Bekins Van Lines

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

I contracted for Door to Door delivery, I specified that my move not go to storage.  I had a CONFIRMED 3 day window, I didn't hear from the driver and customer service said the driver had 2 moves and That my Move would go to Storage.. The pick-up personnel wrapped and covered my furniture.  When the furniture arrived, Everything was unwrapped, thrown around.  Everything ARRIVED SCRATCHED, DENTED AND DAMAGED.  I've called customer service to have an Insurance Adjuster come out to see in what condition my furniture is in. Customer service has brushed me off and has been rude. I would Never use Bekins again, Nor Recommend Bekins to anyone. Once they have your money, They do Not Care about the people that puts them in business.

Service cost: $2013

We moved across country from Texas to Washington DC. At the time of signing the contract, we were told we would find out the delivery date a couple days before the pick up date or at the latest the day of pick up.  Bekins said they had a 10 day window to deliver the items.  They delivered within that window but only gave us 4 days notice for delivery date.  We needed to reserve the loading dock at the apartment complex ahead of time. We found out late Tuesday of a Saturday delivery in DC.  They planned to deliver our items on a Saturday, busiest day for moving, the dock was already booked and not available for our move.  The earliest we could reserve the dock was Tuesday morning.  So Bekins had to store our stuff, but their warehouse doesn't accept deliveries on Saturday. So the stuff stayed on the truck until Monday. They off loaded our things on Monday, stored them overnight, then delivered them the next morning. They charged us an additional $836 for one night's storage and delivery. IF THEY HAD TOLD US OF THE DELIVERY DATE WHEN THEY PROMISED ORIGINALLY, we could have reserved the dock and would not have had to pay the additional $836.00.  After I complained about their procedure I was told that it was my responsibility to have the dock available to the movers for the full 10 day window..something that is impossible to do.
I'm very disappointed in the move with Bekins.  If I had known the outcome ahead of time, I would have gone with a different company.  BE CAREFUL ON CROSS COUNTRY MOVES,  get all the possible costs estimated ahead of time EVEN if they say it most likely will not happen, have them tell you ahead of time so you will know up front your possible total cost.

Service cost: $3853

Bekins/Wheaton Van Lines uses sub standard packing companies. In fact, two items were left on my lawn, one vanished and a small group of items were left in my former home. Even though they advertise daily loadings from New Jersey to Nevada (where I now live), Bekins/Wheaton refuses to go back and finish the job. Items were transported in two trucks which arrived at my Las Vegas residence over two weeks apart. The people in their claims department were extremely rude, completely unhelpful and never in a rush to return a phone call. The actual movers did a great job, but the other employees I dealt with were awful. If you are making a long distance move, do yourself a favor and look elsewhere!

Service cost: $13000

My advice is to choose another company for your move. From the start of our move in Maryland the driver was disorganized, unhelpful and the local guys contracted to help him kept telling us he didn't know what he was doing. Fast forward 7 days and on the other end in Palm Springs CA he showed up and promptly broke the glass front of a $5000 antique bookcase. As the rest of the furniture came off the truck the damage piled up. All 5 antique pieces had some damage. Local guys that did the heavy lifting said the truck was not packed properly, with some of the pieces not even wrapped. As with all business, it's in the people, and we were assigned someone that should not be doing this job. Sorry Bekins, but you have to be responsible for your people. A very bad unnerving experience. Beware.

Service cost: $13000

My nightmare is still on going. I started the move the Monday before thanksgiving. Was told that my load was small and would have to be combined with another. 2 Loads have come from California to where I now live yet my stuff was not on either van. It took 6 plus phone calls and begging to get them to return 1 phone call and tell me that they are not going to meet the December 15 last day window on their own darn contract.This company is so incompetent they can't even honor what they put in writing. The actual cost also ended up being way more than quoted. will never use them again.

Service cost: $3800

I went with Bekins based on a review of local movers. Bekins does do the long haul, however, they use local companies as well.

First, I paid for this move myself. The move itself came in at $1300 more than the estimate which surprised me, since I got rid of my Living Room, Dinette and one bedroom set. My endpoint did change, however, by about 700 miles.

The folks who packed my house and who delivered the final boxes where very professional. There where many knicks and dents that I am dealing with, however, this was expected on my part. Little was actually "broken" beyond repair, and having moved myself before, this was acceptable.

