities we thought we would have by now. The last "estimate" for delivery? April 13th!

My wife was coming home from dropping the kids at school when she found the United Van Lines Truck #347208 with Semi trailer #408208, Minnesota plates 97406, parked well into our small street. There were 2 cars legally parked on the opposite side of the street, which left no room to use the street either way. She rolled her window down to ask if the truck driver might be able to edge his truck to within 2 feet of the curb, when the movers got quite rude to her, exclaiming "We're working here!" "We won't move the truck since there is a turn." "Go around the block."

Their language was beyond rude and their tone was of a 2 year old. The new owner came out to apologize for the movers' rude behavior, but this is a poor way to welcome new comers to the neighborhood. I'll never use United Van Lines in any way, shape or form.

On March 14, 2011 United Van Lines moved us from Meridian, ID to Mesa, AZ. I have waited so long in hopes the missing items would show up. Some have. But many are still missing. They include but are not limited to the following items: A Zeiss camera and several other cameras and an antique lavaliere on a 24 karat gold chain that belonged to my mother; among the tools that are missing includes all levels, a fishing tackle box filled with tools, a 1/4" Craftsman drill, drafting instruments, a Kestrel wind speed indicator, a volt meter and all electrical testing equipment; a Dremel drill, a Norelco electric razor, dividers, a wine opener kit, a set of Henckel scissors in a leather case, and a pack of blank CDs. I know these items will not be returned to me but I do know I will never again use United for any future move nor will I recommend your company. Our previous move was handled by Bekins and everything went perfectly.

On October 6 and 7, 2009, United packed us in West Des Moines, Iowa and delivered everything in Allentown, Pennsylvania on the 10th. Their guidance system had taken them to the west side of Des Moines, rather than to West Des Moines, another city, so I had to go find them and lead them to our house. It was a corporate move, paid for by my wife's employer. The movers were a middle-aged couple who were planning to settle down in a house on Lake Erie; we had a spare washing machine and a dryer, so I gave it to them, because they didn't have one. She was delighted, and gave me a big hug. They loaded the washer and dryer on first, so they could leave it on the van after the delivery. Their helper was a taciturn younger man, a shirt-tail relative of the dominant male. They stole from us.

We moved from an ordinary suburban house built in the 1970s to a smaller, much older house; it took us a long time to unpack and settle in. We had all the kitchen stuff unpacked and couldn't find our salad bowls: a beautiful set made of walnut, a big bowl, four smaller serving bowls, and spring-loaded wooden tongs. But we thought they would turn up. Next, my wife wanted a dictionary in her home office. She asked me for the Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, a huge, heavy volume with the entire 20-volume OED micrographically reproduced: you have to read it with a magnifying glass. By then I had my own home office set up, all the books and CDs unpacked and on shelves, and the dictionary was missing. Then, the light went on. Several boxed sets of DVDs are also missing, including two sets featuring Helen Mirren, who had recently become famous in the USA by winning an Oscar. For all we know, other stuff might be missing.

These are disparate things from widely separated parts of the house that could not have fallen off the back of a truck. We were cherry-picked. The salad bowls were a cherished wedding gift, and the dictionary was a prized possession which sells for $350 at Amazon.com. I hoped to watch BBC teleplays by Dennis Potter, some of them featuring Mirren, someday if I can ever retire. I am writing this because I am so disappointed. What a helpless, foolish, meaningless insult!

I hired United Van Lines. The driver repacked all our belongings and now all of our furniture is either broken, damaged or missing. United Van Lines is not returning phone calls. Do not ever use this company. You are better off renting a truck and hiring a driver. Why is the honest hardworking taxpaying citizen always getting ripped off?

One of my movers helped himself to my things. I should have gone out to his truck to see why he kept going out there. I would have found my stuff and then fired him! But no, I wasn't going to be rude. Rude with my stuff? People, be rude! Keep your stuff. No matter how tired or stressed you are be vigilant, and if you have to call the police, do so.

Anna Marie ** of Escanaba Moving Systems, who is also the daughter of the owner of Escanaba Moving, Tom Woodaz, did a horrific, unacceptable, and completely inaccurate estimate of our moving needs. This resulted in the absolute worst and most stressful move we (or anyone) could have ever imagined. We spent time walking Anna through our entire home, garage, and backyard (including walking under and around our play set in the backyard) showing her every single item that was to be moved on a truck by her company. And we explicitly and repeatedly told Anna that when United Van Lines moved us from California to Wisconsin 3 years earlier, we required a full size semi-truck which we filled from top to bottom with only our materials. However, Anna still somehow underestimated our move by two full truck loads.

Therefore, on our move day (August 5, 2011), she scheduled for only one already half-full semi-truck to move all of our materials. We immediately notified Anna that this truck would in no way be able to accommodate all of our materials. Yet she and their expert loader, Grant, waited until sundown of that loading day to send a second truck, this one an 18-foot Penske truck which was again insufficient to accommodate the remainder of our materials. What is just as shocking was that Grant, Escanabas expert loader, admitted to us verbally the day of the load that it was his fault (not Anna's, he repeatedly demonstrated his need to always cover for Anna) for underestimating the size needed for the second truck. How he could compound Anna's error with his own when he was the one actually moving our materials is beyond understanding.

Anna so grossly underestimated our move needs that every single employee loading our truck that day was verbally and visibly disgusted by the position Anna put them; which in their minds gave them the green light to force and stuff our materials into one truck if at all possible. When that didn't work and the second 18-foot Penske truck was sent in the evening, the loaders were so upset about the extra length of time it took to load and about the delays in loading having to wait for the second truck. And they were so disgusted because they had to work late due to Anna's poor planning. They again tried to stuff and force our remaining belongings into the second 18-foot Penske truck. Their disgust, impatience, and poor worth ethic were so obvious. After they thought they had everything loaded into the second Penske truck and they tried to properly close the rear roll down door and secure it, they realized that it would only close half-way.

So, what did they do? What would any rational and professional moving employee do? Well, whatever you thought they should have done is not what they did. Believe it or not (we could not believe it with our own eyes), the crew actually bungee corded the roll door and did so only half-way closed! They obviously lacked completed common sense and lacked any regard for the security and safety of our belongings. Not to mention, they demonstrated a complete ignorance and disregard for the safety of other drivers on the road. Were it not for Eric and Tara kindly advising the crew that this was unacceptable and unsafe for not only our belongings but unsafe for any drivers on the road, they would have unhappily and with disgust unloaded a portion of this second truck, so that the door could close and be secured properly and completely.

Now with the items left over that would not fit into the second Penske truck, what did the expert Grant suggest? In his infinite wisdom he and the crew agreed to load the remainder of our belongings into his Grant's personal vehicle. Up to this point in time, everything from Anna's move coordination to the loading day was so unprofessional, unsuccessful, and absolutely ridiculous and unbelievable. And many of our items were being stuffed and forced into both of the two trucks without even being properly inventoried and accounted for. Also, Grant and all other loading employees found it acceptable to load and secure the second Penske truck with a bungee cord and with the door only half-way closed. Therefore, there was no way then that any sane and rational customer was going to trust any employee of Escanaba Moving to transport our belongings in his personal vehicle!

Therefore, we as customers had to insist that the loading crew find an alternative. Their alternative was to store the remainder of our belongings in our garage overnight while they searched for a third truck to arrive in the morning to complete the load. Thus, our move day was delayed by one full day because of the complete incompetence of United Van Lines/Escanaba Moving Systems. Moreover, were it not for our decision that initial load day to just leave our giant play set which was in our backyard and which Anna should have taken into account when planning our move needs (heck we walked Anna around the play set when planning our move and told her to plan on loading it), a fourth moving truck would have been needed.

Without wanting to relive the entire experience from hell dealing with your United Van Lines company, Escanaba Moving, here is a brief rundown of their complete lack of professionalism, their complete lack knowledge and effectiveness in the moving process, their utter and complete incompetence, and their complete lack of integrity:

1) We were promised a load date in Marinette, WI of August 5, 2011. On the afternoon of August 3, 2011, Anna contacted us asking if it was possible they begin loading early the following morning, August 4, 2011. We reminded Anna that Eric had a sprained ankle and was not able to assist with packing. Thus, we were not ready for United to load us early. Anna knew this since upon her initial visit. She saw and spoke to Eric as he was laid up on the sofa. Neither Anna nor anyone with United made any mention that loading us early would somehow prevent the problems and delays that arose.

2) Russ, the driver of the first truck sent (i.e., the semi-truck), demonstrated his complete lack of competence and safe driving skills, and thus immediately left us with little confidence in his ability to safely, securely, and effectively move our belongings. He had significant trouble backing his truck into our driveway. He had to use our neighbor's driveway to pull forward into in order to enable him to back into our driveway. This was not a problem for us or for the neighbor; except for the fact that Russ drove onto the neighbors grass on both the right and left side of the driveway resulting in the neighbor's grass being torn up in many places.

Then, as Russ backed into our driveway, he hit one of our maple trees; bending it backwards. Luckily, the tree bounced back to its original place. It was not until after Russ left and we walked our driveway in the daylight the following morning of August 6, 2011 that we noticed a large gouge, crack, and crushing on the edge of our paved driveway directly in front of the maple tree that Russ hit. Our driveway cost us $6,000 to install initially and now United Van Lines caused us unacceptable damage.

3) Upon pulling forward (not even backing up, but going forward! ) out of our driveway the evening after the initial load was complete on August 5, 2011, Russ this time drove over the neighbor's front yard. He created large deep trenches from his tires as well as tearing up the neighbor's grass once again! This was noticed the following morning. The neighbor was unhappy and wanted to know who to contact to resolve the issue. It should be noted that when we moved from CA to WI, our United Van Lines driver, Sergio, had zero problems backing up his even larger semi-truck into our driveway and did so without any incident or damage. So it's not that backing into our driveway is some impossible task. It can be done and has been done. It just requires the basic skills of a knowledgeable semi-truck driver; something Russ was obviously not.

Why would Escanaba Moving Systems send Russ, who told us in conversation he is a newly licensed semi-truck driver, to our residence if driving the truck into our driveway was such an impossible task? Either Anna again underestimated something (i.e., this time underestimating the difficulty level of driving into our driveway, which she herself drove into with her standard vehicle for the initial visit, or Russ lacked the expected skills to effectively, safely, and without incident, to drive into our driveway). In either case, it's another demonstration of United Van Lines' gross incompetence.

4) As soon as the load crew arrived the morning of August 5, they refused to begin loading anything into the truck. When we asked why, they clearly told us because they (including our driver! ) did not know how to properly load the truck and the load expert (Grant) was on his way. It was not until 45 minutes later when Grant casually waltzed in with coffee in hand did he begin to direct others on proper loading. So already even before loading began, we knew we had an incapable, inexperienced, and incompetent crew (to include our driver) to the point that they refused to load until Grant arrived. Moreover, Grant arrived 45 minutes late and did so with a coffee in hand (no other loader had coffee in hand). Grant's unprofessionalism and arrogance were immediately apparent.

5) Not one single loading mat (i.e., carpet protector) was used during the load. The carpet in our Marinette residence ended up stained with dirty shoe marks. In our hallway where the laundry closet was, when the loader (Brier) moved the washing machine out, he failed to secure the water hose to the washing machine, resulting in a significant amount of water spilling onto our carpet in the hallway and into our son's adjacent bedroom. This error was only compounded by the fact that no loading mats were used. Thus, every time throughout the remainder of the day a loader walked over the wet carpet, it became further saturated and stained with dirt.

6) In spite of the expert Grant being present, the loaders repeatedly asked Eric and his wife, Tara (the customers!), how best to properly carry our large furniture from our home! They were unsure which door was best to use! The loaders even verbally and audibly argued about which carry out method and door was best and insisted we the customers settle their argument by telling them which carry out method and which door was best to use. Moreover, no one had a pen or tape measure to measure the door clearance relative to our furniture being carried out.

Thus, Grant had to borrow our tape measure (since he said he forgot his) and Russ had to borrow our pen since he said he lost his pen. Does he only carry one pen? And wow, no tape measure! And what if we had already packed our tape measure, what then? Doesn't anyone carry a second backup tape measure? How about Russ, the driver, he did not even own a tape measure?!

7) Not one single employee/loader of Escanaba Moving/United Van Lines was wearing a back brace or any type of back support. Out of concern for their health and safety, Eric and Tara asked them about it and all employees had the same response, Their employer, Escanaba Moving/United Van Lines, refuses to invest in safety gear, to include back braces.

