Alliance Van Lines

I've used this company 2 times in the past year. They helped me move int my storage and then to my home. The most recent move was all the way to New York City, NY. They are the best priced moving company in the area, but also the best value. They can provide movers and a truck or just movers.
They've never broken a single item, always been on time and professional. I highly recommend them. The owner accommodated my change in schedule with no quarrels.
I've referred three friends. They've all had the same professional experience.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3400

Absolute nightmare. If I could keep one person from using this company, I will be satisfied. The company they subcontracted to was not only 6 hours late to pick up my items, but they refused to honor the terms of the contract. They refused to break down furniture, they came up with an estimate nearly double what Alliance did (despite my having several fewer pieces of furniture and about HALF the boxes allowed in the quote), the mover actually gestured to one of my boxes and said "see how this U-Haul box says 6 cu ft on it? We actually count them as 9 or 10." I wound up jettisoning most of my furniture because I just couldn't afford to move it. Then they want to charge me for the flight of stairs, even though I'm supposed to have one flight of stairs free (and it was only one flight of stairs, as I was on the 2nd floor). Anyway, I was hoping to make things as headache-free as possible because I was moving cross country for a new job. If I refused the late movers, I would not have been able to move on time. So now it is my worst nightmare - I have been sleeping on the floor and living out of a suitcase for 3 weeks at my new place. The subcontracted company emailed me only once to tell me I still owe them money on delivery, but they would not say when delivery is. When I inquired about that, the scheduler was rude and basically told me I'll get my things when I get them. I'm not sure my stuff even exists anymore. (FYI If you look, average delivery times for cross-country moves are 10-14 days - so with 3 weeks plus I am NOT being unreasonable.) Don't use this company; it's a joke.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2000

Should have seen the warning signs from the start. Shawn K was extremely nice during the inventory process over the phone and persistent at that. He said he was a mover and NOT a broker and thanked me for my service. Asked about my time in the military and said he takes care of veterans and will throw in some discounts. When it came time to make the down payment, that’s when I should have known. Cash only. But, Shawn has an alternative. He sent me a link to handle it by check. Chase Bank called IMMEDIATELY to ask and verify if the transaction was legit. The bank must have known they are a shady establishment.

Once Alliance Van Lines has your down payment, that’s it. It’s pretty much theirs. No one answers the phone, you’re out on hold for extended periods of time, and you are bounced around from one person to the next. Customer service is the worst and will only take your phone number or booking number, then put you on hold as soon as they can. They will just literally hang up on you and put you on hold. In fact, they hung up on me after waiting on hold for 20-30 minutes. You can hear people laughing in the background.

There is no supervisor you can speak too, no one gives out real names, no email addresses, and no one shares their last name. No direct extensions, and no one returns emails.

They waited until inside of their 7 day window (to keep your deposit) to finally have Quality call you to verify your inventory. Again, quality doesn’t give out their full name or email address, or direct contact info. Alicia J was the “quality” contact and when I shared with her my experience, she didn’t care. She knew my $2000+ deposit was locked in. I kept asking when the movers would arrive and what time would they be at my residence. She didn’t know, yet, she’s quality. I needed to book insurance and no one at Alliance Van Lines knew it could/would answer my numerous emails.

Finally, Alicia J emailed and told me it would be Unique Van Lines. After doing research on Unique Van Lines, it was apparent this was a total scam and I’ve been taken advantage of.

Unique Van Lines is a complete disaster and has 1 useable truck. Yes, 1 useable truck with horrible reviews at that. Check Y elp to verify for yourself.

It wasn’t until I sent Alicia J an email saying I would cancel that Isabella L called me. She was very rude, disrespectful, and angry that I decided or wanted to cancel. Apparently, she’s the Office Manager I’ve been waiting for weeks to talk too. She tried to manipulate and mix words with me, but by this point, I knew and realized I was scammed. She tried to make it my fault that I was considering canceling the move. Putting words in my mouth, and pointing the finger towards me. Unreal.

Warning Signs
- Initially told they were movers and not a broker.
- Told they were affiliated with Allied Van Lines
- Lots of discounts to lower price in order to obtain the sale. USAA, veterans, etc.
- No direct contact info
- No use of last names
- Horrible customer service
- Waits until within 7 day window to inform you that they’ve outsourced your info to a horrible moving company. Their policy is you can not cancel within 7 business days.
- 100’s of fake reviews online

It’s a total shame they take advantage of Veterans hard earned money. My advice to anyone reading this is to stay away from this company. They will change their name to another Van Lines if the negative reviews continue. Do yourself s favor and bypass all of the fake reviews. If you notice, the fake reviews make it appear that Alliance Van Lines is a moving company, when in fact, they are a broker that outsources to lower end Van Lines.

