Bekins Van Lines

Please run from this company! This has been a horrible experience for our family! We moved from Texas to Florida. On moving day, I took the “team leader” through the house and showed him what to take. There was a pile of things in a separate area. Most was not packed or labeled for moving. They were told not to take these items and verbalized understanding. They did anyway, resulting in many important items being damaged. They also carelessly wrapped and secured our furniture resulting in significant damage to a dresser, desk, and dining table. We had to pay extra for our grand piano to be moved as we were assured it would be packed and transported properly. They lost pieces to it! It isn’t usable until it is fixed. Claims process is horrific, they spend most of their time and energy figuring out how not to take responsibility! It has been 53 days and it still is not resolved. They refuse to give the full value replacement for many of the items that they damaged (We had the Full value replacement option with $0 deductible). On top of that, our contract states all furniture items are to be disassembled and reassembled at delivery destination. Many furniture items such as a full bed frame, entertainment center, and bookshelf were just left in pieces. A plastic bin of screws and furniture pieces were left in our kitchen and we had to figure out what went with what. They are very responsive to get the contract but they do not complete the job and then do not take responsibility. I am trying to prevent another family from having the stressful, expensive, and terrible experience we have had. Bekins website bloviates about their fabulous customer service and their protection programs. It is all a scam. Please, please choose another company for your moving needs!

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $14000

We moved from California to Michigan. I paid extra for insurance. They damaged many items. Please see photos below. The truck driver offered to pay for one broken table and I said no worries I’ll file a claim. I filed a claim and they said they didn’t pack these items. When they did pack these items. Then they came back and said that my items were already damaged. Not only that but they didn’t even box or bag my expensive mattresses. I had custom pieces broken and antiques broken. I knew they would not be able to replace these items so I kindly asked for repairs not replacements. I go nothing but them telling me over and over that they were previously damaged or that they didn’t pack them. I even just asked for the extra $500+ dollars I paid for the insurance back and didn’t get that either. I have made four large moves across country. I have never had an issue with repairs previously. This company is terrible. DONT USE THEM. RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN. Their sales people talk smack about the other companies to get you to feel like they have your best interests at heart. They don’t.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $18052

As I was moving with my employer expenses, and Bekins had a tie up with my employer. Hence I had no other option. I packed my items myself neatly and requested them to deliver in time. The person I contacted after 25 days says that they don't promise any date so I have been asked to wait as they said that items may come between x date to y date(The difference itself is approx 30 days). Any how I was not really concerned about the dare of delivery. Finally one day I received my items missing the below numbered boxes.
I have listed all the box numbers that Bekins assigned for each inventory.
Below is the list of box numbers I am missing item sequence.
BOX 007
BOX 015
BOX 019
BOX 021
BOX 022

After so many followups and 45 days investigation they sent a mail that they have exhausted and found that there is no missing box at all. Means they are indirectly telling me that they did not miss any.

So guys please never ever go with these movers.

And one more thing is that I had to move all my items from the apartment main gate which is 0.4 miles from my apartment in my small car shuttling 10 rounds.
And one more: Whenever I call claims department, Auto response says that they have 0 calls ahead of me but nobody answers the call even after 30 minutes.

Service cost: $3200

I have found Bekins Moving & Storage is unreliable. They advertise "Trust goes a long way". In my case it only went as far as loading my things into one of their moving vans but never delivering due to a fire in the van. I lost all my belongings, including household goods, clothing, documents, and personal items. The fire department says the fire was due to mechanical failure and started near a tire and spread into the van. The driver failed to notice the truck was on fire until it was too late to save my belongings. I had purchased insurance through Bekins to protect my cargo. I was told it was full replacement value protection, but have found out it is really to release Bekins from liability. It will not cover my losses. Bekins is bad for business, they cannot be trusted to deliver. My experience tells me if you NEVER want to see your belongings again hire Bekins.

