Interstates Vanlines

We moved from Miami to the Washington D.C. area, and we chose Interstates because we felt like we got good customer service and attentiveness from Barry during the quote process. But that experience did not continue through the entire move. The first disappointment was the scheduled pickup day. We booked our move more than a month in advance and set a Saturday pickup. But on the Thursday before, the company called and said their Saturday was fully booked and the movers will be there on Friday (meaning we got less than 24 hours notice). Second issue was the cost. Barry repeatedly told us we would likely pay less than the quote because of how their computer system estimates the amount of space needed in the truck. But not only did we not pay less than quoted, the move cost $2,000 MORE. In hindsight, we learned that Barry's quote completely neglected to estimate the cost of any packing materials, and we ended up using more truck space than he estimated. I attempted to reach out to Barry to express my frustration, but he never responded. One bright spot was the delivery in Virginia. The moving team kept me updated on their progress and actually delivered our stuff within two hours of us getting the keys to our new home. However, they broke one piece of furniture, a desk. The movers immediately took complete responsibility for it, as they wrapped and packed up. And when we called the customer service line to discuss reimbursement, Karen was very apologetic on the phone. But then came another disappointment. After submitting photos of the broken desk to their customer service email, we were told to wait 15 business days for a response. 28 days later, we got a response pointing us to a third party settlement company. After filing the complaint again through the third-party's online system, we waited *another* six weeks before that process was finally complete. Ultimately, we got a settlement offer that was only 75% of what it should have been.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5000

I’m not sure if the sales guy, Robert Steele, actually exists because I could never reached him after I signed the binding contract and paid the 25% deposit. He was pleasant and assured me the final bill would not deviate much from the estimate.

On moving day a crew of 4 very intimidating guys with heavy Russian accents arrived 2 hours late. They immediately started in on the “you have much more than the estimate” scam. In hindsight the written estimate was intentionally vague. They argued with me, threatened to leave and repeatedly made callls..all in Russian! I had no choice but to agree to the extra charges because our house closing was the next day. The inventory list was mostly scribbled and difficult to read. The total was almost double the estimate. The “customer service agent”, Tina, assured we they would work out a discount before the final payment..complete BS.

My stuff showed up a week later and when the guy opened the truck it looked like everything was just thrown or dumped in, not carefully loaded. At least 50% of the boxes were crushed or severely damaged, wardrobes upside down and generally a mess. Thankfully not much was damaged but they lost my extension ladder. They did not check the inventory list as things were unloaded, which is standard practice, so I didn’t know what was missing until everything was unpacked.

After repeated calls to Tina she said that “the accounting department” refused to reduce my bill..that’s what I expected.

The standard contract allows for 60 cents/pound/item so my lost ladder was worth $30, not worth filing the intentionally laborious claim.

Stay away from Interstates Van Lines.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5957

I used this company a few days ago. I spoke with Rob Thomas in regards to moving some furniture pieces I had down here in Miami up to my father in Rhode Island. Initially we had a call and I explained to Rob my needs and exactly the pieces that I was shipping. Rob was very attentive to my needs and made things very easy. I felt comfortable so I booked. The movers showed up at my condo at a reasonable time. Everything Was explain to me from A-Z. I signed some paper work and off they went working. Everything was blanket wrapped and padded very nicely. It was to my standards and done very professionally. My father contacted me the day of delivery and once everything was unloaded we inspected. We had no broken items or damaged pieces. All and all this was a very reasonably priced move and I had no issues. I would recommend these guys to friend and family.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3200

This is one the most horrifying experience with Interstate Van lines. The estimation over the phone and in between the loading is completely different. The driver was raising the price almost double and in middle of a move taking my signature on the contract without even letting me know what additional numbers he was adding up on top of the estimations.

It took them more than one week to return my call. When I’m requesting staff to provide me supervisor’s name in return I’m hearing that he is the active GM for next 4 weeks. The rudest staff ever.

