Bekins Van Lines

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