Service cost: $3581

The entire moving team was fantastic. The estimator and coordinators were very thoughtful. They kept us informed during the whole process. The packing crew, loading crew and unloading crew were fast and efficient. They all worked very, very hard. The best part of the move was our driver. Gary Hunt really eased our minds during this stressful time. He kept us informed of his status during the entire move. He watched over all of our belongings as if they were his own. A really big thanks to everyone on the team for a fantastic moving experience.

Service cost: $8000

I hired Bekins to do full packing, loading, transporting and unloading.

The agent who came to my home to do the initial estimate was knowledgeable and personable and provided a timely estimate. After that, communication was not the best as I had to call and follow up to ensure my dates and times were scheduled and reserved - when I did so, however, replies were typically forthcoming and the customer service agent pleasant.

My driver, Daniel, who also did the packing, loading and unloading (with the aid of an assist at each end), was excellent. He (and his helpers) worked very hard, in the heat of the South, to get everything done in a timely manner. He was personable and, during transit, kept in touch with me to ensure that delivery happened in a timely manner.

Ultimately, I ended up getting my delivery ahead of schedule and the final price was well below the original, not-to-exceed estimate.

Provided their prices remain competitive, I will use Bekins again for my next move.

Service cost: $3300

We hired Bekins for a move from New York to Denver. The actual move process went smoothly - the drivers showed up on time on both ends and unpacked the bags without much fanfare (which is the reason for the single star).

However, during our move process, a bin was never delivered and the driver did not check off the box on the "inventory control sheet." (During the move, the driver and the customer use this sheet to track all items and ensure a complete delivery.) He told me that he would return to the depot to look for the bin. He was not able to locate the bin and instructed that we submit a "tracer" for this bin, which we coordinated with headquarters to do. Accordingly, we never checked off the box for the missing bin.

We did not hear further from headquarters so submitted a dispute letter regarding the missing bin. Several weeks later, we received a notice from the claims department indicating that their records "indicated that everything was delivered." Despite the fact that the box for bin #103 was clearly not checked, we had not filled out our initials in a box on the bottom, so they've relied upon this to attempt to dismiss our claim. The initial block prompt reads: "Were all items delivered?" and even though we did not fill this out with either a "yes" or a "no", they've used this to to dismiss our lost items. See attached claim form. Shame on us for not filling out the bottom left form one way or another but shame on them for assuming that this negated the fact that this overrides the unchecked bin #103 above.

We are obviously disappointed in the outcome and will be following-up with them to hopefully achieve a satisfactory resolution. Regardless, we feel that the company has acted unethically in its dismissal of our claim based on selective information on the inventory control sheet. We are especially dismayed as we paid an extra $250 dollars for insurance.

In total - smooth move day packing and unpacking, but morally dubious and even unethical behavior as we're trying to locate a missing bin.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4275

I recommend that you do not use Bekins Van Lines, or the parent company Wheaton Worldwide Moving, for any move, ever. Our recent move with Bekins, and the subsequent inadequate response to our damage claims has simply been our worst moving experience, ever.

We moved from Ashburn in Northern VA to the Raleigh, NC area. This was a fairly large move, going from a 4,500 sq ft home in Virginia to a 3,300 sq ft home in North Carolina, with storage in between. Timeline: pack, load, and move into 180 days storage in transit in VA was June 16-17, 2016; transition to permanent storage was December 13, 2016; and the final delivery and unpack in Cary, NC was March 29-30, 2017. The estimate for the move was $18,411, including three months storage in transit, but excluding FRVP valuation. Final cost was much higher due to an extra six months of storage and FRVP coverage. (Note: we have no complaint about the cost of the move, just about the damage.)

We got multiple estimates, and we chose Bekins because the salesman assured us that the packers had been with them for many years, were "like family,” and that the storage was climate controlled. They also seemed to be flexible in terms of where and when to store our household goods in order to minimize total costs. This was an out-of-pocket move, not a corporate relo with limited choice, and we chose carefully. But, we chose poorly.

