International Van Lines

I spent countless hours researching movers. I've never worked with a moving company, but I've had some friends that were ripped off by moving companies. A Google search helps but doesn't reveal the whole story about a company. I went to Consumer Report and the DOT website for my information. IVL came highly rated, so I felt comfortable working with them. The fact is their price was not the cheapest, but I was not looking for cheap, I wanted quality. My rep, Justin D., was great! He was not a pushy salesman like the others and did an excellent job of explaining everything to me with a sincere approach, and I did not feel pressured. The crew then sent was on time, and Mike D. the foreman was great at organizing everything. I left them 5 stars on their performance sheet and wanted to take some time to leave a review. All of my goods arrived with no damage and no issues so I was very pleased and would use them again if needed.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5200

I had a last-minute corporate relocation and called the company that moved me last year to find out they were out of business. My company selected International Van Lines based on their reputation. IVL handled my whole move, including packing, crating, and moving my two cars. My experience with IVL was the best out of the few moves I've done in the past. Moving is always stressful, but they managed to relieve a lot of my stress by doing what they sold me on. I was pleased with Justin my rep and would work with them again if needed.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6580

International Van Lines wasn't my first pick, mainly because their price was a few hundred more than competitors. After researching all three companies, I was speaking to, I decided on IVL. The other two were brokers with a horrible reputation, and I didn't want to deal with a broker. IVL came to my house in their truck and did an excellent job packing and loading. The whole process went pretty smooth minus a one day delay which was a non-issue. Their movers were super polite and worked their butts off to ensure my things were packed properly. All in all, I was delighted with the experience and would work with them again.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4852

**BEFORE YOU BOOK, PLEASE READ** The emotions I experienced throughout this process and after.. Anxiety, anger, fear, extreme stress, feeling that I have been cheated and stolen from. Have you ever been so angry and frustrated you wanted to cry..? I have not.. until this. I had no idea a business could ever bring this level of emotion out of me. This was a nightmare.

If there's any industry in major need of disruption, it's this one. I don't know how else to describe this business.. they act like gangsters who threaten to hold your stuff and.. oh my god, you must expect additional hidden fees. They give you a three week window to expect your things, a two-day arrival window as a "heads up" and a four hour window the day before.. not the day before they are scheduled, but the day before they show up. It's Monday.. the day they're scheduled to be here. I have taken off work. They call me on the day I'm expecting them to arrive to tell me they're actually coming Tuesday morning between 8am-12pm. It is such short notice and I have a doctor's appt in the morning that I cannot reschedule. It is necessary to get my prescription. I'm only able to do 9:30am-12pm. Tough luck! Absolutely will not reschedule. They charge me $150 for being unable to be there at 8AM. Alternatively, they'll either have to give you another two-day window where you need to be available at any time or they'll be charging me extra. They expect complete flexibility from you, but do not expect an ounce out of them.

Their idea of "customer service" is to reroute calls, put you on hold, direct you to voicemails that go unanswered. If you're persistent enough, you'll speak to someone in dispatch who will blame you, call you a liar, will essentially quiz you in expecting you to know the names of everyone you spoke with along the way and lastly.. nothing will be resolved or answered for and you'll likely be paying an extra fee. The employees here are professional finger-pointers who will shift blame to the next person and eventually they'll be combative with you. I am not an angry person, but I was pushed to actually loose my cool and I raised my voice. I was threatened by the delivery driver that he would "beat me up" (used other language) the next day when my delivery was to come if I raised my voice again. I said "did you just threaten me?," and he said "I don't make threats. This is a warning." At the end of this, I am so beat down and just ready for it to be over. I work around this person's schedule, I reschedule my much-needed doctor's appointment to meet him at 8AM. My plan was to get him in to start loading stuff and I would run to the bank to get cash while they were working. The bank didn't open until 9. After all of this, they refused to work until I had the cash.. so sat there for an hour.. and charged me $150 for not having the cash ready upon arrival. Talk about getting kicked while you're down.

Lastly, the hold you to the strictest level with every single thing on the contract.. THAT THEY DON'T ABIDE BY. I am supposed to get 24-hours notice before a delivery comes and that was most certainly not the case.

Go another route. They make moving -- an already stressful experience-- a gruesome one. Avoid, avoid, avoid at all costs.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3200

