Safe Ship Moving Services

When we initially contacted safe ship we were given a price of approximately $6000, which was the same cost for renting a 26’ uhaul truck. We figured going with safe ship was a better deal & we wouldn’t have to drive the truck across country & pay the high prices of gas. Then a few days later we got a call from another person at Safe Ship. He spoke to my husband about all we had & then tells us the price was going to be around $17,000. Mind you, we had already packed almost everything & sold a lot of our furniture. We asked how much it would be for them to pack kitchen items & were told $800 so we just packed everything ourselves. Then we get a call that packers were coming to pack the furniture that needed to be wrapped in blankets & they also shrink wrapped things. These people were contracted by Safe Ship. Then we get a call from the company that was packing the items. He told us the cost was now $19,000+. Then the truck shows up for them to load. Yet another sub contractor. Once everything was loaded into the truck we were told that it wasn’t as much as they estimated & was $17,000+. Ours was the 1st load in the truck & they had two other loads going in after ours. We were moving from NV to SC. The other loads were going to TX & FL. When the truck arrived with our furniture we got a call from the driver that our driveway was to long for his truck to pull in. Then he said it would cost another $300 because the workers he hired would have to carry everything from the road to the garage where we were storing everything until we moved in. We told him we would be there in a few minutes. When we got there we told him that he could make it up the driveway. He knocked over a tree when pulling in. Then he didn’t know how to back it out. The workers & all of us were trying to guide him out & he got stuck in mud so guys took stepping stones to put under tires to help him. He tore up that part of the yard. It was a total nightmare dealing with safe ship, especially since they never mentioned anything about subcontracting & lied about the cost. The person at Safe Ship that we initially dealt with was Blake. He told us that he was from the town we were moving to & his parents still lived there. I will say that the guys with the company that packed & loaded were very nice. Even the driver of the truck was nice, but screwed up our yard. However, non of them were worth over $17,000. Never ever would we recommend Safe Ship to anyone. Beware of Safe Ship & others like them. For a little more we could have had a regular moving company pack everything & ship it without all the headaches. Especially when you factor in the cost of buying the boxes, tape, paper, shrink wrap & labor.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $17922

The experience started off well enough with a rep named Brendan. Courteous and professional. However, I later found out that he didn't enter everything I told him and when I spoke to the next rep, Eric within days of the move, the rate almost doubled. Eric was totally unprofessional and a smart ass. We decided tomove another way, forfeiting the deposit of $900+. I should have read the reviews first as they seem to do a lot of the "used car salesman" bait and switch. Avoid the stress, headaches of dealing with this company.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $922

Do not book with Safe Ship Moving Company. They are brokers. They take your money and there’s no guarantees of what you’re going to get.

My son just became a doctor so for his graduation gift my husband and I were paying for professional movers to move his furniture from Charleston South Carolina to Birmingham Alabama. I looked online and came across Safe Ship Moving. For the most part the reviews were pretty good with a score of 4.2 so I booked them. They said I have 48 hours to cancel so before my 48 hours expired I decided to do another search on reviews on safe ship moving. I found lots of bad reviews so I called the company and spoke to Max to have their service canceled and get a full refund. Max assured me that it was just a few disgruntled customers that they are a very good company blah blah blah. He was very convincing so I did not cancel them. They gave me a binding moving estimate which I signed with the move date of 5-30-2022 or 5-31-2022. Max assured me that he would work closely with customer service and would make sure that I had a reputable moving company to move my son. A few days before the move their quality assurance company called and did a very thorough and accurate inventory list. This is what they based the final total cost on and said that it would not change as long as there wasn’t any additional inventory. The moving company did not show up as promised. After calling Safe Ship several times, they said the driver had broken down and that someone would come the next day. I received a call about 8am on June 1 from Tony at Top Quality Movers saying he was on the way. He arrived about 1 PM and looked at my sons furniture and said: this is going to require a full truck and we only have you down for 1/2 of a truck so it’s going to be 1200 extra dollars. The inventory had not changed so Safe Ship lied again. I told him he could go back where he came from and he said no he didn’t want to do that that he would negotiate and only charge us an additional 600 so we didn’t really have a choice because we didn’t have a Plan B. We paid the extra 600. Tony and Eric were excellent. They were professional and packed my sons furniture carefully and loaded it.