We have moved multiple times before with nationally-known movers (Mayflower, United, Graebel, Allied), as well as local movers, and never had more than a few items damaged or missing. With the Bekins move, the amount of damage was simply astounding. Just documenting the damage to make a claim was not easy — the claim list of 35 items (with item # with short description of item and damage) is four pages long. (There was more, but we just gave up adding to the list after a while.) An addendum with photos to document the damaged items took another 35 pages. We had to FedEx the claim paperwork, because it was too large to send via email.

Some of the highlights (or lowlights) include:
* The storage was *not* climate controlled, and the “like family” packers did a lousy job. The finish on much of our furniture ended up with cracking and crazing due to summer heat, and many items were damaged due to inadequate padding or packing.
* Some of our furniture and boxes were actually flooded in storage, leaving flood water marks on our upholstered furniture, and wooden and metal items damaged and rusted.
* Some guitars and other musical instruments in cartons were also flooded, with the cartons showing clear water damage.
* One of the legs on our pedestal dining table base was broken off, presumably when the table was dropped.
* A glass-topped coffee table, for which we paid special handling, was cracked in several places.
* A digital piano was wrapped so tightly it was damaged.
* Wooden furniture (a hutch, dining table, coffee table, and desk) had the finish rubbed off the edges, or had the top surfaces gouged, due to inadequate padding.
* Several wooden items (hutch, secretary, dining table) had feet or knobs or table edges broken off.
* Many picture frames were damaged due to inadequate packing.
* A lathe and drill press were damaged and are no longer usable.
* A 12-foot fiberglass stepladder was never delivered.
* Roughly 180 cartons were delivered, but only 118 were actually unpacked by Bekins; we paid for a full unpack.

The total amount of our damaged and missing items claim was $28,013, since we paid for full value replacement protection (FVRP) at every stage of this move. Bekins offered just $1,655 as a settlement—a small repair allowance on just five items—amounting to less than 6% of the full replacement value of the damaged items. Not only is this ridiculously small compared to the actual replacement value of our damaged items, it is just a small fraction of the over $5,000 that I paid to Bekins for FVRP coverage. Despite clear photographic documentation of all damage, and despite the fifteen damaged items noted directly on the household inventory, signed by me and the driver at delivery, nearly everything else was simply denied. The flooded and water-damaged sofa and ottoman - denied, no explanation. The dining table with the leg cracked off - denied. Basically, almost everything that was damaged - denied.

I will never use, or recommend that anyone else ever use, Bekins Van Lines or Wheaton Worldwide Moving.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $18411

I hired Bekins for a move from CA to WA, During the transport of my shipment, at least 50% of my items were damaged severely, lost and I will go as far to say, there is clear evidence that they were tampered with and pilfered through.

While an interstate move can be stressful alone, you would hope that you have retained the services of a reputable company. BEKINS or WHEATON, is NOT one of them! They are less than professional, have no obvious training of Customer Service and will offer you NO "FAIR" options when seeking clarity or assistance (beyond their initial baiting of course).

The Director of their Claims Department, Laura Pung actually offers her unique and creative skills in claims handling and Mentoring with a power-point presentation on the internet that actually state "Claims 101: Sorry, but there's nothing in your policy about fair. A fair is where you take a pig to win a prize". Nice.. I still can't believe that Bekins / Wheaton finds this an acceptable presentation or practice, even after such was brought to their attention. You can look-up this presentation up on the internet yourself under Laura Pung, Claim Creativity.. whereby it states "WARNING, Claims Adjuster with an Attitude" (no doubt) and "World's Greatest Claims Adjuster", a typical God like syndrome attitude.

My losses and damages are as a direct result of Bekins GROSS NEGLIGENCE. The last thing that anyone would expect is to deal with a claims department that doesn't regard FAIR in their BUSINESS PRACTICES, based on their own admission! It is my understanding that an Adjuster is required to display "DISCERNMENT", which is a balance of contract enforcement and customers satisfaction. An claim representative has a duty, in good faith, to investigate and resolve claims promptly and "FAIRLY" for an insurer and claimant, not seek ways to deceive or deny provisional coverage in an effort to mitigate their exposures. This is a violation of their FIDUCIARY DUTY!

