United Van Lines Reviews

I am not a violent person, but if I could reach into the phone... I would have punched her right in the face. The sales person, Steve ** in Sales in San Jose, tried to rip me off by $5000.00. They also took apart my furniture but forgot to put in there to put it back together when moving into my new house. I had to pay the movers to do it. He had the nerve to laugh at me when I called him. And the general manager was a rude jerk when I complained. Oh and don't let me forget the lazy supervisor when I moved into my new house. She had the nerve to take one of my chairs out of the truck... unwrap it and sit in it and talk on personal calls the entire time when she was there. My children were the ones taking inventory. She was a piece of crap. She gave me her number to call when I needed the tons of boxes picked up. The loser set the appointment and was a no show.

Thank goodness anyway... she was so unprofessional any way. I called another company who was on time and professional. These companies do not care about customer service. All they want is your money. Martha at Suddath is so unprofessional, it is not even worth talking to her. She does not return phone calls or emails. How these companies stay in business is puzzling to me. But once again, the corporate execs only care about their salaries and your money. Be careful and do not use either one of these companies PERIOD!!

United promised to pay my full insurance claim but want me to sign a lengthy release written by a team of lawyers. Be advised, federal law does NOT require you, the victim, to sign any release. Beware of the clause - hold harmless without limitation. This means that if anyone for any reason decides to sue United in regards to my case, I would be responsible for ALL of United's legal fees with no cap. No one with half a brain would ever agree to that! I am a widow with two minor age children. I write to the CEOs on a regular basis over last 6 months with no response. We still have not been paid and have NOTHING!! I have had to lay out my own, hard earned money for the basics. United claims they aren't responsible to refund my out of pocket expenses??? Why is it my responsibility?? I still don't have coats, pants, furniture. All we had with us was summer clothes we packed in our vehicle.

United does not have trucks inspected. BEWARE. Once I gave my money to United Armstrong Relocation in Huntsville, AL no one cared about our stuff. BEWARE. I was told my items would be stored in A/C. It is all really climate control, which means up to 90 plus degrees!! I won't stop until I get what we are due. I am not asking for anything but money I paid out to be refunded and to get my insurance money to start replacing our entire household that we lost. Zero compassion. Worst company ever! We are being treated like the criminal for damage that we did not cause. My husband and my boys' dad had passed away prior to our move and we have many sentimental items that were on that truck that we have requested to get and attempt to clean and restore on our own - only if I sign that release! I am getting ready to go back on TV and will continue to expose United and give them the bad press they so deserve. I know I am not alone with my complaint. I will continue to share ways to fight back. Spread the word. If moving, don't choose United!!! Christmas has been cancelled this year! Who wants to tell my kids?

Suddath wanted $1,100 more for a shuttle truck to load furniture and then drive 150' and load into moving truck. One guy that was there on Thursday told us to put our smaller boxes of fine crystal and dishes in a dish pack box and to leave it open so he can inspect it to see that it is properly packed. A new crew arrives back on Friday, except for this one guy. I show him and another guy the dish pack box and ask if it is packed okay. He says, "yes" and I hear him tell the other guy "this one". (I could not believe what I just heard, but I brushed it aside.) I did not have the opportunity to do an inventory on the items at loading. I was told not to worry since my items are the only ones on the moving truck and it is going right from this house to our next house the next morning.

The crew immediately started loading boxes onto the shuttle truck and then unloading from the shuttle truck to the moving truck. After everything was out of the house, I noticed that a fairly new dish pack box was pushed up to the front of the shuttle truck. I asked, "why isn't that box on the moving truck." I was told "that's OUR stuff". Which I thought was strange since the shuttle truck was empty when it arrived and all blankets, paper, etc. were on the moving truck. I did not climb up into the shuttle truck to check it out. The next morning (Sat.), the moving truck arrives and it is unloaded. The truck is checked and everything is out of the truck. The next week I notice that I am missing bars of soap which I had put in a dish pack box to keep the boxes of fine crystal and dishes from moving in the box. I unpacked and went through everything. The dish pack box is "missing". I had also put in some sentimental items on top of the dishes, which are now gone. Some of the dishes were my grandmother's from the 1920s.

