International Van Lines

Hands down worst customer service I’ve ever experienced. I caught them in a lie about a “broken down truck” which wasn’t the actual case and once this was uncovered they didn’t respond to multiple emails or phones calls while they had all of our belongings on a truck somewhere and wouldn’t provide us any information. Truck was confirmed to arrive Monday and a one sentence email response said they were sorry they have been on the phone but it will be Wednesday or Thursday with no reason why. They rest on the “our contract says things can change and unfortunately they did” yet again no explanation. Just strange in 24 hours delivery shifted 3 days and not one person in customer service will respond and they lie to a paying customer. It is inherently clear they just want your money and hold your belongings hostage so you are put in a bad spot no matter what. They should be respectful they are carrying a full house of an individuals belonging and it is the right thing both legally and ethically to do to keep their customer updated on where their belongings are but instead they ignore multiple emails and phone calls. Our contact Jill B should be taken of out of her role seeing she is far from a customer service employee. Who knows when our stuff will arrive but I assure you if you want to be updated on your belongings, have a company that’s honest with you and reliable then choose someone else. No idea how they are ranked top 3 but their yelp rating is dead on!

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $25000

I moved from Austin, Texas to Atlanta, GA last month. As you can imagine it was stressful and daunting with COVID and other things going on. Mike J. Did a great job and had patients with us. Their movers provided full packing and there were no surprises. Everything was delivered within 5 days and without damage. I was very very pleased with IVL. I don’t normally leave reviews but felt obligated in this case. I would use them again and suggest them to anyone moving out of state.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6300

Working with IVL has definitively been the worst moving experience that I have endured. I would LOVE to give zero stars.

Moving across the country is stressful enough (especially with a toddler, during a pandemic, with a husband who is an essential worker, etc etc). Don't add additional stress to your move by hiring this company. You cannot trust what they say (if they happen to pick up the phone), they will bait and switch you on the pricing, and you will spend weeks of your life arguing with them over the semantics of their contract.

I found IVL through numerous sites that named them one of the best moving companies in the country for distance moves. In particular, they were lauded for price transparency. Perfect.

I hired them in early June for a late July move from San Francisco to New York City. I first spoke with [NAME EDIT] (sales guy), who answered all my questions and told me about the service. He was super helpful and nice, asked me to describe in detail what needed to be moved, and sent me a very detailed "binding" quote. I asked him numerous questions about delivery to ensure that our stuff would arrive on time. We were planning to spend 3 weeks with family on the way to NYC, and [NAME EDIT] assured me that should be PLENTY of time for our stuff to arrive. In fact, he said, they would have to put it in storage (free of charge!) because it will likely beat us to New York. To top things off, he gave me his cell phone number and encouraged me to call anytime, for anything. It was a fantastic sales experience, and I was excited to hire such a trustworthy company.. This was the only positive interaction I've had with IVL.

We were scheduled to move out of our SF place on July 11 at 9am ([NAME EDIT] assured me they would be there right at 9am). We had everything ready, sent our toddler to Grandma and Grampa's house for the weekend, and booked the loading dock. On the afternoon of July 10, a customer service rep called to say the movers would arrive between 2-4pm. She laughed when I said we had booked the 9am appointment more than a month prior, and said "Yeah..[NAME EDIT] likes to tell people that." We clearly didn't have a choice in the matter, so agreed.

On July 11, 2pm came, then 3pm, then 4pm.. No movers. We called every phone number we had, and no one answered. Finally, at 5pm, the movers called to say they were delayed (no kidding). They offered to reschedule for the following morning, and promised to arrive at 8am and give us a "significant discount" for the inconvenience. Fine.

On July 12, 8am came, then 9am, then 10am.. No movers. At nearly noon, they finally arrived. The guys who did the packing and loading seemed to do a great job. But after 7-8 hours of packing and getting everything into the loading dock, they told us that we weren't quoted correctly and we needed to sign a contract that we would pay 3x what we were quoted. After another hour, they agreed to weigh the truck and price it by weight. Fine.

Throughout all of this, I called the cell phone number that Mike Jacobs had given me, and no one answered. No one in the office answered their phones or responded to emails. We felt like we were being held hostage, with all our belongings on their truck and NO ONE telling us what was happening.

Finally, we get a new quote, based on weight. We agreed that it was fair - about 1.6x what we were quoted, with clear math to back it up. We are thinking now that we can just get our stuff delivered and move on from this.

Wrong!

We are now 3 days out from our move-in date (the one that [NAME EDIT] had said would be "no problem" because our truck would "likely beat you to NYC") and were just informed that our stuff has not even left the west coast. Once again, no one is answering their phones and no one is giving us any information. We have reached out to the complaints department, customer service, TO THE CEO, and literally every other phone number or email that we can find. No one seems to care. Frankly, I think this is a daily experience with this company's customers, and they do not care because they are still cashing checks.