Bekins has you sign a different Bill of Lading than the one that is listed in their Tariff. BE AWARE, this offers them alternative ways to avoid their liability, it places it "AT THEIR OPTION", not yours as advertised. Bekins will place your shipment in a storage/warehouse and not advise you, as well as lie to you about it. When you ask for specific information on these facilities, such will take months to obtain, if all! They use subcontractors (according to the FMSCA they have a fleet of 1 under their DOT number). They do not tell you that subcontractors will be used, nor will they provide you their information or DOT numbers when asked, despite it is required of them to provide. They will refuse you their damage report(s), forms, operational procedures and investigation information stating that these are all internal documents and a "Breach of Privacy".. for who? Their movers, their warehouse, their sub-contractors, their Agents..? This is actually a Breach of clear entitled disclosure and Fiduciary Duty by way of Bekins denial and actions! This information is to be supplied based on their own Tariff and by the FMSCA and the Federal Department of Transportation.

I have lost thousand based on having my items transported by this company. I have gone directly to the VP of Claims, John Weissert and the CEO Mark Kirschner that will not even give you the courtesy of an explanation or review of your lost and experience, even when you provide proofs.

I have found BEKINS is unreliable or trustworthy. They advertise "Trust goes a long way". BEKINS IS A SCAM company and you should not trust their services. You can search all over the internet in regards to numerous complaints of their SHANTY DECEPTIVE Business dealings. You can find many lawsuits as well, fortunately LOST by Bekins for exactly these reasons. Please do not be fooled, they go under many names, they are partnered with Wheaton as well. BEWARE OF BEKINS, you may experience the same as I. I would NOT recommend this company to anyone!!

Service cost: $5300

We had a corporate move cross country with Bekins. Avoid Bekins if you can. If something goes wrong, as sometimes things do, they do a terrible job of correcting it. I've had interstate moves with professional companies before and while it's always a headache I've never had anything like this experience with Bekins. I have been left to conclude they are an unethical and incompetent company.


For us, when the driver was a day late and Bekins didn't do anything about it besides giving us contact info for a series of people who were in theory "helping" fix it but none seemed to have any idea what was actually going on or who was doing what, I was concerned. But then the driver showed up and I became much, much more concerned. Rather than supervise the idiot kids packing the truck he chain-smoked, dumped his butts and garbage all over our property and spent his time following me around and trying to make conversation with me
His topic of conversation soon moved to a focus on how he hates (insert racial epithet for Latinos) and they shouldn't be let in the country. Why he thought I'd be interested in his opinions I have no idea; I was trying to keep an eye on the idiots moving my stuff since clearly he was not. We finally got the truck loaded and he left. I picked up and discarded the cigarette butts, drink containers, and empty cigarette pack they'd tossed on the driveway and lawn so the new owners wouldn't have to. Disgusting.


We didn't hear from the driver (fine with us!) until he got lost during the move. Then he called me repeatedly to get directions, despite my pointing out as I didn't live there yet I didn't know the area at all. Why he didn't get a GPS or call his company I have no idea. Our new road is winding so they planned to offload remotely and then drive in multiple trips in a smaller truck. Again, my husband and I are not living at the new house, are brand new to the area and don't know it at all. This time the driver called my husband repeatedly to ask where in the area of our new house he could park his truck to offload it and whether various spots were suitable for him to get in and out in his giant truck. As though my husband (who is not a truck driver!) would have any idea.


The delivery was like the pickup but worse. This time the driver didn't use racial epithets for Latinos. That might sound like an improvement but instead he related to my husband how he thinks "The (racial epithet for African Americans) are okay". He expanded on this point, again, shockingly, using the same racial epithet and then went on to talk about how he thinks Donald Trump is great (sure, not appropriate conversation but he's certainly entitled to his opinion. Again, why he felt compelled to share it I have no idea). He went on to talk about how he killed someone breaking into his house when he "snapped their neck". Next he moved back to Mr. Trump and that he agreed to keep all those Muslim immigrants out since you can't trust them.