If the quotation was based on the estimation someone should came to my apartment and they should have looked at the size of the furniture and give me the quotation. If it was few dollars here and there I can understand. They increased $1100.00 and arguing with me for the furniture size. I can’t shrink the furniture just for the moving. This is what the standard size comes in. The staff was constantly blaming software for metric system. Non-sense.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3300

Many of the same problems as others but the boxes themselves seemed well-packed. The original movers showed up in a rented truck, raised the price estimate, left items behind, damaged the garage above the door when they were backing up the truck (I only found that the next day.The packing finished at night, they never mentioned the damage and had obviously tried to cover it up by sweeping up the plaster that had fallen down). Re the price estimate - there was an accepted misunderstanding about packing services, but it was the estimate of the final volume that was the problem. Delivery finally occurred 3 months later with the excuse that the original truck required repairs and they didn't have others available. On delivery the movers were in a rush and told me they had another delivery that same day two states away. The local workers were good, but the truck driver/team lead was rude,criticized Interstates Vanlines, and would not acknowledge that he represented Interstates Vanlines to me (as that was who I contracted with). He stated repeatedly that he did not work for them. None of the movers tracked the inventory. I started to and discovered that many of the items were inaccurately labeled (a couch listed as a box, boxes listed as items of furniture, etc.).

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6000

Where to begin?
They missed my three-hour pickup window, forcing me to miss an event I paid a lot of money for.
Despite me giving them 10+ days notice, they could not procure a Certificate of Insurance for my apartment complex. "By close of business today," they would say over and over, but it never came and I had to put up $500 OF MY OWN MONEY as collateral. Means they're either not fully insured or completely unreliable - my guess is BOTH.
They again missed my three-hour delivery window. My complex requires you to reserve in advance, so that screwed everything up.
I took a look in the delivery truck. Items were piled in a heap up to the ceiling. My television was on top of the pile at an angle; it's a miracle that thing didn't fall.
They LOST ONE OF MY BOXES - my Christmas tree, in fact. Obviously, they don't check the inventory when they transfer between trucks. In fact, they didn't check it at delivery either. I had to do it myself. They just kept saying, "yeah, everything's there." CLEARLY IT WASN'T.
It's easier for me to list the things they didn't break. My couch is torn. My end table is bashed. One of my dining chairs has a mangled leg. My standing fan was busted beyond repair. And one of my boxes opened in the truck, spilling dishes, utensils, and appliances everywhere. (A mug and a wine glass were shattered.)
AND, I haven't received any response to my emails about these lost/broken items. In fact, I think they started dodging my calls during all of this. I would call the Customer Service rep directly - no answer. Then I would call the 800 number and choose "Customer Service" and she'd pick right up, because she couldn't see who was calling.

All of this is to say, DON'T GIVE YOUR MONEY TO THESE FOOLS. Spend a little more up front so you can work with a real company. Otherwise, you'll spend it later to replace lost items, repair damaged ones, and put up collateral for your movers.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2400

My family and I move very frequently due to business ventures. I have had very bad history with moving companies and figured that this would be the same, it was not thank goodness! I put our trust in this company. The communication they provide was very professional and pleasant as they always called me with updates thru out the process I did not call them once. They gave us a 3 hour window for pick up and delivery times and they where there right on time! the crew that picked up and delivered where very nice and respectful. They did a great job with the estimate, they called before pick up to make sure everything was correct when it came to the information I provided and went over the inventory so there would be no problem at pick up, with out an in home estimate they where able to get almost exact amount of pieces and space reserved on the truck. I was a little nervous as we had very expensive heavy equipment that was being transported with this move and I am very happy to say that none of our belongings where broke or damaged in any way and they actually helped take off the protective materials that they used. I was shocked to see that they actually put our belongings in the rooms we desired as most moving companies just drop off and go. They go above and beyond for their customers. I will be using this company in the future as I know I will be relocating again next year..Thank you Interstates Vanlines.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $8359