My biggest complaint, is that Bekins lost my side rails to my King bed set. This is tow 8ft by 8in pieces.. not something easily lost.

After about a month of waiting, I chose to contact the bedroom manufacturer and luckily was able to get the side rails replaced for a nominal cost. I put a claim into Bekins to have this replacement cost reimbursed. Bekins offered to pay me $12 for my time and loss. I find this totally unacceptable and inappropriate.

Again, I really dislike rating a company on just one aspect.. the rest of the move was pleasant. But to lose my side rails, basically making a bedroom set unusable as a set if they could not be replaced, and being so cavalier.. really irks me.

Service cost: $10400

My husband's company paid for this mover, so I did not research them unfortunately. They gave us a 5 day delivery window and missed it by a day. We camped in our empty house waiting for them to come for six days. Our moving rep was uncooperative and even hostile at times. When we finally unpacked all of our items, we found items missing and broken, but most disturbing was that much of my jewelry went missing. Their movers packed all of our items, so it's hard to image the jewelry was "lost." Of course, much of it has sentimental value, including the earrings I wore at my wedding. I would much rather have my things than compensation, but imagine my outrage when I was offered $280 as settlement for my $1100 claim. I am heartbroken over my missing things, but I am shocked and angry at the incompetence and immorality of this company.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $22000

I hired Bekins in October 2017 to move me from CA to CO. I made the selection based on three estimates I got including Allied and United. Even though they were by far the most expensive of the three, the salesman that came to my house took his time going over what had to be moved which gave me gave me assurance that they would do the best job. There was two very important things I quizzed him about multiple times. One being if the move would be directly from my current house to my new house. I was told yes that it would. The other being the moving of my classic Triumph motorcycle without damage. I was assured that nothing would happen. I wanted a direct move because of all the horror stories I had read about what happens to house contents when they are transferred to a warehouse, they sit there, and then they’re reloaded again. I also have firsthand knowledge of what happens having worked in logistics for years. I was given assurances over and over on both accounts. When I asked what assurance I could have in addition to his word, I was told that I should buy the zero deductible insurance with full replacement, the delivery delay penalty, and increase the estimated value of the contents to cover the motorcycle. When I made my selection, I bit the bullet and paid the additional $500 to buy the additional coverage. So far so good right? WRONG! On the day before the move is scheduled I get an email informing me that they have not found a driver yet and they will be picking up the load and taking it to their warehouse until they can find a driver. I immediately start calling the sales rep who won’t pick up my calls or return my voice messages. I email the move coordinator and the sales rep stating my concern about the multiple handling that will be taking place and ask to increase the total value of the household to $45K and add an additional $15K just for the motorcycle. In addition, I filled out and submit an “Items of Extraordinary Value Inventory Form” for the motorcycle. While everything is being loaded I provide as much specific direction as I can to the foreman on the handling of the motorcycle and ask him to make sure that he helps when its being reloaded from the warehouse. First of all, even though I was given a 3 day delivery window, my load was delivered 15 days late and I think that happened only due to my constant bugging Bekins because I was living on a blowup mattress and two plastic crates. When the load was finally delivered, there were a number of items visibly damaged like crushed boxes, broken tables, ripped items etc. I was asked to sign a delivery acceptance for the motorcycle and told they couldn’t leave the it unless the document was signed. I did a visual inspection on the spot and signed the paperwork to spare more handling of the motorcycle. I contacted the move manager in IN about the damages and I was told I had 9 months to file a claim. Following that, I discovered additional damage, some of the shrink wrapped items were opened and items missing that were inside, and the worst of all, when I put gas back in the motorcycle and went to start it, it began dumping gas everywhere. I filed as complete and thorough a claim as I could, followed up on all the requests for additional information, estimates, etc. After that, the process has turned into a living nightmare. I was reimbursed for only some of the items with some of them at reduced costs (what happened to zero deductible full replacement?). Some of the items were not covered at all and I was told there was no proof they were shipped in the first place (essentially calling me liar) despite my explaining that these were items from the opened shrink wrapped packages. I went out of my way to locate an independent mechanic rather than going directly to a Triumph dealership which would not only charge an arm and a leg but would cost several hundred dollars in transport charges because the motorcycle is not rideable in its current condition. And despite me providing a statement of the potential damage and estimate from that mechanic for the motorcycle, I was told that there’s no proof the fuel leak was caused in the move (again calling me a liar), and that I took too long to file the claim (what happened to 9 months?), and that there was no proof the motorcycle worked when it was picked up (again calling me a liar), and that I didn’t provide any information the damage happened due to mishandling (LOL seriously?). I provided emails supporting everything I said, I was told, and took place, and my repeated and frantic protests to the last minute change in plans that the move wasn’t going to be picked up and delivered directly. Oh and also the claims management staff apparently doesn’t care a dissatisfied customer will be reviewing the company online in a negative light and costing the company many, many times more in lost revenue than the few hundred bucks to fix the problem.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4500

