First National Van Lines

Hear me loud and clear! Under zero circumstance should you do business with these scammers. They are not a moving company. I repeat they are not a moving company. They are sheisters who have the paperwork to provide you a dirt low quote for your move but they will not be doing your move. Once you sign on the dotted line, they will then look to hire a moving company in your area and use that company no matter how low that companies rating is to handle your move. First National Van Rentals will now outsource your move to that company and keep your deposit. Once the hired moving company arrives they will then attempt to get theirs by telling you the amount you paid is too low because your inventory is larger than they were informed or they will do your move, hold your belongings hostage and squeeze more money out of you and only deliver once you give them more money. Your best case scenario if you do fall for the "First National Van Rental Scam" is on the day of the move after you realize no one is showing up, you make about 30 calls to anyone you had contact with along the way (Michael Durrell, Will Ables, Daisy), none of whom will answer your calls, respond to your emails or texts. And eventually land on someone after hours and hours of phone calls who will inform you that no movers are showing up and they will provide you a full refund on your initial deposit. You won't get notice or any type of courtesy days before, it will be on the actual day! So if you had to be out of your place the following day, you're now left with the task of finding someone to move your stuff in the next 12 hours, vile scum. First National Van Lines is a straight up scam, read all the yelp reviews, read the reviews on the better business bureau. You have been warned, under zero circumstance should you work with these scam artists. Just animals trying to get your money with zero regard for your time, your belongings. These are sub humans who could care less about you or the things that are most important to you.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3000

I'm happy to say that the movers were hard-working and professional. Unfortunately, the representative incorrectly calculated our quote by telling us that 3 movers would be able to complete our local Chicago move within 4 hours. The movers arrived two hours late. When they saw our boxes and furniture, which were in the exact amount that we'd stated in our quote, they said they would need NINE hours to complete the move. As a result, we had to wait an hour for their supervisor and an extra mover to arrive to re-negotiate. Once we talked through everything, the crew moved ~1/2 our stuff in 4 hours. When we discussed this with the representative, they suggested that we book the crew for 4 hours the next day to complete the move. We declined and rented a Uhaul to finish the job ourselves, which is what I wish we'd done in the first place, for 10% the cost.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1100

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

Horrendous experience. Our move day was a nightmare. In general I tend to believe they purposely underestimate the quantity of your belongings in order to secure your business. Once they have you under contact, you're locked in and you ultimately just keep paying them more. First, The local team (from a different company, FN is a broker) that was sent to us had a completely different contract and that contract had contradictory contract language. We were being told one thing by our FN rep, but presented with paperwork that said something entirely different from the local team (i.e. pay for only the space you use vs. pay for it ALL, even if truck is partially empty) Second, we were surprised on move day that our move day payment needed to be substantially more than what was agreed upon with FN- thousands of dollars in addition. WE had to facilitate the negotiation of these contract discrepancies between the FN and the local moving company on the morning of move day. Our move was delayed over an hour while this had to be tensely hashed out with FN, the local team and us. 3rd -The job foreman was over the top unprofessional, disrespectful in my face yelling and rude to both me and my husband. We were told we were bad customers, that we shouldn't have been watching them do their work and he specifically told me I should not have been "sitting on my butt eating and watching them work". 4th- At the end of the day they nearly walked out on the job with a huge portion of our belongings unpacked- told us it was "not their problem", they were done. This was karma for our insistence the contract details at the outset of the day were in order. 5th -They broke my treadmill in their haste and rush by totally snapping the wires off and completely distorted/ bent the prongs on the electrical plug. 6th- They put a hole in a door at our move out residence. 7th- This was a full pack move -but they left all these valuable belongings just sitting out or on the wall that I'm now having to rush and arrange alternate transit for (a heavy large floating shelf, a decorative star, a bin of homeschool materials, a white board, shelving for my daughters' bookshelf. All these items are heavy and costly to ship. Our representative from First National has been largely absent from this whole mess and still has not even called us back. FN hired the team sent to us. I emphatically DO NOT recommend First National Van Lines.

I wrote numerous negative reviews online regarding the companies involved in our move, one specifically on Google. We were contacted by Lee P, from P Arbitration Group in June 2020. When Lee P and I spoke on the first occasion he knew of this review and read it to me over the phone. Lee claimed he received our info. from the movers “as required by law” and our case was referred to him as our arbitrator, the party to recover money for us from the moving company. He explained he would go before a board (supposedly appointed by the Federal Government) and if he won, the board would require the movers to pay us monetary damages of a sum determined by the board. He explained this whole process was required and under federal government oversight. We were required to spend no money, only provide a detailed list of damages. My husband and I provided photos, videos and a document that detailed the damages, our treatment by the movers and our overall poor experience. We signed an intent to arbitrate agreement via email, assigned a Case # AND I was required to take down ALL my negative reviews as a condition to arbitration.

On August 11, 2020 we were contacted by Lee via email and phone that we “won” a settlement of $xxx. A condition of receiving the money was to not re-post any negative reviews, which we agreed to via email. After this we did not receive any money and Lee P will not return emails or phone calls. After doing a little more research, I have discovered that he works for First National Van Lines which he did not disclose when he contacted us. He positioned himself as an independent party to arbitrate on our behalf as required by the federal government.

I’m not sure if any laws were broken in this, but posing as an unbiased party when one actually works for the offending party I find grossly disingenuous and contemptible. I’m not privy to the legal reparations processes outlined by the federal government for national movers or even if such a process exists. I’m assuming the point in all of this was to trick us into removing my reviews which I have subsequently reposted with vehemence.

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