It should be illegal that this type of practice is even allowed in our country, let alone to disabled veterans who served their country.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $2030

Alliance Van Lines told me they were a end to end carrier and that I wasn't going to be pushed off onto another company. In fact, I was pushed off onto Eden's Moving Services And charged more than I originally agreed to. Not only did not all of my household goods get shipped because they carrier decided to charge extra for items that were definitely on the moving list, but I was delayed in getting my goods received because of poor logistics coordination from your end. It is 230 now and I'm still waiting on the movers to arrive at my destination. I was told specifically they were arriving between 9 am and 11 am today. The only way I get ANY notifications is because I was forced to call the driver. Twice. The incompetence and lazy logistics is profound in this incredible organization.

Move size: Studio Service cost: $2000

Took the quote from Alliance. Didn't read the fine print that they sub-contract to other moving companies. The movers chosen for my move were definitely not the careful movers I was led to believe. However, a number of things arrived at my new home broken. The broken or damages items were packed by their movers.
Bottom line is beware that Alliance will use the lowest bidder and while Alliance has great reviews, they might not reflect the actual movers you get to complete your contract.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5884

I have had a terrible experience with Alliance Vans and can not discourage you fron using them enough

Pickup:
- Movers showed up 6 hours late and had never moved anyone out of an apartment before -- took several hours for them to figure out how to fill out the paper work, they did not bring the boxes I paid for and took a big chunk out of my wall (dispatch claimed the delay ewas because an earlier move went long -- learned from movers that there was no earlier move, not hing had been scheduled and they got a call 20 minutes before they showed up)

Delivery 1:
- Got a call with less than 24 hours notice, they tried to make me take half a dozen items that were not mine. After they rushed out I realized they had left me with someone else's mattress

Deliver 2:
Followed up for 5 WEEKS -- was repeatedly given bad information, and was not followed up with when promised (was told it would be 2-3 day 3 times with no delivery). Company was often unreachable and seemed to think this was not their issue to resolve.
Got a call with 4 hours notice that they would be there -- I was at work but my retired mother with health issues agreed to take the shipment at which point:
-- The mattress arrived and it had been taken out of thy hypoallergenic case I had it in and was in a dirty case.
-- Movers asked my mother to sit outside and watch the truck while they moved the mattress.
-- Movers refused to take the strangers mattress I had been left with (I have repeatedly stated that this needs removal -- this is not my mattress)
-- While my mother was waiting for them to "call their boss" they left without telling her to go to another move

Called consistently for the last three days to get this resolved and was told that they would not pay for disposal of the mattress (I am on a 4th floor walkup and live in a city where you need to pay for mattress disposal) and that they "can't deal with this anymore" and told me (for the millionth time) it would be 2-3 days for them to pick it up. I have spent countless hours on the phone with dispatch and have to take days off of work to still niot have a resolution 6 weeks later.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4000

Don't let them sweet talk you about "white glove service" and military discounts. This company will Nicole ans dime you to death. They use multiple carriers ans everyone tries to get a piece of the pie. Blake comes off as being concerned and wants to help but that's not the case. No definite time frame on delivery and that's understandable. The driver claims he can't get into my apartment and wants to charge for a shuttle. Another $350? I don't think so. They just look at Google maps and assume so. I had to get my own box truck and meet the driver offsite. And was still charged the same as if they came to my apartment. Don't use this company. Run!! Unless you want to keep paying for bs.

Move size: Studio Service cost: $1179

I was misquoted and had to pay an additional $900 when they picked up my stuff. The QA person that called me 3 days before took boxes off my original quote without decreasing the price, which caused me to go over my cubic footage on the pickup date. I asked him not to do that, and he still did. DO NOT let them take anything off your original quote. They also picked my stuff up on the 29th of June and I didn't get it until the 12th of July. Their customer service regularly has you on hold for 30+ minutes and then drops the call. Convenient.. I emailed them 3 times about problems with my move and didn't get a response until I told them they gave me a suitcase that wasn't mine. They also broke my cat tree and my TV stand. DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2400

