Cita Van Lines Inc

Their packing service was a lifesaver. The entire crew was helpful, understanding, and adaptable throughout the whole process, and they made the move a breeze. They packed everything neatly and securely, and they labeled everything clearly. They also handled everything with care and respect, and they did not waste any time or resources. They were very courteous and cooperative, and they made sure we were satisfied with their work. They made our relocation stress-free and enjoyable.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4320

Extensive damages to our furniture and boxes: antique furniture that is completely damaged that was wrapped when put on the truck and unwrapped when arriving, antique bed frame (unwrapped) with poster snapped in half and taped together, missing boxes, mattresses and box springs either unwrapped (I was told they would be wrapped when they arrived at the warehouse) or the wrapping was ripped exposing the mattress, missing section of a desk, missing pieces of a drafting table and Adirondack chair that was loaded intact that at some point were taken apart and now are unusable, a reclining chair that is now broken, wood furniture that was simply taped together causing damage to the furniture as well as the finish, pieces of furniture that clearly fell off and were put into our children's plastic bin of clothing by someone. Virtually every piece of furniture has some damage to them, even those that were blanket wrapped-and many of the blankets had tears in them as well, exposing the furniture underneath. Nearly ALL boxes were smashed and damaged, and we are missing boxes that contained precious heirlooms. We expect a few things to go wrong, but not to this extent. Also, the driver of the truck bullied us into signing lading form & attempted to hold our furniture hostage when we were upset about the state of the items. He then left without us being able to go through the inventory together (we did not sign). Even he acknowledged that the loading of the truck was unprofessional. Cita has not returned our phone calls now & has repeatedly not given us forms to fill out a claim after saying they would. They showed up significantly late to pick up the furniture and under prepared (not enough room in the truck or covers for the bedding) despite knowing the size of our order (having received half of the down payment). We have over 200 photos of damaged goods, which can be seen here: We want a full refund as the service was horrible.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $21000

Contracted through Safe Ship.

The Cita Van lines Driver and one assistant showed up 30 min outside the window (at 630 pm). When asked where the packers were, he told me that had already timed out for the day, and he didn’t really know how he and the other gentleman would do all this alone. He then took almost 45 min to redo the estimate completed by Safe Ship which he calculated as over 800 more cubics than our Safe Ship estimate.

When asked to provide what was missed in the disclosures both the driver, a representative at Safe Ship, 2 managers at Cita, and a manger at Safe Ship agreed that the disclosures were right but claimed my items were “oversized” from the computer estimator. But not so oversized that I was being charged extra for them (no large entertainment center, normal size couch, no oversized bed frames). Even accounting for large pieces of furniture that were disclosed but we ended up getting rid of before the move, none of the representatives could provide me with a detailed explanation of how the original estimate only accounted for half of my household and therefore added an additional $6k+ to my amount due.

After 3 hrs of back and forth, the ultimate resolution was a “generous” discount of $1k off from one company and $2k off from the other n the absurd overage and “wait and see” what the final number was before signing the papers and then decide if I wanted to move it myself or hire someone else but I had no way to cancel at this point without forfeiting my deposit but there was no way to give me more info on what accounted for the discrepancy. But he assured us that they were all professionals and knew what they are doing.

I finally agreed, as I had a move timeline, but it was so late at night that we had to reschedule for the next day at 8 am, still assuring me that a crew of 5 could be done “on time” when I questioned how they could possibly have gotten it done on the scheduled day with the crew starting at 6 pm (and not taking into consider time outs on labor).

During the payment process that evening, the Driver specifically mentioned that sometimes customers have issues with banks approving payments, and they have had to have customers stop at their banks. After this comment he then suggested that we split the payment between 2 different cash apps (which is a red flag for money laundering or fraud which is why the banks flag it).

The movers came at 8 am as promised with 5 people, none of them experienced packers. I was assured this entire process would be done around noon,it took until 5 pm. Watching things be loaded, and noticing the number of wardrobe boxes coming from main floor living spaces. I was already concerned about the condition of our items

They called multiple times once they got to the move location attempting to encourage me to accept delivery early (immediately) despite the move being scheduled for 3 weeks of storage as we hadn’t yet closed on the house and were living in a hotel.

The day of delivery was actually worse than pick up. A different driver showed up with two assistants. After already having gouged a wall and scratch the stair riser so deeply the laminate came up, I was then faced with an argument over moving the couch upstairs (the last item after already having moved two dressers upstairs). The driver claimed the stairs of this new construction home were too narrow to fit the standard couch upstairs. I pointed out that he could remove the feet of the couch if it wanted more wiggle room. In his opinion this was irrational as the previous crew had packed it with them on. He wanted me to text him and his boss an attestation releasing him of ALL damage liability, otherwise he wasn’t touching the couch. He further insisted it was “basic geometry, that I obviously don’t know” before turning to my husband and telling him he “had better control his woman”.

