Southern Elite Van Lines

This company was great to communicate with, from beginning to end. Note though that the more correct info you provide them in regards to what things you actually have, the more perfect, your experience will be, especially if you're having them do all the packing. The movers were quick and showed up very early in the morning. They were very careful with my items. No need to worry. I noticed the process like a hawk and everything went smoothly. I would highly recommend them.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3230

Unless you are prepared to wrap your belongings well enough to be dragged behind the moving truck and punted out of the side of the truck when unloading.

This company is borderline fraudulent and simply careless. I would not trust these clowns to move a pile of scrap wood from behind a barn, to the street for pickup. Please save yourself the trouble and hire a trusted company to move your belongings, not someone only in it for the money.

TL;DR

Read below for full experience:

When comparing a professional moving company to a DIY move, we called SEVL. Their quote came in only slightly higher than the cost to do it ourselves. Their representative was very friendly, led the questions so he knew how many items we have to move, etc. and explained how “cool it is to know we could have our belongings professionally moved, for nearly the same price as doing it ourselves.” We appreciated his expertise, because we would not even begin to know how to estimate how much volume our belongings take up without his assistance. Through this question and answer process, a quote for “5 cubes,” was established.

Once our move was underway, a crew of 3 men showed up to load a Uhaul truck with our belongings and this is when the “bait and switch” took place. Once our belongings were mostly loaded on the truck, the crew leader let us know that “the amount originally quoted, was only half of the actual amount of items that were loaded up. He explained that we were quoted “5 cube” and we actually have twice this amount.

Funny how they seemed to know what size truck to send for the job though, hmmm?!

He gave us our new total (10 cubes), asked for the second payment and then stated, “we do not accept credit cards, we only accept “cash, check or wire transfer.” Weird that we were able to pay with a credit card to secure the job with SEVL via website? Whatever, we found enough unaffected roads that were still open and drove to our bank. 3 hours of our time later, they had their 2nd installment of the new, much larger total. Our quote was for $2130 and the actual amount totaled $4,368.

Once SEVL had their funds, we were directed to wait 1-10 days for our items to arrive to our destination - MI. In the meantime, David (manager) was informed of our dissatisfaction with this process so far and we requested further conversation with him. David made the choice to ignore this request, hence this review. David was extremely quick to reply to any messages involving money, or payment to him, so we will let his priorities speak for themselves here.

4 days later we received a call from the moving truck in MI, to let us know when they were scheduled to arrive with our belongings. The driver showed up by himself. He explained that the crew that was supposed to meet him at our location to help, backed out last minute. He offered to move all of our things by himself and warned us that he may be there until midnight, or even after, “because we had so much stuff!” He informed us that we had “9 cubes of stuff,” despite the fact that days earlier we were charged with “10 cubes?”

Many of our items arrived damaged. Bent legs on tables, bent adjustable feet on cabinets. Many dents in a metal storage cabinet that was wrapped in moving blankets secured with tape. anything that was metal is now dented. Anything that was wooden has paint scuffed off the corners and edges. We have a solid wooden chair that has slats broken right off and cracked, as if used for a ladder?! Multiple pieces of furniture were destroyed, a large hole punched through the top of a table. Our washing machine was damaged beyond repair.

It is obvious that little regard for care was even attempted, during the handling of our belongings. We had a box clearly labeled “FRAGILE,” containing an irreplaceable item (crafted by our late son) smashed to pieces in its bubble wrapped packaging. The movers were observed climbing on our items as they loaded up in NC to reach the very top spaces in the truck. I guess time is money?

David did choose to respond to our complaint of rough handling and damaged items as a result. He sent us a copy of their policy on how to file a claim for damaged items. Insurance might cover something to the extent of 60 cents per pound, if the claim is approved and will net us approximately $200 towards replacing our 1 year old washing machine that cost $900 a year ago. Most of the other items fall under a protective clause how they don’t cover certain items prone to damage, etc. blah, blah. In other words – you are out of luck for the items they WILL damage, as a result of their overall carelessness in handling the personal property of others.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4368

These guys were great, professional, fast and careful with our stuff. Their pricing was good. They worked actively all day and were super patient with me where I wasn't fully prepared or needed more boxes and materials, etc. When we got to the new house, they not only took care as they placed different material throughout the house, they were accommodating as we found the right position for everything. All of our items were handled with care and their prices was reasonable. Highly recommended.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4434

Poor communication after accepting their contract. Didn't arrive when scheduled nor any communication of the delay. Quoted a price based on video and pictures of storage. When picking up had to pay extra $900.00. Spoke to several people and still no explanation of returned call. Was afraid of this happening so was very careful of providing all I could for accurate quote. End result was oh well not our problem. I had even ask for extra cushion on pricing just in case and was told I would be good with the quote. Sent final video of storage before move date again to be sure of pricing. I can say that the movers that delivered my things were very nice and tried to fix the things that were damaged when they unloaded.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $2300