This company is egregious!! I hired them through Alliance Van Lines (who now won't answer my calls) and was told REPEATEDLY 3-5 days by all parties. Richard K at Alliance had me sign a moving contract with the verbal promise that it would be 3-5 days, at most 10. Well, ten days has some and gone. They contracted me out to Household Hauling, something they did not explain to me on the phone. Again, by Household Hauling I was told 5-7 days, then when we first called "next week," which has come and gone. Now we are being told "next week" once again, if we are lucky. If we had known what a scam this company would be, we would have moved ourselves. I never felt so deceived and scammed by a company in my entire life. Please I am begging you, deliver our things!! My fiance is a doctor and he needs to not sleep on an air mattress and needs his things. I was told on the phone literally "this isn't life and death," but actually it is!! And even if it wasn't, how dare the customer service representative say that to me as I am crying to him - we gave you several thousand dollars - to be treated this way is disgusting.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3400

I had to go to the police to get my belongings delivered. This company will delay and delay for weeks to months. My 'current' wait time is a total of 5 weeks. I'm currently pressing charges against the company for theft as it's now over a month since they collected my things and they refuse to tell me where it is.

If I could give 0 stars I would. This is a [EDIT] atrocious and incredibly unprofessional company. I chose these movers specifically because I was promised they could deliver my stuff within the week. A week later I had to press the dispatch team for DAYS just for them to tell me they haven't even bothered to ship it yet. They have all my furniture and I'm left to sleep on the god damn floor for 3 weeks because they lied to me. I've never dealt with a more unprofessional, rude and useless group. Even as a last resort, I would rather throw away my possessions and buy them at the new location before I EVER suggest or use this group again. I can't stress enough how disgustingly awful this company is at every level.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2130

This company not sure I should even call them a company is completely unprofessional and will give you the bells and whistles when you’re booking but does not fulfill anything in the contract. Their customer service “team” are incompetent people who are incapable of helping or providing any type of information. They give you the run around and then place the blame on you because they do not fulfill things that were said during making the reservation. I wish I never agreed to working with this horrible company! If you have not signed the contract with them, do not!

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2000

Alliance Van Lines is a moving BROKER. They will bid your business to a third rate mover such as Household Hauling. I observed the following red flags and violations:
- Clearly all of the "5 star" reviews on this site are fake
- Alliance was obviously created to sound like Allied Van Lines (a respectable company)
- They do not provide an in home estimate, it is all over the phone so they can purposely up charge you when on site
- Did not clearly disclose the length of time for delivery. Will tell you its 1-10 days, but read the shady language carefully, it says 1-10 days but could just be up to 21 BUSINESS days. That's a month.
- Movers did not arrive in a fleet truck. They arrived in a rented Enterprise truck and "employees" were not in uniform
- Movers hired extra help and they were clearly laborers and not trained movers
- Initial estimate was $4900 but I ended up being charged $6800.
- Only accept cash/money order
- Home office "service" people use last name initials and not a full name
- NEVER disclosed that household items would be placed in storage.

I have been waiting 22 days now for my delivery with little to not communication from Alliance or the brokered moving company. I've been told I could get a delivery next week. They will be very helpful up front but then will absolutely screw you over. The entire experience has put extreme stress on my family. Please do not EVER use this company.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6800

Simply put, do NOT book with this company. They are dispatchers, not actual movers (which is common), but as they are dispatchers their ENTIRE JOB is to coordinate your move and communicate with you. They literally had one job, and they were so bad at it I can hardly express. My stuff was gone for over 6 weeks. I was originally quoted 5 days. I booked with a guy named Kyle Oldrich - he gave me his personal number in case I had any questions! He never answered that number once. I emailed him several times when things started going south and I never got a response. 3 moving windows came and went WITHOUT ANYONE CALLING TO TELL ME THEY WEREN'T COMING. The only reason I knew not to expect them is that I called myself to confirm on the last day of the window (after having called on earlier days of the window, when I was told they still had time left). After a while I stopped calling Alliance at all and only called Budget Movers (the company they contracted to), who were egregious in their own right. This company made a stressful time in my life infinitely worse. I'm sorry I paid them anything.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3200

