Safeway Moving Systems

DO NOT USE THIS MOVING COMPANY. THIS ENTIRE PROCESS HAS BEEN A VERY COSTLY NIGHTMARE!!
First, they are a broker and contract out to substandard moving company. They do not return calls following the move. I've called daily and no one has ever returned my call. I've no idea where my belongings are located. I received no paperwork from the moving company that actually moved me. Second, their "binding estimate" is based on an inventory that you painfully endure over the phone multiple times. After 3 inventory calls that each took well over 1 hour, I was given an estimate of 1301 cubic feet and price of $3500. When the no name non-English speaking movers arrived, I was informed that it I would take up their truck and it would cost $9800 with multiple up charges for this and that totaling well over $11000. The movers left cigarette butts outside everywhere and trash strewn throughout the house. In fact, I actually had to assist with moving several items and in the end mattresses were strapped to the back of the truck. Lastly, FIRST CALL who ended up being the mover just called me to inform me that I should probably have my belongings transferred to a local moving company while my house was being built because they would charge me over $1100 per month, which again was far more expensive than the initial $350 I was quoted. So now I have to have my belongings delivered to my temp address or a storage facility and pay for yet another move when my house is ready. WARNING DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. WORST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE!

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $11000

Safeway moving systems is a RISK you have to be willing to take. When confronted about fake positive reviews, my sales rep simply replied "all of the moving companies have fake reviews" as if it's no big deal, as if it's not illegal to have such fake reviews.
After you sign your agreement, don't be surprised that it will take many phone calls to ever reach the sales rep that claims in the beginning will be with you every step of the way.
In our move, the truck was several days late, items were damaged, and showed up missing a box which held very sentimental items. They claimed they would try and track down the box for us; however, I haven't heard anything from them in weeks despite my please for empathy in that the items involved are irreplaceable. The movers who dropped my stuff off told me repeatedly that I needed to pay a $75 elevator fee that was very clearly waived on my contract.
Because I was missing a box, I didn't want to sign the delivery contract which states that I have received my belongings. I was then told that if I do not sign the delivery notice, they will take my belongings to a warehouse until I'm willing to sign and would then receive additional delivery fees. I wrote on the contract that needed to be signed that I was missing things and the delivery personal signed his name as lightly as possible underneath as if to try and keep it off the carbon copy. Please also note that the insurance coverage is based on weight, having a tendency to put the moving company in a better position as valuable items often do not weigh much. The box missing is by far the heaviest box we had.. when I asked the rep on the day of delivery how they were going to process a claim for something missing when they can have no idea whatsoever as to how much it weighs, he could not answer that question.
If I could do things over again, I would pay for a reputable company to ship the things that were really important to me, at the premium price that such companies charge(I'm now realizing why they can & should charge more) and leave it at that.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2300

I'd like to preface this by saying that I've worked in sales my entire career, so I consider myself to be an understanding and patient customer. That said, I feel very confident in saying that my experience with Safeway was the absolute worst I've had in my life (to the point that I had to contact a lawyer for advice on how to handle the situation).

I'd also like to ask that you please, PLEASE read and consider the negative reviews - you'll find that they all have very similar complaints, and unfortunately my experience was exactly in line with every other negative review they've gotten. If you look closely, you'll note that all of Safeway's positive reviews are very likely fake - the accounts that post the shining, rave reviews have never reviewed anything else before or after reviewing Safeway. I know my review will be buried by fake ones in no time, but my hope is that someone will read this and avoids going with them because it was genuinely that bad.

Below is a high level outline of my experience:

-Richard Larusso, the salesperson I had the misfortune of working with, promised that my items would be delivered within 3-5 days MAXIMUM from my first available delivery date. I kept asking him what the catch was because I thought it was too good to be true and every other (legitimate) moving company quoted me at least 14 days. He repeatedly assured me there was no catch, not to worry, and that he would be with me every step of the move. Each of these promises proved to be lies to get the sale. After I paid my deposit, Richard (and everyone else at Safeway) slowly stopped responding to me and my desperate attempts to get literally any information on where my belongings were.

-My pickup date was delayed and no one told me - when I reached out to Richard about it, he claimed their software was broken and asked that I send him the quote so that they could reschedule the pickup date. This was the first red flag - how could a company that has been operating this long not have a backup system to access their own quotes?

-When my items did get picked up, I learned that the quote Richard gave me was at least $2,000 less than what I actually had to pay.

-My move was picked up on September 24th, and as instructed by Richard, I gave my first available pickup date as September 28th. This means that based on Richard's quote that he repeatedly promised me was doable, the LATEST my items should have arrived was October 2nd. It arrived on October 23rd.

-I want to make something very clear - if ANYONE on the Safeway team had been honest with me and just let me know that there would be a month long delay, I wouldn't be even half as as upset as I am. Instead, the team (when I was actually able to get ahold of anyone) was repeatedly evasive, gave me no direct answers, and at times were outright disrespectful. I spent hours each day digging for information and trying desperately to get in touch with their team, and I cluelessly moved across the country only to have to live in an empty apartment sleeping on the floor/an air mattress for a month.

