Safeway Moving Systems

This company is a scam. I was quoted comparable rates, but wanted to support a Veteran owned company, as I am also a Vet. The day before my movers were to pickup my household items, no one had called to confirm, I had to reach out to them we went over the manifest again, I provided measurements of all my belongings, plus the exact number of boxes. When the movers arrived, they immediately said all my items were larger then what I indicated- FALSE. The movers said it would be an additional $800 or they wouldn't take my stuff. I had no options since I was leaving the next day. I was called a couple of days later for my new address and I filed a complaint. I was told a supervisor would call me THAT day to hear my grievance. No one called! When my items were to be delivered, the CONTRACTED delivery company had different policies than Safeway and it cost me an additional $150 for the delivery. I should have not let my soft heart for fellow vets cloud my financial decision making. DO NOT USE THIS MOVING COMPANY- SCAM!

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5000

Still haven’t received our stuff 10 days later & just got off the phone with customer service. Guess what? “We don’t see where your truck is.”. We went with this company because they’re military owned & figured they would be organized and have good comms. They had to put our belongings on two trucks because they packed their truck too much on prior trips & couldn’t fit all of our stuff. We said okay, do what you have to do. When they left our house we asked how long until we get our belongings? They stated “it depends on weather but you’re the next stop.”. The driver confirmed he listed first available date as April 22nd. The drive from our OG state to this state is under 2 day drive btw. We called everyday because we weren’t getting calls back & no one could tell us where our truck was (& customer service was rather rude) until last Wednesday when they said our stuff was dropped off at a warehouse in Dallas, TX….it was never mentioned our stuff would be dropped off in another state out of the way. Called next day…still at warehouse. Waited the weekend and called this AM. They can’t answer where our stuff is & don’t see where the truck is. Do not hire this company unless you don’t want your stuff back until an undisclosed date. Happy to remove this review if they finish their job that we hired them to do and our belongings are in our home tomorrow, as it will be 11 days tomorrow.

Update: After calling 3 separate times and getting no call back. We finally got some answers. That answer is, they have no idea when our stuff will be here & it hasn’t left TX. After reading other reviews of belongings going missing, stuff being delivered over a month later & even being haggled and lives threatened upon delivery for more money (check other reviews, an attorney stated her and her husband were threatened). I have half the mind to file a report. I don’t know if and when I’ll get my things back at this point.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $11000

Long story short, Safeway is a dishonest company that made my move significantly more stressful and frustrating than it needed to be due to lack of communication, respect, and honesty. I’ll detail my experience below but I would not recommend booking with them but if you already have, try to get as much in writing as you can.

To begin with, I was misled during booking promising that only Safeway would handle my move, that GPS tracking would be available, and that the delivery date would be scheduled before my first available delivery date. These were the main reasons I booked with Safeway. To later find out that I would not have any of those things was disappointing to say the least.

I originally booked with Safeway because the salesman, Scott Curtis, seemed to answer all of my questions with honesty and transparency, but, unfortunately, that was all a show to get my business.

My first red flag was when another moving company, Just Pro Moving, arrived to pick up my belongings. Scott promised me that Safeway owns all their trucks and employs all of their movers. He affirmed Safeway would be the one handling the move from beginning to end. He went so far as to send me a separate email advising that I watch out for predatory brokers. So I was confused and afraid when the movers asked me to send the payment to Just Pro Moving, instead of Safeway, after all of my belongings were on the truck. I was afraid I had been scammed. No one warned me that this would be happening. I had to reach out to the general customer service line where I was met with a rude explanation. The person remarked, “How can you expect a national company to have movers in every location?” I called for clarity and reassurance and only received dismissal and condescension. I don’t expect a national company to have movers in every location, but I did expect Safeway to have movers for my move because that’s what was sold to me. They also tried to say that they were Safeway although paying Just Pro Moving and them arriving in a Penske truck would suggest otherwise.

During one of the calls, they clarified that Just Pro Moving was handling my entire move, including delivery. They also clarified that because of this, GPS tracking would not be available as it was advertised at the time of booking my move. I understand that a cross country move takes time, and I’m sure the logistics are very complicated, but multiple promises were, at best, wholly ignored or, at worst, intentionally falsely advertised.

Overall, communication was terrible. Much of this could have been avoided if only I was told beforehand. It was hit or miss if Blossom would answer, and if I left a message she never called me back.

I’ve experienced a similar issue with customer service. When I spoke to someone, they promised they had escalated the issue and that someone would call me back but they never did. I was told that everyone is extremely busy but that is not an excuse to never call a customer back. It’s also not an excuse to outright lie to customers to get their business.

Now that my move is complete I was supposed to receive a quality assurance call to make any claims and give feedback but it’s been almost a week and a half since my delivery and I haven’t been called. I think it’s clear that don’t care what I have to say since they know I had a terrible experience but didn’t do anything to try and make it better.

To top it off, one of the customer service representatives advised me to send an email to their general inbox in the hopes that a supervisor would respond. I sent two emails summarizing my experience and never received any response. I am shocked at the lack of respect Safeway has for their customers. Their willingness to lie and mislead to get business is disgraceful. A friend also booked with Safeway to do the same move as me and they had a similar awful experience. I don’t know how they made it onto any of the best long distance movers lists but I think they need to be seriously reevaluated.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6248

Robert and his team did a fantastic job. They wrapped everything up in blankets and plastic wrap to protect them from any damage during the move. I had a variety of furniture, including a sofa, coffee table, mattress, and some shelves, and they handled them all with caution. They even disassembled and reassembled my mattress, which was a huge relief because I had no clue how to do it myself. They were very helpful and accommodating, and made the whole process smooth and easy.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3075

This company was very difficult to deal with. My furniture was 10 days late. No phone calls were returned and most texts ignored. They didn’t have records of my payments. Upon arrival the movers said I owed more money than I did. My moving coordinator wouldn’t return my calls. I eventually had to find my receipts. Unacceptable. It felt like a scam to get more money from me. Worst customer service ever!!! Companies MUST do better. All my concerns were met with minimal concern and that was IF I ever got to speak to anyone. I would never recommend this company to anyone for their cross country move.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $7000

PLEASE DO NOT!