This has been one of the worst experiences of my life. Do not give your business to Alliance Van Lines. First of all be prepared to be on hold for quite a while if you've already booked, unless it's a new estimate whereby they have a million available agents ready to take your call. I am currently using them to transport my household goods and vehicle and it has been a complete mess. The customer reps I was dealing with are Richard K. and Jennifer L. On the day of the move I was informed by the Houston driver that I had to pay $200 more because the estimate I was given was off. The driver who I presume is the one who took over the shipment to be delivered to Virginia called and stated that I needed to add $350 dollars on top of what was agreed upon for the goods to delivered, and this I refused to do. I emailed Jennifer to explain what the extra charges were for, she never responded. Up to now I have no idea if my stuff is still on route to Virginia because there has been no communication from Alliance to me.
My vehicle is supposed to be getting shipped at a later date and it has been frustrating.The agreed upon dates were 7/29/19 -7/30/19. I got a call on 07/26/19 telling me that pick up is scheduled for 07/27/19 and that is what he has on file. After much arguing we agree that it can be picked up on 07/28/19 at 10 am. Two hours later I get text from the same company stating that vehicle is to be picked up on 7/27/19, I called back the number and I told him that isn't the agreement, he said he'll come on 7/28/2019. I missed a day's pay check waiting for the vehicle to be picked up. I called the number and it was going straight to voicemail. I called Richard no answer. I got a call back at Noon stating that the pick up won't be happening and that I need to call Alliance on 07/29/2019 which I did this a.m. I was assured vehicle will be picked up either today or 7/31/2019. At 2 p.m I get a call that the truck coming to do the pick up has broken and was told pick up is not until 08/01/2019. I have a flight to catch on 07/31/2019 to Virginia and I kept on explaining this to the person which she clearly wasn't getting it . I hang up the phone on her. I emailed Richard and Jennifer and as usual there was no response from them. I called Alliance and got into an argument with the agent since she was also not getting the fact that i'm leaving Houston on the 31st. Now I'm going to be forced to drive all the way to Galveston to leave my vehicle with my friend so she will hand it over to the driver. Two hours later Alliance calls and an agent tells me pick is now going to be either 7/30/19 or 7/31/2019. I tried to get them to confirm what time and exact date so I don't waste my time going to Galveston and pick up will be in Houston or stay in Houston and the driver happens to go to Galveston. This has been so very frustrating. If you are moving, I implore you not to use this company or any of its affiliate companies (Charter Van Lines) so you don't have the same experience that I am currently having!!

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3185

They were punctual, efficient, polite and professional in every way. They used door protectors and handled all of our furniture and possessions with care. We needed the king size bed moved to a new position in the bedroom - twice, but they listened to us and moved it to exactly where we wanted it. They put our possessions in place with no trouble. Thanks guys for making our move stress free. Alliance Van Lines, you have a great team and deserve all the fantastic ratings you get.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3600

I would avoid Alliance if you are moving into a city. They promised to provide full-service moving into the city of Boston, but had no idea how to actually move into a city. When I requested to confirm a drop-off date to reserve parking permits, they could not provide one (even when I offered to wait a month for delivery). When I asked how they normally move into city apartments with an 18-wheeler, they said 'We don't know.' This was despite promises at booking that they had plenty of experience moving into a city!
I eventually had them deliver to a storage unit in the surburbs and contracted a local moving company to make the move into the city. To top it off, my belongings arrived with one piece of broken furniture and some broken dishware. Alliance was absolutely not worth the hassle.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1950

I booked a move with alliance van lines and their subcontractor ocean moving handled my move (which I wasn't informed till 3 days before pickup). Alliance person said they only hire movers with 4-5 stars, but ocean moving has 1.5 stars on yelp and 2.3 on Google. Very disappointing. The price was good, the pick up went well, but nothing after that.. Blake at alliance said the delivery would take 9-12 calendar days. It actually took 4.5 weeks.

Ocean moving review:
Delivery date confusion: I thought the fate meant the first date I'll be able to receive the delivery. I had no idea that my stuff would be warehoused till after that day, which was one week. It was very frustrating to find out about this, which delayed the delivery, which in the end, took 4.5 weeks (pick up: 7/25, delivery 8/21).
The mover guys who picked up my stuff were all fine.

