Safe Ship Moving Services

Safe ship have been very thorough the whole pick up. Benny with United National Movers showed up 1hr. early. He's very professional & easy going. The crew got right 2 work & did an excellent job packing the truck & repacking things 2 make it easier as well as work better fitting on the truck.

The cost went up but that was to be expected. I got 1600 sq. Ft. but filled the whole the whole truck up. Overall I'm very happy w/ the price vs. The level of service they provided. Would Definitely use them again & or recommend them for any one moving long distance or out of state like I am.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $15100

Moving through Safe Ship Moving services has been an expensive hassle! I provided an updated moving estimate of a list of boxes, bins and furniture a few days before shipping that wasn't communicated to the contractors. The contractors didn't converse in English and were impolite and hastily started taking things out of my storage and added $400 extra for 2 wardrobe boxes (to contain already packed boxes) and "long carry fee" for using the elevator for 1 level. The customer service doesn't seem to care and help with information. I had to insist that they hear my feedback but their response for this was that it's mentioned in the contract. It's been 2 weeks with no communication about when my stuff is to arrive and I have to call to keep checking. Do not recommend!

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4000

I was wary about using a broker instead of hiring a mover directly but I had a last-minute, somewhat complicated move involving furniture from two locations needing to get to a third. I paid close attention to the contract and all the information laid out for me and there were no surprises. I was able to schedule a move that fit into my schedule and was lucky to have my items arrive the next day all in the same condition I’d last seen them in! There was clear and consistent communication from all parties and I didn’t have to stress.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $4710

Where do I start, after I had a video call with the individuals from the company they quoted me a price Ryan guaranteed me the price would not change four days before the move. I had another car with them and they raised the price by $1200.The driver showed up an hour and a half late with no help did a video of my stuff waiting to hear back from his boss. Once he got his boss on the phone they try to raise it by another $3000. At that point my back was against the wall. We settled on $1000 more l.There were supposed to be three people to load our stuff only two showed they didn’t wrap all of my items they stacked it on top of each other. Once they delivered it some items were scratched and broken they damaged the wall of my new residence. I went back-and-forth with safe ship movers they said they were not responsible for the damage to my items and my residence the driver said, safe ship was responsible, safe ship said the delivery company was responsible. Nobody has contacted me nor followed up with me, repaired my wall,or followed up with me about my damaged goods do not under any circumstances hire this company..

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4800

I have decided to post for what I hope will be helpful to people instead of the intimate details of our move. Do not be misled by the terms “family run”, “we” or “trusted partner”. SafeShip is a large broker that makes at least $1.5 Million each MONTH by arranging moving deals. They are not your family, they are not physically packing or moving any of your items and based on the many of the 1 Star Reviews posted below, I think trusted partner is a stretch. The $1500 that will be taken in the 30 minute phone call you make with them is strictly business. They are not invested in your home and belongings the way you are. I do believe there is a need for the service they offer and I hope that the notes I have below will help you have the best result possible!

***I came up with $1.5M based off of our move which was $3K after a discount. Half goes to SafeShip and the other half goes to the moving company. Their associates were quick to share with me that they coordinate at least a thousand moves a month.***

A helpful checklist when using SafeShip or any Moving Broker:

1) SafeShip is NOT a moving company. Even though the terms “we” and “our people” all over their website, they are only the Broker. They do not verbally disclose they are a broker while placing your order. They do not have employees that wrap and pack your belongings and they do not own any moving trucks. Their job is to farm out your move to 3rd party moving companies that have been vetted by them. Vetting is a misleading term as you can see from the many 1 Star Reviews below. My recommendation is that you require SafeShip to provide your 3rd party mover within 24 hours so you can do your research on them. If your 3rd party company does not have any good reviews, you can ask SafeShip to provide another moving company or get your money back. As stated on the SafeShip website, you have 48 hours to cancel. They may tell you it is not possible to find a 3rd party company within 24 hours. I personally think for $1500 that is a reasonable request unless they decide to extend their cancellation period.

2) There is no %100 Reimbursement. The optional insurance quoted for full replacement was $14,000 and we had a small move. Since the insurance is so outlandish, this is probably why people opt out. Let me be clear, the insurance purchased goes against the 3rd party mover, NOT SafeShip. The claim goes against the 3rd party moving company and if you’re lucky, you may receive a %10 of a refund based on what it would cost you replace the items. SafeShip is quick to mention that they are “fully insured” but that will do nothing for you if you need to replace items. There is no refund by SafeShip because as they will tell you, when you sign on the dotted line, you waive your right to hold them liable for any damages. Even though they refer you to the 3rd party vendor and work closely with and coordinate your move, they are blameless. When they say they act as your advocate in the event that something happens, please know there will be no apologies on their behalf and you will have to fight tooth and nail for any compensation. Look at this service like buying stocks through a stock trader. You may win, you may lose but the broker makes money regardless.

3) In you decide to go this route, watch your movers pack and stack your items in the truck. Many times your items sit in another state before your destination so it may be a good idea to have a location device in one of your boxes. Take pictures of everything before they close up the truck. If the 3rd party movers ask for more money after packing/upon delivery for more than what is on your contract, do not pay and call SafeShip immediately. If SafeShip does not resolve your issue, call the police. The police will help you get your items off of the truck. While I did not have a good experience, some do. It’s luck of the draw who shows up at your door. Hopefully this will help you protect yourself and hold SafeShip and the 3rd party movers accountable. At this time I have decided not to continue pursuing a monetary refund and would rather pursue excellence in this industry. I do believe there is a need for this service but not in it’s current capacity. I would encourage SafeShip to pursue the excellence stated on their website. @Mr. Roger Vance and @Stanley Drinkard, excellence is achieved through great customer service, complete transparency from start to finish and integrity.

