Independent Van Lines

My review is basically the abridged version of the last review. Definitely read both.

If I could give negative stars; I would. This company start to finish was the worst experience moving I’ve ever had. First of all, it’s a broker. Once they broker the deal with you, all bets are off. The movers they hire have their own pricing, contracts, insurance, etc and independence will tell you to call them if you have questions or problems. You basically paid them to set you an appointment..paid a lot for that. Customer service is off site there and they can’t help you. Also, their rude and won’t call you back. You’ll never have contact with the original person you spoke to again. You will not get a penny back if you feel deceived. They said 5-7 days but the contractor says “next available business day” which was almost a month. The fine print will haunt you. The sales persons promises will not supersede the contract. The sales rep will not be held accountable. My things arrived broken and missing pieces, I paid twice the BINDING contract, they ONLY accept cash (no charge as promised) and my things arrived 3.5 weeks after pick up.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $7000

It is an absolutely horrible company. We have scheduled our move with them in the middle of July and were promised that our belongings would be picked up on July 29th. Mr. Ken Grace provided a phone estimate of all our furniture and household items. The estimate was a little more than $6000. It sounded really good for the size of our family household and the move across the country. We were told that Alliance Company will move us; however, before July 29th the movers were changed to Quest Moving. The Quest Moving represented by a gentleman named JR did not arrive until July 31st for the household pickup. JR himself did not show up, even though for the previous two days, he was giving the impression that he was coming, but instead three individuals arrived late Tuesday (July 31st) morning, driving the Budget Truck. Most of the items were wrapped in the blankets, even those items that did not need to be wrapped (we believe it was done to increase the volume of the load). Some of the items, however, were placed on the truck without appropriate care. At the end, we were provided the itemized list of the items (with no boxes listed, only he furniture), and the estimated by Ken Grace moving price of $6500 was inflated to the price of over $10,000!! The estimate was originally given based on weight, but then it was evaluated by volume. Also, they do not accept any payments except post money orders or cash, which not only sounds alarming but creates difficulty to the costumers who prefer to pay using credit cards or other types of payments. Ken Grace promised us not only a great moving pricing but also a quick delivery date. First, he said that our household will be delivered to us within a week (5-7 days). We actually were worried that the truck will arrive to the moving location before us. On the day of the move, the movers told us that the truck was not leaving California any time soon, and our household was going to Sacramento (opposite way) instead of departing for North Carolina. We called Ken Grace but he did not respond until the next day. While traveling through Nebraska, we had a very poor cellphone reception, and the calls with Mr. Grace were dropped a couple of times. Not until the evening we have received Ken’s unprofessional, emotionally elevated message telling that he did not appreciate us hanging up on him (he stated this three times during the message). He wished us success in the move, and since then he did not respond to our calls. Independent Van Lines representative Ray informed us on August 2nd that it would take 7-14 days to receive the belongings. Then, the week after, we were directed to the contract that, according to the representatives of Independent Van Lines, assures 21 business days of delivery. For the past three and a half weeks, we have attempted to find out the location of our belongings and the date of delivery; however, so far we have been unsuccessful. The Independent Van Lines do not know the location of the belongings. Independent Van Lines representatives Ray, Mary Lou and Jason promised to call us back every time we inquired the information regarding our belongings but they never called back with the information. Ray actually stated that only one of our names was on the account, so he refused talking to one of us completely. Keep in mind that we are trying to find out about our own belongings! Quest Movers’ JR also stopped his communication with us after the first week, during which he gave us “his word” he would deliver the items by August 15th. JR provided us with another contact whose name is Chris. We do not know who Chris is and what he does, except that he should have some information regarding our move. We have his contact number since Monday, August 13th, but no information was yet provided to us by Chris. Today, on August 24th, we asked both JR and Chris to provide their full names and their job titles but they did not respond. Four business days away from the “21 business days” delivery assurance, we have no information about our belongings, neither does Independent Van Lines. As today, we consider our entire household stolen, completely gone as no one has any information regarding its whereabouts. That is why we are looking for the assistance of the Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Company Safety Administration, and the local police department to locate our things. Hopefully, it will not happen to you – please, choose a legitimate and reliable company for your move. Independent Van Lines is not one of those! Also, check out these important links
https://abc11.com/12-charged-in-moving-company-scam-that-hit-several-states-including-nc/3868764/
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdoh/pr/twelve-charged-moving-company-scams.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $10000