United Prime Van Lines Reviews

The moving crew was experienced and professional, the way they handled my things. There were some language difficulties being they were Russian. It was fine until 7:00 at night when they said their truck was full. They moved the stuff in my apartment but not the stuff in my garage. I ended up having to give them away, and I didn’t have a chance to go through it and choose things. That was really unpleasant.

They also delivered somebody else’s things to me and didn’t deliver some of my things. I suppose somebody else got my stuff. The stuff were in duffel bags. When I unzipped them far enough, I saw that the clothing and personal items aren't mine. I’ve been trying to get them to tell me what to do. They didn’t explain to me how it happened, but I’m assuming that they move more than one person in the same truck to make it affordable for them. When I asked them about it, they said that they partitioned off the truck. They should have a process to remedy this. I can’t get anyone on the phone both with United Prime and Moving APT. They promised they’ll be there for me, but I never heard from them again.

This was one of the most expensive, most unpleasant experiences of my life. Before my move, I actually asked two people who had experience with them, and nobody was happy. If I were to have a big move again, I would just spend the money and go with a nationally known company.

It started off good. They got there on time and everything seemed good. They wanted to charge us $1,000 for bulk items. I had specifically given the broker the exact dimensions of every item and box. For them to come and tell me there was an extra fee for bulk items was a little ridiculous. They then wanted to charge us more to make sure that the furniture wouldn’t be damaged. They wrapped them in blankets and wanted to wrap them in thin cardboard too. I don’t know if that would have helped. We had a waiver there, which means that the damage on the furniture is not covered. I’m not happy with them.

So, I filed a claim with them two weeks ago. Alexi was friendly, and then he called me back the next day and he was very serious. And he said, “Do you know that the claim you are going to file, if you are lying and it is a false claim, that is a felony?” It was almost like being condescending.

When I finally filed the claim, Alexi said to send him photos of the missing items, and I sent them to him. And then sometime later, he called me back and he said that he was going to open up a claim. He wanted me to fill out the information to file a claim on a website and he also said that I should not call him anymore. That was not very professional. They said it is going to take 30 to 60 days to receive feedback.

Another thing too was that the delivery was said to roughly take about 7 to 10 days. Per U.S. law, they have up to 21 days. But, the items were delivered close to 30 days after. The driver’s truck broke down twice, once in Colorado and once in Michigan as they were making the delivery. So it was frustrating.

Then they found a piece of glass three feet by four feet that goes on top of a dresser. They sent me a picture and said, “Is this it?” And I said, “Yes. You found one.” They said, that they were going to ship it to me, but as of today, I haven’t got anything. So, I wasn’t very happy. Through the conversation with the lady that was in contact with me regarding the glass that she found, she said there was another family that also was filing a claim because their stuff was lost in that same truck. So, it wasn’t just me.

The experience wasn’t positive, and I was really going off of the positive reviews from other people. And also, once the movers in L.A. were finished, I was going to give them a tip. However, they asked me, “Are you going to give us a tip?” I was like, “What?” But, I still gave them a tip.

And another guy showed up an hour before and he wanted a tip as well. They were young kids in their twenties. They don’t speak very good English. And Alexi, the manager, sounds like he was speaking to them in another language. So, I sent them extra money through Zelle. My wife even said, “You should send them a little more so our stuff would not go missing because they can do something to it.” Overall, it was hard to move from California to Virginia.

I was trying to get some extra stuff moved too with it, but they were charging a little bit too much. They wanted another 700 to 1,200 to move the extra stuff. You have to make sure that you know all the stuff that you want to move before they start moving.

Once I paid the initial deposit on it, I thought everything was gonna go smooth. United Prime contacted me a week before they came out and booked with me. And they asked me for my count of boxes and what I had. I was coming from a three-bedroom condo with one bedroom not being used. I had one sofa bed and a four-person marble table and bed frames. Everything was taken apart. That was it and I had the boxes. They called back and said it was more than what they had actually quoted as far as boxes and it was gonna be much more. My price increased another $1,500. I had already paid $3,000 for the deposit. I was a week out from needing to move and I wanted to get it done. Had to pay another $700 upfront because it was half due on pick-up.