We wanted the furniture delivered the next day. According to our contract, the only way to guarantee that was to pay expedited shipping which was $1 per mile. I was going to do that but Michelle in Customer Service said that wouldn't be necessary because 70% get there the same day and 90% get there the next day. I took her at her word but Tony said they had 7 days to deliver the furniture. That's what the contract said but I relied on the information that Customer Service gave me. My son received his furniture on June 7 which was within the 7 days. The other 2 men were not as good as Tony and Eric. They dropped several boxes and 2 items were broken. Safe Ship told me that the furniture was insured for $10,000 but that wasn't true. They only insure it for 60 cents per pound.

Safe ship moving company made lots of promises that they did not keep.They are not honest, not reliable, did not give an accurate quote. Do not book with them no matter what they say.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4868

Beware. Not only do they contract with moving companies but they quote you as low as possible and then your number skyrockets saying you have Bily furniture or hard to stack stuff, etc. basically they don’t get enough real information and you as the consumer get stuck with the bill. My quote doubled when the real movers got there - from 11k to 22k. I’ve have had a horrible experience with this company as they take your deposit (for me 5k).

To me it was a huge scam where you are not considered. Stick with a local place or someone who is actually doing the move.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $22000

They picked my stuff up on a Friday July 15th and it is now Thursday 21st and I just called to see when my stuff will be delivered and the customer person said that the driver said it will be another five days, the 26th before I get my things she said I am on a “shared” route. I start my new job on the 26th. They didn’t tell me this in the beginning, they were so nice and agreeable just to get my business!!! In the beginning they told me it would be 7 days to get my delivery. I informed her that I start my new job next week and purposely didn’t start my job, this week, so I could be available for the delivery because there isn’t anyone else available. They use the excuse that “Truck breakdowns, accidents, traffic challenges, natural disasters, changes in carrier routes, severe weather, and staffing fluctuations are just a few unusual reasons why your delivery can be delayed.” And if I wanted it earlier it would be an extra $1.00 per mile which come to over $330 more on top of the almost $4,000.00 I am paying. Luckily I didn’t let them take my important stuff but I did let them take my most of my clothes so I am scrambling to find/buy stuff to wear. I should have looked at the reviews before I booked this company because this looks like a pattern of theirs. I am stuck now waiting on my stuff, please get specifics before you higher a this moving company or just rent a Uhaul or Penske truck and hiring movers and doing it yourself!!! It would be cheaper and less stressful!!!!

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2900

Highly DO NOT recommend. This company swindled us and we didn't even get movers to move us.

We signed an agreement for a certain amount of space, paid a deposit, and upon final verification of goods was asked for more money. We agreed and paid an additional deposit because we knew we had more item, even though from the very beginning I had explained how much we had. The sales rep extremely under estimated.

On move day an unmarked white truck appeared LATE.When they assessed our items their bosses requested an additional amount. We had SafeShip negotiate on our behalf to an agreed upon number that we could actually afford (the moving company safeship hired was asking for $8000 more!!!!!!) After we all came to an agreement, we asked the movers to begin loading... and they left claiming their boss CANCELLED THE MOVE. Safeship could not get another moving company in the needed time. They said if we gave them another week they could find someone but we needed to be out of our townhouse the next day AS THEY KNEW!!!!! We asked for our deposits back since services were not rendered.... THEIR HIRED MOVERS DENIED US.

