National Van Lines Inc

We moved from MA to FL with very short notice. Lisa Varzino at National Van Lines was awesome! She not only was able organize our move in the timeframe we needed, but her constant communication with us went a long way in easing the stress of moving. I have moved many times and I would say that the movers were on par with other quality companies. The driver was very good at keeping us informed as well, and of course, the most important thing. Our belongings made it safely to our new home. Overall, I would have rated the company a 4, but Lisa's service earned them a 5-star rating. Way to go Lisa!

Service cost: $3200

These movers promise to be with you through and whole move and promise the moon but they deliver NOTHING!  We got passed off to several people and finally were only in contact with the sub-contractors they hired to pack and move us.  Please if you are reading this DO NOT hire this company or trust me you will regret it.  The sub-contracted group traveled 8 states with our stuff on their truck when it would only have taken a day to deliver to us.  It came down to the fact I had medical equipment on board and had to beg to get our items delivered. Never again.

Service cost: $5200

National Van Lines is awesome!  I was working with a broker for another company which turned out to be such a bad experience that I switched to National less than two weeks before my move.  I was very worried about the timing and Aaron Bacon was great in helping ease my anxiety and keep me informed about what was happening along the way.  The driver, Carl Smith, was also very professional and helpful.  I highly recommend National Van Lines and would definitely use them again. .

Service cost: $5299

National Van Lines was terrific. I have used them twice and I would use them again in a heartbeat. Everyone I dealt with, from the office staff to the movers were professional and courteous. Quite frankly, on the second time I used them, we ran into a small snag and it took a little longer to deliver than expected. The staff was right on top of it, called and kept me updated, and even compensated me for the inconvenience. I am extremely impressed with the professionalism of all involved. My things were well taken care of and delivered with care. I honestly cannot say enough about National. They run their business like I run mine, with pride in what they do, and respect for the customer. I don't normally write reviews nor would I give praise where none was due. They definitely deserve this review.

Service cost: $4500

National Van Lines had my stuff for over a half a month. They told me my stuff would arrive on Monday but than they said the truck broke down and I wouldn't get it till Friday. Supposedly the driver was suppose to lmk but he never did. I mean if you are carrying $4000 worth of ppls stuff don't you think they should have more reliable trucks. They aren't low on funds can tell you that much. We had to sleep on an air matress for way too long. As I am sitting here writing this I am still waiting for my stuff which was suppose to already be here this morning. I already paid them so I hope they bring my stuff. The only reason I gave them a 1.5 is bc the guys that picked up my stuff where nice. All in all there should be better options out there.

Service cost: $1800

"Our move with National Van Lines overall was pretty smooth. Things were complicated by NY's floating closing date policy and our mortgage application getting screwed up by the bank.

So we had packers on a sunday afternoon, which was helpful for my work schedule and travelling. They loaded the truck without issue a few days later, we had a delivery date within two days of loading. National had no trouble meeting these dates.

And then our closing was cancelled and had to be rescheduled while the bank fixed their underwriting errors. That took about two weeks. And we couldn't prepossess.

So our stuff had to go into local storage, which was handled without a hitch by Lisa Varzino. Unfortunately, the local movers were tied up once we did finally close, and we waited about another week to get our stuff.

Delivery went smoothly. We're still unpacking. So far, a few things had dirty handprints, a few glass items were broken, and there's a few things we still can't find. I don't think any of the breakage was a result of handling but rather poor packing, some of which was packaged properly earlier but then had heavy things placed in the same box (marked fragile!) by the packers.

This could have been an even bigger nightmare, but National did a pretty good job overall, and Lisa Varzino was a pleasure to work with- she was kind, responsive, and is a real credit to National.