I read reviews for IVL and called them for a move from CA to Ohio. My friend is also moving so we are putting all our stuff on one truck to get a discount because it's going to the same place. I call these people and I talk to a guy who asks me to go through and tell him what I have to move. I say it's a 3,350 sq. ft. house..4 bedrooms plus an office. While on the call I go from room to room in my mind and make a list of what I have. I'm not thinking it's going to be a final list..just sort of an estimate type thing. So, he asks me how big the other house is that we're moving. Even though it's much smaller, I tell him just to double my house. He quotes me $8,700 for BOTH houses. I think that's a really good price and he sends me a contract. I'm still expecting someone to come out and actually take a more detailed inventory of both houses. In fact, he tells me that there should be a phone call and person to come out a week ahead of the move. Well, the day of the move, a truck pulls up that is half the size of a semi. I instantly say, "That truck is way too small!!" We have a conference call and they tell me that I signed off on the amount of 'stuff'. The mover guy showed me the contract.. for TWO houses that I said were 3,350 sq. ft. these idiots had put down a total of 30 boxes!! I had over 60 just with my kitchen stuff. The totally underestimated and then the mover head guy redoes the estimate and shows me a bill for over $28,000 for both houses!! That's $20,000 more than the original estimate. What can I do now? The workers are starting to wrap furniture and move boxes out. And now I have to wire another $5,000+ to the company or else I guess they just take off..who knows? So, my remaining balance is $14,500 which the mover guy says I pay when the furniture is delivered in Ohio. So, my friend and I take off driving to Ohio.. three days out, I get a call from these crooks saying I need to pay them half of the $14,500. I tell them I'm in Oklahoma and I can't do that. So, I got angry at the lady on the phone and just hung up. I'm in Memphis now and have no idea if and when my stuff will show up. I"m now going to call a lawyer when I get to Ohio and see what I can do. Also, they don't have their own trucks.. there were two different trucks over the two days..the small one and then a larger semi to pick up my friend's stuff. I guess they have to unload my stuff and reload it into the larger truck. This has been a nightmare. It's beyond ridiculous. I would have been better off to just sell my stuff and buy all new things once we got to Ohio. IVL may have some good reviews but this is beyond the worst scenario I could have ever imagined. They should have had someone come out to both our houses and look at everything and then give us an accurate estimate. Any lawyers out there want to look at this and tell me if I have a case?

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $24000

Our experience with International Van Lines was terrible. We moved from Georgia and Washington, D.C. IVL doesn't have a clue on what is involved when moving to a metro area, so the moving dates they offer cause additional stress. For example, in D.C. you need to post signs to block the parking in front of your house 3 days in advance. However, the planning is not the worst part of my experience. We had a driver who did not do anything other than sit in the truck. This caused conflict with the moving crew. The driver did not keep track of my boxes or fill out the sheet tracking everything made the move. He simply handed over the paperwork and told me everything was covered. We are now missing a box of expensive electronics. No one from IVL asked me how my move went or thank me for my business. I'm not sure how they generate all of the great reviews posted on line.. Very misleading. My experience with companies such as Mayflower was much better.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $12500

We chose to go with IVL because of positive reviews in other places. We videoed our entire house, discussed with them, and got a *binding* estimate. Then, on the day of moving (in a snowstorm without much wiggle room on timing), the movers they contracted with to actually move us (a different company) told us it was going to be nearly $2,000 more than the estimate (about a 25% increase). We delayed by a couple hours to try to work with IVL's compliance team but ultimately had to get our stuff on the road. Despite their estimate being wrong, IVL has continued to say it was our fault - that we must have changed the inventory of what was to be moved. Of course, that wasn't true - we always planned to move our whole home. In addition, the team that moved us left trash everywhere in the house, left urine in the toilet (and the seat up), etc.

Such a disappointing experience that made a stressful situation (moving across the country) that much harder.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $10000

Lost my items that they packaged, they didn't send movers to unload my stuff at the delivery destination. Extremely rude and useless complains departm I contacted the International Van Lines for a quote. They quoted me $3300 for my move from Boston to Los Angeles. I asked them if they were a broker of if it is their own truck. The person assured me it is their own truck. They said I needed to make sure a large 18 wheeler can park in both pick up and delivery locations. They took 1/3 of the cost up front. On pick up day, some small truck from NY City Movers showed up. They told me the actually company brokered it to them. They did a relatively good job moving my boxes and packaging a couple of my furniture. One of these furniture was a TV cabinet with a built TV mount. They disassembled this and said they would put it back together at the delivery later. I was already unhappy that they showed in a small truck which means my stuff would later need to be unloaded and loaded into a bigger truck for the journey. That's double the stress on my boxes and also I can't see how they do this process whether they simply throw boxes from one truck to another or they give the same care as I watched them. After they loaded everything they said my estimate went up to $5200 and I need to pay half otherwise they can't move. That is a %40 increase. They said I can call the company and complain that the original estimate wasn't created properly. They didn't ask me the right questions to calculate the right cost. Here I feel like this was a bait. They gave me a low estimate so I would agree to their service then once they load everything they can force me for more money. The delivery truck arrived to Los Angeles at 5 Pm at night. No movers in sight. The truck driver started unloading the boxes. It was taking forever, I ended helping him. I would say I unloaded 1/3rd of the stuff myself. He took the payment upfront in cash otherwise he wouldn't unload. So I paid him. At the end, I noticed a part of my TV cabinet which they packed was missing and he didn't assemble it like it was promised. He told me to call the company. I called the company. They are incredibly difficult to get a hold of. I reached a person and they are super rude. They keep telling me they will pay me 60 cents for my claim. Then I said why don't you refund me the money I paid for you to pack my furniture which you lost half and didn't unpack like promised. They keep saying you get 60 cents. And they keep telling me to contact NY City movers which they handed my move to without asking me. I told them I called you for my business I should deal with you. No help. I called their complaint department. She defended the company and 60 cents for my loss. I said why am I calling NY City movers for my complain? I hired you to do my move. She hang up on my face. They should really call themselves gangster movers. If you aren't helping me with the %40 increase in cost and losing my stuff, at lease show some respect and be kind. They are rude. The attitude I got was like we got the money we don't need to talk to you anymore. You are lucky you got what you got. I should have rented a truck and move my stuff myself. I have been treated like this before ever in my life.Oh they also lost (probably stole) my xbox and other things.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5200