We spoke with Max in billing who agreed to refund us 100% of our deposit. Turns out Max got in trouble and instead of calling us to apologize and stick to HIS WORD we were only refunded $500. He pretty much told us too bad, and they were keeping the remaining $735 for services rendered... even though THEY DID NOT GET US REPLACEMENT MOVERS. Their end of the contract was not kept. They also threatened to claim any disputes we made a fraudulent and to tell authorities. So not only did we not get any movers from this company, they stole our money, they stole our trust, and we are telling everyone we know and everyone on social media to STAY FAR AWAY FROM SAFESHIP. This was supposed to make our move easier but instead we are out an extreme amount of money and had to handle everything ourselves THE DAY WE WERE SUPPOSED TO VACATE our property. I am livid.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4500

Prepare yourself, this is a long review. We used Safe Ship Moving to move from Texas to California in May. After talking to a few moving companies, we decide that Safe Ship sounded the best based on reviews. My initial phone call was with Blake, where I talked on the phone with him for over an hour detailing every single item in our home that we would be taking with us to California. Whether it was a large item or an item that would go in a box. Based on that price that he gave me, it seemed very fair and we knew that it was possible that when they arrived that it could be more than what he quoted us (give or take a few hundred dollars).

Fast forward about three days before the moving company was supposed to come pick up our stuff. We receive a phone call from another person from Safe Ship Moving asking about an update on the number of boxes and other things that we had. We updated him on the number of small, medium and large boxes as well as any totes and large bags that we had as these were the only updates to what we were bringing.

Based on the new number of boxes and totes we provided to this person from Safe Ship Moving the cost of moving went up about $1000. We agreed with it because we kind of had no option at that point.

Fast forward to the date when the moving truck came, three individuals showed up from Geo Van Lines based out of DFW. So, this is when we found out that Safe Ship Moving just hands off their customers to a random moving company.

When we were shown the Bill of Lading/item inventory, we noticed that MANY of the big items that I told Blake about were not listed, as well as the number of boxes I told the second person I spoke to from Safe Ship.

This meant that the cubic feet (which is how you get charged) was off by a lot. Geo Van Lines still put everything in the truck but once the new amount to the items Safe Ship did not add ,even though we mentioned it during the quote, our fee went up by almost $3000.

This was absolutely financially straining. To be told one amount then within a few days your cost to move goes up by $4000.

On Safe Ships contract it states that all moving supplies would be covered but when the moving company showed up, we were charged for every single role of tape, every moving blanket and every box that they used which is not what we were told. It’s even listed in the contract with Safe Ship. The moving company says that once the Safe Ship hands over the paperwork to them, whatever Safe Ship says does not apply anymore.

Also, when we spoke to Blake, he said that because we’re doing a long distance move the items would stay on the same truck the whole move, and that we would receive our items quickly because of the long distance and not sharing a truck with anyone else. But then when we spoke to Geo Van Lines they told us that they are picking up with the truck the had and then it would be placed on an 18 wheeler and if the 18 wheeler could not fit in the drop off point than we would get charged another fee because they would have to unload everything and put it back onto a box truck.

At this point we were so angry and upset with Safe Ship for not being honest with the move. The fees and extra costs were just adding up so much and we hadn’t even left Texas.

Fortunately, our items did show up about 10 days later in a 26-foot box truck, so we were not charged another fee. We had many dented and broken items and did submit a claim to Geo Van Lines only to be offered $35 for hundreds of dollars’ worth of damaged items. On top of that we would have had to pay to get a notary for that refund.

We learned a hard financial lesson and will NEVER use Safe Ship and wouldn’t even recommend them to our worst enemy. U-Haul will be the best option for anyone. Don’t get stuck with a moving company that will literally charge you an arm and a leg for everything the day of your move, they know you have no options at that point.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $9000

Safe ship should be avoided at all cost. They sound nice and professional when you call to get a quote. Once you pay the initial non refundable deposit to them they careless. They are just brokers and the people they send to pick and deliver you things careless about keeping them safe. When I received my things, they had damaged the most important of my furnitures and did not seem to care. I feel betrayed and hurt cos I am having to look for money to buy and fix things that were not planned for . AVOID USING THIS COMPANY!!!

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4500

Every step of the way this company increased the price. They are not a moving company, but rather bait and switch experts. The original estimate has now increased three fold and I still don't have furniture. I was told the furniture is in Florida last week and now they said it could be another week. Allen Tiller was the first person who seemed honest, but not and then Quality control Brendan Fox helped double the price. Do Not Trust anyone in this company. I don't like to give names, but just in case this company goes out of business and sets up again, beware of these two. After three calls for delivery I was told another week.

