Family Van Lines

ZERO STARS! DO NOT USE FAMILY VAN LINES! I served in the military for 21+ years. During that time, I moved 10+ times. My move with Family Van Lines is the worst moving experience of my life. The moving crew DID NOT show up on the schedule start date. Instead, they showed up a day later and were not prepared. They ran out of truck space and decided to store half of my goods in a random storage locker. This led to my goods being handled several times without any visibility or accountability. After they placed half my goods in a random storage locker, they decided to tell me our bill was going to double the amount we were quoted. My goods were then delivered in 3 different shipments on 3 different dates. After unpacking, we discovered we were missing a KING SIZE mattress, all of my unopened military promotion bottles and several other items. We also discovered a lot damaged items. When I submitted my claim, I was denied for all and given a completely unacceptable excuse. Not only is Family Van Lines completely unprofessional and incompetent, but the claim company they use, CSI, is even worse! Once again, DO NOT USE FAMILY VAN LINES!!! If you have any questions, feel free to email me and I’ll share more disturbing details.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $26000

This is in an effort to save someone else from going through what I experienced. I was given a quote over the phone and when the movers came to move my belongings, I was informed that the quote was too low and that I had much more than I told them, which was not true I had 3 more pieces of furniture that I called and told them about. I was under so much stress and had only had a few days to hire another company to move me because my roommate had canceled the company we had originally hired. I had to move on this day and couldn’t change things at that point. I had paid a deposit of $1500 over the phone and after my furniture had beef loaded was told that I owed $1600 which I used Zelle to transfer the money to the company. l needed to have my belongings stored until I could find a place in Wilmington. I notified the company that I was ready to receive my things and on the day of the day they were going to deliver I received a phone call from the delivery person who told me that they had my things on a tractor trailer truck but that they couldn’t get into my driveway and would have to transfer things to a box truck and I would have to pay $500 more to them for that reason. I told himI didn’t understand why I had to pay more because they couldn’t bring a 18wheeler into my driveway and that if they had to they probably could but he insisted that it would not work and if I had questions I could call the office. I did called the office and spoke to the man who had coordinated the delivery and I told him I was concerned about the truck fee and asked him if that was how they did things and he said that was very normal. So I thought there was nothing to be done. I had to borrow the money because it was more than I had thought I would owe. They were still on the road when I called to check on them and so out was dark, I told him to just make the delivery the next morning. When they arrived he told me that I would have to pay them before they would unload my things which I did by using Zelle as before, for the amount of $1658. I felt I had no other recourse and was grateful that I had been able to borrow the $500. All in all the movers did a very good job of unloading and I have given them a positive review. I was their only and last delivery and they immediately left Wilmington to go home to New Jersey because it was the 31st new year’s eve! I have continued to be concerned about the extra fee I had to pay and the fact that they were going straight home. It seems to me that they wouldn’t wanted to be in an empty 18 wheeler

truck in any case! I just feel that I shouldn’t have been charged $500 more!

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: 4323AED

I accepted a job in Cordova, Tennessee in September and moved from Atlanta to Cordova in the 1st week of Oct. I contracted with a national moving company, First National Van Lines, and paid them $2,960 as an advance via credit card. At no time during our conversations did FNVL representatives reveal to me that they were also brokers and would NOT be the carrier to move me to Memphis.

A carrier called Family Van Lines (FVL) arrived at my house and informed me that FNVL had sent them and the $2,960 already paid to FNVL had no bearing on what FVL would charge me for the move. FNVL would not answer any of my phone calls. Since I had to start work in Cordova on Oct 10, I had to agree to FVL's terms of $8,000+.

When I arrived in Cordova 24 hours later (Monday 3rd), I discovered that the rental property that I had leased was uninhabitable from a health and safety perspective (mold etc). The FVL truck had not yet arrived but arrived on Wed, 5th. I was only able to lease a new property after 48 hours, so I asked FVL to wait. There was no response.

When I finally got the keys to a rental in Cordova on the morning of Thursday, Oct 6th, FVL informed me that they had already offloaded my belongings. For a period of 7 weeks after that, they lied to me saying that the cargo was in a storage unit that was 3 miles from my address in Cordova.

We discovered that FVL is legally registered in NJ, owned by Eastern European nationals, but the customer service reps(DesmondHarris) are based in California.

I hired a mediator to resolve this matter with FVL. She was finally told in the last week of November that the cargo was actually in a storage unit in Nashville, which is 200 miles and 3 hours from my address in Cordova.

Over the last 4 weeks, 3 versions of the agreement (minor changes were made to verbiage by them) were agreed to. Shayne immediately signed every version. FVL has always refused to sign at the last minute on some pretext or the other but never objecting to the amount of $3,750.

There was never an unwillingness to pay FVL on our part. We would have paid them the estimated $8,000 if they had delivered to our home in Cordova and we are ready to pay them $3,750 today if we can get possession of our belongings from the storage unit in Nashville.

Our passports, family photo albums and other personal effects are also in the storage unit in Nashville.

We believe that FVL has no intention of returning our possessions, regardless of our willingness to pay.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $8000