I contacted Suddath and told customer service about the crew's behavior concerning the missing dishes, etc. and completed an online form the next day. The driver and all customers that used that truck the next week were questioned over the next 2 weeks. The crew was not questioned until 5 to 6 weeks after the move date and stated that dish pack box had moving blankets in it. I did get a claim check. I know that accidents happen, but this was not an accident. I paid a large amount of money to move my belongings and I expected all belongings to move with me. By the way furniture did get scratched but at least it made the move. Next time I will move my belongings myself.

The movers came up first to warn me that all of my things had been destroyed and he did not know how this happened. So, one by one, my swished boxes and damaged furniture was brought into my apartment. The movers was so sorry and embarrassed and didn't even know what to say. Fragile boxes looked as though they had been punt kicked into the moving truck. Once they left, I basically had a pile of ruined boxes and broken furniture. I was advised not to pay for even more insurance because I packed my boxes myself and would not be covered anyway. I ended up getting a check for $117.00. This whole process was a complete joke and so disappointing. The company never tried to do right by what had been done to my things. Never use United Van Lines when moving your things if you want them to arrive in one piece.

At least 10 of my boxes were either crushed or looked like someone took a knife to them, like an angry slasher. They even cut through 4 layers of the special packing that my wedding dress was in!!! I signed up with United Van Lines. I had never heard of Mergenthaler till the day they arrived with the inventory list of #169 items that I was to somehow verify as they took my things. I had never heard of Golden Eagle, but my stuff came in a Golden Eagle Truck.

It took me 8 months of pure hell to get some of my things repaired, and compensation for others. You have to be persistent and it is a full time job. I have before and after pictures of many of my furniture, and even when I showed them the chucks of wood broken off the chair - sitting on the chair, they said it happened before the move. I literally had over a dozen chunks of wood that I collected and sent them a picture of --- from several pieces. By the time I got to Jason in the main office, I had been through 3 others, and of course not one kept the paper work so I had to start again. I have things that show there were scratches on items per the inventory sheet that are not even there!

So the main guy Paul ** came and pretty much marked every wood piece I had with scratches and damage everywhere. Make sure they do this Inventory well in advance of your move day and take the time to photograph each thing, and each line he puts down. I was insured but the burden of proof is all your job, and don't expect honesty -- as I did. If you pack yourself and do not report actual damage to the box with a picture, they will not cover anything in that box. FOR ME, that was about $1,200 worth of Crystal and China and after reviewing old pictures, and after sending in and settling, I realized it did have damage -- Oh Well. Also mark as many boxes as you can as being High Value - HV. The guy who fixed my wood furniture did a great job, though when it came down to the last few items, I was suddenly told he was not who they thought he was. Then they decided that they would not fix anything more.

They would offer me a settlement and if I didn't take it, I'd have to fly out to Mediate in Missouri. Fortunately also, was that I had tons of before pictures and happen to keep receipts on large purchases so I ended up with about 1/2 of what I claimed in $. Way better than what I've read on this site. BUT -- if you work with Jason, he is a good guy and does his best. His boss is an uncaring and mean **, but he really tries to make up for that. I did not take the first three offers, but kept sending more and more pictures until they came up. This was the first time I ever had to hire a moving company. I fully insured everything, but getting things resolved was the biggest nightmare suck of my time and so stressful, I hope I die before I need to move again.

I hope this helps someone avoid some of my mistakes. Not sure how to review by stars. That actual guys who packed the truck and the others who came to unload it were really nice. It was the in-between ones who wrecked my stuff. The ones who should have never taken my things off the truck I'd paid to have move my things!

Our son drove 350 miles after work on 2 May so he and his wife could get started unpacking early on Saturday 3 May. Instead, he ended up helping the driver and helper bring our belongings up to our apartment. During the unpacking, the driver discovered a broken lampshade and noted it on the paperwork. It took several weeks before all boxes were emptied and then we discovered items that had not made the trip. One important item is an old tool box full of automotive tools (a couple of which are irreplaceable) worth at least $1,000. This tool box was next to a small tool box and box of rags both of which made the move. Next to the aforementioned items was a handle of a new 18 floor brush with the brush on the floor next to a 4 wheeled dolly (which could be converted to a 2 wheeled dolly). The dolly made the trip, the brush didn't. My wife had a nice dress that somehow didn't make the trip. Several other things of small nature somehow disappeared in the move.