When they came and started loading my truck and the guy was going through a number of boxes, I got another call from United Prime. They said it’s gonna be an additional $1,800 because I have heavy furniture and that when they use their blankets to wrap, that was an additional charge. Had I had known that, I would not have had them wrap it in their blankets.

Absolutely ridiculous. They had already had my stuff on there and I was mortified. At this point, they knew they had me and that I had no choice. My stuff had to be out of my place and we had to start moving to get to Florida from California. So, all together, in three different times, it went from about $6,000 to $7,500, to then another $1,800 on top of that by the time it was said and done.

I was under the assumption it was all said and done and the 6,000 quote was gonna be final. I thought there was never gonna be a callback about an increase. Otherwise, I would have looked for another. I was livid and upset at this point.

They also did not tell me in the beginning that they’re a brokerage company and that they were going to outsource me to somebody else that they always deal with. So, it was very misleading from the beginning. By the time I figured all these out, they already knew they had me because they had all my stuff.

They had these three Russian movers. One was their foreman and then there were two other guys that were doing the moving. Everything was fine with them. They wrapped up my marble table and took it apart. I had everything packed so they did not have to pack or do anything besides move everything and wrap a few pieces. When they were going through my stuff, the same guy that asked me for the tip said that my son’s motorcycle looks very expensive and was wondering how much that is worth.

It was me, my husband, and my son there. When they finished loading my stuff, they waited for my son to leave. Two of the guys left and the one guy stood in the house and said that they normally get tips. I said that their company just charged me an additional $1,800. Whether or not I was giving them a tip , I was pissed that he was asking for one. I still went and got $30 a piece for each of them. I told him that’s what I have in cash and have nothing else. The guy then said that they normally get 10% of what the bill is or at least $100 apiece. I said they were not getting anything else from me. He said they take Venmo or cash app. He had a heavy Russian accent and proceeds to tell me that his English is not good and that he doesn’t understand.

My husband was just sitting there because if my husband would have lost his temper, it would have gone a whole lot different. He’s a retired federal law enforcer. The guy was insisting on taking cash app. He even asked my husband if he thinks they did a good job and insisted that we needed to give them a tip. I suggested for him to leave or else I’ll call my son and that I’m gonna call Beverly Hills Police Department as well and have them arrested. I also told the guy the get the foreman so I could explain to him the same thing I told the other.

The foreman came in and I explained to him that he needed to take the other guy out of our place because I’m gonna have him locked up. I said that they waited until my son left cause if my son was there, they would have been bounced out of there then.

I am the type of person that if you did a good job, I’m gonna go above and beyond. I worked customer service for many years when I was younger. If you do a good job, I’m gonna let you know. And that’s very important. I treated these guys when they came into my house with the utmost respect. I offered them water and anything they needed at that time. I understood that it wasn’t their fault that their company was raising the price so I didn’t take it out on them. But then, the guy turned around and was trying to strong-arm me.

I called the brokering company and United Prime Company and let them know the same situation. I also told them when I was on my way out here that my husband has his official government documents in my belongings. If anything happens to my stuff, there will be some type of investigation on their company. No holds barred. The rep said that they don’t condone that and gave me $90 credit for the tip that I gave. I said the $90 wasn’t the point but the way they treated people. I hope they don’t do this to everybody else. I ended up finding a couple of other comments. I looked through Venmo ‘cause the guy gave me his and saw there were transactions of people giving them tips through Venmo.

They knew we lived in an apartment and that they’d need to use an elevator and stairs. On moving day, they increased the cubic footage, which is fine, but then tried to add an elevator fee and a heavy-lift fee, even though those were already included in the contract.

They added one of the fees but then gave me a discount. I called whoever booked it, and they worked things out for me. That was my only issue. Other than that, everything was good. Overall, they're a decent company. If you need to move, they're quick and they respond quickly. They'll get your items there in a sufficient timeline.

Their quote is very accurate. I was moving out of state, and then I kept downsizing. Every time I downsized something or got rid of something, he would change the quote for me, and then I would add something and he would change it again. He was constantly working with me. The pricing is good. It's sticker shock at first. But considering everything that they do and after watching them do it, it was great pricing. The movers were great as well.