Move size: Studio Service cost: $3100

This company starts out by estimating your moving cost and then strongly lets you know that this is basically the deal for that time only. If you don't take it then and there while on the phone, you won't be able to get it by calling back later.

In addition, make sure you have exactly all of the items / # of boxes to be moved upon first contact. When they contact you to finalize the listing of items 2 days before your scheduled move, that's when they get you for a lot of extra $. In my case, this company's fee almost tripled although the cu. ft doubled. Of course, I was stuck and paid the extra. Later, I asked why the Binding Estimate Fee on my final quote vs the previous quote jumped from $1733.74 to $4883.74 when the Estimated Volume only doubled,

no response whatsoever.

Then....their shady moving company(s) charges you even more and damages your items!!! They added another 350 cu. ft. and if you didn't sign the paperwork for payment, they would only take what was on the paperwork...stuck again. Note: They did not take anything apart, but they sure did when they jammed our stuff into another truck with someone else's to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Some of our stuff, including 2 maple barstools-all uncovered, was strapped outside to the back of the truck from Missouri to Florida!

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $4685

TLDR: Will repeatedly lie to you to get you to sign with their company. Experience will be nothing like you were told. It will cost more and take longer and be filled with more and more lies along the way. Steer clear unless you want piles of stress and to spend way more money than was promised.

This is by far the worst moving service I have ever had the displeasure of working with. My partner and I have completed 5 international military moves (in theory, setting the bar for bad moving experiences), but Safe Ship has been far worse.

It started off well enough. I was contacted immediately after requesting a quote and connected to a local handler, Gavin, who had a great interest in getting me booked on a truck that he had scheduled to arrive in our area a few weeks before our anticipated move. Due to the good price, we agreed on this earlier date.

Having moved many times before, we asked many questions. Would we be allowed to ship alcohol? Yes. Did it need to unopened bottles? No - it just needed an actual lid. Would our storage unit down the hall be a problem? Nope. Would there be any extra fees? Nope, long carry, elevator, etc would not apply.

Great! We supplied Gavin with an incredibly detailed spreadsheet of our belongings. It listed each item with LxWxH dimensions and what room it was located in. We even included how many hangers were in the closet. Our price was calculated and we made the deposit the same day. Everything seemed great.

After that it was impossible to get a hold of Gavin - he rarely answered any of our communications. Since we were due to fly across the country, we wanted some assurance that the movers would arrive when he said they would so that we could book flights. We also wanted information so we could reserve loading/elevator areas on either end of the move. Eventually he assured us that the movers would arrive on the agreed date, so we booked flights for the afternoon of the day after the pack. We were told that we would receive the arrival date of our stuff on the date it was picked up. The move was anticipated to take around 14 days.

A week before the move, we get a call from somebody else, who wants us to go through our inventory AGAIN. We detail the exact same items. At this point, this new individual increases the price of our move - despite the highly detailed inventory being EXACTLY THE SAME. He also informs us that no alcohol will ship whatsoever. Yup, all 10+ questions we asked Gavin about alcohol he completely lied about.

We get a call before the day of the move telling us that movers will arrive 2pm-5pm, which is a little late. We had detailed to Gavin what would make it easiest for the movers -arriving early and securing the loading bay. Sometime later the arrival time frame moves to 11am-3pm.

Day of the move (Friday) we get a call at 4pm - movers wont be arriving until 5pm-6pm and they want to start in the morning. This is a huge no since we have a cross country flight at 2pm the next day. The time continually slips - apparently they allowed the customer before us to leave while they were packing and he never came back. Why would you allow somebody to leave before paying and signing the paperwork?? The movers don’t arrive until 7:30pm. The man in charge says that this should count as long-carry but he wont charge us for it if we “take care of his guys at the end of the night”. Thank you for yet another lie, Gavin. At the end of the night the price goes up yet again. Shame on me for not checking the truck to see how awful of a job they did at packing it - apparently what they use to calculate cost.

Finally with everything packed, he tells us that we will need to call the office on Monday to get an idea of when the truck will arrive across the country. More lies, yay.

We call on Monday - the truck is just sitting there, no driver has been assigned. They will text us towards the end of the week when a driver is assigned. They never do. We have to call many times to get an update. The truck does not start traversing the country until 7 days after it was loaded.

When it finally has a driver, they tell us on a Friday (7 days post-pack) that arrival will be in 3-5 days and that we will hear from the driver 24 hours prior. This is again, not at all what we were told when we booked. On Monday (10 days post-pack) we get a text that arrival will be in 4-7 days — quite a different story from the 3-5 days we receive THREE DAYS EARLIER.

Another week of no contact from the company - despite responding to the text informing us of the 4-7 days. We call several times on Friday (14 days post-pack) for an update. The update - the driver will arrive between Tues and Thurs, aka beyond their last time frame and now in the 18-20 post-pack days.

This company should be ashamed of themselves for how many times they have lied to us - and we don’t even have our stuff yet. Completely awful experience, would recommend this company only to my worst enemy.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $9300