Of course, my husband is actually a Muslim immigrant so this moved the situation from horribly racist and offensive into frankly threatening. It wasn't helped by the other mover who discussed his love for guns and he thinks we should all be carrying them with us, especially in this area. But, finally, they left and we hoped we would never have to deal with Bekins again. No such luck. When we finally got everything sorted out it was clear we had extensive damage to our furniture and that many items were just gone, despite being checked off on the list by the scary driver.


This is the worst part. I know mistakes and errors happen even in the best company. That said, I think you can get a real sense of how good a company really is by how they handle it when they know something has gone wrong. This is where Bekins the company completely failed us. I added up my damaged and lost goods and came up with over $10,000. I documented all the values and the damage but Bekins basically said, "too bad." They sent some guy out to "document" the damage and estimate repairs. I do not understand how he thought he could evaluate damage when he never got within ten feet of the pieces of furniture and only looked from one side as our items all had damage on multiple sides. Maybe his goal for the repair was to look good enough from more than ten feet away? I have no idea. I've included a photo of just one of the damaged items - this is a headboard that had deep scratches like this on front AND back plus dents and scrapes on the edges. I have no idea what they did to damage all the sides - and I have multiple pieces that look like this.


The final insult from Bekins came when they offered me less than 25% in compensation and said it was my fault for not stopping the move when things were going badly and not realizing the driver had stolen (oops, I mean misplaced) my items despite his documenting them as all delivered on the paperwork. Sure, he "misplaced" an extension ladder. Right. We'd reported to Bekins about the driver early on - it should have been so clear to them that this guy was a mess and either pulled him off or done something to protect us. Instead, when the predictable damage and losses were identified Bekins denied it and said it was our fault. They suggested when the driver was inappropriate and incompetent we should have said "wait, nasty bigoted scary man! You aren't doing a good job! Let me call the corporate Bekins office several thousand miles away to have instructions on how to deal with this." Nice. This is a man who talked about carrying guns with him and killing people. And I'm supposed to do what? Unreal. Further, when I pointed out to our Bekins representative that there is no cell phone service at the property he said we still should have called (I guess using our magical phones).


Later the driver admitted to falsifying the paperwork but Bekins still didn't care and said the problems (oh, I mean the "challenges" - that's what Bekins will call having a racist driver who steals and damages your belongings) with the move were our problem, not theirs.


I have asked my Bekins representative at least four times to let me know how Bekins has dealt with the behavior of the driver, including stealing items, damaging property, falsifying paperwork, and using bigoted and racist language. Our representative would just say he'd "look into it" but as far as I can tell no actions were ever taken, leaving me with the conclusion Bekins has no trouble with any of their employees actions or racist behavior. Not a company I want to support!


Because of the lousy service my corporation has dropped them as a preferred moving service. Stay far, far away from Bekins. If there is ANYTHING that goes wrong, they will abandon you and there will be nothing you can do about it.

Service cost: $12000

I moved from WA state to Ohio ($29,000). Half the crew didn't show and I had to leave the day before they even finished as I had prepaid all my hotel reservations. The overflow delivery was 3 weeks later. Several expensive antiques were damaged. I documented and took pictures of broken/shattered items. I did not receive any reimbursement on 'high value' stickers boxes as there is a disclaimer which reads, "all items containing the contents listed above have been opened and I certify and acknowledge receipt of the above items .. and arrived safely in same condition as at origin." WHAT A SCAM! I would never recommend this company. Totally disgusted with their ripoff tactics. My $4400 claim resulted in a $1293 reimbursement.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $28000

We did have something broken - a bedpost cracked, but the driver personally notified me about it and assured me that it would be replaced.  I've found another item that is badly broken but I knew how fragile it was and failed to let the person packing it know that.  Another thing we aren't happy about is the amount of items that weren't put where they belong.  A lot of things were just stacked up in the garage, even though it says on the boxes where they belong.  We should have been on top of things and made sure it all went where it should.  The last thing that I'm not happy about is the mirrors were not re-attached to the dressers (2 of them).  I was told that they had "no idea" where the brackets were.  I've used 2 other moving companies and that has never happened before, it is a major problem in my opinion.  Otherwise I was very satisfied with the job done - both packing and moving.  All pieces of furniture were either blanket or shrink wrapped.  Lots of paper was used to wrap up the items packed.  We haven't even made a dent in unpacked everything so I don't know if there are any other broken items.