8) As soon as loading began in Russ United Van Lines semi-truck, Eric noticed they were using a broken wooden ladder to climb up on inside the semi-truck to load our belongings. When Eric expressed concern over all employees' safety using a broken wooden ladder, Russ, the driver, told Eric that his employer, Escanaba Moving/United Van Lines, refused to buy him a new ladder, even though he had requested one numerous times for over one month. Therefore, Eric offered for Russ and the load crew to use our personal metal ladder; to which they all agreed.

When the night became late, Escanaba Moving sent out to our residence another employee, Jackie. J ackie is some sort of manager at Escanaba, and is also the sister to Anna and second daughter to the owner of Escanaba Moving, Tom Woodaz. Eric and Tara expressed the same concerns to Jackie about the lack of proper and functional safety equipment (i.e., back braces and broken wooden ladder). Jackie assured Eric that when Russ arrived to unload at our new home in Ohio, he would have a new ladder. Why does United Van Lines allow a company to represent them who clearly does not practice obvious basic and necessary safety practices (be it the broken wooden ladder, the lack of back braces, etc.) and who is clearly in violation of OSHA regulations?

9) Over the course of a long loading day, all of the load crew we met each individually in casual conversation advised us they are paid under the table in cash by Tom Woodaz, so that Tom does not have to pay workman's compensation insurance, unemployment insurance, social security taxes. So, if the crew gets injured, Tom does not have to pay to treat for their injury since there is no record of their employment. Also, Brier and Russ both reiterated several times that if they get injured, they, like others they have witnessed in the past, will be fired and they will have no way to file for unemployment benefits since Tom pays them cash to avoid having any record of their employment. Why does United Van Lines allow a company such as Escanaba Moving Systems to represent them, especially considering such unfair and clearly illegal employment practices?

10) A multitude of our belongings were not inventoried at all since the crew was in a rush to load after the second Penske truck arrived in the evening. At the end of the unload in Ohio after our belongings were securely back within our possession, we signed a paperwork indicating that everything had been inventoried and roll out mats/carpets were used. We signed it because frankly, we were so disgusted and tired of dealing with so much ** from United Van Lines. And frankly, at that time we felt sorry for Russ and Brier for being taken advantage of by being paid cash under the table and by not being provided proper, required, and sufficient safety gear from United Van Lines. We did not want to get them into any trouble by indicating they did not use required mats/carpets.

11) Anna never once returned our phone calls the day of the move when we called to express concern over the first truck she sent. We knew this was inadequate to carry our entire load. And she never called back after we called her repeatedly to discuss our other concerns. Instead, her father, Tom Woodaz, sent his other daughter, Jackie, out to our residence to help with the situation. Jackie's first and only suggestion was that if all of our belongings did not fit in this first truck, then rather get a second truck and have everything delivered to Ohio together by two trucks simultaneously. She will have our remaining belongings shipped to us (to include our very fragile granite patio table and other items which we could not wait to be shipped to us since we needed them for daily living).

Not only was that unacceptable, but when asked when we could expect this shipment for the remainder of our belongings to arrive at our new residence in Ohio, she said she did not know! How could she not know? Only after she was pushed to give some kind of time frame did she estimate it to be three weeks before we received the remainder of our belongings; especially belongings which we required for daily living! We expressed our displeasure and our unwillingness to accept this as a reasonable compromise. Escanaba Moving is the one who had made the gross errors to this point, and thus, Escanaba needed to ensure we received delivery of all of our belongings together on the same day as originally promised. Why is United Van Lines accepting having Escanaba Moving Systems represent them when clearly Escanaba does not employ capable or competent people?

12) Only after repeated unreturned phone calls did the owner (and father of Anna and Jackie), Tom Woodaz call us back. He initially spoke with Tara and needless to say, he was outright rude, curt, chauvinistic, and condescending towards her. And he was unwilling to offer any compromises. We re-explained the entire fiasco of our move from its inception with the move coordination by Anna, to the grossly underestimated load, to the loading nightmare the day of the move. Therefore, we asked Tom to waive our $1,000.00 insurance deductible for the Full Value Protection we purchased (we did not even ask for the $367.00 cost we paid for that deductible to be refunded to us, we just wanted the $1,000.00 deductible waived). It's because his employees, out of desperation to make do with Anna's mistake of grossly underestimating the load, forced and stuffed our belongings into the three trucks.

Additionally, we explained to him how his crew also continued bringing out our belongings, boxes, furniture, etc. and placing them on the wet grass on our front lawn as a staging area for loading! This wet grass was also used as a load path to get to and from our home. So not only is the wet grass used as a staging area, but it's also used as a load path! It was so dangerous and ridiculous. When Jackie (remember she is management!) arrived and was assisting with the move, she actually took one of our indoor living room decorative brass wall hangings (approximately 3 feet in diameter) and laid it flat down on the wet grass and in the line of the load path!

Eric politely called this to her attention and she moved it. But point being, why is the wet grass being used as a staging area for loading? The crew had our entire 120-foot paved driveway plus a paved turnout plus an indoor 2.5-car garage. So, why is grass, and wet grass at that, being used as a staging area? And because the wet grass was used as both a staging area and load path, the obvious and expected occurred, tripping and knocking over of boxes and pieces of furniture. There were countless times that while carrying items through the wet grass, the crew tripped over and knocked over items that they themselves placed there to stage for loading!

Additionally, we had some boxes clearly marked in big fat red marker letters, extremely fragile, nothing on top. Of course, the incompetence of the crew meant that these words were ignored. And yes, items were placed on top only for us, the customers, to ask the crew to rearrange those few items per the instructions on the boxes. Also, some of these extremely fragile boxes were among the boxes that were tripped over and knocked over on the wet grass since they were in the load path. Knowing all this and explaining all this to Tom, we figured he would be reasonable and realize that damage to our belongings was more likely than not to occur due to incompetence of his inexperienced crew. We felt a reasonable and good faith gesture for Tom would be to simply waive our $1,000.00 deductible. He refused and did so rudely and in a condescending manner.

13) Our belongings, which were originally loaded into three separate trucks over the course of two days, were consolidated into two trucks on the second day back at the Escanaba Moving Systems office and delivered simultaneously to us on August 7, 2011 at our new residence in Ohio. To no surprise, Russ, the driver, still had his same broken wooden ladder and neither he nor Brier (the one loader from Marinette who went with Russ to OH) had a back brace. This is despite Jackie's personal assurance to me that both Russ and Brier would come to our new residence equipped with proper and required safety gear. Therefore, Eric again offered for Escanaba Moving Systems employees to use our metal ladder instead to better ensure their safety. They agreed.

14) Although they used our metal ladder, that does not mean they loaded or unloaded in a safe manner. In Marinette while loading our king size Tempurpedic mattress, the loaders actually put our metal ladder on the inclining loading ramps, while two employees climbed the ladder simultaneously in an effort to hoist the extremely large and heavy and costly ($4,000 king mattress) over their heads and load it on the very tip top of the entire load inside the truck. You would not believe it unless you saw it with your own eyes. Luckily, we have a photograph to document where the bed was loaded. We could not envision a more unsafe way to load, nor could we think of a more unsecure way to load such an expensive and heavy piece of furniture.

Then upon unloading in Ohio, they repeated the same unsafe and frankly dumb method to unload the mattress as they did to load it. Our photograph documenting the unloading of the mattress using our metal ladder also includes Russ' broken wooden ladder in the photograph. We took the photograph out of sheer amazement of the obvious stupidity of the crew and we took it to protect ourselves in case a crew member was injured. We did not want to be held liable. The photograph clearly shows the employees using our metal ladder on the inclined loading ramps attempting to heave the heavy expensive mattress from the very top of the truck.

Each of those crew members, from both the Marinette load to the Ohio unload, are very lucky they did not get seriously or gravely injured as a result of their inexperience and frankly as a result of their complete lack of common sense. Not to mention, their actions in loading/unloading are in clear violation of OSHA regulations. This really demonstrates an ignorance, disrespect, and arrogance for safety, federal law, and for their employer and for United Van Lines. Additionally, do you have any clue or even care how bad it looks to see employees wearing United Van Lines blue shirts with a United Van Lines semi-truck, exhibiting such poor, unprofessional and unskilled moving actions? Also, using an 18-foot Penske truck in hopes of remedying their clear error at underestimating our load in Marinette does not look good either. Was there not another United Van Lines truck they could have brought as a second truck?

From a brand and marketing consistently standpoint, it looks so unprofessional and leaves us, the customers, with a clear picture of just how ignorant, incapable and unprofessional Escanaba Moving (i.e. United Van Lines) really is. Our neighbors in Marinette even came to our home after the move on the load night. Some neighbors came actually laughing and to express their amazement and amusement over the unprofessional and unskilled moving actions they themselves witnessed while observing the United Van Line movers in action. How embarrassing for everyone involved; including us, the consumers; who regrettably chose United Van Lines to move us.

15) Before Russ (United Van Lines driver) left Marinette with our load, I asked him to ensure he brought with him to our new home in Ohio some loading mats/rugs to ensure that the brand new carpet we had installed in our new home was protected. He agreed. Well, as you can imagine, that assurance held no weight. Of course, he arrived with not only the same broken wooden ladder and no back brace, but also arrived with zero mats/rug protectors. We suggested to Russ to use the cardboard box from our giant king size mattress, as a mat. He agreed. He cut it into pieces and laid it all over our carpet; but he did so without so much as temporarily securing the cardboard to the carpet with anything; be it masking tape or a heavy item.

Therefore since the cardboard was unsecured to the carpet, it obviously became safety hazard since it was slippery. It became even more slippery since it was raining outside to top it off. Additionally, we come to find out that the cardboard, unbeknownst to us when we suggested the idea, had grime, dirt and grease on it. As soon as we saw that the cardboard was dirty, and as soon as we realized Russ lacked the common sense to secure the cardboard to the carpet and thus, it became a safety hazard, Eric and Tara (the paying customers) voluntarily helped Russ and the crew to remove the cardboard, fearing that it would do more harm than good. Needless to say, we had to personally pay $265.00 to have our brand new carpet professionally re-cleaned as soon as Russ and his crew left, since they had left grime and dirt from their shoes on our brand new carpet.

16) On our drive from Marinette, WI to Ohio on August 6, 2011, Eric personally spoke to Tom Woodaz on the phone. During that conversation, Eric made a reasonable request to Tom to switch our payment method from our personal debit card to a credit card. The credit card was not available to us prior to our move. Only after hearing our horrific move story of the loading days did a family member of ours try and help us out by offering to have the entire move cost charged to her credit card so that we could make payments on it and maintain our cash to cover for obvious additional expenses, which were now caused by Escanaba Moving Systems. Eric was not asking for a refund.

Eric was simply asking Tom to refund his personal debit card so the cash would be returned to our bank account, and to recharge the exact same amount to a credit card. Tom was unwilling to make a decision on that matter until after the unloading had been completed. Tom promised Eric that he would call Eric back on August 9, 2011 (the day after the unloading). Not having received a phone call from Tom, Eric called Tom on the following dates/times and left a voice message each time, with absolutely no response of any kind from Tom: August 10, 2011, 8:23AM EST, August 11, 2011, 9:36AM EST, August 11, 2011, 4:37PM EST, August 12, 2011 12:52PM EST, August 12, 2011 3:35PM EST, August 13, 2011 8:31AM EST, August 13, 2011 1:08PM EST, August 15, 2011, 11:34AM EST.

Not having received any response of any kind back from Tom (remember he is the owner of Escanaba Moving) after eight attempts over the course of five days, in Eric's final voicemail to Tom, Eric indicated his willingness to file appropriate complaints with appropriate federal agencies regarding how Tom illegally pays his employees under the table in cash, how his employees violated OSHA regulations (of which I have photographic evidence to the effect), and how some of our items went missing already (i.e., red sweeper broom and roof rake for snow), and how some of our items ($6,000 wooden China Cabinet, coffee table, end tables, lamp, sofa legs, entertainment center, leather sectional sofa, $7,000) were all damaged by his crew during the move. Russ, the driver, even took photographic documentation of some of the damage, to include damage to the China Cabinet and sofa legs.