E hired Bekins based on their good faith estimate for our move. This estimate was given in our home after a thorough inspection of our possessions. Bekins sent 2 people to pack our 5 bedroom home, one of whom changed daily and was often their FIRST DAY ON THE JOB. THE PACKING WAS SHODDY AND THEY STAYED AT OUR HOME TILL 11PM the night before the move. STILL DID NOT REALLY COMPLETE THE JOB. The loaders and my family were still packing the morning the truck arrived.

Upon arrival at our new home we were told that the amount would be 40 PERCENT MORE and that we had to pay at least 10 percent of that ON THE SPOT or our items would not be unloaded. I contacted Bekins for weeks trying to resolve this financial dispute, and when I finally received a callback, they said since it is not a binding estimate we had to pay what they claimed we owed. I have spent months in dispute with them only to end up paying almost 30 percent more than quoted. DO NOT HIRE THIS COMPANY. THEY ENGAGE IN DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES AND YOU WILL HAVE NO RECOURSE OTHER THAN A LAWSUIT. Save yourself the hassle and lies and find a reputable mover.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $13000

This is just a fair warning for anyone else who is thinking of using Bekins for a cross-country move - get the most expensive insurance offered and keep your inventory papers! Maybe even make your own inventory.

My initial consultation in Oakland was fine. The packers and movers and the guy who was the lead mover in Oakland were pretty great.

But then after that as the saying goes "it was all downhill". They were mostly just pretty bad about communicating - I think because they outsource to local moving companies and are coordinating with so many different moving parts.

I had to keep calling to find out my delivery date and window in Brooklyn which is such a headache when you're moving cross-country and really wasn't sure who my main contact person was at that point. This is also not my first time moving cross-country. I've had several better experiences with Altair but I also had the most expensive insurance with them because I moved with a company so when something was damaged or went wrong, they just pay for it and correct it.

My very expensive bike never made it onto the truck from California to New York. I did storage for a few months before shipping my stuff east and I've seen other people say to be careful what you store in their warehouses. I'm not sure if and when it got stolen but that seems the most likely answer. However, because I only got the insurance that is 60 cents per pound - I only got $12 for my claim of $1000. BEWARE WHAT INSURANCE YOU CHOOSE.

My bed slabs also didn't initially make it but luckily they found them on the larger truck. Glad they did because I wouldn't have gotten any money for that.

I also ended up with someone else's loose shelves as a bonus - I hope that person got the better insurance.

Anywho, this is a good site to read a lot of angry reviews about them consumeraffairs.com/move…

Mostly just seems like they're disorganized and unless you buy the most expensive insurance you're taking a real chance with your stuff.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4100

We have done four major moves cross country in my lifetime we have used several large corporations with very little issue. This last move we chose BEKINS to move from Miami to Los Angeles. This is been the worst experience from start to finish. Not only were they not able to have enough room on one truck for all of our items, we had to wait for a second delivery truck to come a week later with our remaining belongings. During the course of the move several things were damaged including a spin bike, two floor lamps etc.. But the most alarming thing is I had over $24,000 worth of high-end watches and jewelry stolen from me. When I asked to have a list of all the names and contact information for the police report the moving company was not able to provide all the names of the people that were in my home. They allowed illegal Packers and movers in my home. It's very unsettling knowing that the people have not had background checks done and were able to steal my items without the company knowing who these people are without being able to track them. Total invasion of my privacy and security of my family. These people could probably come back at any given time to my home to rob or harm us. I made a police report and filed a claim with the moving company and all they want to do is settle for $445. This is absolutely ridiculous and it doesn't stop here! How can a major cooperation allow people into your home without credentials? Not acceptable. Not legal. Not ethical.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $24000