One wonders if these items were off-loaded at one of the drop-offs before ours. United paid for the broken lampshade. They would not pay for the missing items as they not listed on the manifest. They were not left in the house, so what happened to them? The moral of the move seems to be if you like it, take it, and make sure it doesn't appear on the loading manifest. We wonder about the trustworthiness of the driver as, when loading, he was talking about his girlfriend and her funny ringtone, and when unloading, he was talking about his wife and little girl. United came highly recommended to us, but it had been a much smaller move. Many years ago, we had a more complex move with a different company - wish we had used them again!

After setting an appointment with their corporate office I received a call the next day from the regional carrier Mayflower who would be performing the move for United and the rep named Trent who follow up said that they would have to cancel my original appointment and we would have to set another appointment. Ok, so we set another appointment! The next day I receive a call from Erin and was told that we would have to change the appointment again for their representative couldn't keep his appointment. Set another appointment and I was told that this one would not be canceled.

Well, guess what? I got another call from Karen ** from Liberty Transport (908-964-8390 Ext **) and once again they could not keep their appointment... Surprise! Now, this took place yesterday and we reset the appointment for 9/9/2014 @ 10:30 AM. This morning @ 9:24 AM I received another call and once again they had to change our appointment! Well enough is enough, I canceled them and will never use United ever nor would I recommend this company for anything but wasting time... Talk about POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE! These people are the ultimate! When they were in sales 101, I think they were out to lunch! One very dissatisfied customer!

In spite of daily contact with my adjuster, Debbi **, her local estimator Tom Granger Restorations, and a visit from Total Leather who convinced me they could make the sofa like new, NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE. My clients come to a room with a broken sofa. I've asked for the $400 to rent a staging sofa comparable to the one I have until the ONE MONTH'S worth of repairs are completed. Nothing! My life is turned upside down every day because of this situation.

Amazingly, every other aspect of this move has been smooth, easy and wonderful. Only UNITED VAN LINES participation has been a disastrous decision. I would try another large carrier. I would avoid all Craigslist or other type of & son operations. But who knows, if their references are good and you get your own insurance you could probably do better. My move, by the way, cost nearly $15,000. I believe I could have gotten friends and family to do it for half that and have my business and life operating smoothly by now.

Don came out and lied to me saying I had more stuff than I had shown him and that the boxes were heavier than he had thought. He pretended he was going to re-check what I had upstairs, but when I went to go talk to him, he was using my bathroom for a long time (yes, he pooped in my bathroom, not very professional). Then when he came out I tried to talk to him, but he rushed past me. So I followed & he rushed past me again out of another room and I finally got him to stop and talk to me in my parent's room. He said it's going to cost me an extra $1,000 or they will just put all my stuff back in the house. I argued that he had checked the stuff twice because I wanted to make sure of his quote and that there's no possible way I had added anything or whatever. I offered to meet him 1/2 way and he refused and he came back with an even higher cost. I feel he did it on purpose to see if I was desperate enough to pay more.

The moving team were wonderful and told me a lot about Don and that he used to own the company, but sold it with a guarantee to keep his job as the estimator. The movers were shocked Don refused to even meet me 1/2 way since it was his fault he estimated wrong. They said it was totally Don's fault coz they could see how I packed and organized the boxes that the only way this could've happened was that Don was lazy about his job. The movers said if it was up to them, they would have done the job for what it was quoted because it's the right thing to do. Plus the quote states that it's the guaranteed price no matter what the actual weight turns out to be. I tried contacting the owner and he refused to call me back. Needless to say, I had them take everything back out of the truck and hired another company.

We finally had to sign a form to get the shuttle (a U-HAUL truck) that my husband had to drive the movers to since he couldn't take his truck. The estimator and our moving representative basically said to dispute it with United once we got the bill. I wasn't worried at that point since I just wanted to get on with my move. I was angry that she was wrong about the truck getting in the spot even though she was an 'expert' on moving. So, we finally get our truck in Michigan and the movers did an excellent job, this isn't a negative review on them but on King Relocation and on United Van Lines. I finally got the bill and contacted my rep at King and she said to dispute with United on the shuttle charge (an additional $800 on top of the $8600 I paid to get my stuff to Michigan).