Tom never called back. Instead, Tom responded by mailing us a certified letter (which we maintain to this day). Was his letter that of an apology of some kind? No. Was his letter to attempt to remedy our atrocious experience we had with his company/United Van Lines? No. Was his letter an offer to perhaps agree to refund our debit card and recharge the amount to our credit card as we had requested? No. Was his letter an offer to refund any amount of money (we paid a total of $6,898.53 to his company for our move) as an attempt to make amends for an atrocious move? No. Was his letter an offer to at least reimburse us for the sweeper broom and roof rake or coordinate its return to us? No.

Rather, and to our surprise and we imagine to the surprise of any professional and customer service oriented employee within United Van Lines, his letter was one of a threatening nature! He threatened that if we follow through with our consumer rights and file appropriate complaints and damage claims, he was going to charge us more money because our load was over the estimate (an estimate which his employee and daughter grossly underestimated herself). And he went on further (wow can you believe the gall of this guy!) to falsely indicate that the only items of our belongings he said that we told him were of issue were the supposed (his words) missing red broom and roof rake for snow.

Tom knew that there was damage to our belongings; not only because Eric indicated that fact in voice mails to Tom, but Russ, Tom's own employee, documented damage to the China Cabinet and sofa legs with Russ' own camera. And Eric also wrote down such damage on the final formal United Van Lines sign out sheets prior to Russ leaving. Also after the unloading was completed and Eric realized the broom and roof rake were missing, Eric first followed up with Russ via phone. Russ without issue acknowledged that he accidentally had our red sweeper broom in his truck. He said he mistakenly forgot to unload it. He said that either his employer would have him ship it back to us or we would be reimbursed for the cost of it. Regarding the roof rake for snow, he said he spoke to the driver of the second truck that unloaded, and that roof rake was in that driver's truck. In any case, to this day our roof rake and sweeper broom were never returned to us. Eric made Tom aware of this in his voice mails.

Also, Tom went even further off the edge (is this guy for real?) and made false allegations that we were somehow verbally abusive to his crew. The complete opposite is true and it disgusts us to no end at the complete lack of integrity Tom and his crew now exhibit after the move is complete. The facts are these: Eric had a sprained ankle and was on crutches when we first met Anna for the move coordination. Anna witnessed Eric on the sofa laid out because of his ankle. The day of the move load, out of a desire to help the tired, overworked loading crew and to assist in ensuring that everything could be loaded in one day, Eric, with a visible limp because of his sprained ankle which was in a visible fixed brace at that time, began voluntarily physically assisting in the moving of boxes and furniture out of our home and into the United Van Lines' semi-truck, as well as into the second and third subsequent trucks to follow.

Eric and Tara's kind treatment of the crew did not stop by physically assisting the crew to load the trucks (something we as paying customers should not have to do, that is why we hired United Van Lines!). Recall that out of concern for the safety of the crew, Eric offered for the crew to use his personal metal ladder, tape measure, and pen. Moreover, Eric did not just loan our metal ladder to Russ; he gave it to Russ to keep after the unloading in Ohio out of continued concern over Russ' safety and since Jackie had not followed through with her assurance to provide Russ with a suitable and safe replacement ladder. Eric and Tara did all this in addition, agreeing to settle arguments between the crew on which method and door was most appropriate to carry out furniture in Marinette.

Moreover, Eric and Tara repeatedly and throughout the entire loading day and unloading day thanked the entire crew for their hard work. Moreover, Eric, Tara, and their 15 year-old daughter physically assisted in the unloading of the two trucks in Ohio to help ensure the move was completed as efficiently as possible. Moreover, after the unloading was complete in Ohio, Eric and Tara voluntarily treated both Russ and Brier (United Van Lines/Escanaba Moving employees) to a pizza dinner and soda as an expression of gratitude for their hard work, and since they were the only two remaining United employees at the end of the day.

We treated them to dinner at our home despite the complete fiasco our move had been, because frankly we felt sorry for them for having to work without proper, sufficient, and required safety gear, and because they get taken advantage of by Escanaba Moving Systems by being paid under the table. Yet, Tom has the gall to send us a most unprofessional and threatening letter! Obviously, he is quite worried about us exercising our consumer rights by filing appropriate damage claims and appropriate complaints. Obviously, he is quite ignorant and arrogant to make such a threat, or any threat to any consumer for that matter.

We are in complete amazement and disgust over the absolute horrific and atrocious move experience we endured with United Van Lines. We chose to use United Van Lines on this move because we had used them for our move from CA to WI three years prior; and it was quite a successful, stress-free move. We regret our choice in using United Van Lines this time. We continue to tell every living soul of our horrific move story and encourage them to never use United and any of its affiliates for any reason at any time. We are so distraught about this entire experience with United that frankly, we have been unwilling for the last several months to relive the entire stress and horrific experience that has been required of us in order to document the atrocious moving experience with United Van Lines. But that was then and this is now.

After all the hassle, stress, unprofessionalism, condescending, threatening, curt, rude, and illegal actions on the part of United Van Lines/Escanaba Moving Systems/Tom Woodaz especially, you can be sure that we have begun filing complaints with: Internal Revenue Service (IRS), OSHA, Department of Consumer Affairs, Better Business Bureau, United Van Lines Corporate Offices, and the local newspaper and television establishments in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio. Our complaints to all said parties include this documentation letter, to include all photographs we have of the complete and utter ridiculousness, amateurish, unsafe and unprofessional actions and moving skills (or lack therefore) that Escanaba Moving Systems/United Van Lines offers.

My daughter engaged them to move her 1000 miles when changing colleges. When she said "United Van Lines", I guess I heard United States Van Lines and assumed it was a reputable company. They gave her a window of two days in which they would pick up her 3 rooms of furniture. After packing and being ready on the eve of first possible date, we were told by a local moving company that they hoped we had not hired the company out of Florida; we might not see them.

For the rest of that evening plus into the afternoon of first day, we tried to get definitive time, movers, etc., to confirm they were coming. While initially they have slick presentation, it became obvious they had no intention of showing up at committed time. We became very nervous we were going to be stuck with an apartment full of furniture and roommates moving in at same time. After searching for a moving company in same area with no results, I called the company from home to come get us.

They arrived by noon on the second date and charged us almost twice the amount of United Van Lines quote, but were in line with initial move to college. We "postponed" our move with UVL hoping we could then cancel in the correct window of time for refund only to find there are no refunds when the date is changed. We had googled United Van Lines and found awful reviews. We checked Better Business Bureau only to find the same awful reviews and worse, but did find the owner's name. We googled him to find his criminal record, not a good omen.

United Van Lines still has her initial deposit of almost $900 and says it will be available when she has her next move. Hell would have to freeze over to engage these thieves. They never intended to pick her goods up that weekend. Upon attempting to reschedule, they immediately gave her time, date and name and number of moving company. They did not have that available to give her for our committed date or they would have been forthcoming. They had no one scheduled to move her the committed weekend. We were pleading with them. We had to get her things out and it was college move-in weekend and all other area movers were busy. At least our hometown moving company got her things back home, undamaged, all intact on time. It was a tough lesson to learn. After more research I found that the moving industry is not federally regulated and therefore, consumers do not have much to go on.It is unbelievable that a company can continue to carry on with business like this.

They are moving my neighbors out this week and the two days that the truck has been down here to load, they have blocked my driveway. Yesterday, I couldn't get out and had to go over and make them move the truck. Today, I left for work really early so I was able to get my car out but when I got home the truck was there again, blocking my driveway. I got out of my car to come inside and there's a huge wad of used packing tape in my front yard.

They arrived late. They were supposed to finish at 4:00 pm and they did not. They left 3 drawers unpacked that I had to ship them myself. And, the truck that was carrying all of our possessions caught on fire and we lost everything, almost twenty years of life, including original artworks and rare books like the first edition copy of an Oscar Wilde play that is over 100 years old, etc.

Do not use Armstrong Relocation and United Van Lines.

The primary complaint is that my original estimate was $4,200.00 and when it was re-weigh, it went to $6,800.00. After I complained, they did another re-weigh, and it went to $5,800.00. They were very suspicious and they damaged my goods and furniture. They lost three boxes and the claim was substantially less than the value claimed. This move cost me much more than originally estimated from the United Van Lines and my goods are damaged and missing.

United Van Lines is the worst moving cie ever. Not even a star for this ***, none reliable cie. No customer follow ups or even communication. I had to send serious email involving the police to get response. No packing list listing matching on delivery. Stolen items from NJ. No care at all on moving items. Broken items on delivery. Broken antiques and collectables. No follow up when asked in regards of getting credited in regards of the above. Terrible experience, frustration and loss of valuable items. Disregarding my complain and my request to ask for my packing listing. NJ office and staff should be closed down. The cie deserve to go down the drain.

I told United I was moving into an apartment complex. They still sent a 53' trailer that was not able to make a turn to get close to the unit. I had to pay an additional $670 for them to rent a U-Haul truck to complete the move. Also, I paid for additional insurance coverage, believing it was for in-transit damage such as the van being in an accident and destroying or damaging my belongings. After they delivered, I found damage to a table and a lamp that totaled $1,014. They sent me a check for $14 stating that the $1,000 deductible I had was for any damage. I told them it then allowed them to destroy anything up to the deductible. They did not disagree.

At 12:40 pm, a United Van line truck ran a red light when I was turning left opposite him and nearly caused an accident. Truck # 809-104. It was driven by a young white male, he and his 2 companions were laughing and honked their horn as I later passed their truck.

My overall experience was negative. Simple items such as lamps were dented and/or broken. They physically damaged my washer and dryer which were basically brand new when they moved them. Also, the estimates made by the agent were way off, so I had to have 2 shipments for which I was charged another several hundred dollars to pay for the storage and second shipment. I was pretty frustrated with the whole process and my broken items. The drivers themselves went out of their way however, to help me out and try to get the shipment to me sooner. It was more stress than I could handle and made me feel helpless like my stuff was being kept hostage and I couldn't get it when I needed it!

On Thursday, October 6th 2011, I was traveling across Missouri on I-70 in a 70 mph speed zone. I was passing two semis when a United Van Lines truck zoomed up behind me coming within a few feet of my car. Although. I was driving five MPH above the speed limit to complete the pass, his intent was clearly to intimidate/terrorize me. After I completed the pass of the semis, I was shaking so badly that I could hardly drive. But I did regain my composure enough to realize that I could record his vehicle number and contact United. However, I had to travel at close to 85 mph, simply to maintain contact with him to get his vehicle number.

Since I live in a university community where people make frequent moves, I will recommend to all my contacts that they avoid using United if this is how United Van Lines drivers drive.

As a former military spouse, I have made over fifteen moves in my life, and this is the worst! I moved from Colorado Springs to Peoria post major surgery and had my household goods put in a storage unit. It took over six months to find a home and close on the home. I had another surgery that prevented my unpacking items in a timely manner but United did not care. Items broken will not be reimbursed due to the delay in the claim. Apparently, a move should go directly from one residence to another which, by the way, never occurred even with the military. I am now left with a broken big screen and collectibles that United will not do anything about. I will never move with United again and will definitely tell anyone I know that this is not the company to hire for their move.

This is the worst experience I have ever had in my life. More than half the boxes were crushed, ripped or unloaded upside down in spite of being marked fragile. They lost one box, which took nearly a month and multiple phone calls to track down. They tried to steal our TV. They ripped our leather sofa, completely broke apart my dresser, cracked a mirror and broke a second dresser as well. But the worst was the unprofessional manner.

They tried to hide damaged boxes and broken items behind things that were intact. And every item that was obviously damaged, they immediately said, "Not our fault, came out of the warehouse like that!" They acted like children. And why was my stuff in a warehouse to begin with? It should have been sent right to us. They also forged a document to state there was existing damage when there was not. I have both copies and can prove this. To add to all that, I still tipped them and offered cold drinks and they didn't even say thank you.

To date we are still dealing with them not acknowledging our complaints or reimbursing us for any of the items that have been damaged beyond repair. They also seem to take an exorbitant amount of vacation and are never available by phone or email.

My husband called United Van Lines thirty days ago and scheduled our move to Ohio. We currently live on a gravel road and at the top of a very steep hill. My husband stressed to the representative the need for a box truck due to the fact that a tractor trailer would not make the hill. The move was scheduled for Sept. 19 or 20.