Under his protest, his assistants got sick of him arguing with me and his boss and just picked up the couch and headed upstairs with no further instance.

Thousands of dollars in property damage. It’s easier to list the items that escaped their wrath than the extensive list of damages (damaged beyond repair and requiring replacement including solid wood tables reduced to splinters). As I also suspected, the crew got sick of packing at one point and resorted to shoving everything in wardrobe boxes. Items from the office were casually put in these large boxes with little to no padding around anything remotely breakable.

Despite all of this, we have been informed after 6 months that insurance only covers 60¢ per their estimated lb of those items damaged…..$100….

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $15000

Cita failed to comply with multiple federal regulations specifically designed to protect consumers from scammers. Below I have provided bulleted summaries of my experience.

• Federal law requires that a moving company provide the booklet “Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move” and the brochure “Ready to Move.” Cita conveniently failed to provide either of these.

• Federal regulations require the Bill of Lading to be signed 3 days prior to the move. I received it on pick-up day, and was told to sign a bunch of forms without being told what I was signing or given the opportunity to read and understand what I was agreeing to. I was under the impression I was only signing an estimate increase.

• Cita charged by volume instead of weight (easier to manipulate and harder to verify). On the day of the move, they falsely claimed that I had too much stuff and increased the broker estimate of 450cf to 595cf. After delivery, I measured all of my boxes and bins generously to avoid under-estimating, and came to 330cf, just over half of Cita’s estimate. I was charged a $2300 fee for this significant over-estimate (which I’ve since learned is not a reputable practice). The combination of this bogus fee and the surplus 265cf resulted in an over-charge of $3492.50.

• I booked my move a month in advance based on Metro Hop’s verbal promise of a 3-5 day delivery window. The contract, however, had a 30 business day (6 week) delivery window built into it, which was never disclosed to me. It ultimately took 27 days for my belongings to arrive, causing significant additional personal cost and lost wages.

• Cita communication is TERRIBLE. On pick-up day, the driver knew of my 3-5 day delivery expectation and failed to disclose the 30 day window in my contract. It wasn’t until I called 3 days later that I learned I had been misinformed. At that point, I was told that standard delivery was 7-14 days. Calls often went unanswered or straight to voicemail which were never returned. At one point I was told a driver had been assigned, only to be told after a week of calls going straight to voicemail, that a driver had in fact NOT been assigned. It was only after the 7-14 day window had passed that I was informed of the 30 day delivery window on my contract. They could not tell me why I had been told 7-14 days.

• Cita tricked me into signing away adequate liability coverage for my belongings by omitting verbiage, required by federal regulations, from their estimate form to notify clients of coverage options. Instead, the liability form was hidden amidst multiple papers I was told to sign without any explanation. On that particular form I was specifically told to sign on the line waiving full value protection, without being alerted to the the second option for full protection.

• On delivery, multiple boxes and bins, including those labeled as fragile, were caved in, crushed, or upside down, as if they’d been aggressively thrown around. Loose items that had been wrapped in moving blankets had no identification on them, requiring me to unwrap them and confirm they were mine.

Instead of the 2 TV boxes I was charged for, my TVs were wrapped in a moving blanket with a piece of cardboard taped over the front. As a result of this inadequate protection, my 50” smart TV was cracked in multiple places. Other major damage and missing items included multiple holes and rips in my mattress, a broken plate I got from my dad, and a missing luxury desk chair. My most valued possession, a drawing done by my late father, was nearly lost as well until I noticed it was missing and was able to locate the box on the truck.

• Upon delivery, they did not accept all forms of payment that were outlined in my contract, and refused delivery unless I used the 2 forms of payment they accepted. This cost me an additional fee to transfer the funds from the form I’d intended to use, to the one they accepted. Why is it that I’m forced to adhere to the contract, but the movers aren’t?

• My initial contract included a flight of stairs. At delivery, the mover showed me where Cita had, without my knowledge, changed the wording so that 7 steps = 1 flight, so that moving anything beyond the first level was an additional charge.

In summary, Cita charged me over $4,000 (not including costs incurred from unexpected delay, lost wages, and lost/damaged belongings) to hold my belongings hostage for a month, and do the bare minimum in moving them out of and into my home. This was not a service, this was theft, pure and simple, confirmed by their failure to comply with federal regulations.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4700

Moved from NE to TX. The movers showed up with a different quote than what we had most recently so we and the movers sat around for an hour and a half waiting for a response from their manager (who was asleep we found out) to go forward with the move. The movers themselves were nice, patient and moved my stuff relatively quickly and safely so kudos to the guys doing the ACTUAL job.