I ended up calling United and the woman from the billing department got a little attitude with me about why I wanted to dispute it. I told her and she said that I signed the paper for the shuttle and I couldn't dispute it. Before I got to angry, I said thank you and hung up on her. I just can't believe there is no way to dispute a charge that isn't my fault. The estimator should have it taken out of her commission. My advice is if you have quoted from other moving companies, go with them and not United.

They gave us a standard delivery window of 4-12 days, which is common for moving companies; however we did not receive our items until 3 weeks later. The first time they tried to deliver our stuff, they brought another shipment. The wrong shipment was suppose to be delivered to New York. Instead our stuff ended up going to New York, which delayed an entire week for us to get our stuff. So our shipment went from Milwaukee to Dallas to New York and back to Dallas. They told us that we would know an actual date at the time of pick up, however they never gave us that information. During all this time of the mix up, they never updated us of where our stuff was and what was going on. I had to call them every time in order to get this information. I would leave messages and nobody would call me back. We had booked a vacation few days after the 12 days of delivery, which we had to cancel because our shipment was delayed another week.

We lost about two thousand dollars from our vacation because we had to cancel as our shipment was mixed up. United Van Lines never offered us any sort of reimbursement. Nothing from the vacation or even the actual shipment! All I got was a "Sorry", and they didn't really seem to care. I ended up losing about $5,000 during this entire move without any sort of reimbursement. It was been two months and we have not yet been reimbursed for all the missing and damaged items! Everything that could go wrong with the shipment went wrong. It's definitely one of those stories you hear about bad moving companies. We were unfortunate to have this experienced ourself. This is why I am posting this review in hopes that nobody else has to go through this horrible experience. Most definitely would not recommend this company to anybody!

After he arrived at 4 pm, the driver, John, was belligerent, and threatened to take the van and leave. When he opened the door, there were boxes that had holes in them. He had two locals, one of whom was allegedly intoxicated. The driver sat in the truck while the others unloaded, dropped and broke several items. When I called the company, they were apologetic! The driver told me I was a difficult client. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. And the final kicker is that the driver wanted to give me his credit card number so I could charge any repairs to it. Yeah, right, then I would have been hauled to jail for using an unauthorized card.

My husband need to be in Michigan in four days to begin a new job. We were lied to by the agent and the driver about the cost. I am now seeking for a breakdown of the cost since it was "bundled" in their revised estimate. They did not have enough room on the first truck so they had to send a second truck which took 20 days to be delivered. I have called the corporate office in Fenton, MO, the local office in Fayetteville, AR. I called another corporate office and was told to call the Fayetteville office again and my agent. I have called her several times and her assistant keeps sending me to voice mail. But now, I have a customer satisfaction survey to the president of the company, I sure that will get tossed too.

To make matters worse, the customer service department at United Van Lines is not good. Take that back, it's terrible. Never before have I been treated so poorly by a customer service department. I was hung up several times, called belligerent. I was told to stop calling because I was tying up their lines. I even spoke with a superior in the customer service department. It appears to me the entire agency is unprofessional when it comes to customer service as well as the actual moving services they provide. The customer service agents routinely cut me off when speaking. My concerns were not important to United Van Lines. I felt rather bullied by their customer service department. I would never recommend United Van Lines. Do your research! I sure wish I would have!

We contracted them to both pack up our home and move it. Our sales rep assured us the same people who removed our items would be the team who would drive and unload it. We were given a 10 day delivery window however he assured us that it wouldn't take that long and that the items would likely arrive on our desired delivery date. Because our contracted dates were at the end of the month, we had to pay more than if we had our items picked up/delivered a few days earlier.

2 days prior to our pack up day, they called and said they didn't have a driver assigned to our account. They stated they would still pack up and remove our items as contracted and simply move them into a storage facility until they found a driver. While we protested - strongly - we were locked in to a signed contract and had no choice. So what should have been 2 "touches" (items "touched" moving from my home and into a truck, then "touched" moving from truck into home), immediately turned into 4 (truck, storage facility, truck, home).

They packed and picked up our items as planned. These were the last things that went as contracted. We had daily calls with them to get updates. They claimed to still be unable to find a driver but said they were storing our items for free in the meantime. Given I just wanted my property, I didn't find this "free storage" as great of a service and they seemed to think it was. They eventually loaded all of our items in pods and transported them that way - 2 pods first and the 3 pod a few days later. Because the first pods were picked up so late, they agreed to give us $400 ($100 per day) - a check that was going to take a week to get to us. I appreciate that we signed a contract that stated $100 per day but, frankly, we didn't sign it thinking it would be a reality. While I'm grateful for what we received, $100 per day doesn't pay for a hotel for a family of 4 with animals, nor does it cover the costs of the very basic things necessary to live in an empty house.