A representative called on Sept. 17 and said they would pick up "sometime" on Tuesday. The day before the move at 4 p.m., the driver called and stated that they would pick up on Wednesday, Sept. 21 or Thursday, Sept. 22 between 8 and 10 a.m. Around 9:30 a.m. Sept.22, the driver called and said that he was fifty miles away and would pick up in one to two hours. At 1:30 p.m. the driver called and stated that they were going to pick up another load and they would get to us on Friday, Sept. 23. My husband told him this was unacceptable and that we wanted a refund or a pick up today. The driver asked if we knew where he could get a U-haul due to the fact that the eighteen wheeler could not pull our gravel hill. This is their excuse for the hold up when in fact the representative was told THREE times that an eighteen wheeler would not be capable of "pulling" the hill. We are now two days past delivery and we still have no idea of when our belongings are to be picked up.

I hired a company that led me to believe was United Van Lines to move my household goods from Sterling Colorado to Williamsport Pennsylvania. I paid $1800 deposit to lock in the dates of the items to be picked up and then delivered. On the day, the company was to load up my stuff, no one showed; so I called, and they kept telling me a driver would be in touch with me. The next day, I called back. I was told there was no driver for my order, and they were trying to find one. Finally, I was contacted by a driver. They arrived at my house in a small truck. The driver informed me that he was from a different company that was subcontracted to pick up my stuff and deliver it to Denver. Then, it would be put on a semi truck headed for Pennsylvania. After most of my belongings were loaded onto the truck, the driver then informed us that he is not a mover, but a diesel mechanic for the company. Relo, out of Denver, was who he worked for. With all the confusion, I got on the phone with the first company I was then told they are not a moving company, but rather a moving coordinator of some sort. The actual company that would be moving my belongings from state to the state would notify us.

While the three workers from Relo were in my home loading my belongings, my wife caught one of them opening a sealed tote. When he realized she had seen him, he shoved a stack of shelves into her chest and demanded she pack them. At the end of the job, the three guys were hurrying, and being careless with the items. Their response to it was one of the guys had to hurry, and get back to Denver to his half way house. They dragged a piano across a new laminate floor and grooved it. They left behind large boxes all over the house (the explanation of this will follow because we found out later why), lost the pins to the glass front door, and left things behind in the house that went to other things such as a part to the refrigerator.

After we arrived in Pennsylvania, we were told they could not find a driver to bring our belongings from Denver to Williamsport, and they would contact us when they had located one. Three days past the due date of arrival, two Russian men showed up with our belongings. One man could barely speak English. The very first thing off the truck was a broken shelf; not just broken, but shattered. The driver then informed us there were some other belongings near our belongings that he wasn't sure if they belonged to us. He started naming some of it; it was our belongings, but he did not bring them because he was unsure of the owner at the time. One of the things left behind was a bounce horse that was given to my son by his great grandparents, and they have passed on. The horse itself is an antique; no amount of money can replace it, and not to mention the sentimental value of it.

I got on the phone right then and called the moving coordinators. I informed them of this problem. At that time, I was told that I would have to schedule another move. Why would I do that when I had already paid for these items to be moved? So, I called MCI. They told me that they would go to the storage facility and pick up our stuff, and ship it out the next day. We were also told by the Russian driver that he had seen a ladder being used by another worker, and was sure it had one of our stickers on it, but couldn't get it. That is one of things we are missing-- a 12 foot, orange step ladder. We were also charged packing charges by the company Relo, and we argued that this company packed nothing in our house. According to them, there were boxes from the inventory on the truck missing, and that proved they had packed stuffs. I have called MCI every week since most of our stuffs have been delivered. Every time they tell me that our stuffs are being loaded onto a truck, and will be here in two or three days, it never happens.

I proved to the United States Van Lines that no one packed any of our belongings other than us, and they will not refund the $500. I have also talked to United States Van Lines about all of the broken furniture. They said they would send me a claim form, which I have yet to see; at the same time, they told me to wait and fill it out when the remaining belongings arrived. Now none of these companies will return my phone calls. I do not know what to do. Is there any advice out there? Who regulates these moving companies? Why do they get away with all of this? My belongings left my house in Sterling Colorado on August 12th, and it is now September 21st, and I still don't have all my belongings, with no one returning my phone calls.

I unpacked at my house, searched everywhere and was sick with worry as the desktop and laptop, which have my husband's PhD and numbers, pictures and movies taken of my family. These should have arrived and I should not have to be dealing with this.

The laptop and desktop are missing along with all the other computer items that were clearly packed and labelled. They were packed and loaded into the truck. My monitor arrived in a box and as noted previously to United Van Lines not all items were with stickers. My boxes were clearly stolen or mistakenly given to someone else. I have asked numerous times in my emails regarding contents being moved off the truck, as they were not where they were loaded, but I have not received any response regarding any of my concerns in emails.

In further moves, I will be going around with the driver and watching them put every sticker on item and when contents are unloaded, they should be showing me the stickers as they just shout them out. I did not get to see the inside truck to make sure that all contents are unloaded and I do not get to unpack my items to make sure that every single box has arrived with contents. I have signed a form saying everything did arrive but clearly not all of my contents has arrived.

I was a driver for United Van Lines and I would like everyone to know that it's not just the ones they move that they lie to. They lie to the drivers just as much as they do to all of you. The way it's set up, you have to lease the truck from them and they pay the driver a percentage of each persons move. Now with that 55 percent, the driver has to pay the lease, the fuel, all the help at the load and unload, tolls, and all maintenance and repairs on the truck, so a United driver really makes nothing; it's all going back to them.

They hold a reserve account on each driver then they do every lie that they can come up with to make sure they don't get it when they leave. I looked over my statements and they have been charging me twenty-five dollars a month for a prepass I never had. Now I left them on July 3rd and out of my reserve account, I have been charged one hundred dollars for a missing prepass I never had. My July 16th to 31st statement has a truck lease and ins. out of that account then I get a statement for August 1st to 15th, same thing, it has a truck lease and Ins. out of that account. Remember, my last day with them was July 3rd so how do I owe July 16th to 31st or August 1st to 15th.

I have a text from Raymond telling me that he was giving it all back to me on July 23rd; it is now September 13th and all I have seen is more charges. I have worked for many Van Lines but I don't do it any more after this one and if you're looking for a good Van line, check out Joyce Van Lines. They are pretty good.

The United Van Lines team, under Trease **, gave us the worst service we have ever experienced. Not only were they unprofessional, they were also rude on their manners.

Our delivery date was rescheduled twice in the 20-day time window they gave us. The first delay was because the truck carrying our furniture broke and the second delay was due to lack of capacity in their warehouse in New Jersey.

It seems to me that a company that claims to be the first in the U.S. and claims that their service is excellent cannot have these kinds of excuses. Don't they have a back-up truck? Don't they manage to organize their deliveries to have capacity on warehouses?

On August 17th 2011 at 3:00pm, United Van Lines truck turned around in my driveway over my lateral drainfield. I tried to stop them but they came in anyway. This could cause failure of my septic system. The truck license is ** and the trailor was **

I had a contract for my belongings to be delivered within 14 days and was assured it would be sooner as my move was a short distance and under 3000 lbs. It is now the 3rd week since my belongings were collected. I speak with a representative from united daily and my belongings still have not been assigned a shipment date. They are unable to tell me when I will recieve my things and will not compensate me whatsoever as my belongings are under 3000 lbs. My pregnant wife and I have been sleeping on the floor. We have nothing to cook with... none of our belongings.

Picked up the stuff 5 days late. Caused us to lose security deposit because we moved out after the end of the month. Falsified the weight of our stuff by 3 times. Cost of the move was more than double the binding estimate. Threatened to sell our stuff if we complained about the price. The move was supposed to take 2 weeks but it took 6 weeks. They made appointments to pick up and to deliver but did not show up and did not cancel.

I submitted the list of items for move from WA to CA and received a quote for a little over $1,100.

AFTER movers loaded the track they informed me that I owe more than three times the original estimate as well as demanded the 50% of the amount to be paid in cash.

When I raised the issue of clearly inaccurate initial quote with the customer service representative - Kevin, he did not see any problem with that and informed me that "otherwise nobody would hire them to move".

I yet to receive a accurate information on exact weight of my load, but I have hard time to beleive that it was in excess of 4000 lbs.

Bottom line: false advertisement, unfair business practices, poor customer service and pure intimidation and bullying.

4 customer service hangs up repeatedly

This company lied over the phone in regards to the date items would be picked up and the dates items would be delivered. They lied about the price as well. This company purposely feeds you a bunch of bologna when scheduling over the phone and as soon as they pickup ever thing changes. U can't do anything because they have a contract that says you can cancel up to 3 days per the load date. So by time you figure out you have been screwed you can't even fire them and get a new company. Very unprofessional and extreme liars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot being to describe the problems with this company. I have been lied to about everything, mistreated and as I have seen on this complaint site so has a lot of other people. So I have decided enough is enough. Hard working people do not deserve to get treated like this and hits United Van lines cannot get away with this anymore.

I am starting a petition for all to sign that will go to the corporate office, attorneys, news channels, BBB and all in between. If you are interested in helping with this fight or would like to sign please contact me. **@yahoo.com. Thank you

We contracted with United Van Lines for our cross country move. We were sold by a guy who followed up and promised us pickup and delivery times. We repeated to him that we are on a tight schedule. We booked our plane tickets based on the time frame they quoted. Imagine our frustration when one week before the scheduled move, our sales guy disappeared. We called and called and were told he's no longer with the company. We got transferred around a bit and then were told the pickup was a day later in the system. So now we're moving on the same day our plane leaves (we budgeted extra time and now it's complete chaos).

Upon delivery, again they were horrible with communication. They said they would be here on Friday. They called and said now it was Saturday. All of a sudden, they called and they were arriving on Thursday morning, which is nice that they are early except we're both at work. They demanded over $2000 in cash for the balance (we've already paid $2000 for a deposit, about $1000 over what we were quoted!). They said that if we're not home with the cash, they'd leave our stuff in storage and charge us each day.

So, we took off Thursday at work (I'm an interviewer for a company and cancelled 10 interviews on Thursday to be home). I was sitting home for a few hours and got a call saying, "Oopps, now it's Friday." They showed up on Friday with my TV stand shattered completely (apparently destroyed in their storage) and five boxes crushed (they packed these boxes for us and charged us for it). The guy that did the delivery told me that they normally charge a couple hundred for "stairs fee" (we moved into a ranch where there are 4 steps on the front porch and a basement with 6 steps). And he can waive the stairs fee if we tipped him. At this point, I'm beyond frustrated and can only laugh.

The claims system for damaged goods is just as fun. Read it on their website. We're pretty patient people and understand that with moves, there are a lot of pieces and people at work, so things won't go perfect. But the amount of stress and frustration we've experienced for how much we paid for the move has just been disgusting. I hope this review helps you before you book.

My daughter had the worst experience moving with All United Van Lines. It was the most unprofessional group of liars that I have ever witnessed.

She had a move from Pittsburgh to Orlando. I personally called the company a minimum of 50 times and I was lied to numerous times by Sam and Bashim. They repeatedly told me that her truck was in Florida ready to deliver and a week later, we learned that it never left New Jersey. It was a miracle that it ever arrived. Bashim personally promised that he would send Wendy a check for $500 and that she wouldn't need to pay the balance - none of this ever happened.

If they have any integrity at all, they should make sure that this promise is kept and that she is reimbursed for all the stress and lies that were told. They apparently outsourced the move, which they tried to lie and say that she agreed to, which she never did.

When the truck came yesterday, there was a driver and we had to supply Wendy's friend to help move all of the contents. This is unheard of. All United Van Line needs to keep their verbal promise and reimburse her for the entire move. There was a guaranteed date of delivery of October 7th and her contents came yesterday, October 15th. Please make sure that they respond to me immediately and tell me the consequences that are going to happen.

I originally contracted my move with United Van Lines, but their agent, Mayflower, did the actual delivery. Mayflower used its own agent, Ed Schmidt Moving and Storage. United had me arrange the move through Hall-Lane Moving & Storage Co. I needed to move from New York City to Kentucky, and was planning on using a U-haul, but decided to go with a mover because of my valuable plasma television (a Pioneer that I purchased for around $4,000). The move was quoted to me at $3200, but I was told that my property would probably weigh a lot less than the weight used for the estimate, so I would receive money back. They also told me that it would cost me $190 to pack my television. When I asked Hall-Lane about buying extra insurance, I was told that I didn't need it and that it was a "waste of money."

