Lightning Van Lines

A year later we are still finding problems with our move last summer with Lightning Van Lines.   They stole personal property, damaged so many of our cherished items, and we still have yet to locate many boxes.  The driver encouraged us to just "sign off" on the inventory list upon unloading items so that we didn't have to wait for them to identify and account for each item.  Their truck broke down TWICE the day of pick up.  On their way to our new home, they broke down again.  THeir driver stole our ladder (lied to our face that it was his) and when we contacted management, he returned it with attitude!  Many items of worth never made it to our home.  THey also jacked up the price upon delivery.   HATED them!  And we thought we had vetted well!  Be warned!

Service cost: $8000

Rough experience with Lightning Van Lines and not over yet.  They overbid the job stating that it would be adjusted to actual size.  Very difficult to have adjusted as it was 25% less then bid at.  We had to use their storage due to a delay of finding a permenant home.  Storage costs were increased 30% with a 6 week notice.  It went from $500/mo to now $650/month.  Their statement that it was due to their "Overhead" costs going up.  Who has overhead costs that increase by 30%??   Poor accounting and financial management.  They were competative and now the charges keep adding up once we have been committed to them and unable to get out of the situation easily. We could have our items moved and then pay movers twice with twice the risks just due to their LARGE increase in expenses.  Can't wait for this to be over and done with and they become just a painful part of the past.  Beware and watch them closely. .

Service cost: $12

I simply cannot believe the negative story about the money and jewels. I move a lot more than a few hundred dollars and a class ring with them and all of my money, jewels, including diamonds rubies and emeralds showed up just fine. My money was in several places, including the kids piggy banks and my change jar. All intact upon arrival. I had a wonderful moving experience with Lightning and hate to see them reflected any way other than a top notch moving company. I plan to use them on my employee moves from now on. .

Service cost: $4860

One star rating is too much!! Please, do not do business with lightning Vanlines. I had a almost two year ordeal with them during my move from Los Angeles to Ohio in 2011. It started from the day they arrived to pick up my furniture in an U-Haul Truck, with a rude moving supervisor and a moving crew that did not speak English. They were so bad that I asked them to leave and I proceed to ask the main office for a refund on my deposit and initial moving fees, however Lightning refused to give me a refund. So I had no choice but to allow them to move me to Ohio . After I arrived in Ohio, Lightning gave me the wrong delivery date and so I was unavailable for delivery because I was out of town. Lightning assured me that "it was not a problem that they missed me because they had placed my furniture in storage at a public storage facility less than two miles from my home and that they could return at anytime to deliver my furniture when I was available."

Of course this was not true, and after several failed attempts to deliver my furniture by Lightning, finally, I proposed to them to "allow me to pay them the remaining balance for my move and allow me to pick up my furniture from the public storage facility they claimed to have stored my furniture." I also offered to sign a waiver form releasing them of any liability for lost or damage furniture. Lightning refused stating that "they had to deliver my furniture because they had their pads and other moving related materials stored with my furniture." Then they added over a $1000.00 in storage fees and demanded that "I pay the fees in full before they would complete my move."Later on I found out that my furniture was still in California all this time and this was in January 2013 after I got the Department of Transportation involved after I was referred to them by Move Rescue. After, I submitted countless documents to DOT on my many attempts to resolve my dispute with Lightning, and through research I learned that "DOT had investigated Lightning in the past for bad practices and as a result they were fined. DOT ordered Lightning Van Lines to release my furniture after reviewing all of my documents, and determined that lightning had acted inappropriately. Lightning agreed to release my furniture however they refused to deliver them and they demanded that  "I come to their main facility in Northern California and pick up my furniture in person." I contacted Move Rescue again who offered to transport my furniture to Ohio at no cost with the exception of paying the decrating fees to the moving company they were using to ship my furniture.When the moving company arrived at lightning's main facility to pick up my furniture Lightning Van Lines told "them that my furniture was no longer in California and that they moved it to their facility in Nevada for some unexplained reason " So I had to get DOT involved again, and after investigating again, DOT informed me that "Lightning did not want Move Rescue to pick up my furniture because they did not want the negative PR associated with a rescued move."So Lightning agreed to deliver my furniture and they waved any balance on my account including their bogus storage fees.