Our items finally arrived 4 days past our 10 day window. The first item removed was my son's bed frame - which was completely destroyed. In addition to my son's ruined bed, one of the containers got wet. Everything smells musty; my couch, loveseat and dresser have water damage. The couch and loveseat also have a cut along the back. My side table is scratched up, my kitchen table (which was left uncovered) has a gouge on it along with scratches, and a priceless family heirloom was ruined. This heirloom was one of just two things I told the initial moving team were to be treated like gold - instead one (a room screen) was laid on its side with 3 stacks of boxes loaded on top of it.

When I called to report the damage, I was told I had to claim everything at the same time, even though the contract states I have 9 months to report the damage. Given my son still doesn't have a bed, I wanted to get the claim started quickly so had to unpack far more quickly than reasonable to see if there was more damage. United, however, had 2 weeks to get back to me to schedule an assessment following the submission of my claim. Not surprisingly, they took the full time to get back to me. The assessors were very nice and professional; however, they said it will likely take 1-2 more weeks before I hear what the company is going to do. My items were initially picked up in MN on July 26th. It is now August 28th and I am still dealing with this company. I have no idea if they will do the right thing by us with the damage. If you are looking for a mover, keep looking.

I'm a senior (70 years old) and I shipped medical supplies and equipment that I was unable to get in my car. Last call I made to corporate headquarters, they told me my belongings were scheduled at this time to be picked up on 7/5/13 but that that might change too. Even if picked up 7/5/13, it may take a week or longer to reach me. I suspect that because I am under their $100 day penalty promise, that they are making sure that their other shipments that are over the 3,500 weight are being shipped, and that my small load may sit and wait for who knows how long.

I desperately need all my belongings but especially my medical supplies, equipment and bed. I'm on the floor on an air mattress and having back problems. I cannot afford to go out and buy new things. Friends are helping as best they can. Sorry, for such a long story! This complaint is a first for me as I do not know where to turn for assistance. Any suggestions very much appreciated. Thanks for reading this.

They promised they would put back the furniture (desks, bed, couches, TV, etc) but the movers initially failed to do. After I brought it up and insisted, they put together our bed and couches in a sloppy way, still left the TV without the base and desks unassembled (I later did it on my own). They told me they had to rush to the next appointment. Some furniture were badly scratched, bookcase totally broken, decoration tree broken, and a large bowl broken. The worst part is they lost 10 of my boxes out of 144, including a printer, other electronics, basketballs, home decors, dishes, etc! At the delivery, I sensed some boxes are missing because for one I didn't see my printer which was packed in its original box. So I refused to sign the paperwork to acknowledge I've received all my belongings. The movers were mad so he grabbed the paper from my hands and walked away.

I later filed claim but the claim agent used that fact against me saying that because I didn't sign the paperwork, they won't be able to compensate me for the lost boxes. I said I didn't want to be compensated but just find these boxes. She said they couldn't do that either. I was seriously mad at that point and wrote a complaint letter to the VPs of the company I was joining since it's a corporate move. They worked with a VP at Suddath and got the issue resolved after 3 months and I was paid about $4,500 for all the repair and the lost boxes. Since then, six months have passed, every time I thought about the experience, I feel angry. I'd better forget it, but word of wisdom for new consumers: STAY AWAY FROM SUDDATH!

It is now past noon and I'm not only still boxed in, but most of the stuff isn't even off the truck, much less in the unit. One of these guys spent over 5 minutes lethargically folding and refolding a moving blanket around a couch cushion before ultimately returning it to the couch. I wish the owner could be here to see them literally playing games with bags and boxes, laughingly scolding each other about tearing holes in plastic furniture covers, and standing around looking at the sky.

I have never witnessed such a lack of professionalism in any business-for-profit, and I pity anyone who hires these guys - or who, like me, gets trapped between them and a cinder block wall on a Friday.