Do Not use this company!

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $9600

WARNING - DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY, Repeat – DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! THIS WAS NOTHING LESS THAN A GAME OF BAIT AND SWITCH. I was intentionally swayed and swindled into an agreement based on an estimate that was purposely and grossly underestimated with the sole purpose of baiting me into an agreement with Safe Ship full knowing that the movers who they outsourced my move would calc it at a much higher rate. Every single item that was stated in my agreement with Safe Ship was a lie. It ended up costing me twice what was originally estimated by Derek Jones with Safe Ship. I got screwed! And, the movers didn't show up until 10:15 at night - finishing up at 2:15 am. This was the biggest mistake of my life and it cost me dearly!!! Don't let this happen to you!!!

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $6500

I will preach it on every website I can find. Do NOT use these people. Like most of the realistic reviews on this page, you will 100% be lied to, stuck, and cheated. Every word that has come out of these people's mouth has been an absolute lie except my pick up date. Again, like many reviews here, my quote doubled despite no inventory changes. Was told so many things about the move itself that were just a complete lie. My delivery date is an even bigger joke. They sourced the job to Eco Van Lines and almost a week later my stuff hasn't left the town I moved from. My car was sourced to a different company and the truck has broken down 3 different times and is still not here 3 days after it was supposed to be. If I was capable of moving a bed on my my own and driving a U-Haul, I would take that 10 times over these people. BEWARE! USE MAYFLOWER/ALLIED/UNITED/ETC!

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $7100

We hired safe ship moving to transport and store our belongings from July and then deliver in early September. We sent a full, detailed inventory in order to get a fair estimate. The moving company initially gave us a window of noon until 3:00 PM but failed to show until 9:20 PM. By that point we had moved everything to the curb ourselves to expedite packing. The movers estimated a 6 hour window to pack the truck but with our help they were able to finish in 3 hours. They did not give us the sheet with all of the inventory and extra items until after they loaded up the truck, and then at 12:30 am, they asked me to sign the totally illegible paper listing our “extra items” and pay an extra $1,600 on the spot without a clear explanation of the price increase, or else they wouldn’t take our items that were already in the truck. We were so exhausted we felt forced and harassed into signing.

The next business day I called safe ship to find out what happened. They promised to look into this and shared my concern that I was being taken advantage of. They promised to call me back within a few days. It’s now been over a week and I still have not heard anything to resolve this issue. To say I am disappointed with safe ship is an understatement. It seems they wildly underestimate the cost to get you to sign with them and then the price somehow increases by 50%. They don’t stand by their movers and they don’t seem to care about us once the job is complete. I would not recommend using them in the future.

Move size: Studio Service cost: $4800

I booked with Safe Ship Moving Services back in April. They set me up with a great moving team and I am glad I found them. It is a great relief to be in my new home in SC surrounded by my family and belongings again. If you have special needs for your move call Safe Ship they will design the move to fit your needs. Not only did they do an amazing job at pickup they also split my payments into three payments and gave me thirty days of storage while I looked for my forever home in SC. Thank You to all the men and woman that helped my family.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4400

I regret that we answered the call from the sales rep and were sucked in by what appeared to be a very reasonable quote. Of course it sounded too good to be true, because it was. We should've read the reviews first, as we had a very similar unsatisfying experience as the other low reviewers.

We spoke to a lovely sales rep who came across as very friendly and knowledgeable. However, the quote provided for the very specific list of items that we made sure to stick to, as we read the reviews after the call, was inaccurate and unrealistic. In fact the two stars are actually for Barahona's movers, Safe Ship gets nothing.

The estimate was for 790 cu ft, which was basically half of the empty truck that arrived at our house. With movers that had no other jobs scheduled for that day. And it just so happened that was just enough for half of the items quoted. And, we had received half off the quote for accepting while we were on the call. Absolute rip off. Clearly the plan was to make back the other half by charging us double to take the rest of our items, fill the empty truck, and make back the other half of the quote.