So we are now into March 2013 and I had replaced almost all of my furniture and other possessions , however I was still involved in the process on principle alone.Finally, Lightning Vanlines gave me a delivery date and on the day before the specified delivery date; I received an angry and bizarre voice mail from Cheryl saying she "was disappointed in me because  the movers where outside my home to deliver my furniture but I wasn't home yet again". I called Cheryl back who of course did not answer and in my VM I  told her "that there was no delivery truck outside my home", and after I got DOT involved yet again;I was told by them "that the drivers where mistakenly attempting to deliver my furniture to a home in some other part of Ohio." The drivers arrived the next day and they were pleasant and however they reassembled several of my pieces wrong, and several of my items were missing including a small dining room table, my expensive stand for my flat screen tv, several boxes of dvd's, a microwave, several boxes of clothing and the base to my flat screen.I immediately contacted Lightning and told them about my missing items, and I submitted the paper work for the missing items. They told me that "my table was in Chicago and they would deliver it to me within a week , and they would process my claim for my other missing items. Over a month later after complaining again to DOT lightning deliver my table via Fed-X without even given into me notice. I come home from work one day and there was this huge box sitting on my front porch. As of this writing Lightning has not issued a refund or located my other missing items. Also the so call owner lives in Israel.

Service cost: $1300

This company should be shut down. They are dishonest, unethical and have no regard whatsoever for their customers belongings or lives. They convinced me to hire them with lies about flat prices, lies about the quality of their movers, lies about their backround and staffing and lies about scheduling. Nothing they promised me happened. All I witnessed all day was sloppy uncaring movers that didn't speak any english, a very difficult to deal with manager, prices that escalated beyond anything reasonable and rude uncaring personnell. They "lost" several valuable items, my LCD TV And Computer and tried to pretend it didn't happen altogether when I complained. I have filed complaints with all the government entities and discovered they are being investigated and were fined 25,000.00 in 2011 for holding customer shipments hostage !  DO NOT USE LIGHTNING YOU'LL BE SORRY !

Service cost: $6800

The pick-up was fine and they held my ietms in storage before delivering to my new address.

Upon delivery they ended up losing my bed frame which cost $300. They are only willing to give me $100 because their Liability insureance pays for $.60 per pound. This is beyond frustrating as they also aren't factoring in the $50 shipping fee and the time it will take for me to assemble the bed.

Once they have your money don't expect them to return your calls or emails.

Don't recommend them at all.

Service cost: $1200

Thieves!! My 2 little boys accidentally forgot their wallets in their nightstands before our move from Ontario, California to Illinois. My boys had saved their money from their birthday's and Christmas to buy themselves a new video game system.  My oldest had $312 and my youngest had $184. My boy's had stayed the night at their grandma's to not be in the way of the movers so my husband didn't think to remove the wallets. The movers were the only people at our house and they moved everything and held our property until it was delivered in Illinois. Immediately with the movers in our home I opened the nightstands because I was worried about my children's wallets and guess what my youngest son's Spiderman wallet was completely gone and my older son's wallet had only two crumpled up $1 dollar bills in it. I told the movers and they called their boss, Ethan. Ethan proceeded to tell me that we should have told them while it was in storage about the wallets. He also told me they have never had a problem with employee theft because they pay their employees well. I told him they have now! I explained that obviously we did not know at that point that someone had stolen it from within their company. He told me to contact customer service, which was a joke! After that the mover's did not want to unwrap items so they left my jewelry armoire wrapped up. The next day I opened it and guess what more stuff stolen. My husband was the only one home when they wrapped that up I was at the bank getting a cashiers check to pay the mover's.  They stole my black hills gold class ring, a small gold chain with a 3 heart pink charm and a gold cross charm.  I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and so far all I have received is a response to the BBB by Lightning Van Lines that they are not responsible for stolen cash or jewelry during their moves.  Outrageous! They also broke a framed piece of art, 3 antique(1800's) wine glasses, a candle holder and some martini glasses. I expected some breakage on a cross country move but never expected for my children to be victimized. I want them reimbursed. I really don't care about the rest. I have taught my children well and they worked hard to save their money.  I don't want them to be tainted for life because someone in this company is a criminal. DO NOT EVER USE THIS COMPANY! LISTEN TO ALL OF THE COMPLAINTS!! I am going to sue them in small claims court if they don't remedy this as they should because I am going to reiterate to my children to stand up for themselves. Never allow someone to victimize you.

Service cost: $4600