Cardinal Van Lines

DO NOT use cardinal van lines. They are a scam. They gave me a quote of $3,500 and said I’d have a full 26’ truck for all my stuff. On my sheet it even says that they’d be moving 30 boxes, 3 dressers, 2 dining tables, 2 book shelves, a large upright freezer,and2couches.They get there and say oh for the whole truck it’s going to be an extra $5,000 and wouldn’t be delivered until 2 weeks after the agreed upon date. When I tried to cancel they said I’d lose my $1,600 deposit. DO NOT USE!

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3460

Company is a piece of work...they are not a moving company they are a broker company. They give you a cheap price because they severely under price you for the amount of items you have. They priced my 4 bedroom 2 story house at 885 cubic square feet. I am not a mover I do not know what that looks like I told them the 82 items that I had and that is what they "estimated" my load. When the actual moving company came (sky van line 10/10 would recommend) they let me know the bad news. The original cost that I was given was severely under estimated and the truck that they brought wouldn't even be big enough to move all of my furniture. So new price is close to 3x the price quoted went from about $6400 to over $17000. Needless to say I was very upset so I called the customer service number to which I was connected with the most unprofessional rude lady who then pretty much told me that I signed a contract and it wasn't there problem. Now this is putting it lightly from how she actually spoke to me, even the movers who was standing with me while on the phone was appalled at her behavior, and when asked to speak to a manager SHE HUNG UP ON ME. Also there was no way to cancel and get the 2k deposit back just because we refused service. Never in my life will I ever recommend this company.

The moving company who did show up said this is very standard for broker companies like this because of the fact that they are just looking to make the sale and even if you cancel they still get your deposit.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $17000

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. There is a good reason that they do not allow you to cancel after 72 hours. The movers they hired trashed my property with other people trash and belongings because their truck couldn't fit some extra boxes. The movers never said it would be a problem other than increasing the price which I expected. They then held my items hostage for 3 weeks and no one would answer the customer service line and the salesperson went MIA. Turned out the third party movers were waiting for more money from me but no one let me know that. Our items were damaged, dirty and missing. I cannot warn you enough. DO NOT USE CARDINAL VAN LINES.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $6000

Cardinal Van Lines website for Florida does NOT show they are a broker. They sold my contract3x. I didn’t even talk to one company & they charged me $700! The other company Ocean Moving & Storage highjacked my belongings. Cardinal says you have to electronically sign to lock in dates & get discount then they don’t send you the contact in Promised email. Mason & Travis will team up & promise the discount & dates but all the while lie to you. My move wasn’t done on time, they broke my furniture, they were late when they finally showed up & stayed until 9:30pm. Upon arrival it was another $2645 or they kept belongings. My Firm Bonded Quote of $4817.13 ended up costing $8,290.00! Do not use these companies. Cardinal Van Lines will be hearing from my attorney. They are liars & thieves stay away from this company as well as Ocean Moving & Storage in Florida & American Standard Moving & Storage who will randomly bill your credit card! I never even talked to this company but Cardinal must have given them my credit card because on the dispute the ONLY signature they could use was the Cardinal Van Lines contract. These 3 companies deserves minus 5 stars, they are crooks. I will pay my lawyer just to expose them.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $8290

Rudest Customer Service Manager to deal with (Karen). Today is day 43 and we still do not have our stuff. The owner will not get on the phone to discuss and they owe me $400 in a Zelle payment which I have emails from 2 different people in their company stating I would get and still haven't received.

I have an entire review of my experience, but the number of characters are limited to completely share my experience.

Do not use this company under any circumstances! They will tell you everything you want to hear up front to get the business and then have the absolute worst service. Countless lies and not showing up is part of what we have experienced.

Again, their 4.6 rating is a joke! If I could give a zero, I would have!

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $8400

I echo the poor service by this company. Long story short its been over two months, not all my things have been delivered - first time they said that it was because the truck was full - why they didn't sent a bigger truck is beyond me.. then the second time they came to deliver the "pending items", but still they have several pieces missing and they cant give me a clear answer if they in fact have my things.