-Because the only bags I brought with me were packed for a week, I had to purchase an air mattress, pillow, sheets, a towel, pot/pan to cook, a plate and silverware, a bar stool so that I could have somewhere to sit while I worked, dog food, laundry detergent, and more.

-I also want to point out that if Safeway had been honest from the start (or at any point, really), I could have stayed with friends or family in Chicago and saved thousands of dollars by starting my lease a month later, my cable and internet a month later, purchasing a car a month later, etc.

-The above expenses and all of the items I had to purchase because I was so deeply misinformed have put me into a financial hole that I will be digging myself out of for months to come. I recognize my privilege - this is something that I can survive, but there are a lot of people who would be in a much worse position stemming from Safeway's dishonesty. At one point, I asked Julian on the CS team to tell me what he would do if he were in my position and could barely afford to buy these things, he said "I wouldn't have put myself in that position". Regretfully, I absolutely lost my temper after that. I also asked him to send me recordings of my calls with the Safeway team, and he responded, verbatim, with "no, the calls are recorded to protect us, not you".

-the most important thing take away from this post is to GET EVERY. SINGLE. WORD. IN WRITING. Get the quoted dates in writing. Read every word of the contract you sign. There are loopholes in everything Safeway says or does, and that they make their money by lying and deceiving their way into a sale. Shame on me for not doing better research before I gave such a large sum of money to this company - I really hope someone learns from my mistake. I've attached 2 of 30+ screenshots of my texts with Safeway for reference.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5700

Our stuff took 37 days to be delivered from our first available date, 39 from the pickup date. Things were delivered damaged, including punctures in my couch, a broken monitor, and damage to the back of one of my pieces of artwork, all things that were packed for me. Since Safeway is a broker and not a moving company, I can't blame them directly for the damage, but the delays I can and will. This was all exacerbated by the fact that their customer service, specifically for an in-progress move, is atrocious to the point of being offensive. Dozens of unreturned calls, completely helpless agents who answered the main phone line, total opaqueness in the lack of updates, and on one occasion I was literally berated over the phone for being a bit annoyed it had already been 3 weeks without my stuff since they still technically had time left to deliver things within the contract period, despite having been quoted an estimate of 10 to 14 days (which I recognize is an estimate, but I was very justifiably frustrated at the 21 day mark my stuff had yet to arrive). Even now I cannot get ahold of anyone on the phone to discuss making a claim, which I'm struggling with justifying because I'd have to continue to deal with these people.

The services they offered weren't competitively priced enough to recommend this over literally any other company, especially after tallying in having to buy furniture to hold me over for the >1 month wait for my things and later replace or repair what was damaged. Throw in the fact that the customer service is incompetent and offensive, and I'd say to steer clear of this company at all costs.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4955

This is not a fake review. I was told by the customer service agent that my move would be $3500 it is now over $7000. I was told that as they picked up my stuff. I was told boxes listed as medium and I had large, told I had suitcases not listed. I will deal with the price. I was told the move should take 10 days! It’s now day 14 days and my stuff has not left it’s original pick up. When I call and ask they tell me sorry can’t find a driver. What the hell!! Isn’t that your job to have drivers??? It’s insane that my stuff is still in a storage unit and not moving. The customer service agent told me “ we have 21 days and after 21 days we have 30 more days until we are penalized”. This is horrible customer service and a horrible company. I’m living out of a suitcase. My customer service agent should have been honest and upfront that it may take months to get my crap!!!

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $7000

The company made an estimate on our move. We believe they intentionally misrepresented our inventory and underestimated the number of boxes so they could have a lower price than competing movers. They told us they believed the estimate was accurate and said it was binding not to exceed the price and told us we "wouldn’t pay a penny more unless [we] went out and bought five grand pianos.” We did not purchase or add any new items. A week before the move they said the estimate was done badly -- he said that things were entered wrong and they needed to add hundreds more boxes and would raise the price by more than $10,000. They said that would include full value replacement, but then sent a new contract without full value replacement. They then said they wouldn't do full value replacement unless we paid yet another $7,000. They attempted to blame us saying we should have known we would have needed more boxes despite their estimator saying that was the number of boxes we need. How were we supposed to know how many boxes we would need? We believe they were intentionally attempting to defraud us. They told us they are going to unilaterally cancel our move and keep our deposit.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $36000

I'm a real customer and my move number is 5893649. The flurry of 5 star reviews are fake. My experience is real, and i'm happy to share the email trail and documents to back up my review.

Look closely at how similar the 1 star reviews are... that tells you something (these are the REAL reviews).

Awful customer service and zero communication and follow up throughout the move. Chris Johnson was my "relocation specialist" who would be "with me every step of the way." He's a smooth talker that only wants you to sign that non refundable contract (then you are not worth more of his time). I can show you the email trail of him not even replying to me for WEEKS. They don't care... once they get your non refundable deposit they have no reason to even reply to you.

Safeway also tells you that your final payment at delivery can be CASH, money order or Zelle electronic payment (I have the email from them advertising exactly this).

Then they call you at 4pm Saturday and demand CASH ONLY for an 8am delivery on Sunday the next day. Then they tell you it's a $500 fee if you aren't there (i had 14 hours of notice). Then they didn't show up and actual delivery was a full 10 days later (again no communication unless i chased it down).

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4300