By my estimation, we should have been quoted closer to 1,500 cu ft, which would have filled the truck with everything on the agreed upon list of items. It was a 1,500 sq ft home.

So, my advice would be to either sell all your stuff and start again. Move your stuff yourself. Or, get a quote at a ratio of 1:1, and beat them at their own game. Good luck people! (I look forward to reading the owners excuse for this one).

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5400

First time using this company AND LAST Time!!

It's a scam they quote you for everything give you discounts but then when the trucks arrive they want to charge extra for everything so with my discounts that I received I ended up paying more on top of that. Time of arrival was not correct I couldn't receive anything until the 23rd they text that we will receive on the 21st then try to argue with me that I said the 18th. So disappointed!! I was to put items in boxes the furniture would be wrapped for no extra charge WRONG. Knowing it's a residential area and knowing semi's are usually not allowed it arrived on a semi. Had to rent a smaller truck to get it delivered from down the street about 100 steps away that cost was $350. The companies that the Drivers work for however were a god sent (pick-up and delivery), they worked hard and walked us thru everything in a kind manner, from taking down the furniture to putting it all back together.

However on arrival drivers were not even told that they need to put the furniture together. Unbelievably disappointed!

Move size: Studio Service cost: $2264

I booked with safe ship moving services back in August. They set me up with a great moving team and I am glad that I found them. It is a great relief to be in my new home in TX surrounded by my family and belongings again. If you have special needs for your move call safe ship they will design the move to fit your needs. Not only did they do an amazing job at pickup they split my payments into three payments and gave me thirty days of storage while I looked for my forever home in Texas. From one Veteran to another, Thank you to all the men and women that helped my family. 5 star moving experience for sure.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $8000

Poor communication after very pushy to book. In the future I wouldn’t use a broker as the moving company they paired me with had hundreds of 1-2 star reviews, and only told me the name of the company an hour before they were due to arrive which took away any options I might have had to discuss these concerns and put me in a corner of using the company or being stranded. It’s easy to do the smallest bit of due diligence. Seemingly in violation of contract they didn’t mention insurance options to me on booking, just hoped I wouldn’t read the contract and would sign away my right to full replacement. The person I worked with from safe ship told me to reach out any time but when I did reach out either did not respond or forwarded my emails to customer service who responded with generic form letters. Ultimately my things did arrive in fairly good condition but it seems more like luck than good company. I would skip this company in the future and just hire accredited movers with good reviews since it’s clear safe ship doesn’t care to do due diligence on past performance or reviews of movers they hire. You may have a good experience or a very bad one but I wouldn’t leave it up to chance

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5000

I used this company in June 2022, moving from one state to another. I got to small of a truck and needed them to finish what I couldn't fit. Estimated cost wasn't to bad and they have you pay a third as a deposit, a third at pickup(cash), and the final at drop off, (also cash). Well they contract out and these guys wanted over twice as much after they had most of the stuff on, because it was more then estimated, to which I strongly doubted. Three weeks of calling Safe Ship to find out that they had no idea where my stuff was, and would get back to me the next day( they never did). So I started calling the contractor on my receipt who promptly said "we were waiting for you to call because you didn't pay my driver enough when he made the pick up". I said that I paid whay he said to pay. I had to send the balance of pick up before they would begin to deliver it. Mind you, this is almost a month since pickup. I had to come up with the rest,( a lot) before delivery. So 4 days after all that comes these guys, obviously different people and different truck. Unloading my stuff on a dolly, and I plainly see fragile on the bottom of the stack!! So, ahain, obviously I have a box full of broken stuff. And missing stuff!! I tried to at least get my money back from Safe Ship because the rest was cash and they fought my credit card dispute. Safe Ship said they would fight it because I didn't call and tell them. They don't know what's going on! Some of my missing and broken stuff I have had for many, many years!! It says no exaggerations in your review and there is absolutely zero here!! I would give a negative 5 if possible! It really hurt my pocketbook!!

