First National Van Lines

Our experience with First National Van Lines was subpar. The original broker of our contract misled us regarding how the belongings would be packaged and what would be included in the pricing. The movers showed up and wanted to charge extra to move what was already listed on the contract. Because of the language barrier, we spent half our day going back and forth with corporate. When the items arrived, every box contained something that had broken in transit. And the beds were not accurately re-assembled. I would not recommend this company.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2498

First National Moving was one of the worst experiences my family I have ever experienced.

I’m not even going to get into the first half of the experience, but I’m going to walk you through the events that unfolded with the delivery, unloading and unpacking.

PII:

First off, I got a call from our driver (same person who loaded the truck), trying to guilt me that he was working because he was supposed to be on vacation, I don’t see how that’s my problem but ok. He goes on to tell me that they will not deliver my families belongings unless I filled out a form he said he was emailing me. Once I got the email, it was just a basic word doc, asking for ALL my PII (Personal Identifiable Information) name, address, credit card infomration, CVV, signature, and Drivers license information. Now I’m not sure how many of you are aware, but this is a huge violation of consumer privacy practices in how PII is being handled. They are not allowed to store or have on going access to anyone’s credit card information and I was being forced to email it to a contract trucker for hire.

The hired help:

They assured me they are the best, and they have the best guys who will help us, etc etc. and when they showed up to unload the truck these people confirmed they were hired off Craigslist. None of them knew what they were doing, they stripped screws when reassembling things, and broke door and window frames throughout the process. One of the movers showed up with his wife and she kept asking people for rides until my wife felt so uncomfortable she finally got a Uber to get both of them off the property.

Unpacking:

This was the most unprofessional job I’ve ever seen. They basically just dumped stuff in boxes. They literally put dishes in a box, and either put or dumped a container of oatmeal that was spilled everywhere. They did the same thing with our daughters play sand container, just threw it in a box and it broke open so it was leaking everywhere in the house. Oh, and you know those tall garment boxes, with the bar at the top to hang clothes on when you move? We had a bunch of those…that they never put the bar in, they just threw all our hanging clothes in the boxes until they piled up to the top and taped it up, so that was really cool. Plus we are missing a ton of random stuff that we cannot even claim because you need pictures and I have no idea how to even begin to start a claim for things we cannot find even though we have opened and unpacked every box. Also, I cannot find our checks that I had in my desk, so I had to call the bank and cancel those, again, I am extremely worried about ID fraud coming out of this whole process.

Insurance:

So as I went to file my insurance claim, I discovered that I did not dig into this enough and found that items that were damaged are reimbursed at .60 cents per POUND. Nothing to do with the actual price of the item; just take whatever the item is, weigh it, and multiply that by .6. So if you have a $1,000 stereo that weights 10 pounds you would get $6. Most of the items I was going to claim are under a pound so there isn’t a reason to go through the process. My rep kept referring to the coverage saying “you have $115K in insurance coverage, do you think that’s enough?” To which I obviously said yes, but that is not how they calculate the payout.

This was extremely stressful and painful; and when I say that I’m not talking about the move, I’m talking about First National. I was so stressed I would wake up in the middle of the night just worrying about this and whether or not our stuff would make it to our new house.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $17000

Initially, at the time of sale with First National Van Lines, Jordan in Sales told us that the disassembly of our beds and desks was included in our pricing along with professional packaging/furniture padding for our TVs, Monitors, wall art, furniture, and mattresses. Jordan also told us that First National Van Lines was not a Brokerage and does not outsource to other moving companies. This later turned out to be false.

The moving company (Wild Safari Moving) called me the day before our scheduled pickup date (Friday, January 12th) to provide the time of pickup for the 13th. The estimated arrival window we were provided was between 10 am and 12 pm on January 13th. We had to call multiple times to see where the movers were at because it was now 1 pm and no one provided an update. The movers finally arrived around 3 pm.