The actual driver couldn't leave his semi so his, very little English-speaking partner, was there. Two boxes did not have numbers, they were obviously mine, but we waited. At the end of the rushed removal, four numbers were not marked. In the quick setting, the lack of information and the length of time without my things, I didn't even realize that a couple items were missing. The drivers did try to give me four metal legs that may have gone to a metal cabinet. These metal legs were not mine. Four days later, my parents were in Philadelphia, I had them go through the house to pick up any leftover items. Things were missing and not with me or the house, on top of which was a large 1950s stereo. Yes, out of sight, out of mind, I forgot all about my stereo, one of the four numbers. I emailed McCollister’s, the company that worked with United Van Lines, no response at all from them.

A few days later, I remembered I had the driver’s number. "You have my stereo!", "But you signed the paper. I asked my guy if you wanted it but you signed the paper." "I haven't seen it in two months, of course I want it, why would you not call me, you have my number?!" He had called several times the day before the move because of the semi size. He arranged for me to get the stereo. When it arrived, the California company arranged a time and date and informed me that my vacuum brush was with it. This is the second time they tried to give me something that is not mine. Yes, I got the stereo some two weeks later. During this same time, I began to realize that another box was missing. Half of the tea sets were in one box, the mattress covers couldn't be found, and I have no idea what clothes could be missing.

I have reached McCollister’s and claims for United Van Lines. They keep saying that they tracked my box but it could not be found. They refuse to tell me about this tracking process. I again called the driver. He recalls the two boxes without numbers, because they look like others in my group they brought them. So there could have been a third box, which could have gone anywhere. They are trying to settle at $200. No money can cover the way I feel, mainly stupid. I have admitted my fault in moving with this or any company. I should have put my name and address on every item, and I should not have signed anything. But this company should take responsibility and contact anybody who may have traveled with my things. When they tell you these things happen and they will help, they push you off with a payment. It would have been cheaper and less stressful to have not sent the box at all, almost two months later.

I packed two under bed storage boxes myself for them to include with my clothing. One of the boxes contained 6 pair of shoes, two pairs of custom orthotics, two canes, and an Ankle and a knee brace. The other box contained handbags. They informed me they would include the boxes in the wardrobes that they packed. When the entire shipment arrived, the numbered boxes were checked off as the driver read them to my daughter. However obviously there was not an immediate ability to know if anything was missing . When I unpacked later that afternoon, one box (handbags) was stuffed into one of the wardrobes, and the other box of shoes which I then assumed was in one of the other wardrobes was not included with the shipment.

I phoned the driver who was still in Washington state picking up loads for his return trip several times, but he never returned my calls. I then called United Van Lines to try to locate these items. It took about three weeks to be directed to the correct person in Fenton, MO, who sent me a claim form. A trace was initiated and I was advised today that the box and its contents have not shown up, but they denied any payment would be available whatsoever by way of the insurance I purchased because I had signed for the shipment when it left Florida and when it arrived in Washington. How was I to know at either end if, in fact, the shoe container was packed inside a wardrobe? I did not see it but that is what I was told. I had no qualms about signing for receipt. How wrong I was. The driver does not wait for you to unpack.

My advice is that one needs to be very, very careful when dealing with this company. Their Customer Service is abysmal and their intractability when dealing with a clear cut problem takes me to the conclusion that I would never, ever use or trust them. I may be wrong, but I think this company, actually Unigroup, is Allied as well as National and who knows what else. I also need to note that furniture arrived filthy. The pads used for wrapping were disgusting.

The person in charge of my move, Jim, was horribly rude. I contacted him at the main office, and he refused to do anything. They charged me $2600 for a 2-bedroom apartment move. Mind you, I had almost no furniture and the little I had they managed to damage. They had sweet-talked me into a $1000 deductible, so even though most of my items are broken, they will not pay for it. Till today, they will not even issue me a receipt for the move, claiming that the company they subcontracted to has not sent the receipt. We have thrown out a lot of our furniture and have to start all over.

Please do not be deceived by the fact that they are a big company. It's a big scam. Do not go with them, unless you have money to buy new furniture all over again. If you love your furniture, do not go with them. I am warning you, please. They will stuff your things along with 5 other people's things when you move long distance, and that is how the things get broken. I really should have gone with the cheaper company. Do not be deceived by fancy salespeople.