Eight days later, my shipment arrived without my television or a coat rack. The television was packaged in a large box, approximately 6 feet x 4 feet x 2 feet, so there was no way that it was lost. I contacted various people at Ed Schmidt and United and submitted a claim. Two people I spoke to admitted that the TV must have been stolen. After two unreturned calls to the claims adjuster, I received a settlement offer of $68.40 for the TV and $36 for the coat rack. I also received $69 back because of the difference between the actual weight and the quote. Before I moved, I sold the majority of my furniture, so there is no way that my property weighed as much as they said, and I received no documentation from weigh stations. I also was not reimbursed for the packing of the TV or for moving it. I am currently pursuing my options and am prepared to sue for the value of the TV. In essence, United and its agents charged me $3,100 to steal my $4000 TV.

My husband was relocated by his company from PA to MD, United Van Lines was the trucking company used to move our belongings. The day our belongings were loaded, the individuals were very careful in loading. Once our delivery date came, we had new individuals who unloaded and evidently in a hurry and rushed. 80% of our furniture was damaged, some having significant damage. We did put the claim in with them, one of our request was that they replace our leather sectional that had tears in it. We had purchased our sectional on 6/2/2010 and it was delivered to our home in PA a week later. United packed us on 7/9/2010.

So we had our leather sectional for 4 weeks before this company negligently cared for our furniture and delivered it. We were fine with receiving repairs to the rest of our furniture, although significant damage was done to my son's furniture and we have only had it for 8 months. Because the driver did not properly document our couch as a sectional but yet a 3 cushion sofa, we are being denied. We have done everything they have asked of us, we have sent written statements that we witnessed the sectional being loaded and unloaded off the United Van Lines truck and I have offered to have my mom write a statement as well. Considering she was here with me while they were unloading and witnessed first hand the sectional being put into our house and manner in which they jammed it through the doorway causing 3 tears in leather.

In addition, we have had damage in the house we are renting and our claim has been denied because we didn't file in a timely fashion, which according to the information we have in writing is 90 days. In this case, our delivery was 7/12/2010 and we contacted our representative on 7/13/2010 to verbally make them aware and filed the appropriate paperwork with them on 7/19/2010. According to the paperwork given to us prior to our move, there were a lot of things done against their written policy. We have e-mails and written documentation that has transpired over the past 5 weeks, we have a meeting with any attorney on Thursday morning to hopefully care for all of this once and for all.

I am pleased to receive your response and to know that some one will look into my complaint. I do have full confidence in you and your organization in following up and take the matter for resolution and to warn other consumers to be on the lookout as a lesson learned. Moving company United States Van Lines, Job order # **, and Eastern States Moving and Storage company: On 14 July 2010, I inquired on line with several moving companies to move my belongings from Florida to Pennsylvania. United States Van Lines, on the same day Mr. Alvin ** called me to offer their services and I accepted the terms; $1,557.91 for 3000 lbs. with a down payment of $637.69 which I made by my Visa card. All paper work was faxed, signed and completed the same afternoon. The move was to take place on 17 July 2010.

The main moving company, United States Van Lines, E. Las Olas Blvd., Suite 130-345, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301, subcontracted my contract with them unilaterally without even informing me to Eastern States Moving and Storage, Meadow Rd, New Platz, NY 12561, hudsonvalleymoving.com. I came to learn of this action by a phone call on Saturday, 17 July 2010 from the Eastern State from Ms. Kara who stated that, exact quote "my contract with US Van Lines is out of the window and from now on I deal with her". She was most rude and short in all her communication. She insisted that I should accept their estimate of 10,000 lbs and at a charge of $6,585.50 as an estimate that is not binding otherwise they will not make the move.

On Sunday, 18th of July, Ms. Kara called me to confirm delivery date of 20 July and that I have to pay the balance $4,882.95 before the first box gets off loaded from the truck. I requested that the charges for this amount to be provided and she promised that she will e-mail them to me first thing Monday 19 July morning. Nothing was sent and till today, 12 August, nothing is sent by either Easters States or US Van Lines. On 20 July at 10:45 the truck arrived at my Pennsylvania house and the driver, Rick, demanded the money in full before off loading any boxes. I did ask for the papers and he said to get them from Kara. I called Kara, but never got an answer to my several phone calls. I called her office almost 12 times and left four messages, but she never returned any of my calls.

I tried to stop shipping items that were not actually needed to lessen the weight. Rick, the driver, refused to offload anything. He stated that he is not going to offload anything that is already been loaded- once it is on the truck- it will stay there. I have a witness to his statements- Mr. Paul **, who is my friend and managed the packing for me at my house in Florida. Further, I asked Rick on 20 July as he was offloading, why did you bring these boxes? He repeated same statement. There were 26 boxes of books that I didn't want delivered, but they were delivered despite my request and direction.

I called Kara several times after that to tell her that I am willing to have paid for the packing, material, etc. but not the shipping charges but there was no reply and she never responded or returned my calls. This attitude is very, very unprofessional, nasty and unacceptable. It reflects very negatively not just on Eastern States company, but also on US Van Lines. I contacted a lawyer to see what my rights are. The lawyer advised me that his charges will be almost equal what he thinks I will get in return from the firm if he acts on my behalf against them. He advised me to continue pursuing it the way I have been and he believes a professional company with good reputation should respond and be responsive to compensate me for this matter. I stated the same to Alvin and Alexander when we spoke couple of times. The above have been provided to Alvin in writing several times.

I must sadly state, I retired two years ago from the US Army Corps of Engineers after 37 plus years of service including my years of active duty with the US Army and have had more than 19 moves overseas- Far East, Middle East, Europe and the US. This move with this company is a very sad experience to say the least. I regret that I ever contacted this company. I am now convinced that their continued delinquency, refusal and failure to provide break down for the charges, $4,882.95 are a fraud case and unfair over charges. I do believe that they overcharged me and would not provide honest documents that shows the actual charges. I can't estimate how much you overcharged me, but if they are honest, they should have provided these documents on the delivery date, 20 July 2010. To date they have not responded by any means. Looking forward to hearing from you.

My move job no. with United States Van Lines is **. I called Mr. Alvin ** x 290 and Mr. ** x 237 numerous times and as late as and advised them of my request. On Sat. 31 July, I called both and advised them of my phone number that I was at at that time. No one called me back for more than a week, either before 31 July or after. I am stationed in Kuwait and left the US on Sat, 31 July, back to my work.

We are 7 hours ahead of the East Coast. I am gravely saddened to have been treated the way that their staff have. The communication with the firm began by a phone call from Mr. Alvin ** responding to my online request for a quote on a move on July 15, 2010. The packing was done on 16 and 17 July and the shipment was delivered on 20 July.

I have two main serious issues with firm: First issue is they elected unilaterally to assign my shipment to another carrier, Eastern States Moving and Storage out of New York. The representative Ms. Kara acted in a most unprofessional, non responsive, aggressive manner that is unacceptable. On Saturday 17 July, Kara called me and advised me that my contract with them is out of the window. This is most unprofessional and unethical. On the delivery day, the driver Rick, advised me unless I give them this amount in full, nothing will be delivered.

On Sunday 18 July, Ms. Kara called me and advised with the balance due and promised that the packing charges will be scanned and e-mailed to me the first thing in the morning 19 July. To this day, I don't have a clue and any information regarding this. I wanted to know what is the breakdown of the balance of $4,882.95. She said there are boxes, packing, labor, etc charges and she certainly will provide these documents by e-mail the first thing Monday 19 July, morning. The delivery was on Tuesday 20 July at around 10:30. Nothing ever came from her or their side either. I was coerced to pay the full balance of $4,882.95 before the first piece is offloaded and delivered inside the house.

To this moment I don't have any supporting documents from any one for these charges. I don't want to jump into wrong conclusions. But, why is it that they are all hiding? If these documents that support the charges are readily available since Sunday 18 July, why are they not furnishing them to me? Something is wrong, very wrong.

The second issue I have with firm is that on 17 July, I tried to stop shipping items that were not actually needed to lessen the weight. Rick, the driver refused to offload anything. He stated that he is not going to offload anything that is already been loaded, once it is on the truck, it will stay there. I gave a witness to his statements, Mr. Paul ** who is my friend and managed the packing for me at my house in Florida.

Further, I asked Rick on 20 July as he was offloading, why did he bring these boxes? He repeated same statement. There were 26 boxes of books that I didn't want delivered but they were delivered despite my request and direction. I called Kara several times after that to tell her that I am willing to have paid for the packing, material, etc. but not the shipping charges. There was no reply and she never responded or returned my calls. This attitude is very, very unprofessional, nasty and unacceptable. It reflects very negatively not just on her company, but also on theirs (United Van Lines).

I contacted a lawyer to see what my rights are. The lawyer advised me that his charges will be almost equal what he thinks I will get in return from their firm if he acts on my behalf against them. He advised me to continue pursuing it the way I have been and he believes a professional company with good reputation should respond and be responsive to compensate me for this matter. I stated the same to Alvin and Alexander when we spoke a couple of times.

I must sadly state, I retired two years ago from the US Army Corps of Engineers after 37 plus years service including my years in the US Army uniform and have had more than 19 moves overseas to the Far East, Middle East, Europe and the US. This move with the company is a very sad experience to say the least. I regret that I ever contacted their company.

I received three e-mails from Consumer survey requesting our evaluation of the move made by the firm. I intend to submit my honest evaluation and cite what occurred and in particular the absence of providing documents that support charges. I highlighted and stated firm's negligence and continued failure to providing such documents. Their inability to provide these documents is inexcusable and should not be overlooked. This is clearly a case of fraud, a true case of dishonesty and must be reported / addressed to the consumer's protection office. The firm's stance is most undesirable and should not be overlooked or any longer tolerated. The company's continued failure to provide documents that support the charges is a sign of fraud and dishonesty and charges for shipping the 26 boxes despite my direction not to ship should be credited to me.

I hired United Van Line to help my moving. They loaded everything on June 22nd 2010 and said that they will deliver on July 4th. One day later, they said July 8th and now, it is July 13th, I still don't receive it. What is worse is when I called to ask where my shipment is. The customer service representative was extremely rude and didn't help at all.

Now, my new apartment is empty and I have no idea when my furnitures will be delivered. I am very disappointed.

The truck never came. I arranged for a move across the US through United Van Lines in June 2010. They seemed the most professional and offered a good rate. I read the contract thoroughly and was satisfied with the terms. After waiting for hours on moving day, I finally called to check on the status of our truck and was told they had no truck for us. To make matters worse, they insisted that they had until 7PM the following day to find one or we would forfeit our entire deposit. We were already living in our new location and this situation caused us to literally lose thousands and thousands of dollars in plane tickets, lost wages, child care and the extra money we had to pay to scramble around and try to find someone to move our belongings as soon as possible.

Our rental lease was up and we had to ask our landlord to allow us to pay for an extra month since we had no way to move our things. Phone calls and emails went unanswered and no one lifted a finger to try to help us. We did not even receive a phone call the following day to inform us that they still had found no truck, we were just left to assume this was the case as a truck never showed up. I would encourage anyone who is considering doing business with this company to consider what might happen if moving day comes and no truck shows up. What would you lose? How would you handle it? It's definitely the risk you run with dealing with this company. Extra charges that were incurred included: Lost wages, child care, extra plane tickets, extra costs of arranging a quick move, extra rent, extreme emotional damage to our entire family.

I hired this company to move my belonging from CA to AZ. This is my first time using a moving company. First, the guy helping me there Colby E. ext 236 messed up on the original contract. Now keep in mind that before I even had this contract, I have to pay a down payment to them of $637.18, THEN, they send you the contract. I informed him from the beginning that this was to be a full move with packing and unpacking as I am pregnant and unable to move anything which is the only reason why I hired a moving company or else I would have gotten a U-Haul and did it all myself. Colby estimated I would need about 80 boxes to move that the mover would bring and told me how big each box was. I agreed to this.

Come to find out of the first contract he was in such a hurry to secure the truck that my firs contract apparently had no packing or unpacking services on it and only 91 boxes and none of my large item stuff like beds, dressers, TVs etc. So he had to redo the whole contract. Come to find out even though he said the mover would be bringing the boxes he quoted me in my "furniture list", there is a separate section where he changed the amount of boxes from 77 to only 18 for the mover to bring! Now they tell me I owe a total of $750+ for packing services. I don't need a moving company for 18 boxes, he knew all along this was to be a full move and said it's only the furniture list that matters. Because the driver is bringing the 77 boxes which is what I signed for.