Cardinal Van lines completely pushes the problem away to the carrier. Understanding that they are a third party broker, they do not assume any risk and do not help at all solve the situation. I have to submit a claim and not even then they are responsible - they say I need to submit a claim for the transportation company and not them.

Also they had extensive damage at the pickup origin and are asking me to call my insurance - NO, this should come from their pocket.

My recommendation is that never use a broker, deal directly with the transportation company and read all the fine prints and ask questions. they also charged me more because my things were more than the estimate, even though i am not an expert on estimating.

Even the driver who deliver admitted that they took my things, unload them and took out the protection - several of my things damaged upon delivery - they dont answer the phone or reply to emails - total disrespect and poor customer service. Stay away.. I learned my lesson.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $9000

They farm out to secondary moving companies without vetting them. Resulting in lost, broken, scratched, disassembled items missing parts. Extremely poor communication between Cardinal and their contractors about dates and manpower to deliver your mishandled and destroyed furnishings and unreplaceable memorabilia. They accept no responsibility for their shoddy practices with pat emails of apology and absolutely no action. My only recourse after contacting the BBB is to warn everyone on social media. Beware of them!!!!

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $18000

I used this company to move form CA to GA.

They are a broker who had my move handled by Sky Van Lines... I expected to be working with them and choose them based on their reviews but I was WRONG. They farm out to 2nd parties with out vetting them and then accept NO responsibility in the shoddy handling of your items, or the poor communication on what is expected of the secondary moving companies.

I was also criminally under quoted, when the movers came they demanded +50% or $2000 more!

Please stop giving your business to fraudulent companies. My stuff was picked up on 8/11 and as of 9/15 had YET to leave California. I was sleeping on the floor for a month. It was just delivered on 9/26, with missing and broken items.

This company is a scam that demands large cash payments and will tell you what ever you want to hear to get your business. They are not legit. Do not use them!

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4500

Cardinal Van Lines is a Scam and they are not moving Company. They are broker which is very important to know. They don't own any trucks and not responsible for anything. Their deceptive business practice was to give you an estimate way under to lock you in to pay down deposit. Once you pay deposit, you won't be able to get your money back. In addition, they will say to do another check closer your moving date. Then, they will jack up your estimate right before you move. You can't even take your money out. On your moving date, their subcontracted company will come and even up their cost. By then, you really get stuck and have no way out if you are required to move out of your house. On the date that we moved, we have less times than the original estimate, and our costs went up by 9K. The original estimate was 6K, and we ended up paying 19K at the end. We fought and they agree to give us rebate for 1K, after two months, still haven't got the money yet.

Also, all the reviews were fake.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $19000

Cardinal Van Lines is not the moving company. They serve as a middle man for other moving companies, at least they did in my case. They outsourced to “unlimited moving” which had worse reviews than Cardinal. Cardinal did not tell me that before after I signed the contract. That created more problems than I can describe, going between two different moving companies who do not care in the slightest about your move. My delivery date that we agreed upon was 10/1- 10/3 because that was the date we closed on the new house. Cardinal said they would not be a problem because of the size of our move and it would not take longer than five days to get to our new home.

Once I signed the contract and set up a time for them to come pick up my possessions, Cardinal would not take my call nor respond to messages. Which I found odd because I thought they were the ones picking up my stuff. Come to find out, it was another company that showed up on the moving day. Which was very concerning and upsetting. Like it was a scam. The scam came an hour later when that moving company charge me an extra $6,200. They said although the itinerary was 100% accurate, cardinal underestimated the cubic footage of my stuff.

I was told I would have a truck to myself because we had so many items in our two-story house, and it would be a semi truck. Unlimited Moving showed up in a large budget truck and said they would have to bring another large budget truck the next day to finish up the load. To be fair, the loaders were very hard working and professional. When signing the paperwork, I noticed that it said our stuff would not arrive for 2 to 3 weeks after the agreed-upon date of arrival. I shared with them what cardinal promised me and they said they were sorry but that is how long it takes. And that our stuff will just sit in storage until they could find someone to drive it to our new home.

