ShipSmart

I was absolutely blown away from start to finish with Ship Smart! This moving company not only has integrity and an outstanding customer service culture, they also know how to exceed expectations. None of these exemplary traits are found commonly in moving companies. I trusted them, and it paid off. They are trustworthy and truly a bright shining star among so many shady rotten apples. Their employees are bright, empowered, empathetic, kind and upbeat. They treated my things as if they were their own. I cannot endorse them enough.

Move size: Studio Service cost: $2500

An all-around HORRIBLE experience!
When going to the customers’ review page on the Ship Smart website the opening statement is “Customer satisfaction is our number one priority.” Could not be farther from the truth to describe my experience with Ship Smart.
Movers came 4 hours late! I had been given a window of noon to 2p for the pick up and that it would take an estimated 1 hour to pick up and load the truck. I called in the morning multiple times just to ensure this time table was accurate. I called so many times that the front desk lady answering the phone knew it was me when I asked to double check because I NEEDED to be back in the office afterwards for an important meeting. The movers did not arrive until 4:20pm and I subsequently missed an important meeting I needed to be at to prepare work for my move.
Not to mention, while the pickup was happening a couple plates and bowls were dropped and broke. But hey- I brushed that off because if that was all that was going to break I could swallow moving past a couple flatware items.
The estimated 2-3 weeks from pick up to the ware house scheduling your delivery is more like 3-4 weeks. Just plan accordingly.
After I called 3 weeks and 3 days after my items were pickup, the warehouse claimed my items weighed more and the bill was going to be 70% higher than the estimate given. I take responsibility that instead of 20 boxes I had 24 boxes and an additional yoga bag with a mat and a 24” flat screen tv. Those items I had not given in my estimate, but that DOES NOT constitute over $1;500 more in cost! What’s the point of even giving an estimate if you’re going to claim the price to be almost double?
Next, I get my items delivered and find that everything had been shrink wrapped onto a pallet and is NOT well packaged for the trip. Furious is one of the first words that comes to mind. Everything of mine was thrown into an oversized box and crushed. I knew a pallet would be mode of transportation, but nothing was wrapped properly and items were thrown in haphazardly.
As the movers unloaded my items into my garage and house, I realize my 36”x36”x12” cupboard is completely crushed with door hinges broken and the wood snapped and my floor lamp, the lamp shade has been crushed along with curtain rods and closet rods are bent or snapped in half.
The real icing on the cake though, I had a couple months new couch before moving. The couch was delivered to me with large watermark stains and dirt-like stains on the cushions and arm rests. AND the legs to the couch are missing and still have not been found by the warehouse. What am I supposed to do with a new couch that is now stained and missing legs?
Lastly, the only redeeming quality about this horrible experience is the 2 men who picked up my stuff and the 2 men who delivered my stuff were very nice and I felt comfortable having them handling my things. BUT they are not Smart Ship employees, they are hired out help through the warehouses. Dealing over the phone with Smart Ship was a less than pleasant experience.
When you are a business delivering a service to a customer, I would rather you be not nice people and do a good job at that service. You should be working for the customer who needs help, Ship Smart has made my move exponentially harder and has ruined furniture that money cannot even fix. You have successfully ruined a new couch, crushed a cupboard, broken a floor lamp, bent my curtain rods, shattered some flatware, over-billed me by 170%, came for my pick up 4 hours late and made my move to a whole new state more stressful than it already was.
If you are reading this review, do NOT use this company. You are looking to hire help to make the heavy lifting and transportation of goods easier on yourself and this company will have you worrying about your personal belongings and will be difficult to deal with along the way. When I was deciding which company to help my move I found several others with estimated costs very similar and it would be worth while for you to use an alternative company.
The 1 star is for the 4 men who were nice picking up and dropping off. But nothing about moving with Ship Smart is in fact smart.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2480