Now why he changed those 77 boxes to only 18 is beyond me. I then had to pay another deposit since the price increased from from the first quote he misrepresented. So I have paid a total of $688.77. Estimate is for $1891.33 and I would owe a balance of $1202.56 if I did not go beyond my 3706 lbs weight limit. I did not. My total weight was 2600 lbs. US Van lines only reduced my balance price a mere $215.00 Then tacked on another $450.00 plus dollars for additional packaging. So now I owe $1446.76 to some other company named Ben Hur who they sold my contract to.

It has been over 2.5 weeks I have been without my stuff. I have already filed complaints with BBB and Department of Transportation. I will also be filing a police report for theft of my belongings since no one seems to know where this Semi is located and the all refuse to give me it's license plate number, so I can give to the police. I am unable to find a job since this mover packed up my licenses and has all my job clothing in his truck. I am pregnant and sleeping on floor which is causing pain to body and severe pain and cramping to my unborn child. I am also unable to obtain a job since all my dental licenses are in the moving truck and well as job clothing and I cannot afford to buy any as this move has wrecked financial havoc on my bank account. If I had obtained a job, I would not be able to leave it, so the driver could unpack my stuff because I would be under my 90 probationary window.

On February 24, 2010 at approximately 3:50pm, I was driving on FM 1488 in Magnolia, Texas, between 149 spur and FM2978. It is under contsruction, and the speed limit under work zone states 45 miles per hour. My speed at the time was 50 miles per hour, when I was approached from behind by a United Van Line truck #803364 license plate Texas 490@18. He/she rode my bumper and furiously honked at me to speed up. Then he passed me on a left hand turning lane, mind you, FM1488 is presently a 2-way road, with oncoming traffic approaching. Not only did he/she not observe the work zone speed, yet also scared me by honking, and unsafe driving practices. Maybe United Van Lines should train their drivers with more focus on safety.

United Van Lines puts profits over safety. I was nearly killed by a rookie driver from S&M United Van Lines. They sent me with him to Las Vegas knowing he was way over his legal alotted hours to be on the road. When he fell asleep an flipped the tractor trailer, I was nearly killed. Since they own their own Insurance company, I couldn't keep a lawyer who was brave enough for the fight.

First of all we were forced to use a moving company by my husband's new employer since they were paying for the move. We had a fireman and his sons who had moved us and our children multiple times. We would pack the items and they would break down, load and unload our furniture and boxes. It was rare we found any broken items or any other damage. It was unfortunate my husband's new employer would not let us use their services especially considering it would have cost about half of what we had to pay UNVL. That being said, we accepted the low bid of UNVL and embarked upon the journey which would end with damage to our property we will be recovering from for years.

5 men showed up to pack and move. My husband and I were packing up as well. I pointed out all the things that were to stay in the house we were moving from. Imagine my suprise when several items showed up in our boxes. Boxes were labeled for the office that belonged at home and vice versa. Boxes were mislabeled as to their content. Many boxes were filled with such a hodge podge of items it would have been impossible to label. My crystal and china which I told them I wanted to take with me was repacked and placed in their boxes. Of course, there are no boxes labeled "crystal" or "china" so, to date, I have only found the dinner plates. I found multiple serving and baking pieces such as Vietre, Lenox, and Waterford broken and shattered, some beyond recognition.

I had major surgery after moving here so have been slow unpacking. Every box I open has broken items and I see my items, some wedding presents, others acquired during 28 years of marriage, and the keepsakes from my children as they grew up, destroyed by the carelessness and incompetence of those sent to care for what we have collected over a lifetime.

Another problem which has been a huge inconvenience was what they did with the items in the furniture we stored next door. Unfortunately they decided to unload the dresser, chest-of- drawers, and one night stand (not the other) before moving. This means they unloaded and packed my clothes and personal items which I had left in the furniture in storage. I didn't know they would not move that furniture without unloading it and they didn't bother to tell me. Yes, I felt quite embarassed knowing they had been through and handled my lingerie.

My husband signed the papers at the end of the 2nd day of unloading without accounting for all of our items or for breakage. Honestly there was too much to go through between the office and home to do so with the movers here. I know there is no reprisal for our losses but I want anyone who will listen to understand what they are in for if they use this company. I wish I had investigated UNVL more thoroughly before agreeing to use them. Now I know why they undercut the other companies. If you care for your furniture and items new and collected over your lifetime, do not use UNVL.

I am a retired 60-year employee of State of Oregon and moved from Vancouver, Washington (5319 NE 109th St) to 270 Ridge Road, Walworth, Wisconsin to be near my five grandchildren in September 2008.

I had several individuals from my office assisting in my move to Wisconsin. Mr. Goetz, United's agent insisted on helping me pack. Mr. Goetz had "stolen me blind". In fact it was so extremely obvious that my staff told Goetz to "get the hell out of there" as his theft was so very obvious. I telephoned and finally found the general manager for United's movers for this area. All he would say was that Goetz has worked for them for 21 years and they never received a complaint on him. And, I am certain the reason for this is because it was very difficult to find the general manager. They sent me a letter a few days later stating that "should they find the missing 4 boxes of Swarovski Crystal they would let me know. Of course, I never received a word about the loss. And because I was unable to insure all of my Swarovski crystal, I could NOT be reimbursed for my loss. We found also several items from someone elses furniture moving. The crystal pieces I lost was my hobby for the past 22 years and cost approximately $20,000.00.

In addition, my oak serving table was severely scratched. I also did not receive one of my Swarovski crystal chandelliers, one box of books and CD's, 3 new electric heaters, huge 4' high nutcracker, all shelving for my new oak entertainment center and also my book case.

I would imagine my loss was in the area of $25,000.00. I cannot tell you how devastated I am at my loss and the apparent attitude of United Van Lines.

Your agent robbed me blind as my moving staff can attest to. This was quite a slap to my face to have worked so very hard for all of these years and to have managed to collect all of this crystal and to have such a large amount of my collection stolen.

For example, the day before the second moving company arrived to pick up my things, I heard a noise in my sun room. Mr. Goetz knew that I am not only elderly, but quite severely disabled. I was not able to see 100% clearly, but I am certain it was his truck that had backed up in my driveway loading up these 4 boxes of valuable crystal. When I turned on the lights, the car sped off. I have never been robbed at this residence particularly since I have my property fenced but feel that Goetz knew just exactly how to extricate what he wanted from my home.

I am totally devasted since I had just retired at the age of 78 years and to have so blatantly been robbed of my prized possessions and feel that I should at least be partially compensated for my great loss.

I would greatly appreciate whatever assistance you can give me as I am totally devastated and so very much trusted Mr. Goetz at the beginning of his helping me move.

And, because I was unable to prove the loss due to the fact that I had a lot of things to move and it took me until the first part of August to finally go through all of my boxes.

Please help me. I am on a fixed income and simply cannot duplicate all of my Swarovski crystal. This is making me ill and therefore I am unable to finally begin enjoying my long-deserved retirement.

I am writing on behalf of my neighbors Kay and Roy with their permission. On June 17, 2009 a United Van moving a family in across the street, hit and tore off a branch from a large, old, cherished tree. True, the limb was overhanging the street, but we believe that it could have been easily avoided by approaching from one street over. That would take an exceptionally caring driver, however, and is beyond what one would expect to encounter.

The main problem occured when the driver spoke in a rude and hateful manner. So they called Kwikway Transpotation/ United Van Lines and spoke to a representative who was equally rude and hateful, saying the United Van Lines would sue THEM if the truck was damaged. All they really wanted was an apology.

This neighborhood knows what happened and none of us will use United Van Lines for our moving needs. I wonder what the President/CEO of United Van Lines would have to say if he knew the kind of ill will that these employees have spread.

The tree's wound was trimed and sealed at a cost of $500. We just all hope that the beautiful tree will survive.

Discover says that because of how the contract is worded, they could charge my card at any time after the move. Years later even. So they don't mind that it was OVER A YEAR after the move that this blatant rip-off scheme was hatched. I guess I just need to pray they don't decided to charge me another $5K two years from now.

But seriously--I regret all the years I loyally used [Discover] card. Either I pony up $375 to the Discover Card empire or my credit is hash. I guess I learned a lesson about both Discover Card and Suddath/United. And contracts.

Filed a claim for damaged turntable and missing lamp for total of 245 dollar. Claimed denied even with pictures of opened box with damaged turntable with poor packing by shipper.

Damaged of 245 dollars

On 10/07/2008 our boxes were delivered from Mesa, AZ to our new residence in Lockport, IL by Armstrong Relocation/United Van lines. While they were bringing in the boxes I was told to check numbers off as they read them to me on a form. There was confusion as some of the stickers had fallen off and they actually brought in a chair that was not ours. I noticed that I did not see my Crate Amp amongst the things, but saw that Crate Amp had been written on one of the boxes. They told me if I had anything missing or broken I could file a claim and my problem would be resolved.

In the next few days I discovered that my Crate Amp was in fact missing, was not in the box, so I called the number on my forms and filed a claim. I was sent a claim form, and I filled it out and sent it in promptly. On 12/17/2008, I was informed by K. Loeffler (Claims/Quality Control Mgr.) that our claim had been denied. My husband called and spoke to her and she still denied our claim. We have the box with Crate Amp written on it by the movers, pictures of the box, and receipts from the place that we purchased our item from. We also have written letters from friends and relatives who saw the amp and knew we intended to have it transported by the movers, as well as some dated online journal entries detailing when the amp was acquired (about 6 months before Armstrong/United lost or stole it, this date is noted on the receipts as well) and what my intention with it was.

The amp was for personal use and I was very excited to have it. Armstrong/United (K. Loeffler & T. Wibbels) are now ignoring our emails despite the overwhelming evidence that their company is at fault - that the amp was not placed in the box marked Crate Amp and was either missplaced or stolen by one of the movers. I just want my crate amp back (in the mint condition that it was before the move) or a refund so I can buy a new one!

This item cost us $351.17 on 3/22/08, and was 6 months old when Armstrong/United lost, stole, or misplaced it. It was something that I used everyday and was in mint condition at the time it was supposed to be moved.

I was moving from Phoenix to Indiana. I thought I should go with a mover that was around a long time with a name I heard alot. Someone I could trust. Boy was I wrong. When the truck came to pick up and pack my what I had which was not that much. I only took my bedroom set and my front room the rest I had was just boxes. I had 2 salesmen from their compamy come out and gave me a quote and they were both low cause I had nothing. So I got a bidding contract. The weight was 40000 bls is what I was to be charged for. When they picked up my things they had a small truck. The driver of the truck said that when that truck was full it was 40000 lbs. I had only 3 things packed in boxes it was included in my bid.my wife is in a wheel chair scooter that they had to put on the truck to bring with them.

When the truck lefted the man told us the truck would be right behind us. We left Juley the 10th. When we got to Indiana no one call to help us or let us know what was going on with the truck. We had to do all the calling to them. The last call to them they told that we did not have 40000 bls we had 80000 bls now they wanted to charge us double I told them I would never believe that. And that they had to put our things in 2 truck they unpacked everything now it is in 2 trucks. We were told one day before the truck was to come that we had to have a money order to give the truck drive. I told them I was not giving him the check till I got all my stuff. They told me if we didn,t give him the check we would be fined. The truck cam on the 19th of july. We told them how important it was that they send in the first truck my wifes wheel chair. It did not come in the first truck like we begged them to do.

When the truck came the 19th the truck driver to unload the truck limped and he had 2 very small young people to help him unload everything. My matter an box springs is white in color was in a box they unpacked it out side on the grass and dragged it in the house now I have grass stians on it on one side and black on the other from dragging it up the stairs. then he brought in one of my curio cabents not wrapped the glass broken out of it and damaged with the seams pulled apart also scratches all over it. as they brought things in everything I have is damaged. The first truck only brought my couch and bed set. anything of any value was on the second truck. and they would not tell us when it would be to us. We had to fight with them every day. My wife needed her chair so bad. They just didn,t care.