They arrived in a rental Penske truck with little to no packaging materials. They also didn’t lay down any plastic or protective covering to protect floors/walls from damage. The men showed up without an Allen wrench or basic tools and they asked us to go to the store to buy tools because all of ours were already packed away in the truck. So, we went to Menards and bought some basic tools, and borrowed a screw gun from a family member close by. We ended up having to disassemble our bed frames and desks because there were not enough workers to complete the job in a timely matter (there were only 2 people for a 3 bed 3 bath 1900 sq ft townhome). Total pickup took 6.5 hours to complete. During delivery, we were then told they wouldn’t help us re-assemble our beds because we had done it ourselves and it was a liability. We were pigeonholed in this situation and were forced to do the work ourselves once again late that night.

We called John Allen from First National Van Lines who works in Dispatch immediately to let him know that our belongings were not being properly packaged. He was very quick to dismiss our concerns and told us to “trust the process”.

Like the pickup, there were not enough resources when they arrived for delivery. This time, there was only 1 worker to move in all our belongings. The moving company ended up calling two people locally to help at the last minute; they arrived 3 hours late. Once again, the movers didn’t put down any protective padding for flooring or walls during pickup and delivery. We now have a couple of small dings on the walls of our new home. After watching them drop our dinette table in our doorway and continuously hit the table against our door and walls, I asked them to leave it where it was, and I dismantled it to move it myself.

At the time of delivery, I sent images to Kenny (at Wild Safari Moving) to let him know of the damage and find out where I could submit our claim. Later that day, one of the movers told us that we were being nit-picky about our things being damaged…

It saddens us to see that our brand-new dining table, dining chairs, TV stand, coffee table, side tables, rugs, lamps, computer monitor, and more are now damaged. We decided to spend more money on the moving service in hopes our belongings would be taken care of. However, many of our belongings are now damaged in some form due to the lack of care and packaging materials used by the moving company.

This entire operation was poorly managed, and we did not receive any of the services we paid for and were promised. Moving from Illinois to Nevada started as an exciting new chapter but shortly turned into a very stressful endeavor when dealing with First National Van Lines and Wild Safari Moving.

Two days after I posted my initial review online, I was reached by a third-party mediator to resolve the issue. I was told that both First National Van Lines and Wild Safari Moving had agreed to make the situation right on their end. I agreed to take down my reviews to be civil in the matter.

At first, I was told they rejected any compensation for our damaged belongings and the poor service we received. Today I was just told they would compensate us $1025. I respectfully declined this amount as this doesn’t even cover a fraction of the damages they caused. At this point, we just want to spread awareness about this company because every moment dealing with them has been one lie after another. Don’t waste your time and money on this company.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $9670

Be very careful with First National Van Lines, they are not a moving company. There are brokers. I first question I asked my rep Andrew ** was "Is your company the only company I will deal with because if not I will find another company?" He answered me, yes, and that he will be my rep throughout our entire move. Not true. So that is how my relationship started with this company. My move happened on a Saturday when a different company showed up to pack our things, so I was not happy and called customer service, Andrew and his supervisor only to find out that they are closed on the weekend so I was stuck with this moving company and out of luck, my house was closing on Monday and I had to accept the new total.

I feel that I was lied to and deceived by this company, after several calls and emails I was told that I was not lied to or deceived. The answer I received from the First National Van Lines was "deceived my ***!" and then hung up on when I was in the middle of a sentence. Terrible experience to go thru and it just seems they just don't care. I gave them a oner star because zero or negative is not an option.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $13000

DO NOT BELIEVE THE FAKE 5 STAR REVIEWS!!! Notice they have no Google listing cause you can’t fake reviews there. Quoted me $4,600 after a video showing of all items in house, arrives and says they made mistake and it is now going to cost $8,900+. They also had us pay for the fridge, washer and dryer then claimed that doesn’t include an additional miscellaneous $580 they have to add for moving a dryer. FIRST NATIONAL IS ONLY A BROKER!!! They don’t even do the move so you have no idea who will end up arriving and how much their cost will actually be. It is a huge SCAM. And you don’t find this out until you’ve already paid the down payment which is non refundable. So we were already in $1,600 and had to move forward with the price even though it doubled from what our contract listed. SCAM SCAM SCAMMMMMM!!!!

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $12000

This is the part 2 of my review that I wrote yesterday. I didn't have full detail of their horrible service then!

First off, they are a BROKER company. The mover they hired had a lousy customer service. If I knew that they were just a broker, I would have hired a better local mover myself!