We moved from Illinois to SC. It was a two story house with a finished basement. They updated quote with all our items (including 94 boxes of stuff) was $17,200. When the movers from Unlimited move-in got to our house, our final price went up to $23,670. Again, I asked how that could be and what could be done because the list was 100% complete and that’s not my problem. And they said to move forward with the move and for them to move my stuff, they had to charge me that much or not move me.

Several expensive items were damaged or missing despite our several hundred dollars worth of bubble wrap, foam padding and heavy duty boxes. Even things such as our $500 smokeless fire pit, which is metal. There are three HUGE dents on all sides, like they purposely threw it down stairs.

Our stuff, including my 1 year old’s stuff was 2 1/2 weeks late. They finally showed in two large trucks again. One was a day late despite following the first truck. How does that happen??

Anything that can go wrong with these companies, happens. Try to find any other moving company.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $23700

If you want to be told one thing and then experience something completely different from what you were told, then this is for you! "It's in the contract" is my favorite customer service response to being told one thing and having them continually add on fees when we were told the price was locked in and accounted for the overage. If the inventory is not exact they will charge more even though the sales rep assured otherwise because..., "it's there in the contract". Well, I want to do business with people that do what they say and don't mislead you. So they got our money this time but will never get it again and we will never recommend their service

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6000

Company gave us an est of $1994.43 for small move from Mo to Va.We added 20 boxes and extra charge of $600. Showed up after 5pm on a Fri.Wanted to charge 80 Cu feet for a dryer and a small book shelf(acc 12 cu ft) and upped the cost to over $5300.We sent them packing (found them sleeping at end of our driveway) My 2 sons and I loaded a 16 ft U-haul (I'm 71 yrs old) with space left over approx 600-650 cu feet total.This Co is terrible and I think they write their own positive reviews. They are TERRIBLE and would NOT recommend them to anyone.Won't return my calls or answer my e-mails either and are refusing to refund my daughters $600 deposit. These are the kinds of business's that need to be closed down and ran out of our country !!!!

Move size: Studio Service cost: $5300

I would give 0 stars if I could. I was originally told that they would arrive Friday or Saturday. They came on Thursday. They also upcharged me significantly even though I had exactly what was on my inventory list. They also said they don't accept credit cards and asked me to us Zelle. Felt strange to Zelle a "reputable" company. More problems arose when I tried to figure out when my stuff would be delivered. The reason I chose this company was because I was originally told I could expect my items 5-7 business days from pick up. When I called later I was told 7-14 business days from pick up. Someone else told me 2-10 business days from the date I put on the form as first possible delivery date. They also don't know where my items are. They keep saying "a secure warehouse" but it seems like they just don't know. I feel lied to and manipulated into giving them my business.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $1800

This is a broker and not an actual moving company. They should have told us. They then use moving companies that do the actual moving with bad reviews so once the get their cut they are no longer as helpful and when they do finally answer they blame the other company though they were the once who made all the promises. Stuff got their eventually but not when promised so we just sat around waiting for 4 days. This is a bait and switch so beware. You get what you pay for as they say

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2300

DO NOT BOOK WITH THESE CRIMINALS! This was booked through a third party, and they would not give their name to me prior to the move which should have been my first red flag. I was quoted $1,600 for a very minimal move across NYS. They arrived earlier than anticipated and was strategic so their office or the broker was not open yet to call while they scammed me. As the main mover walked around my apartment hey would said Hey, this is really nice, how much is this costing you? and taking inventory of my items. He Assured me before they loaded my items that it would be the same agreed cost and I would get my items the next day. After my items were loaded and he kept pushing how much do I pay in rent which I did NOT give up, he then charged me 2X!! $3,200 unless I tipped him and his 2 workers $75 in cash. They took 3 loads to the truck and worked for 20 minutes. I told him I was NOT comfortable with that and he held me, hostage, in my apartment while I had to walk around town as he demanded more and more cash on the spot. He was so degrading and condescending and completely scammed me. He held me and my items hostage until I could come up with the cash and would not leave my apartment until we agreed to his terms. When I finally got him to leave and made his demands, his company did not answer the phone for a week and told me I should have called the police and confirmed they were AOK hiring criminals. When my items did arrive, it was if a different truck they showed up at 10PM without warning and all of my boxes were completely crushed and damaged. They had so many hidden charges and fees for the police coming and moving the truck which were never disclosed. I WISH I COULD GIVE THEM 0 STARS! TERRIBLE SERVICE. I feel totally violated I was scammed, screamed at, and taken advantage of. These people need to be out of business.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3600