Due to downsizing I shipped a family heirloom antique china hutch with roll top desk to my brother to keep it in the family. It was 2 pieces plus 2 shelves. I paid an extra $634 to have "inside delivery" because my brother was not able to unload himself. The shelves did not arrive. I called the company and was told they would contact the delivery crew to search and call me back (they did not call). A week later the second call, was told the warehouse would be searched and would call back (no call back). 6 days later I got an email "we have exhausted our search and they have not been located. At this point we would suggest filing a claim with your insurance. I will have the claim instructions forwarded to you right away." A day later I received another email with lengthy instructions on what I had to do for an insurance claim including the following: "we will require labeled photos of the damaged items and repair estimates to be submitted directly" to them. How do I photo missing shelves? I have no idea where to find an antique restoration company that will give me an estimate to fabricate duplicate shelves. I called today and both people that sent the email messages (claims manager and customer service manager) were out for the day. I begged the person that answered the phone to renew the search of the truck that did the pick up at my home, the warehouse where it was crated and the delivery and pleaded for a return call - not another email. This process has been unnecessarily stressful and frustrating.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $2159

I inherited a nearly 100 year old glass top wroght iron table that needed to be shipped from Washington to California. I had been looking at a few different shipping companies and decided on ShipSmart after speaking with Carly on initial estimates and shipped process. Carly was personable and wonderful and I felt immediately positive about booking with ShipSmart. The process was fantastic, true to estimate, efficient and communicative through the ship. When the table and chairs arrived, I wasn’t expecting the glass top to survive the journey, but the amount of care was apparent in the packing. Glass survived the trip and the rest of the items were packed safely and securely as if the people packing were shipping their own family heirloom. I could not have been more pleased with the professionalism and service and the price was very fair-no hidden costs-and a little less than I had been expecting. I have had some poor experiences with shipping companies in the past and ShipSmart exceeded my expectations-I am so thrilled! Thank you Carly and thank you ShipSmart!!

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $1400

Our experience with Shipsmart was appalling from start to finish. My young daughter was moving from NY to Seattle in June. From scheduling an appointment for packing/shipping to communications (or lack thereof) to get updates on delivery the whole process was challenging, to say the least. The local company handling the packing and shipping for Shipsmart was Xpress Relocations. They were scheduled to arrive between 9-11am on the day. Apparently, they were dialing an incorrect cell# all day en route to our house; there was no communication for a while until I called their main office. Then they were stuck in traffic. Ended up arriving at 6pm! Packing took a half hour and was efficient (the best part of this entire process). Fortunately, I took a picture of the truck outside the house as well as the packing slip (as there was no hard copy available!). For the next several weeks I made almost 2 calls a week to Shipsmart to get updates. There was always a delay of some sort. At one point they said they had no record of the pickup and had never picked up the shipment because my daughter had cancelled the appointment! I sent them the pics I had taken on the day of pickup as proof. Apparently, the warehouse manager read a number on the packing slip incorrectly. Then they said they were dealing with high demand and there was a delay and my daughter’s 11 boxes were in an area of the warehouse that was hard to get to so they had to move boxes “like tetris pieces” to locate her items which would take a few days. Further delays. The items were eventually delivered 7 weeks after pickup when they should have taken up to 4 weeks. And the icing on the cake was that most of the boxes were damaged in some way – dented or like there was an attempt to rip them open. One was completely shredded at the top. There were some damaged items (shoes, etc.) which are replaceable but none of this should have happened. I called and sent them a video of the damaged boxes on Aug 17. It has been 3 months and to this day neither my daughter nor I have heard back from them with an explanation about when and why this happened. If you want peace-of-mind I would recommend you try other moving companies.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $1723