I called an attorney to see what I could do to get my thingsfrom them and he told me what to do. It work I got a call from a man from the company he would not tell me who he was or give me his phone no. or his name. he ask me if the sale men look at my home when they gave me the quote . I told him of course they did and it was not just one it was 2 salemen from your company one of the salemen was at the company for 11 years. He called back and told me the second truck would be at my home the 29th of jule almost a mo. later. When the second truck came when they were unloading it they had our computer talbes were new was all in parts they took them all apart . They did not kow how to put them together And we had no clue.

The bad part is that they took them aprt by pulling them apart taking hucks out of them so there is no way they will go back together both computer desk are trashed. They were hulling in boxes with my things falling out of the. They were just picking them up and sitting the stuff any place they could. I had 3 floor lamps I watch the driver bring one of the floor lamps out of the truck it had been flatten the trucker tryed to pull it back to the way it was to be. It was broken but he brought it in sit it down never said a word . My other floor lamp was broken off the base was put on the floor with out a word. Every thing in this second truck was damaged also.

What a mess. All I have was brand new now it is trashed. When I filed a claim they only give me .60 bl they also losted am airloom grandfather clock, all my good jewely, also other boxes. They did not give me anything for these things. Now they was to pay me 355.00 now they have come up with I owe them 183.00 for boxes I did not order or want or knew I signed for. I thouhgt I was signing to let them take the truck with my stuff in it. So they are giving us nothing. When something is wrong it is wrong and this company is oh sooooo wrong. They should not be able to do this kind of thing to people. This has been the worst thing that has ever happened to me in my life. I have nothing now but a bunch of damaged stuff to look at every day.

Furniture and property damage caused by those employed by either United Van Lines and/or Hughes Relocation Services, Inc. Numerous pieces including antiques as well as newly refinished hardwood floors. They are refusing to acknowledge the claim even though we took out insurances for our belongings.

Thousands of dollars in damaged antiques and other furniture and household items and approximately $600 in damaged floors

while loading my 47inch TV on the truck, the person slipped and dropped the TV. At the time the tv was waapped and the damaged was not noticed. Upon delivery of my furniture, the tv was unwrapped and the damaged was noticed. The tv was cracked acrosed the top and the screen had dropped on one side.

I sent a online request for damages to United Van Lines. Which stated that a adjuster would come and look at the unit. I received a check for $90.00 or 0.60 cents a pound for my $1400.00 tv. No one came to look at the damages. It simply stated that I choose the minimum coverage plan and based on this I was paid what they considered a fair price.

I was never offered any options on any plans by anyone. There were lots of papers to sign and in the rush of the moment you don't have time to read all of the papers. Also a few days later I noticed that two of my dinning room chairs legs had be sanded down making them uneven and rock when you sit in them. I don't see any need to report this to United at 60cents a pound. I will have to live with it.

My company contracted with United Van Lines to relocate my household goods from Wichita, KS to Springfield, VA in Jan 08. These same goods were to spend sometime in temp storage. The estimator didn't do a good job and increase the load by approximately 15% and ordered boxes for items we don't own and didn't order boxes for items we own. The packers were from Tulsa, OK and did a pretty good job of packing the items. They didn't tag all the items, be the next day when the driver showed up, all were tagged. The driver at the house in Wichita laid down some type of removable plastic flooring to protect the carpet and hardwood floors. Not all the items that needed to be inside a box were packed because the estimator didn't provide that information.

We have some very expensive road bikes and hybrids that needed to be boxed. When the items that were boxed arrived, I would say that 99% were in good condition. Only a few chipped glasses and bent HMDI cables along with a few odds and ends. The items that were just wrapped in blankets, like all my wooden furniture and tables were damaged. I mean all pieces. Also, when I completed the Bingo Sheet incorrectly, with the driver standing over my shoulder at the destination, he didn't say anything. I was writing down the missing boxes in an incorrect box and the driver didn't say anything and the Fenton, MO adjuster used that against me. I also didn't receive all my boxes.

I filed a claim, an appraiser showed up and documented what I said we broken. I had to fix a few items like the kitchen table so we could eat. (That claim was denied - reason; United didn't have a chance to look at the damage. United did damage my walls, but we indicated that was okay as long as they didn't put a hole in the wall. We hadn't finished painting the stairwell at the new house. My major grip is the damage to the furniture and the driver here in Springfield, VA not telling me I was filling the form out incorrectly. I think the storage company is out of Stafford, VA along with the delivery driver to Springfield, VA. As I indicated, I think most of the damage was caused by the Stafford, VA bunch.

Since I completed the Bingo Sheet incorrectly, about 10 boxes that were missing were denied in the claim, along with a few other items that I received a very low-ball claim amount. Shifters for my bikes cost about $300.00, I was given $50.00. I had to go back to the company to demand a relook on a few items that I figured I could win the argument on. I was provided an additional amount in claims.

With that second claim letter a paragraph was included that if I disputed the amount I would have to file with an arbitration company to settle the dispute. That is not correct because I know what the contract my company has with the moving company. I just cashed the checks and will not use this company again. When I move again (and I will), I will inform my company that I cannot use United Van Lines and to select a different carrier. As a guess, I am out less than $1,000.00 so it wasn't worth the hassle.

I was scheduled to be relocated by my new employer, who contracted a relocation agency to relocate my belongings. The agency to relocate me was United Van Lines.

United Van Lines contracted the move to Andrew's Moving and Storage, who subcontracted King Relocation Services.

King Relocation Services showed up at my house, packed my belongings haphazardly and managed to loose 1 box in the short move to San Jose from Los Angeles.

After giving United Van Lines 2 weeks to find the package, I called demanding they find the box.

After waiting for 3 hours while Andrew's Moving and Storage performed a package trace, the customer services representative informed me that they can't find the box.

They answered with We lost it and unfortunately it happens all the time, here's the claim's website..

I doubt they could really find anything within a 3 hour time span. and could have done a lot more to find my package.

Apparently it's easier to shuffler a customer to a claims service than deal with it themselves.

After 3 weeks, still no trace of the box.

I recieved several quotes from different companies and decided to go with United Van Lines. (Puliz Moving & Storage. I was assured from them that this was a very professional and reliable company. To start with, I was suppose to get 11 boxes for my clothes, the moving people only brought 6. Someone had messed up on the paper work, so I had to stuff my clothes in the 6 boxes, including packing the bottom of each box in order to try and fit all the clothes in. I moved from a 2 bedroom, 2 bath Condo. It took them 11 hours to load me.

When they arrived at the destination for unoading it took them another 11 hours to off load everything. I went out and looked at the inside of the truck one time and noticed that the boxes were just packed/jammed in where ever they could fit it in. It did no good to put ""breakable" or "this side up", they shoved the boxes in sideways, upside down, bottom up instead of top side up, any way that was convenient for them to get as much in the truck as possilbe, they didn't care about what was in the boxes or how they handled them. The only time they handled the boxes with a little care is if I was standing right there.

I was told that anything they took apart, they would put back together, this did not happen. They took apart my display shelf, did not bother to pull the pegs out so they were lost. I had to go out and buy more before the shelves could be put back together. They did not use the same people to unload as they did to load. One guy took apart my king size bed (headboard). When it came time to put the bed back together, no one knew what he did with the hardware so I could not connect the headboard to my bed. I had to go and buy new hardware in order to put the bed back together.

I was told to leave all my clothes in the dresser drawers, when they came to move me, they took all the drawers out. When they off loaded me, all of my clothes in the drawers were just thrown in one large pile on the bed and left. They damanaged pretty much everything I owned including: Broke my entertainment center, broke the knobs off front and broke bottom drawer in half. Broke my computer desk so bad, I had to throw it out, it could not be fixed. I had an extra computer desk in my gauage, but they damaged it to and I could not use it. I had to go out and buy another one. They broke a drawer from my dresser that went in the master bedroom. They tried to tell me it was already broken, when I use this dresser daily and know it was not broken. They broke my roll top desk, the bottem panel was broken completly off and they broke the lock on it so it no longer would lock. I had to throw it out.

My jewelry box was one that stood from the floor up. They took it apart and I noticed when he had put it back together, it was all scratched up. My long dresser/with mirror was all scratched up. They lost the protectors that go under each leg of my dinet table, I had to go out and buy replacements. When I uppacked, several of my crystal figurines were broken which didn't surprize me when I saw how they handled my boxes and stuffed them in the truck any was possible.

Boxes that should have been taken upstairs to the master bedroom, were left downstairs so I had to carry up all the boxes that they left downstairs. When they were off loading my things, one of the guys had me go out and look at some items. He had them laid out in my drive way. He was asking me if they belonged to me. They did not know which items were mine and which items belonged to another load, I had to go out and inspect items to see if they were mine. There were several boxes I did not recieve, so I'm sure they went to someone else.

When one of the guys was unpacking my cussions to my couch, I noticed how filthy his hands were. My furniture is off white and he didn't even bother to wash his hands before touching my furniture/cushions, so I had to have my couch and recliner cleaned. When they were taking an item upstairs, they lost hold of it and put a hole in the wall, which I had to have fixed. (Moses said he would pay for it but I said I would just fix it).

Needless to say, I have never worked with a more UNPROFESSIONAL company in my whole entire life. The people working for them were nice but they handled my boxes very roughly, breaking items and losing parts. I will never deal with this company again. Most furniture was either broken or scratched in some way. My computer desk, roll top desk and the extra computer desk were damanged so badly I had to thrown them out. My crystal was broken. I had to go and buy parts to put together my bed and figurine shelves. My brand new entertainment center was damanaged/broken. Parts missing when they took apart my dinet table.

I called my sales represenitive and told her about everything that was broke or damanaged. She said she took down the information and would turn it in. I never heard from her or anyone else. I also was sent a card in the mail asking me for my feed back and if I would like to be called back to discuss any problems I had. I sent the card back into the president, Tim P. (the signiture that was on the card) and asked him to call me. I never heard a word from him or anyone else in the company.

I recieved a check in the mail for $165.00, with no explaination. All it said was over payment when in fact the driver told me my weight was a little over the estimanted weight, so I assumed that the small check was to try and "make up" for all the damage. Not even close. They just wanted me to go away and not even try to make up for all the damage. I would not recomend this company to anyone and I would never use this company again. They are very unprofessional and do not follow through with anything they promise.

They are liars. They did NOTHING that they said or wrote they would do. The estimate was increased, over time, by 150%. They arrived 6 hours late, delivered by things from Houston to Phoenix almost 3 weeks late. They NEVER returned my phone calls, much less initiated the calls to inform me of their whereabouts or my things. When I asked, directly, where my things were (since it was 2 weeks late, at this point), Brandy's reply was I have no idea. Because you pay United the deposit for the move, they already have their money. The remaining balance (that has to be paid by money order) is paid to the outsourced mom-and-pop gang who pack and move you.

I was told I would receive a $150 credit since I was under my weight estimate. I've never received that credit. If I had to move myself with a Little Red Wagon I would do it over using United Van Lines. But beware. Because of the ICC disolvement, there is little to no regulation of interstate commerce. They operate carte blanche--AT YOUR EXPENSE AND INNOCENCE.

Several of my goods are damaged. I am out several hundred dollars, since the credit was never granted. They lied about the estimate, asking me to pay more, when they owed me almost $300.

We are moving and are using united van lines as our shipper. They were supposed to deliver our goods to us in 8 days, but they did not even manage to load our goods till 5 days after packing and our shipment is late. We paid a premium to this moving agency for their good service, but they did not deliver. We are being offered $125/day for the delay, which is pathetic when compared to the moving bill of $800.

I am working in a very stressful financial markets job and moved over to Dallas (from SF) early to ensure that my house is set up before I started work. By this delay, not only I but my wife too has to take time off from work and our whole schedule has been upset. Its not about the money, just taking time off from my job is impossible

When we moved from our original address the packers packed the boxes so that they were half full. The mable tables were wrapped with tape. The tools from the garage; hoes, rakes, etc., were thrown in a box unwrapped. Therefore, when they unloaded the boxes and stacked them, they collapsed on each other. Boxes were mismarked. The movers placed our furniture, etc. into our rental home while our new home was being built.

Six monthes later when we were ready to move into our new home only two miles away, the movers showed up at 9:00am and they unloaded the last box at 2:30am the following morning. 17 1/2 hours later. The beds were not put together, the boxes that were to go upstairs were put into the garage because they said they were too tired to take the boxes upstairs. We had to call the company to have a man come back to put the beds together and then we had to have two more men come back to the house to take the boxes upstairs that were marked to go upstairs.