Service cost: $8300

I think if you have a good experience you tend not to take the time to write about it.  However, if it is a bad one you want the whole world to know so you make the time.  I was very nervous about moving my entire house from California to Georgia especially since I coudn't be there to meet them for delivery in Georgia.  However, everything went extremely well.  Tom was very thorough with the initial inspection and gave specific details regarding what should be done to ensure a safe and efficient move.  I asked them to hold my items until I could arrange for my friend in Georgia to be there to meet them.  They did and did not charge a storage fee.  The driver called both my friend and I to let us know the ETA of delivery.  He arrived only an hour late of his ETA and she said he was very professional, very courteous, very careful and did everything as she instructed and she is very picky.  Nothing was missing and nothing was damaged.  The estimate came in at $4300 but the final charge was only $3000 which was a great surprise savings.  I was glad they had over-estimated since I had heard so many companies normally underestimate.  I would highly recommend Bekins and hope that more positive customers will take the time to post their comments.

Service cost: $3000

What the salesman tells you is not anything like what actually happens. The salesman walks through your house, examines your belongings, and reassure you that everything will be packed carefully and moved carefully.

Then you are passed off to a "handler". This is the person who :"handles your move", although one never meets the person.

Then the packers come. Nice ladies, but I don't appreciate a garden trowel thrown in with my bone china. And no padding around an antique porcelain lamp, crush lamp shades, broken crystal, bunched up sterling silver rolled in paper.

I did not allow them to move my art.
The next day the movers come. Virtually every piece of my casework has scratches..I ended up donating much of the damaged goods to charities in the area. My house is mostly empty now.

Then comes the MSS..Moving Specialty Services. They took the legs off my grand piano and put it on it's side and left it there overnight. It cracked under the pressure. They have never come out to assess the damage. They said I have to hire a piano expert on my dollar and my time to get an appraisal on this.

They took apart a $3000 exercise tower, scattering the pieces on the floor. MSS said it is missing "some bolts", and they are trying to find them..that was four months ago. I think it would be unwise for me to use it, don' you?

I have contacted every member of the Bekins team on this and have received no response. This company does not know the meaning of "ownership".

Service cost: $11000

Absolutely horrible, unreliable company out of Longmont, CO. Went with them due to the A BBB rating and assurance from 'sales' person. Huge mistake; do NOT use these people. Don't care and condescending! First part of what was supposed to be my entire shipment was weeks late; the rest showed up a week later and was horribly damaged and many items missing. Salesperson said that since I was packing most everything myself, that it wouldn't be prudent to take out the extra insurance/replacement policy. Well, everything I packed (that actually did show up), was not damaged; however, the largest (and most expensive) items were horribly damaged. Love that I rec'd $303 for all my loss and damage (actually over $2k), along with a letter that said if I wanted to go to arbitration, that it would be $300. Coincidental? I think not; these people have their racket down really, really, well. Truly horrible experience; don't go through these people and don't do this to yourself!! Don't use Bekins at all. Better off renting a UHaul, and if, like me, can't drive &/or load yourself, hire someone locally to load and drive for you and follow the route together.

Fair warning: I wasn't wise enough to heed it .. I hope you will!