I called the day before and they told me between 8 and 10am and it came around noon. The movers were very unprofessional and were commenting and joking about the condition of my apartment (rude). I put arrows and labeled all my boxes carefully. They brought in boxes upside down and all smashed. I pointed out that one said glass fragile all over it and why was it so smashed up and he said I didn't tape it well enough?! That doesn't explain how it got smashed. Maybe one or two boxes out of 15 came out looking okay. The rest were in horrible condition.

I bought special boxes for my dishes and wrapped them in bubble wrap sleeves and they still were shattered. My desk was literally in pieces. I paid for the full insurance so I hope they fully compensate me for all my broken glassware and desk. For paying $3,500 for a very small load (small 1 bed room), I am very unhappy with how this worked out.

After unpacking the goods over the next few days, we indeed discovered missing items. We were able to determine that there were indeed two missing boxes. We asked United for a trace, and nothing turned up. We were instructed to file a claim with United, which we did. Many of the items missing were family treasures, (e.g. my grandfather's set of hand tools, my grandmother's collection of antique scissors, my father's collection of antique records). We did not attempt to recover the sentimental value of these items, but only filed a claim for minimal replacement costs. Then for the next 4 to 5 months, all we received was the runaround. The claims representative denied the claim. The managers refused to return our letters, emails and phone calls. The United Van Lines in-house adjuster insisted that our claim was not legitimate because we had signed the paperwork stating that the goods had been received. Even when we told them what had happened with the moving supervisor, they refused to listen.

We have complained to both companies repeatedly, we have reported them to the BBB and to the Department of Transportation. All of this effort resulted in nothing. This company convinced us to buy extra insurance to protect my mom's treasures which we believed was through a third party but was actually just additional money that was charged. They never had any intention of paying us for the goods we lost, and have used the flimsiest of excuses to deny our claim. I believe their actions are not only unethical but illegal. Our only option now is to file legal action against them in small claims court and then attempt to recover the money on our own. However, the way the system is set up, we have to file in another state (Missouri) and show up for court there to prove our claim. Of course, they know this and merrily challenge us to "sue them". This is bad business. This is bad faith. This is unethical.

We moved from Arizona to Washington State and to be fair, this may not have been the easiest move as we were moving from 2800sf to 1200sf. However, we sold all of our major appliances so all we had were beds, dressers, 1 living room set, a couple of TVs and a ton of boxes. The move started out decent but I could tell that they weren’t moving very fast. The movers took a lot of breaks and I mean a lot. The move itself seemed really stressful and tiring on them. Long story short, they did not get done until after 10pm. This really put a damper on the move as we were all very tired. I had 3 kids and a dog waiting in the car while we did a final walk through, and I have no idea if everything was removed from the home or not as we were forced to rush through everything because of how late it was. So the load took 14 hours.

The driver took our stuff on a Thursday and it was not delivered until the following Friday. When the driver and three different men got to our apartment, the driver was not sure that he would be able to turn his truck into our complex. At first he thought he was going to have to unload all of our stuff onto a smaller truck first. Their solution was to keep the truck on main loop and use one of the driver’s pickup trucks to drive the stuff in. I was there by myself with three kids and a dog and one of the men started to argue with me, telling me that our stuff would not fit into our apartment, even though we had two storage units. He sat and argued with the driver about unloading and advised me to go get a giant storage unit and somewhere else to live. The driver however, pushed through and once they started to unload it was almost 10am.

Here is where the most horrific part of the move starts. Shortly after they started to move the furniture in, all 4 men decided to take a giant dump in my toilet and the 4th guy clogged the toilet. Instead of fixing the problem, he laughed it off and told me not to let anyone go in there. At the end of the night, I told the driver, and his solution was to give me ten bucks to go buy a plunger. Really? With three kids, a dog, and a new city, he wanted me to go buy a plunger?

Next, they were all fighting with each other, cussing and complaining of headaches the entire time. Come lunch time they wanted to know when I was going to buy them lunch. To be fair, I did buy the movers lunch who loaded us up. But I did not feel like I wanted to buy them lunch after they clogged my toilet. Finally though, because of how slow they were moving, I decided to just do it anyway. I loaded all 3 kids in the car and found the closest McDonald's.

During the move, the mover broke 2 chairs. His solution was that he was going to go buy glue and glue the chairs back together. This was from a brand new table that was purchased less than a year ago. During the move, they just started slamming boxes down, ripped the bottom of my sofa, and complained about anything that I asked them to put together (bed frames, dresser mirror, etc.).