This review is mainly to file a serious complaint against George, the main guy who made the delivery in san Diego. Initially, he said he'd deliver between 2 and 5 pm. He then called the morning of and said he was pulled over for broken light and that he wouldn't get here till 5-7 because he had to fix the light. It was inconvenient, but I wasn't going to bring it up stun free stuff happens. He didn't end up arriving till 8 pm and the real problem began. Before starting to unload, he wanted to see my apt. He said there's overcharge of $1 per feet after 75 feet from the truck. Then he started measuring the distance from my apt door to the elevator then from the elevator to the truck with his feet. When I booked the move, I was told that the surcharge is if the truck can't be parked within 100 feet from the apt building. The geico was parked maybe 10 feet away from the apt entrance. When I mentioned this to George, he said that wasn't true and that the distance was from the truck to my door including inside the apt building hallway. That sounded ridiculous. He said the distance was 325 feet, so $250 overcharge but he'd only(!?!) Charge me $150. The amount I owed was $590, so 150 was a lot. I tried to negotiate, but he wouldn't back down. I had a few friends coming to help me, so I asked him to wait for them to come. One of them is in the moving business himself, so I thought he could help me negotiate. Then George said he wouldn't talk to anyone but me since I was the customer. Well, I was the customer, so I can have him talk to my friend if I wanted to. It took my friends to get to my place about 10 min, in the meantime, George threatened to start charging me for the wait time. Well what about him being 3-6 hours late?? 5-10 min wait for my friends was nothing in comparison! The moment my friend walked into my apt, George started pointing at him yelling, who are you? I won't talk to you! Then he started claiming that my friend threatened him, which is completely not true. George is the one who started antagonizing and verbally abusing me and my friend. He was acting crazy, so I said just unloaded everything and my friends and I would move the stuff up. So I paid the $590, signed the paperwork. We finally went back to the truck and the other mover guy was unloading my stuff. Then George voted into it again about my George even though he wasn't doing anything. George said he was calling the police and told the the other mover guy to stop unloading. They wouldn't even let me touch my stuff even though I had already paid and signed! We waited for the police for a while, who never came. Even if they came, they would've been on my side. I guess George finally gave up and unloaded all my stuff. After a long wait, they finally left and my friends and I carried the stuff up to my apt.

Move size: Studio Service cost: $1710

Short review:
Immediately pressure you to get you to commit to a price, without allowing you to do research due diligence
Lied about delivery times, and then will not own up to their lies/failure
Tout 5 star ratings, but this is definitely NOT a 5 star company (probably paid or employee written reviews)
Ignore customer complaints and pleas for help
No follow up or holding accountable the movers they hired to complete the move
Try to pass the blame to the movers they hire, even though they are the account owner and direct support to their client (me)
Will do nothing to compensate for their lies, failure of on time delivery, and general ineptitude
No staff outside business hours in order to help customers with emergencies/dire situations
Lack of empathy or any semblance of wanting to help a customer with their (limited and delayed) email responses

Long:
I had a move for a new job and I had an already planned vacation that was going to happen in 2.5 weeks, so every company I called, I ensured they were aware before we talked prices and capabilities that I would need my things delivered BEFORE the vacation. Adam, a salesperson from Alliance, promised me that the delivery would happen, where other movers said it “should be no problem, but we cannot guarantee it”. With that GUARANTEED ASSURANCE of delivery before my vacation, I chose to go with them, even though it was higher priced (even after a “supposed” military discount, which I am sure they just say so they can brag about it somewhere. I am also going to let USAA know how terrible they are, just in case they are in their recommended movers system). I also had to commit with a security deposit right away (to “save $200), or if I called back less than 2 hours later to commit, they would charge me more.
So they contracted Move On Moving (also a terrible company) to do the actual move. They were late for the pickup, but whatever, the pickup happened. I said my first available date to receive the items was three days later. It took Move On Moving almost TWO FULL WEEKS to even get the paperwork from the move back to their headquarters in order to set up a delivery time. This means I only had a couple of days before my vacation. During these 2 weeks of waiting for the paperwork, I called Alliance multiple times to try and see what was going on with my things. Most of the times they never responded to the messages I left, or they just said they would “try and see what the issue was” but then never get back to me. They should have pushed Move On Moving to get my documentation so that the delivery would happen in the window I PAID FOR. Needless to say, the delivery never happened until AFTER my vacation. This was extremely stressful and disheartening. When I called and asked what they were going to do to make this better with me, their customer, they said I needed to take it up with Move On Moving. Remember, ALLIANCE is the company I hired. I did not hire Move On Moving. So the onus is on Alliance to make things right with me.
On the day on my move (finally—over a MONTH after my stuff was picked up), the moving company was again late. On top of this, their driver tried to extort me for extra money, even though I had a contract showing everything that I already paid for (or was included in my estimate). The driver still wanted money and threatened to leave my stuff on the main floor of my apartment lobby instead of delivering it to my upper level floor apartment. I tried calling Alliance because they are supposed to “be there for any issues I have” with my move. But alas, no one was available because it was after 5 pm. I sent off an email describing my extortion and the need for real-time help with things like this. They responded the next day saying that “nothing is dire enough that cannot be figured out 24 hours later”. Are you kidding me? My stuff was about to be left in a public space after spending THOUSANDS of dollars to have someone move it for me.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2500