Where do we start, 1st I think is the fact that we got a quote from Atlas Van lines for our move to Texas. That quote was $22000. Atlas sent out a representative and gave us a written quote. This was for a “white glove pack out.” We received several other moving companies. The other was Interstates Vanlines. My wife spoke to the representative David. My wife provided David with the information from Atlas Van Lines and he said that Atlas was a good company but that he could beat their price for a “white glove pack out.” Interstates Vanlines said with the inventory list Atlas provided they could do it for $15412.49. They sent us a contract to sign and requesting a down payment of $3853.00 to move us from Washington State to Texas. When we received the contract, we had several questions and my wife gave David a call for explanation. Several of the questions was our liquor collection as we have been collecting it for the past 35 years of travel. One bottle was from our son’s first deployment to Iraq which was engraved from his command, this one is irreplaceable, but David told me that would not be a problem and his packers always did a great job. The other question was the time frame of our move as the contract said it would take longer but David guaranteed that our shipment would make our timeline. It did not. They were late. Right before the move I received a call from Brandi sating that they needed to charge my credit card an additional 634.33 which we were not happy but at this point what else could we do. I asked to speak to David, but he was not available. Another question was regarding the basic valuation protection and David told me that was an additional price for protection but that they cover up to 10000. I also spoke to David and Brandi about the inventory list and I was told that the list would not be exact but a rough idea per pound so they would know about what size of truck to get and that the packers would list our items and that every box would have a number. Unfortunately, not all the boxes had labels on them when they made it here. Everything that we were told was not truthful.
The day of our move Interstates Van lines showed up in a rental truck with 4 men to pack out our house. Only one man spoke English and the others only spoke Russian. I tried calling David, but he did not answer his phone, which originally, he told me to call him if we had any problems. So again, what we were told was not truthful. We questioned the man saying that the truck was not big enough to hold our household goods. He said they were going to make several trips and store it in a warehouse in Seattle. Then our stuff would be loaded into an Interstates Van lines truck and would be driven to Texas. After the 1st truck left, and they were loading the 2nd truck the man that spoke English came over and told us that the cost was going to be more than what we were quoted and we had to pay the additional $4000, at this point we had no choice we had to have the majority of our house hold items out and had no time to find another mover plus they had already taken 1 load of our stuff. The next day they returned to load the rest of our stuff he said we looked at everything and we need to increase it another $4000 for total of $24000 to move you. Again, we had no choice we had to be out of the house no time to find someone else. On top or that they already had half our stuff in a warehouse in Seattle and they would not tell me where it was. We paid for “white glove pack out” and that is not what we received. We were not supposed to pack anything but my wife saw that the packer was not packing the files correctly and so she had to open them up and help them repack as we had to retain these files due to our business in retaining our files. Interstates Vanlines charges by cubic feet so to increase the amount of the move they only pack boxes half full. These people are crooks do not let them in your house they are not Interstate Van Lines web scam.

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

Completely worthless company. Quoted me $2800 to move and it wound up being $3700. I lost at least 2 boxes of personal items as well as a glass shelf, my sound bar for my TV was stolen (packed with certain items that showed up but not the bar). IM STILL WAITING ON MY MOTORCYCLE to be delivered, even after the rest of my furniture was dropped off. Minimal communication from Brandy, they hide behind the "3-14 business days" when they can't make the first delivery date even though they were given a weeks notice. Just absolutely horrid planning, these guys are nothing more than 2 bit crooks. Pay a little more and go with someone reputable.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3760

These guys are so sly. The sales person Rob Thomas promised white glove treatment and a binding estimate. My move should not have exceeded $5000 it ended up being over $9000. They quoted me on total weight of my goods but once they had me packed and had my stuff on the truck the quote advised me they don't go by weight they go by cubic feet and now I need to pay more. Not only that they delivered late, avoided my calls and damaged some of my furniture. AVOID! AVOID! AVOID!!

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $9000