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $6200

They did not quote us correctly (after going through our home goods 3 different times) and sent a carrier that charged us an additional $4,000 to move our household. Not only were they late, but spent 12 hrs. packing. The warehouse where we are our goods are being stored also charge us 3X's as much as Safe Ship quoted us. When we finally get our goods we will have paid $7,000 more then they quoted us. If we knew we would have had to pay this much we would have gone elsewhere. When we tried to contact them to get it straightened out they will not return our calls. DO NOT USE SAFE SHIP

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $7000

I had an absolutely horrible experience working with safe ship. First of all, when we were given the estimate, they did not tell us that they were a moving BROKER and not the one doing the move. After booking, a random moving company that we knew nothing about (Primavera Movers) showed up to our home. It started with the company increasing our original estimate by $2,000 AFTER loading all of our belongings on the moving truck which is against the law. They then went on to try to scam us out of $600+ dollars for "extra material" costs that we did not approve or agree to. I spent 3 hrs on the phone with them and the moving broker just for them to take only $300 off and say they would work on the rest which they never did. We were given a delivery estimate of 1 to 10 business days and they showed up over a month later (26 business days). We called them numerous times and they wouldn't even answer the phone. No one would speak to us. And when I would email them, they would only give a generic response about a 21 business day time limit that they have per the law, but then proceeded to take even longer than that. I sat in an empty home for over 1 month. Safe Ship did nothing to help this situation. In fact, every customer service representative was very rude and acted as if I was bothering them when I called to see how I could get my belongings. One person in particular, Rachel, who is supposed to be the manager told me that she could tell the movers to use delivery people who would break my things if that would make me happy and if I didn't want that then I should just stop calling to ask them where my belongings were. After a month of going through this we spoke with a higher up manager named Max who seemed to be angry at the situation at first, but then just stopped answering our calls or helping us in any way. This was one of the most stressful situations I've ever had to deal with. Please BEWARE and don't do the same.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6980

Safe Ship sold my move to J&B Relocation. https://www.jbrelocation.com/. The absolute worst movers ever. Don't answer the phone, take forever to respond to texts, LIED over and over about the delivery date of my goods, and then when they broke a bunch of my wife's ceramic goods, they offered $50 for $700 worth of claim... and said if I took the $50 I would agree not to write a bad review!?! Are you kidding me?

KEEP the $50... I'm writing the worst reviews ever for this crap company on every platform I can find, just to warn people.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $10000

Worst Experience ever. First, I was unaware safe ship farmed out to movers. Second, They use the bottom of the barrel individuals who are trying to scam you from the beginning before and after pick up. Safe ship started my quote at for this 570 mile trip and with furniture I moved into storage with a 26 ft truck at $12000 plus. When I told him I wasn't interested in spending that much he kept saying he was speaking to his MGR for discounts and got the price to $7900. This was about 2k more than I thought it should be, however I was 1000 miles away and reluctantly agreed because I was told there would be no additional charges. 2 days later a Mgr called and asked if I had told them everything in storage because it would be more if I didn't give all the correct info. I told him I had and if they found I had to pay 1 more dime I would cancel. He assured me no other charges would be brought.

The movers I found out later would pick up on Friday at 2PM. I had someone there to meet them which cost that person $500 to move a job. Guess what, they were a no show. Then they say they will be there at 8 am sat and contact me at 10 saying they are running late and will show up after 11. Also costing my friend an additional $500 loosing another job. I told Habib, the person I was speaking with that I was not paying for anything else and if he thought for a moment it would be more to cancel. Now the amazing thing is he was picking up on Sat and not delivering until Tues, Habib thought he could deliver any time he wanted. Once he picked up he told my friend I was 300 cubic ft over what I paid for. He was told at that time to call me and he choose not to. He then sent me a text the following day saying I had to pay an addtional $2500 if I wanted my stuff. I told him to eat shit. I had to have police there to intervene, Safe ship refused to get involved.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $7900