I don't expect any of our stuff will arrive this week, let alone this month. Don't make the same mistake that we did. Do not hire this company.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3000

This company has horrible customer service. They will lie to you on the phone and tell you it will only take 3-7 days for your stuff to arrive. They will also lie about what day your stuff is being picked up and make you wait for 8 hours before they return any form of communication to tell you when delivery will actually be. They will then place your items in storage, and wait for the last possible moment before they deliver them. If you ask them for updates about when your stuff is arriving, they will ignore phone calls, emails, etc. They know that they have all the power and that there are no "guaranteed" delivery dates. So technically they could legally wait 6 months or 3 years to deliver your things and you would have no way to get them back. DO NOT TRUST THIS COMPANY EVER.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3000

This is the first time in my 42 years of life that I have ever written a review.. but I have gone through such a terrible experience with this company that cost us thousands that I wanted to take a minute to share this in hopes of helping another family avoid the same scenario I have been in. I did my research before moving from TX to CO. I did calls with 5 of the "top moving companies" and landed on this one based on the estimate and the delivery time. The estimate was based on going room to room through the house and the delivery was based on mileage. I have now been in CO for 2 weeks.. not only has the moving truck not left Texas (which I was originally told it would be here a week ago) but no one will tell me when it is coming. So I'm stuck paying a fortune for hotel rooms with no end in sight. Similarly, my original estimate and my final inventory was the difference of 30 boxes (which I realize is a decent amount) - but the sales guy apparently didn't ask enough questions about furniture sizing because there was no furniture that wasn't accounted for but my estimate went from $8,700 to just under $15,000 (told the night before the move). While the people here are friendly, the accuracy, the "sale", is so unbelievably inaccurate it is actually shocking. I advise you to NOT use this company (International Van Lines/American Knights Moving) unless time and money are not an object for you. Again, I'm not one to leave reviews (this is my first), but in all my years I've never had a worse experience with a company.

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

We hired IVL for our move from OH to NJ in July ‘20. It was a complete nightmare. I have listed my experience in detail below in various areas. Hoping it will help others to absolutely NOT hire them.

1. Firstly they tie up with another moving company American knights. This was never told to us at the time of estimate and paying the deposit. Only on the day of our move, we got to know about another company involved. This was painful coz we had to coordinate with 2 companies now for our move and issues and they both were passing the ball around and none of them taking responsibility.

2. Actual cost double the initial Estimate – They charged us almost double the initial estimate cost. The estimate quoted to us by IVL was incorrect and completely off mark.

On the day of loading of our stuff, once all the stuff was loaded They told us the amount of our move will be almost double the estimate. We were completely shocked. On highlighting the issue to IVL, we were given a cold reply from Account manager saying that they can unload the stuff if we don’t agree with the price. After pursuing with her and asking to speak to a senior manager we were connected with the Compliance manager. We were on the call with her for almost 2 hours. The issue was trying to coordinate between American knights and IVL for the increase in cost. IVL didn’t give us logical explanation to the increase in cost. IVL asked us to pay the higher amount on the condition that next week they will review the documents from American knights and provide a reconciliation of the increase in cost. And if the cost is unreasonable they will refund the extra charge to us. After all our stuff being loaded, and being on phone for 2-3 hours we were left with no option but to trust them and pay the higher amount.

It’s been 2 months for our Move now, and we are still waiting for that reconciliation for higher cost. We didn’t get any refund / adjustment in price.

3. No covid safety procedures - When asked about COVID procedures / impact during estimate process, we were told from IVL that company will be taking adequate safety procedures like wearing masks & gloves. However, none of the packers were wearing masks or gloves. This is so unsafe and highly unacceptable.

4. Poor Quality of packing, assembly, Re-assembly – Majority of the boxes were not labelled by the packers at all. This made it really challenging for us to identify the areas where they belonged to. There were multiple kitchen items which were broken and few items never came. They also misplaced the nails for the dining table due to which it could not be assembled. It was so risky the way they used some odd tools which they had and assembled it somehow. But it’s so shaky! Also, they just left the master mattress on the floor after assembling the bed. Just because I didn’t check the master bedroom, they just left without putting it on the bed.

4. Delay in receiving our stuff and lack of communication - Firstly, there was confusion on when the truck will arrive in Ohio for loading. I was communicated 2 dates by 2 different individuals until they spoke and came back with the correct date. This happened in the evening the day before the initial date of truck arrival.

Secondly, once the truck left from OH, there was nil communication from IVL on the estimate arrival of stuff. When I called on the expected delivery date, there was no clarity and no effort on the part of IVL to provide any clarity. Moreover, they just included American knights moving contacts to give an update. I had hired IVL and not American knights moving and expected updates from IVL. After a point it was me interacting with American knights with IVL nowhere in the picture. We were initially told from

American knights said that our stuff will reach in 3-4 days and it took almost 21 days!! But IVL didn’t take any responsibility and they said legally our stuff can take about 21 business days. This was horrible as we had to make arrangements for staying in a vacant house without any household items.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $11000