Service cost: $2500

I had to move from Portland to Texas, so I thought this time I'd pay to get it done 'right'. I thought that will be one less thing to worry about. This guy named Wayne visited me in Portland and proudly showed me the BBB accreditation. Silly me, I actually thought that meant something. Trust me, it doesn't. Wayne told me it would be around $3,200 to move my 1 bedroom apartment. Fine, expensive but 'at least I won't have to worry'. HA. He gave me a delivery range of dates, the outside date being about 5 weeks from the time they picked up my stuff. Wayne told me that it was highly unlikely that it would take that long and if it did, I would be reimbursed for the inconvenience of such a long wait.

So the time goes by, I'm in Austin, sleeping on an air bed, waiting, waiting waiting. Finally I hear from the driver about 4 days before the 'deadline'. By this time I'm desperate for my stuff and just want to get it over with. At first I thought the driver was pretty great - he kept calling me and updating me re where he was. But then he started asking me to do things - like rent a U-haul (we had to unload to a U-haul and then take that to the apartment complex). Then, he asked me to find some guys to help unload!! Then he asked me to find a place for him to park his truck! So like the desperate person I was, I did all that. Met him at the designated spot, drove with him to pick up the U-haul. Had no labour, and the people I booked didn't show. So I had to help. My heavier furniture was left downstairs in the garage because the driver had a bad knee. I had to hire someone else to bring it up. My futon had been taken apart - I had to hire someone to put it together. The driver felt guilty about leaving me stranded, so he thought it appropriate to flag down some neighborhood young men to help me later ("even though they are black" he said!!). Oh my god.

So I got in touch with Bekins. I thought they'd be kind of ashamed and apologetic, but no. I guess this is how they operate. No apology. In their reply letters they said 'we are sorry that you think we didn't meet our obligation'. As if there was some kind of grey area there. Since when is the delivery part of a move optional? They are such idiots. Then I complained via BBB. I wanted an $800 refund, which was entirely reasonable. They said 'well we only pay our labourers $10 per hour'. OH THAT makes sense. So I'm going to pay them $3200 and then WORK for them for $10 per hour. The weird thing is that NOBODY I communicated with there seemed to give a [EDIT]. Oh and they had some kind of stupid reason that they could not reimburse me for the lateness, too. So Wayne lied. Nice.

Avoid Bekins. BBB accreditation means nothing, and if you ask me BBB is part of the problem - I don't think they advocate for consumers any more.

Service cost: $3200

I got this email from Chris, the co-owner of the Bekins agency in Portland:

'I pulled your 2009 file (K81786) and did some research on your move. I see that your delivery was not up to our Bekins standard and that your claim was left up in the air. Teresa Brown, Managing Director of Customer Care would like you to contact her to discuss a settlement. If you wish, you may reach her either by email or phone.
Please accept my apologies on behalf of Bekins.'

Teresa gave me the usual company b.s. about Bekins striving for quality, and the usual non-apology (ie "I am sorry that the servicing of your move has given you cause for concern"). 'Teresa Brown' and 'customer service' is an oxymoron.

But they DID give me $400.00 which is better than nothing and is all because Chris in Portland followed up. AND Chris is the first person, of all the people I've communicated with there, who actually took some responsibility and gave me a straight apology. So, if you are in Portland, consider Bekins, but make sure you talk to Chris.

Service cost: $3200

DO NOT USE THESE MOVERS. They do not listen or read e-mails, we spoke to them and e-mailed them many times so they knew delivery could only be Mon-Fri 8 to 5 and no large trucks only box trucks will fit on the property. We had to wait for them to deliver and they first wanted to come on Sat, then we had to wait a week for them to deliver and they came with a 18 wheeler. Next they charged us to get a box truck and hire 3 more people to unload and load the box truck to deliver at almost $700. We did almost all our own packing except for a glass table top and some pictures. The glass table top was broken and a globe on a light fixture was broken while delivering. The globe cost us $35 and a new glass cost us $185 for a total of $220. and they gave us $118 and we had to beg for that. The delivery people were pretty nice but anyone else was irresponsible. They tell you they will save you money but in along run you will pay more. AGAIN DO NOT USE THESE PEOPLE.