The problems only started there. The delivery time was supposed to be 2-4 days, turned up being 7 days. They said early on multiple times they would give me a 48 hour notice of a move in window (date and time). I then called EVERY DAY to see if they have an update so I can be sure to be there for the move in and oversee damages and let them in. They never had a delivery date and time and by the time they gave me one it was 1230pm the day before for a 9am delivery. I was still in NE waiting to hear back from them so I can drive down with my family and prepare for move in (rather than spending hundreds a night in a hotel). I called them immediately and eventually they told me that they would be able to delay the delivery to the following day, so we decided the next day to drive out of state to be there the morning of the move with keys in hand.

Then the REAL problems started. On the drive down they called me asking me to let them in because they were outside the apartment at 1030am. I had to pull off the road and go back and forth for AN HOUR with their undertrained and careless manager. She was extremely disrespectful, talked over me and kept saying there is nothing she can do (Mind you I was very calm and trying to work it out but she was trying her best to escalate emotions and panic). SHe said I pay a $650 delay fee or they movers will drop my items in storage nearby. WTF!?

I called my TX location and the owner there was kind enough to assist and let the movers in and show them where to go. That being said, the movers were then looking to move our items in while it was raining. Then, since I was not on site to pay the movers directly I had to pay remotely which was a hassle itself but eventually got it out and the movers moved in.

When I arrived, I noticed that ALL the furniture that was taken down to be moved and PROMISED to be reassembled on site.... NONE of it was reassembled. My best guess is I wasn't there to help them locate the screws and bolts that the previous movers taped around the different disassembled furniture. I could understand that if we werent there and they didnt know where the items were to reassemble that they would avoid it, but they NEVER called, texted, or asked me directly where it was to reassemble.

Lastly, without giving away too much information, I overpaid the movers and when I requested a return of the separate overpayment they had the audacity to give me the run around for over a week and then at the end state that they never got it. I had to then issue a legal challenge and BAM my money was returned in a few days. Worst experience moving ever. Would absolutely stay away NO MATTER WHAT. If you go through a broker or third party mover, ask their delivery and if CITA comes up, you should stop right there and find someone else.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5000

I hope you read this before you have hired them. Overall I had a terrible experience with Planet Van Lines of 109 S Kings Hwy, Myrtle Beach, SC. Firstly, they are using the DOT number of Cita Van Lines Inc, DOT 2957415, MC 2708, of 180 Ne 12th Ave #16b Hallandale, FL. That shouldn’t be allowed.

Whatever they ‘quote’ you, increase it by at least 50% to 100% and add four weeks because that ‘quote’ they provide is not real. They are providing you with a template with example figures that do not apply to you. The moving company only goes by the text and not the figures on the quote. Every figure that looks fixed, they tell you is fixed, or you thought you negotiated as fixed, they immediately add a text clause in the contract to negate their quoted figure. When they tell you to not worry about it, you should worry about it. When they state in the contract that this is a “This Is A Full Service Professional Move”, it is not.

Here are some issues you will encounter:

-At the pickup the ‘adjusted’ total amount will be over 100% their ‘quote’, and they will blame you for it. They intentionally under-estimate the volume needed for your move and avoid discussing the separate extra charges for stairs, shuttles, or having a driveway. They filled in figures as if fixed that preempted the text, but they do not. These are stereotypical salespeople providing the space estimate that have no accountability for the accuracy of their actions. You will end up paying dearly for it.

Regardless of what you negotiate, they will end up charging extra $10.72 per stair, an extra $7.13 per cubic foot for their under-estimate mistake and errors, and a $1,500 shuttle fee because they refuse to drive to your location with the real truck (basically charging you for a $100 U-Haul).

After that there is little to no communication, and when you do call they screen their calls. Their customer service puts you on hold, and then returns with no information almost every time. They always say they will call back, but don’t. They blame some ‘dispatch’ person that is not allowed to speak to you. I had to call from several numbers just to get someone to pick up.

Just to get me off the phone for a few days they twice told me a driver and date my belongings would arrive, and both times were a lie. They avoided me for days after those (no answer). The driver information they provided me was fake, and he said he did not have my belongings (because he likely was not a driver).

They have a separate number that called me back on the pickup day though, and its caller ID came up as ‘’Better Bus Buru” from 208-994-3154.

But my belongings are now four weeks late, I have filed a complaint with the FMCSA and BBB, today I will file with the Florida Attorney General, and have to file a police report now. I’ve likely been scammed and need to file an insurance claim.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $11000