Then we discovered the damage: broken glass shelves in China cabinet, lost hardware for hide-a-bed, chipped and scratched coffee table, legs broken and marble loose on couch table (wrapped with tape), broken marble on plant stand, lost finial on bedroom mirror, (try to find one of those), damage to walls and paint.

When I called about repairs they said we signed a contract for 60 cents a pound. She told me we should have bought insurance that paid more. Why should we buy insurance for their coverage on our good furniture? The consequence is we have to do all the work ourselves to correct their damages and loses. They have agreed to pay for our paint damage. But not the gas and time to find people to repair and replace items. It has been the worst move we have ever made.

We made our reservations a few weeks in advance for a move from Idaho to Montana. The day before we were to move, we called to ask what time the van and crew would be arriving as we had to drive 8 hours to meet them at our house. We were told no driver was available, and that the computer system was down. They assured us they would call back when the system was working again, and let us know the status of a driver.

Never receiving a call, we called first thing the next morning with the same results, no driver was available, the system was down, and they had no idea when it would be fixed. Each time they answered the phone it was with a curt Hello, never identifying themselves or their company. We had to ask if we had the correct number. After several more calls, with the same results.

Hurrying back to Idaho, we rented a do it your-self truck, and hired a crew to help with heavy items. It was annoying and stressful, and an example of a lousy business. We will never use them again, and will tell all our friends not to either.

I had a 7 to 14 day transit time guarantee and was told not to worry about the 14 day last day to deliver as that was just policy and my trip would not take that long. I called on day four or five to find that my load had not even left Florida yet. On day 13 I was told that my driver was having problems unloading and would be late by a day or two and that customer service from United would call me the following day with a delivery date and that I would be compensated for hotel and per diem for food.

I did not receive a call for another 2 days and was told by Suddath that my driver was going to be 3 days late and that United customer support would compensate me. I called customer service at United Van Lines and was then told the shipment would be 6 or 7 days late and that there was only a $125 per day reimbursement, not per diem, no reduction in fees. Their rep was rude and completely unconcerned with the disruption to my life.

I am supposed to start a new job on Monday and give a presentation with materials that are in the United truck. I will be out over $1000.00 by the end of this it will have a negative affect on my employment. I will avoid Suddath and United Van Lines in any future moves and referrals.

Hotel: $1300 Food: $300 Work materials: $1200

I am moving from Italy to America. An Italian moving company is picking up our items and putting it on a ship. They would not let us hire them to pick up a container arriving at the Port of Charleston because we packed our own boxes. They claimed they have signed an anti-terrorism contract with the government not to accept personally packed boxes. I cannot find anything about this contract. Trying to save money and do this footwork ourselves proves testing and their responses were at first encouraging then strangly abrupt. Maybe we just didn't have enough stuff to bother with from our home to fill the container.

In March 2008 I hired Wade Odell, a United Van Lines agent in Midland Park, NJ, to move me from Lyndhurst NJ to Denver CO. I interviewed 4 movers and specifically choose Wade Odell due to their affiliation with United Van Lines. The movers arrived 1 days late. They didnt call, I had to call them several times. The truck that arrived was a Mayflower truck, not a United truck (I specifically hired United not Mayflower). I was not informed Mayflower would be transporting my belongings and would not have agreed to it.

As my belongings were unloaded, I noticed the boxes were extremely dirty, damaged, crushed, upside down or ripped open, some of my furniture was not wrapped and was dirty, and my television was completely broken. There were a total of 18 broken and 7 missing items (some of which are not replaceable, they were wedding gifts or bought on vacation). I immediately contacted Wade Odell and left several messages. They did not return my calls for 3 weeks and when they did they were extremely rude. I finally received a one page claim form for 10 items, sent it in and have not been contacted by Wade Odell. Wade Odell did a bait and switch? by sub contracting my move to another carrier without my consent, they transferred my belongings on multiple trucks and have provided no customer service.

I paid Wade Odell $6,184.09 for my move and incurred $9,427.02 of damages due to broken, damaged or lot items. Kathy Hufnal of Wade Odell contacted me once 3 weeks after I left voice messages for her and was exremely rude. I mailed a claim form two weeks ago and followed up but have not been contacted by her.

I was transfered by my employer from the Phoenix, Arizona area to South Texas. I shopped around and regrettably chose United Van Lines. My family and I worked for days packing everything carefully for the trip. They arrived promptly on the morning of October 22, 2007 and commenced the loading process. They arrived with a driver and 2 guys they found in the alley somewhere. They commenced to load my stuff. After an hour of work the driver, Alex, called me out to the truck and told me that something bad had happened. He lifted the blanket from my 65 Mitsubishi HDTV and told me that the guys had dropped it from 6' onto the bed of the trailer. It was destroyed.

I had recently bought the TV for $2800.00 and the driver said that he had called his office and he assured me that it would covered 100%. I felt like I would be taken care of since they were a large reputable Company. Boy was I wrong. They delivered my belongings a week later. I submitted my claim on 11/1/07 and the ride began. The received it and responded by saying that they would not process my claim until they receive an additional $956.00. I paid in full on delivery day! After numerous calls they claimed that the amount was a mistake and they would continue to process my claim.

Approx. 1 month later they called and said that their adjuster was very busy and would not be able to inspect the TV until the end of January 2008. (3 months after delivery) Mid January I get a call from Jarret Clark from their claims Dept. He states that now they don't have an adjuster in our area and he wants me to photograph the damage myself. I refuse and he suddenly finds an adjuster to come out. He arrives and inspects the damage in late January. I get a call from Jarret in early February and he says that my TV is now only worth $1700.00 and says that after the deductible I will receive $1300.00. I protest and send him a copy of the receipt to prove the value of the TV. After receiving the receipt, they conclude that the TV was still only worth $1700.00 and sent me a check for $1300.00. After talking with them extensively, I determined that they compared my TV to a newer model that costs $1000.00 less, since mine is no longer available. (That's like comparing a Chevy Tahoe to an Escalade, basically the same vehicle but about 20,000 difference in price.I want to pursue this further but i'm not sure what I can do. All I want is what they broke. I think that is fair.

To replace the TV that I spent $2800.00 for, I need to spend an additional $1200.00 of my own money to get what they blatantly destroyed by the total disregard for my property.

Almost 16 months after we used this moving company, they sent us a bill for another $98 and threated legal action if we didn't pay up in 2 weeks. This was after they charged my credit card with my permission almost $3,000 just days after the move 16 months ago, and were paid in full. This new bill with legal threat showed up without any communications at all these past 16 months about any supposed balance due.

This bill and threat was the second time we've been concerned about Schroeder/United's ethics. When they picked up our belongings, the driver said he'd have to come back with a smaller truck to fit in the building's driveway. We were charged a substantial surcharge ($699) for this. When we later saw other moving companies operate huge moving vans there with perfect ease, we came to feel that Schroeder/United had used the stress and time-sensitive pressures of moving to take advantage of us. Even though it was 16 months ago that I allowed Schroeder/United to charge my credit card, the credit card company says I cannot prevent them charging my card (if they still have the number) an additional $98.21 now. If they hit my card, the best I can do is dispute it.

$699 surcharge to bring in smaller truck. Re the $98.21 attempt to bill and collect with threat of legal action--I've responded with a letter letting them know I'm very ticked off.

I recently relocated from Arkansas to Houston, TX. After comparing prices and terms, she decided to use United Van Lines of Texas located out of Dallas. A couple of weeks before the move date (12/29-12/30 2-day window), we paid the deposit with a credit card. Since we had been in Houston, we bought three airline tickets (my wife, my son and myself) to fly from Houston back to Arkansas in order to pack and meet with the movers. We got to Arkansas the day (12/28) before the movers were supposed to show up. We were told that the driver was going to call us at least 24 hours prior to his arrival. NO ONE called. We called United several times and were finally able to speak with a dispatcher with the name Jimmy. He said everything would be OK and the driver should get to the house around 10 am on 12/28 as scheduled. On the morning of the 28th, NO ONE called by 9 am, so we called the Dallas office. At this point we were told the truck no longer had room for our load since the household they had picked up previously had used too much space in the truck!! I was extremely upset and enraged with the company.

Another dispatcher named Brandi told me that this is the nature of this line of business. She said that if I would stop complaining then she would have more time looking for another driver. She promised to call me back before she was getting off work at 2 pm. I had to call only to find out that she could not find anyone to pick us up either on the 29th or on the 30th. At that point I lost it and wanted my money back. They said they could cancel the contract and give me my deposit back. I also demanded that they pay me to compensate me for the air tickets and trip expenses since the trip was made specifically to wait for the movers, United declined my request. At this point, I had to quickly locate another mover that can pick up my load within the next week's time frame, and find a friend to actually wait for the movers at my house because our return flight is on Jan 1.

This has been a horrible and stressful experience for the whole family. I would like to explore the possibility of resorting to law and taking legal actions against United Van Lines of Texas.

1. Air tickets $800 2. Trip expenses $500 3. Having to use another movers with an extremely short notice and pay a much higher price as a result --- $1000 more

We spent thousands having United Van Line's NY subcontractor Liberty pack and move and unpack our goods. They neglected to inventory half the goods, didn't tag them, signed the inventory form on our behalf under customer signature and walked off the job, throwing boxes of untagged goods onto a truck, and then throwing them into storage. Beyond their rude demeanor and unprecedented ineptitude, when contacted about this for one year they refused to take action.

Today I called their legal department, and Nancy hung up the phone on me when I asked why our goods weren't inventoried properly. I had asked if it was standard practice to sign for the customer on forms that state no numbered items . We have to get our items out of strorage now, and we have no idea how to validate which items are left there and which are coming out since most aren't tagged. United/Liberty is trying to blame this now on their storage company. They have nothing to do with it. I have never in my life dealt with such rude people as United/Liberty who refuse to take responsibility for the damage they have done to someone else's property.

I paid $5597.08 to move my household goods from Maryland to Florida during the first week of August 2005. During the move some of my property was damaged by the movers negligence. When I unpacked my belongings I found many items damaged. When my property was first removed from the truck the United driver did identify 5 items that were visibly damaged by the movers. Infinity speaker Curio TV stand Leather couch Bowflex The driver did write on the bill of lading that the items were damaged and would be replaced at "full value."

United Vanlines sent out a company named Schalck Services to inspect the damages. I do not believe the person from this company has any training or other qualifications that allow him to accuratly determine the value of my property. Furthermore, United then sent me a letter stating that the total damage was $205 as stated by Schalck Services. However, they stated I have a damage deductable of $500, so no money was sent to me. The United driver wrote on the bill of lading that my damaged property would be replaced at full value. My property was loaded on the truck by careless day laborers who received no training on the proper loading and care of household goods, while the driver slept in the cab of the truck.

When we moved from Forest, VA to Bella Vista, AR, we had to go into a United Van Lines storage facility, Goff Moving and Storage, for 10 days while construction was completed on our home. During that time, they lost approximately 20 boxes of our belongings. We listed what was missing to the best of our knowledge and the cost to replace those items. There were some boxes that they listed as missing that I told them did make it here and listed extremely reasonable replacement costs for what was actually lost. They lost our belongings because they did not follow their own procedures and they are supposedly ISO certified. Then they wanted to quibble over dollar amounts.

This move occurred the last week of Oct. 04. They finally sent me the small amount in March 05. I moved from Texas to Colorado. Mayflower was to move me be not available. They sent United as a replacement. This is the second time United has moved me. The first time the truck slid into a ditch in the winter time with much damage. My company paid for insurance and it was well used then.

This time the problem was the driver from United did not use any packing blankets on much of the furniture. I have several pictures of what it looked like in the truck when it arrived. Needless to say there were several items damaged. I did not see a need to buy additional insurance when using a professional service. That was a mistake on my part. However, the estimate for repair was much higher than they would pay for. They went back to their per pound basic payout. And an extra $600.oo because this should not have happened. Total of $1400.00. The estimate cost of repair was about $2000.00 and up.

I asked for the repiar to be done and they said 'No'. Here is the rest of the story, They had had so much trouble with this driver he was called back to the United agent Johnson Moving and Storage of Denver, Co and fired before my household goods were delivered. They knew there was a problem and did nothing to correct the problem before the damage could occur. The new driver apologized when he came and said he hoped there was no damage as it was the poorest packing job he had ever seen.