Service cost: $5978

I hired Bekins for my interstate move on the basis of their reputation and their in-person visit by their salesman. To get my business, they agreed to my critical move-out and delivery dates, but their promises were false.

Bekins picked up my furniture on June 22, and I had been promised a strict delivery window at the destination between June 27 and July 5. I had even offered to move up the pick-up date if needed to make certain the delivery date could be met, but was told it was unnecessary. After pick-up, however, the local office became unreachable until 3 days later, when I was informed that scheduling was "uncertain." During the next few days, the phone either went to unanswered voicemail or was answered by someone in the loading dock who had no idea how to answer my call.

On June 30, I was then called by customer service at Bekins Corporate to learn that my delivery was "delayed" due to "business demand." In other words, my shipment had become less important than other business they had accepted. No delivery date commitment was given, other than that it would be delayed by 1-2 weeks.

At this time, Bekins Corporate attempted to placate me by stating that I was eligible for a delay "penalty" of $125 per day, plus living and meal expenses during the delay. This also turned out to be false. It turns out that Bekins will only compensate up to $125 per day of actual living expenses, and nothing else beyond that due to their own incompetence or delay.

In the end Bekins delivered my furniture 11 days late, and their "late penalty" of $125 per day did not even come close to making up the actual costs due to their delay.

I recommend that anyone considering a move AVOID Bekins at all costs.

Service cost: $5000

Moved from CA to GA. Our van was 10 days late, a full 17 days after pick up. Their head office could not locate our van for 10 more days after the 7 day cross country trip, and could not tell us where our belongings were. They would not reimburse us for 10 days in a hotel with 2 kids and 2 cats. We were scared that our entire van was taken to Mexico and we would never see our belongings again. Their corporate office including the office of the president would NOT even return our calls. We finally traced our van ourselves to a local Bekins holding lot in Atlanta. It had been sitting there for 10 days and the local Bekins moving company just didn't care if it ever got delivered. They said it was dropped off there by mistake and wasn't their problem. It took 3 more days of screaming and threatening to call the police to get that company to deliver the van. When they did, they literally threw everything into the main floor instead of putting each box in their respective rooms in this three-story home. Lots of damage. HORRIBLE, DON'T USE BEKINS.

Service cost: $7000

We were moving our 4 bedroom/ 3 bath from Wisconsin to Florida. We were quoted a guaranteed delivery date of a Monday We did not end up getting our belongings til the following Saturday.5 days LATER! I had flown into Floriday with my 2 kids with nothing but a baby bag and the clothes on our back. Bekins, offered to reimburse us 50% of what we spent to live for 5 days, we didn't have the extra money to buy everything we needed. I would never use Bekins again!! Do not use them, they lie and do not care!

Service cost: $7000

We chose Bekins as we were sold on their sales woman's insistence that our move would be safest with a company of national scale. To further safeguard ourselves, we paid for full insurance protection for our belongings. In reality, Bekins failed to deliver our belongings in the promised window - they were several days late. When the van arrived, we did not get professional movers but workers from a local labor ready office. The so-called movers had NO MOVING EXPERIENCE nor were they BACKGROUND checked. Furniture was not assembled properly, boxes were not left in the rooms they were marked for, furniture was damaged, walls were damaged, floors were damaged. Several boxes were NEVER DELIVERED. There were LOTS OF BROKEN ITEMS in the shipment. When we filed the claim, we were told that the additional insurance had NO IMPACT as boxes packed by ourselves were NOT COVERED (this was of course NEVER MENTIONED to us when we paid almost $1,000 for the additional insurance). In the end, we spent several months trying to get the company to pay for our damages. It was an unpleasant process where the claims adjuster in the end denied most of our claims for reasons that were totally made up (they claimed that we did not keep the boxes the damaged items arrived in when indeed we did). They also refused any responsibility for our lost items. May this be a warning to others who seek out a more expensive national moving company to protect themselves. In reality, Bekins used non-professionals to move our belongings. We were NOT at all protected.

Service cost: $7883