Service cost: $5600

The company has been unresponsive to the complaints summarized by our cover letter when filing a damage claim August 31:
This document serves as a background documentation of our experience with our move with your company in January 2016. This was by far the most stressful and disruptive move we have experienced compared to four previous moves with other carriers. We were pleased with the estimation process, the two drivers and the loaders who packed the trucks at the origin. The loaders involved with the unloading became progressively less interested in distributing boxes to their labeled destinations as the unload progressed.
Worst, by far, were the packers. Their packing was capricious, inconsistent and in some cases laughably inappropriate, resulting in loss and breakage that was unnecessary and preventable. They were not responsive to requests by either the shipper (us) or the drivers. When told specifically pack to or not pack contents of furniture (e.g., drawer contents), the opposite would occur. It became progressively more apparent that their primary purpose was to increase the number of boxes and volume of materials used: boxes were consistently closed incompletely filled, non-breakable items double boxed and extra materials used. In one box, 19” of crushed paper were found in the base of the box – a box containing unbreakable items from the garage. The driver estimated that the box count was inflated by roughly 1/3 and during the packing/loading process contacted the company to reduce the number we were to be charged for (see also below). (This was done without our knowledge until after the fact and reflects the degree to which the abuses were observable and flagrant.) When requests were made, they were met by hostility or ignored. So that you can appreciate the degree to which the dysfunction was pervasive, we offer the following examples. They are listed in no particular order and are by no means complete.
Examples:
An antique (family heirloom) brass lamp was packed unpadded in the base of a wardrobe box. (photographed by the driver)
My wife’s cosmetics were lost for a time until they were discovered packed in mislabeled box along with a toilet brush and plunger. (Retribution for requests made?)
The shipment contained a large collection of antique gumball machines and the packers were instructed that these must be packed upright and could not be placed on their sides. Despite this request, several machines show signs of having been flat or inverted (product weights or other parts found loose inside the machine, which could only happen with inversion). In one case, an unwrapped machine was actually packed inside of a box upside down. It was also requested that wooden machines not be lifted by their tops, but in 3 cases the top have been lifted and partially separated from the body of the machine, in one case stripping the screws used to hold it in place, adversely impacting their collectable (market) value.
Materials that logically should be packed together were often separated. For example, the power cord for a printer was packed in another, unrelated, box (opened days later). In some cases, items from more than one room or source were combined, making it difficult to find dispersed items when trying to reconstruct our home at our destination. For example, food stuffs (from the kitchen) were found packed with antiques from the basement.
Furniture and other items were unnecessarily disassembled. For example, an interior shelf from an antique (heirloom) chest was removed (likely with some effort) and has never been found. Display boxes, that in past moves have been moved with contents intact, were emptied, sometimes damaged, and frequently dispersed. (See representative images of damage and further explanation on “Patent Medicine packages” claim page.) Ironically, there were instances where loose items should have been removed or secured. An example of a tobacco tin obviously containing patent medicines is shown in Figure 1, below. When furniture was disassembled, parts were frequently separated making reassembly at the time of delivery impossible. In the case of two display shelves, reassembly several days after delivery was hampered by the fact that we had not been present at the time of deconstruction, making the reassembly process long and difficult as we attempted to discern the correct sequence, parts and orientations. In the instance of a butler’s serving cart, parts were sufficiently separated that even the origin was uncertain for over a day while the trucks were being unloaded.
Despite the packers being admonished about the age, rarity and fragility of many of the collectables that were a large part of this shipment, little respect was shown. In some instances (e.g., collectable gum or advertising), small items were found on the floor at the end of the day – unpacked and at risk for damage or loss. (A photo of some of those items collected at the end of the day is attached below – Figure 2.) A small glass and cardboard gum display (the only one known from the first commercial producer of chewing gum in the United States – Inventory #2809), was packed with other heavier items on top. Similarly, an early Colgan's Taffy Tolu glass display jar (Inventory #2885) was thinly padded, placed in the bottom of a box and heavier items packed above. In both cases, damage or loss occurred.
Items that should have been emptied (e.g., marbles in a glass vase, liquid soap in a dispenser) were packed ‘as is,’ resulting in damage. In one case, a kitchen deep fryer, the item was packed while full of cooking oil. Because of how it was packed in the box, the lid fractured, spilling the oil on the contents of the box and leaking from the box. The box was packed on top of a couch and furniture damage was only averted by the driver’s use of plastic wrapping on the couch when it was loaded on the truck.
At the close of the loading, it was discovered that an entire kitchen cabinet had not been packed. Further a small marble slab (part of an antique hall umbrella stand), that had been directly handed by the driver to a packer to be packed, was found hidden in a kitchen drawer.
Items to be left behind in the house (e.g., food for the Koi in the house’s pond) were shipped and had to be mailed back.
Having a Koi pond at our old home (origin of the move), we had a number of containers (pots, ice cream containers, etc.) with rocks, stones and pebbles for pond plants, etc. The mover and packers were repeatedly told to leave those behind and yet on arrival 7 containers with rocks were found packed inside other boxes or otherwise shipped. These containers varied in size from ice cream bucket to water pail. Total weight of these 7 was probably in excess of 75 pounds. (One was in the box with the 19 inches of crushed paper noted above.)
The contents of the basement workshop were, in some cases, dumped unwrapped and unpadded into boxes. Cases containing small drawers of screws, nails, nuts, bolts and washers were packed laying on their backs, resulting in the drawer’s contents spilling into an unusable amalgam of loose hardware.
In several instances, boxes containing inventory stickers were found packed inside other larger inventoried boxes – most certainly resulting in double billing for materials. In one box, a large sheaf of unused packing paper was found and estimated by the local representative (Joe Bonnie & Sons Moving) to have weighed 15 pounds.
Garbage generated by the packers was found in a number of boxes. This varied from used tape cores to empty drink cans (from brands not purchased by the shipper) to partially eaten candy from the shipper’s kitchen.
For our collections, we had an extensive number of shelving units used for display. While many were initially tagged for shipment intact (without disassembly), they were eventually dismantled and jumbled separating matching sets and comingling others, making matching up the appropriate legs to shelves difficult and a continuing irritant. None of the ‘furniture’ shelving units shipped were reassembled by the company at the delivery destination, as noted above.
Despite having seen everything removed from the trucks, 36 clear and milk glass antique barber bottles have yet to be found. These were displayed in a single location and should have been packed either in the same box or in boxes originating from the same room (dinning). The fate of these is unknown at this time. (Cobalt barber bottles from the same room have been located and unpacked.)

While the most flagrant or greatest dollar loss items have been documented separately, the depth, breadth and pervasiveness of the abuses and failings by the packing team have resulted in overcharges, damage, loss and aggravation that could be as much a 1/3 the cost of the move. The 33 items separately documented in the attached exhibits, had a pre-move value of $13,590. (Not all items have a value assigned in the database.) Some of these items may be salvageable or restorable, but between the loss of value, the cost of restoration and the other issues documented above, we believe that it is reasonable to estimate our preventable moving losses at roughly $7,500.
The claim filing was subsequently lost and it required multiple phone calls to obtain a response. Shipper supplied requested documentation of valuation claimed, but ignored by National Van Lines. The specific damage claim remains unresolved - there has been NO response to the larger concerns outlined above.

Service cost: $30000

We decided to go with National Van Lines for our move from CA to FL in September 2016. We had quotes from 4 other companies and ultimately it was the service and price that made us choose National. Had we known Damon and his team would be our movers, we might have picked National right away with no need for other quotes. Damon was punctual, highly communicative, easy going yet professional, and delivered all of our property on time and in perfect condition. The team always had a smile and energy to spare. If you are looking to move, go with National, ask for Damon.

Service cost: $10000