I found out after that they subcontract your move other companies. I had Instamove from Birmingham Alabama.

I was called and was asked if they could pick up my furniture, put it in storage in Florida (where it was being moved to) and it would be brought to me within 3 days of being called for. As a courtesy to them, I allowed it. I had paid Cardinal 30% already. When the moving truck arrived I was told I needed to pay about %30 percent more than I was quoted. I really had no recourse but to do this as I was already put over $800. My house was closing on 3/31. I repeatedly called Cardinal for days before to tell them to please deliver on the 31st or 04/01. They would never answer. Finally, by a miracle, I got an answer. I was told my furniture was still in Birmingham and I had to wait for a truck heading here before they would load and deliver it.

It arrived on 04/18. We had to buy a futon just to have somewhere to sleep. My furniture was squashed and wedged in the middle of the truck. It was pulled out with no real regard for its care. I found 3 broken items and a missing part of a bed fram before they left. Now every day I find cracks or chips on multiple items. I was so completely stressed out by this move I did not take the time to carefully inspect each and every item. I have moved multiple times and this is by far the worse move I have ever had.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $2400

The movers were efficient, friendly, hard-working. And honestly, they found several hundred dollars which I had inadvertently left lying around in the furniture to be moved. They immediately returned it to me. The company made boxes and some packing material available to us at no cost. They showed a great amount of patience while setting up in our new home, making sure I was happy with where they put the furniture. It was a very easy moving experience. I will recommend them.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4177

Feel as though I have been completely taken advantage of by this company and could not recommend them to anyone. Whenever I booked my move, I was told it would be $1500 and three to four days before I receive my things for a Pennsylvania to Florida move. Now, after paying double than what they said I would be paying, I am told it could be up to 14 days before I even receive my things, and that’s only after they picked everything up.

Scott Thomas on the phone only told me what I wanted to hear, took my money, and has been unhelpful since. They contract your job out to another company and after they get their deposit, they don’t care to deal with you at all. They didn’t ask for the size of my boxes so because of this, the movers said I would be paying extra. Another thing I was never told about was that I needed to have CASH or VENMO ready for when the actual movers arrived. If I had planned on using a credit card, I would have been completely out of luck.

And now it is incredibly difficult to get anyone on the phone with the status of my belongings and it is now days after my projected delivery date with no word from them without me calling relentlessly. Every time I get someone on the phone, they say I will receive another phone call later in the day to discuss my issues and that never happens. I am being given the runaround while this company refuses to tell me where my belongings are and when I will get them. The non transparency of this company is appalling and I have only been treated terribly by them and receiving no help in regards to all of the items they entrusted me with that is apparently now in a warehouse somewhere and not even on its way to me.

I was supposed to start working a few days after arriving (as soon as I had my things delivered to me), but I was never told that could be up to two weeks from my pickup date and now I am left without a way to make money seeing as they have all of my equipment (I’m a massage therapist and they have my table.) Considering their lack of concern about my timeframe, my money, and all of my things that I entrusted them with, I am honestly very worried about whether my items will arrive to me in decent condition now. Friends of mine had a job booked with them a week after me but after they saw how unprofessional Cardinal Van Lines is and how dishonest they were about price and time frame, they were able to cancel their job and receive their deposit back as this company KNOWS they are making promises they won’t keep.

Please save yourself money and peace of mind and do not use this company. They will rip you off and then say everything was only an estimate. Guaranteed all of these wonderful reviews are bought because both myself and my friends experienced nothing but terrible service from them.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2910