After I booked the service around Thanksgiving, the rep either quit or let go, because I didn’t hear from him again. Then I got his supervisor, who stopped returning my calls after they received the deposit. They transferred me to a logistics person. So whoever I initially booked with stopped returning calls once the business was handed off to the next coordinator.

The crew who helped me was professional, handling the loading and transportation. The issue is with the handoff, who you book with versus who actually manages it. When you book something and it says one flight, then the moving company says that the flight is seven steps. That’s completely different. Then you end up paying an extra $50 for those seven steps.

They were great. It’s more about how broker-dealers work with moving companies, different quotes have different fees for things like long-distance moves or stairs. For example, what counts as a flight of steps isn’t always clear; sometimes seven steps counts as a flight instead of one flight from level one to level two.

The thing with broker-dealers is they say it’ll take 7–10 days and you can travel up to 500 miles per day, so you expect everything to arrive within five days. But when you work with the trucking company, it’s actually based on business days and depends on when they have a route to pick things up. I ended up waiting nearly three weeks for everything except what I brought on the airplane.

I guess that part is out of your control since you didn’t book the service, but when you don’t have your bed, clothes, or daily essentials, that’s the hardest part of moving. Also, there’s usually an option to purchase expedited service or extra insurance to speed things up, but that wasn’t offered to me when I booked my contract.

I had to assess everything that was broken afterwards. It was an argument between what was on file with pick-up and delivery where some things that were handwritten weren't clear. So, it looks like hiding damage and I was accused of that. But I had screenshots of photos that I took of the paperwork. I didn't have the paperwork in transit, it’s with the courier. So, it took like six months to get less than $250 back.

It's more just contractual things should be made clear. But the van people were really great in terms of transportation. And I understand that things break, but it's just expensive to replace things that get broken.

It wasn't even a United Prime truck that came in the driveway, it was a Penske truck because the driver’s truck broke down so they transferred my things onto the Penske. When they unwrapped the cabinets they packed, they were both damaged. It was a glass curio cabinet with all glass on all the sides and a cabinet that my son had made. And the other guy was speaking broken English so I couldn't understand what he was saying. I still have a lot of stuff missing, and I wasn’t even given a checklist, and I was upset with that. They gave me a pumpkin that wasn’t even mine, so somebody’s missing a pumpkin out there. I'm never using them again, ever.

When the van arrived in Lexington and they opened the door, I cried because my boxes were tipped over. They were tossing stuff out of my bed when I saw the mattress was not wrapped anymore and was folded in half. The covers were taken off and they were filthy. My mattress was unusable. About 80% of my boxes were broken. I lost boxes. My TV was broken, even though it was wrapped. They put the bubble wrap and then they put cardboard over it. And there was a big hole in the cardboard and the TV was ruined. It was awful.

I reached out to the guy who was so nice and helped me in the beginning. He said, “That’s why you have insurance.” That was 30 cents for a pound. United Prime gave me $76, which doesn’t even pay for my TV. I thought it was real insurance, but it really wasn’t. I should have paid more for a better insurance. I never imagined that they would treat my stuff so poorly. I told my friends that I would never move my stuff again. I would just sell it all rather than go through that.

My daughter has moved twice in the last couple of years, and she's hired movers and it was done very professionally. And this was not. I would never recommend United Prime. I would hate for anyone to use them.

When I asked United Prime about the discrepancy in the price, instead of being nice like they were up until that point, everything soured out. There were so many things damaged with my furniture, and missing pieces that I couldn't find. I had moderate price furniture and they took tape and taped onto my furniture, and pulling the tape off pulled the finish off of it. And there were some things that I was like, “Why are you guys even taking this apart?” But at that point in time, there were so many people that were in the house, packing things up and putting things into the truck that I didn't have a chance to kind of go over and look at everything that everybody was doing.

My father's flag, they had it encased in a wood frame, and all the glass was broken, the base was broken. And I'm still in the middle of getting things moved into my new place, and I don't have everything unboxed and laid out, so I don’t know what else was damaged or broken. And I have yet to call them and let them know that, so I can find out if there's any compensation that I'm due for or what.

I will never, ever deal with a broker again. I will deal directly with the people involved. I didn't know that going into this, so it was a tough lesson to learn. People are moving every day, out of state, long distances, and unfortunately, this is just another greedy scam that people are involved with, and I'd hate to have this happen to anybody else.