Once again, we were all completely exhausted and it was nearly 8pm. I did not want to argue with the driver and had no way of telling if everything was there between my apartment and storage. Stupidly, I signed off on everything because I was too tired to understand anything. Lo and behold, everything fit into the apartment. Over the next two days, we found broken glass and items in the boxes as we unpacked. They broke one of our recliners and wrapped it with plastic to try and hide it. It wasn’t until after we unwrapped it did we notice this. Still, I am missing a few boxes. I hope to never move cross country again, and if I do, I would never use United Van Lines or Mayflower. I am very unhappy with the experience.

Well, that also never happened. It wasn't until I followed up with them on June 8 to ask what time my goods were going to be delivered that I found out they were not even in the Norfolk area yet and wouldn't be until June 12. Then the company that was delivering them to my home wouldn't be able to get them to me until June 15! Did I mention I am sitting in an empty home with no cooking utensils and none of my business attire for my new job? Needless to say, I had to buy new things to wear while I awaited my shipment. Again, I understand that delays happen, but why aren't I being updated daily about where my goods are, since now they are going to be 11 days overdue. To add salt to the wound, I was never offered compensation of any kind, and told I have no rights because my shipment is under 3500 lbs. You should have heard the gentleman on the phone when I asked him at what point can I call the police and report stolen goods. I have had countless conversations with people from United and can never get a straight answer, and I learned to never believe them when they say they will call me back.

As an update, today is June 15 and I am sitting on the floor of my empty home. I was given a time frame of 8-9am that the movers would be out to my home this morning to deliver my goods. I received a call at 9am saying they would not be able to make that time frame because they had several people not come to work today. They wanted to know, was there a better day they could come deliver my goods?! I'm not sure if I got hexed or cursed or any other devilish enchantment placed upon me, but United Van Lines has gone above and beyond the call of duty of making my transition to a new city a living hell. After sternly speaking with them this morning, they claim they are coming today between 12-3. I'm not holding my breath. I am a strong believer of you live and you learn. So thank you, United Van Lines, for teaching me such a valuable lesson. I will never require your assistance again.

The bed had damage with the bolt and nut assembly that holds the bed together. They sent out company to give an estimate of the damage to the furniture. After receiving the report, we received a check for $25 for all the damage. I would not recommend United Van Lines or Suddath Relocation Systems. Why should you have to have any deductible? A company should be insured and responsible for all damages or lost items. Should you decide to use either company, take the zero deductible and hope your furniture arrives without damage.

Here is the kicker: We have no utensils to cook with, no clothes to wear, no legal documents with which we can do business in our new locale, but we were assured that after our stuff gets here late, we can ask for $100 per day and if we were allowed the claim, we can collect a week to 10 days after we make the claim and it is acted upon. Too bloody little, too bloody late. What I can do, however, is dedicate myself, everyday of my life, to use every personal contact and all social networking opportunities to recommend that no same person do business with United Van Lines.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

Do not use Armstrong Relocation and United Van Lines.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Please don't use United, next time it could be your family killed. What United did to me, I could do to my worst enemy. They are the sickest of the sick. Please note they own many other companies through UniGroup, such as Mayflower. Please don’t reward this disgusting behavior.

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 else’s 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 chandeliers, 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. ** 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 ** knew just exactly how to extricate what he wanted from my home. I am totally devastated 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. ** 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 have been unable to sleep nights worrying about this loss and knowing I cannot possibly recover what has already been taken from me. Please help me in this endeavor.

These charlatans pulled a Sopranos on me with the help of Discover. Buyer, beware! Discover said 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. Thanks, Discover!

But seriously, I regret all the years I loyally used your card. You'll never see a cent of the extortion money, so basically you're out $375. Maybe they pay you half of the bogus charges when you let them rip people off this way? I'd say you should at least ask them! Good luck.

On 12/17/2008, I was informed by Kimmie ** (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 (Kimmie ** & Tangie **) 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 misplaced 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 every day and was in mint condition at the time it was supposed to be moved.

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. Live and learn. 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. The only damage was the missing bolts for the legs. I only asked for less than $10.00. I guess they expected me to eat on the floor). 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 gripe 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 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

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.