The only way that ShipSmart could have made more of a mess of my move was if they'd defecated all over my stuff.  The company was recommended to me by Marty Pollax from Atlas Moving, a major shipping company, who came to my apartment in San Francisco, looked at my minimal belongings and declared that I would save a lot of money by going with a "micro shipper" rather than a full service company like Atlas. I was quoted aroud $2278 by ShipSmart, $400 less than Atlas, so I went with ShipSmart. At the time of booking, the ShipSmart sales agent said that the delivery to Denver would take two weeks.  The movers came on time and took care of my shipment efficiently. But from the moment these crooks had my possessions in their possession, they didn't play nicely. First problem: The shipment took nearly a month to reach me in Denver. I called several times and was told that a month was normal at this time of year. They didn't care that I had been quoted a price based on a two-week delivery window.  Second Problem: The shipment ended up costing me much more than I was quoted. The company tried to charge me $5000 (almost twice as much as had been the estimate) but then came down to $3500 after I persistently called them to complain. The excuse for charging me so much money was because my shipment was "more than 1000 pounds heavier than estimated." I later found out from the person at the warehouse in Denver where my stuff sat for who knows how long before it actually reached me, that the shipping company had encased some of my items (eg my bed) in very heavy crates and then passed the cost of the extra weight on to me. Third Problem: When my stuff finally arrived, eight items were broken, two items were dirty, and one item was missing. Two items in particular are one of a kind things which can't be replaced.  When I called ShipSmart to complain, the agent simply sent me insurance forms to fill in. I wrote back to say that I wanted compensation directly from ShipSmart in addition to money from the insurance company for the terrible service, but was told that the company had already taken "a huge financial hit" with my shipment and that they could offer me no further compensation.  Fourth Problem: The insurance company, ITI, makes it so complicated for agrieved movers to file a claim that I assume many people don't bother. You have to send them estimated repair costs for all the broken items and these estimates have to come from a furniture repair firm in writing on official letterhead. And the insurance company won't pay for the appraisal. This in addition to sending photos and a detailed inventory makes the process of filing a claim extremely time consuming and onerous.  I think Atlas, ShipSmart and ITI are all in collusion. I wonder how many people received a kickback as a result of my shipment? .

Service cost: $3500

Let me start by saying that I started by experience off with Ship Smart with positive feelings. That is no where close to how I feel now.
We were moving from Nebraska to Washington. We researched thoroughly our options for moving some items from our 1 bedroom apartment. After careful consideration (and some of the reviews on here), we chose to go with Ship Smart.
Our initial interactions with Ship Smart were pleasant, however disorganized and they were hard to get ahold of. This should have been something we took as a huge warning sign for what was to come.
They ask you to put together an itemized list of what they will be moving. We went through multiple edits as I wanted to make sure the list was going to be as close to the actual shipment as possible (down to the number of boxes). They ask you to estimate the pounds per box, which was difficult, but we ended up being extremely liberal with our estimates, as we wanted to get an accurate idea of how much the move with Ship Smart would cost. Once we finalized our itemized list (which, they kept telling us, was not going to be a big deal as long as we didn’t have any huge or over sized items- we didn’t) we set up a time for them to come pick up our items. They hired out a local moving company to pick up our stuff and ship to their warehouse. This experience was pleasant. At this point we were told we would be contacted by Ship Smart within 10 days to tell us the status of our stuff and to set up a time for it to be delivered to us in Washington.
We counted the days and when 3 weeks passed by we eventually called THEM. Terrible. They informed us, that yes, our stuff was indeed ready to be shipped. Then they sent along the new payment and cost invoice. Our new price was 33% higher than the estimate and yet the new weight of our shipment was only 12% higher. They unjustly increased our payment. After several calls (some where we had to call back because they did not call us back when they said they would) and over a week they eventually took $500 off the newest quote. Still not satisfied, I agreed to pay because frankly, I wanted my things. Ship Smart was ridiculously difficult to communicate with and they made unjustified changes to payment and timeline.
We cannot stress enough that you should NOT use this company for a small move. I cannot speak toward large shipments, but I don’t imagine their customer service or communication would be any better. For your own sanity, go to someone else for your shipping needs.

Service cost: $2000

This past month I shipped many antiques {family heirlooms} to my daughter and son in law in VA. for their new home. The items consisted of Windsor Dining Room table and chairs, leather top brass foot desk, end tables and cane chairs along with paintings ect. that have been in my family for generations. I was very concerned that everything would be packed carefully. The customer service ladies Hanna and Ashley were very reassuring to the quality and care the items would receive and even the warehouse manager Marshal reassured me. Let me state how correct they were! The shipping was amazing.The hard corrugated and wood framing was so strong and in perfect condition. Each piece of the 2 containers were individually wrapped and even marked "Fragile"! Everything arrived in perfect condition and on time that was stated. I recommend Ship Smart for all shipping needs! Thank you also to Michael and his helper who picked up our items and were so gentle and kind! Thank you agin to ALL the staff at Ship Smart for their kindness and awesome packing and shipping! Bridget M.

Service cost: $1600