So, the 2 movers they had hired to do the work worked total 5 hours with 1 hour of driving time (which was about 40 minutes, but they got lost on the way). In 5 hours, they moved 2 full size beds, 2 TV's, a small TV console table, 3 closet boxes, 1 drum set, 3 floor pads and about 7 pre-packed suitcases. One of the movers was on phone for a long time, constantly talking to the owner of their company. They didn't even go in the kitchen, garage, office and closets. When I saw them working slow, I called the agent named John and told him that I would hire them for less hours( my contract was for 7 hours) and he stated that it would cost me more hourly if I hire them for less hours than the contract. If you check the receipt, the mover had crossed off 5 hours and written 6 hours and also included 1 hour of driving time. When contacted first national VL, they said that I had to talk to the local movers.

The owner of the First national VL offered me a discount of $150 to calm me down when I first talked to him but when I wrote my first review, he sent a message to me that he would dispute that discount of $150 with his credit card company!! Not only that, he stated that in the contract that I signed, I waived my right to write negative about their company!!

Unbelievable that they are in service with this attitude.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1600

This company epitomizes what customer service should not be.

In the beginning we called Mayflower, North American, Allied and Bekins. All physically came to our home and gave us quotes of between $16,000 to $23,000 with built in steep discounts to keep the prices in the low teens (best one was North American at $10,300). Still a bit pricey I thought. Enter First National Van Lines. They quoted us from Washington to Texas at $8395, based on an online form you fill out revealing what you are moving. Stupid me took the bait. They then took their $4300 on my credit card as a deposit. As we progressed, there was an error on our part in reporting on their online household goods “list” (I was traveling, my wife was new at this). We tried to be honest and call about list corrections, (some items were now double marked by us and them on their list). After numerous attempts at corrections, they then issued two new quotes, raising the price to $9,995, then $10,695, with the uncorrected items remaining on the list. The situation was still unresolved come moving day.

Enter GTS Shipping aka Northwest Relocators out of Portland OR. This subcontractor shows up in Tacoma on the 19th with the higher priced $10,695 quote on the bill of lading. GTS then proceeds to hike the price up by counting each individual piece. All the while blaming FNVL for the lower quote originally given. When it was all said and done, $14,650. Well above the “quote plus 25%” limit in Washington state. But, it was moving day and we had no other choice. Immediate calls that morning to First National Van Lines went unanswered. The phone continuously rang on two attempts, then an answering machine. We left a message for help with the original quote, and received no response. No one to explain why $3,955 extra or to help honor our original quote. The GTS Shipping mover then promised three times in person after loading that our furniture would be there in five to six days. His exact quote was “you’re the customer, when do you want it.” We skipped two family reunions cross country to rush to meet the truck on the 25th. Arriving in Texas, nothing on the 25th, nor again the 26th.

After repeated calls to subcontractor GTS Shipping on moving day plus 8 (27th) they finally answered and revealed they missed the first truck south and did not have a truck going to Texas soon nor did they know when. Here it is May 5th and we finally received our furniture ten days later than promised. So much for “I’m the customer”. And we had fragile marked boxes crushed, my wife’s family heirloom wicker furniture legs bent and broken, glass shattered in picture frames packed. No claim will be filed however as I want nothing to do with these companies ever again. I’m done. Lesson learned.

If this has helped you in any way as a consumer, then the time I’ve had to waste writing these reviews will be worth it. I did not have time to research due to a rapid job change. So we put our trust in First National Van Lines, and you can see our reward. More like, their reward. Shop around. Spend the money. You’ll pay it in the end anyway. Go with a known and trusted moving company I mentioned above. You may bristle at the price, but you’ll get first class service (personal experience with two of them in past years, and yes I’m kicking myself now) your furniture when promised and at the price they quoted.

And do your homework. Read these reviews very carefully and judge for yourself. Look at my final moving cost and peruse all other total costs across this review site for comparable distance/weight moves. I am baffled as to who this company really is considering the other reviews we’ve read. It sure hasn’t been our experience, both in the wallet and customer service.

So in summation, we’ve experienced poor customer service, little or no follow up and support for a $4,300 deposit, and a move that was almost $3,955 over the highest quote we received. $6,255 if you base it on their original quote. We should have went with North American. PM me if you want further details. I’ll be more than happy to help.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $14650