Given a time-frame of 15-to 21 working days. It is now past my delivery date with no answers on when my things will arrive. Safe ship used a moving company Global Movers who have investigations going on with BBB and multiple complaints. I called to add a refrigerator the day before pickup, charged 200 additional and when the driver showed he said it would be an additional 800. They don't care about the so called contract. Take these complaints to the BBB.. get enough while the current investigation is going and their damn license revoked.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3000

I just completed my 4th interstate move and this by far was the worst experience ever! Please note, Safe Ship IS NOT a moving company but simply a broker who you pay to "shop" your move to moving companies. I was totally aware of this, however the problem is that the moving companies they deal with are bottom of the barrel, borderline criminal in the way that they carry out their business. The pickup crew (Top Rated Moving Van Lines) didn't even have a legitimate truck. They basically rented a truck and put a removable placard with their company info on the side of it. The drop-off crew was similar and didn't even bother to put the company info on the truck (I still don't even know the name of the company, which is probably by design). Anyways, once they have your belongings they will extort you for more money, show up late (if at all), handle your belongings with the least care possible, and ignore just about every covenant in the contract you signed with Safe Ship. I was originally quoted $3,200 for my move from NYC to LA, yet it ended up costing over $5,500, and this was AFTER "credits applied due to the multiple complaints throughout the process. Had I not read my contract and spoken up when the movers were trying to scam me, I would have been out of pocket over $7,000. Safe Ship is complicit in all of this and only steps in when you basically force them to. I find it funny that it was easy to reach them prior to the move, but I would often get routed to voice mail when trying to contact them regarding the extreme poor service from the movers.

Before moving, I did a cost analysis of how much it would be to move my stuff vs just selling all of it and buying new items and it was cheaper to move my current belongings. Had I known the cost would have ballooned to $5,500 I would have taken the other route. I will admit that I had a few more items than what was initially provided to Safe Ship, but they were all boxes, nothing bulky. When I disclosed the additional boxes during the final inventory review, the rep specifically told me "this isn't enough to materially change the size or cost of your move so I will leave everything as is". I was fine with paying a few more hundred for the additional boxes and was prepared to do so.

To keep a long story short, the movers (Top Rated Moving Van Lines) showed up, put everything on the truck and then proceed to tell me that the size of my belongings were double than what was in the contract. Based on the inventory I provided, Safe Ship estimated my belongings to be about 360 cubic ft, but the movers said it came out to 680 and the total cost of the move would now be just under $6,000. Being that there were no major items added to the list disclosed to Safe Ship, I was immediately skeptical so before I signed off on anything I asked the "head" mover to let me see the measurements for myself. He first tried to tell me that he didn't have a tape measure (mind you, that they had a full tool box in the truck) so I told them I would get one from my doorman. Once I returned with the tape measure, he then tells me that he would measure it himself and I was not allowed into the truck for safety reasons. I ignore him and say I want to see the measurements for myself. Just as I thought, the measurements came in around 500 cubic ft, which was much lower than the 680 cubic ft that he quoted. This was a difference of over $1,000!! Of course, at this point the head mover became irritated because I caught him trying to scam me. He refused to knock off the full amount based on the actual calculation and said he would base it on 550 cubic ft, and nothing lower, which came out to about $800 off the original quote. He proceeded to get nasty and tell me that "this is how it works when you broker your move out to companies like us", "this isn't a charity, we're here to make a profit", and "I'll put all of your stuff on the curb right now and drive off if you don't agree with this amount!". Though younger me probably would have probably acted in a very different manner, I did manage to keep my cool as I was completely aware that they had my belongings and did not want them to get broken or purposely end up missing. I paid their portion based on the new amount and even tipped the other movers and decided to take it up with Safe Ship.

By this point, I just wanted to be done with the process and move on with my life. I rarely write reviews, but really feel people should be informed about how this company operates. If I save just one person from falling victim to this scam, I feel I have done my job. Do your research before picking a mover and STAY AWAY from the brokers as you will have no control over who your movers are and will be at their mercy once they have your belongings. Save yourself the stress and pick a reputable end-to-end mover even if it costs more. After all, you'll most likely end up paying for it anyways.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5500