This company is the biggest scam ever. Let me get started with clarifying that this is a moving brokerage. This should make you stay away, even if they deny it.

The Sales rep, Jay Cummings, is rude and disrespectful and a liar. This should have been a red flag and I should have stopped it right there. I was caught in a stressful moment and did not realize that on the estimate, half of my items were missing. I did send him an email asking if there was any additional cost I should be aware of, which he denied in writing.

Next, the moving coordinator Maria Loyola is the worst moving helper. She has no patience or empathy on how stressful an out of state move is. When I was going with her through everything, she confirmed that the extra cost for delivery or pickup will only be charged if the truck cannot park close to the house and will be parked more than 100 feet away. I specifically asked if this also includes the distance within the building, which she denied on tape. Sure enough the company made me pay over $100 because the distance inside the building was too long. When I requested the recording of the audio, I was not send the correct transcript and it was on a word document and clearly altered.

Next, the delivery guy told me that he has to rent a truck to deliver the items to my address because he cannot delivery with his semi truck. I told him that he can deliver with his semi truck because there is enough space to which he replied via text that they never do that and that they always rent a truck which was an additional $500.

Of course, neither Jay Cummings nor Maria Loyola picked up when I called or returned my calls.

Now, needless to say that my moving boxes, which were purposely labeled to indicate if the box was heavy or light, where ripped apart, heavy boxes placed on light boxes, boxes up side down. I could see with my own eyes how the delivery person mishandled the boxes. Several items were broken and are irreplaceable.

The claims company used is a scam too. I cannot upload all documents because they all have to be merged into one document, but they don't accept zip files. So how am I supposed to merge all of these documents?

Next, I emailed Tashana Shields from costumer service. She never replied to my email.

Now, I spend +3K on a move that was estimated at 3K when I could have used a reputable company and have the aftermath of dealing with the better business bureau.

Don't let them fool you if they reply their records don't indicate the move which seems to be their standard reply for all negative reviews here.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6000

We have found this company incredibly frustrating to work with. Our original rep (Frank) was actually really nice and easy to work with. However, that is where the good times end. They originally said they would give us 72 hours notice for picking up our stuff--they gave us less than 18 hours. Then they showed up almost 8 hours late. And we think a few things were stolen--which we reported to safeway immediately. I understand this is the contractors and not safeway (technically) but it is on safeway to ensure their contractors are reliable and trustworthy.

After reaching out to safeway numerous times, we found their customer service to be condescending and downright unhelpful. To add injury to insult, they must be wayyyy under quoting people to attract customers because despite insanely detailed inventory lists (which were almost identical to what the movers picked up, give or take a single chair), its costing us $1000+ more than original quotes. And they keep adding on charges. I am furious with this experience, with how much it is costing us, with how unhelpful safeway has been, and with how stressed I am that our stuff will ever even reach us. FIND A BETTER COMPANY.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4467

This company is a fraud and once they got you, they will not return your calls or emails. We booked our across country move with Frank. He was pleasant when we booked and we were quoted $8040.84 and after giving him our list of items to move, an estimated 1461 cf. We put a deposit down of $3216.33 and expected to pay $2412.26 when the movers showed up and the remaining balance on delivery. A couple of days prior to the move, we talked with Safeway to give our final count of items which included less furniture (sold to our buyers) but more boxes than intended. The person on the phone said since we are not moving several furniture items, the cubic feet estimate would be the same. Movers showed up on a Sunday and walked through and immediately said we have more items than 1461 cf - they would not load the furniture until we signed the new quote of $13,050 ($5009.59 more). Safeway was of course closed and did not answer the phone. We called and emailed Frank and others at the company who would not return our calls or emails. How convenient for them. At that point we had no choice but to agree since we had to be out of the home by Monday. How do you estimate a list and be sooooo far off? And then to not even call you back or answer your emails to explain. I would never recommend this company to anyone and will tell everyone I know not to use them. I should be refunded the additional amount of $5009.59 that I had to pay.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $13050

Unbelievable - Just horrible. To start with they quoted us 18K and then outsourced it to Global Moving systems, which were at our door ready to move us but oh, you owe 8K more. we ended up paying 26K to move from TN to Iowa. we have so much damaged, and to top it off we had to unload ourselves. I am trying to speak to their customer service and operations team, but they keep promising someone will call me. Still no call - the communication was horrible - our stuff was just thrown around and broke. I would think at 26K, I would have been taken care of better. we had 400 items and the quote stated it, Global stated at 18K it was only 192 items, which is not what our quote stated from Safeway. We are asking or a refund of the difference and labor charges for having to help unload. Damages will be another story, I am logging all of it through pictures, but it will take a bit to unbox it all. we uncover damages it seems every day! The saddest one is that we paid extra for a grandfather clock to be packaged due to it's sentimental value - we wanted "professional movers" to pack it. it doesn't work now and is broke due to they wrapped it one time in bubble wrap and threw it in a large box with other items. it just bounced around. our boxes were crushed and thrown everywhere. everything was so dirty, it is like they stored it in a hay barn or something. To pay so much - we don't have that kind of money to be throwing around - 18K was enough. They hold you hostage as you have no choice, your house is sold, you have a closing scheduled at the destination - you have to say yes.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $26575