Spartan Moving and Storage

THE SALES REP, Reggie has failed all the way around. The original bid, the additional discount because the price increase, the original p/u address and numerous phone calls and emails which never were returned.

NOW- the delivery dates promised no one is communicating; see the email I sent to info spartan and reggie yesterday: "Scheduled delivery is 12.2 or 12.3. Others need to make arrangements to receive the load & must plan their schedules to do so. You have my cell and email so there is no excuse not to communicate. Should you have to wait to unload at the site (address has changed) or go the wrong place will be your expense NOT MINE but your failure to contact or communicate w/your customer!

I have never gotten a return call from the 2 messages I left for Spartan Friday on extension 1 & 2 I believe.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4299

I am so happy I chose Spartan Moving & Storage..I began getting quotes & was totally overwhelmed by the whole process of elimination.. There are just so many companies, cost variables, prices, services, fees, etc..
I decided to go with Spartan Moving & Storage (not to be confused with other "copycat" companies), because they were the most professional, knowledgeable & accommodating, putting me at ease from the start.They delivered on time & on budget and kept me up to date from start to finish.
Thanks Spartan M & S..

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1653

Assuming that these people are still out there doing business, I caution everybody who is looking for a mover to stay away from this company. Spartan Moving and Storage, also known as Satellite Logistics is the worst mover I have ever dealt with. From searching the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (fmcsa.dot.gov) website it appears that their authorization has been revoked and their insurance cancelled. However, it’s possible that they are still operating based on the fact that my son’s goods were finally delivered AFTER the revocation dates. If you want detail on how horrible this experience played out, read on. If you don’t want detail, just know that you can’t believe anything they tell you. Have someone else do your move.

I was contacted by Jason Levine out of their Chicago office (HQ is Baltimore, MD) in late September after posting an inquiry on movers.com. He sounded very friendly and helpful and gave me an estimate of just under $1900 for a move from Boulder, CO to Williamsburg. This was based on the number of items that I thought my son had and based on his one-bedroom apartment in Boulder. This in spite of the fact that their website advertises a 1-bedroom move for $1299.

After getting several other estimates I agreed to go with Jason and Spartan and agreed to a contract price of $1873.34 with a pick-up date of 9/26/2017 and a delivery date of 10/03-10/04/2017. Jason then gave me his cell phone number (773-570-6641) and assured me I could call him if there were any issues and the “he would be there for me”. He also guaranteed in writing that “We are the actual CARRIER, meaning we only use our trucks, our employed movers with background checks and all Drivers (Foreman) are drug tested bi-weekly drug tested weekly (sic).” He also gave me a number for their “dispatcher” Stacey.

After that, it all went downhill. On the day of the move, 9/26/17, the moving truck showed up. But instead of Spartan Moving and Storage, it was a company called Pin to Pin Moving. The driver insisted that he needed a cash payment of $900+ in order to load up. We knew we had to pay 50%, but nothing had been said about a cash payment. I called Jason’s office and cell phone numbers but couldn’t reach him. I then called Stacey and she informed me that, yes, it had to be cash or a postal money order. I explained to her that my son had neither of those available to him and she reluctantly agreed to take a credit card payment.

After loading the truck, it was found that he had approximately 3 times the number of items that were estimated and the price then jumped to $3600. Okay…I’ll take the hit on most of that…but remember, a one-bedroom move is only $1299 per their website.

As the date of the move approached, I was assured that all was okay. On October 3rd, no one showed up. I called Stacey and was told that the 3rd/4th was just the first available window and that they wouldn’t be there. She had to check things to determine when the truck would arrive. On the fourth she emailed me to let us know that the goods would arrive between Saturday 10/7 and Tuesday 10/10. Also that we would need to pay $1668.09 by cash or money order when they arrived. I also tried to call Jason and never received a return call.

No one showed up over the weekend and on the 9th, I started trying to reach Jason and Stacey. I learned from Stacey that “there was a problem with the truck” and that they were going to reschedule. After trying multiple times again to reach Jason I got a series of text messages that read in part “they’re working on it now and when I get to the office this afternoon, I will check what’s going on and call you. Believe me.” “Thank God you’re not waiting for a heart transplant to be delivered.” Needless to say he never called back.

This was when my wife did further research and found the FMCSA website and we learned about their insurance. On 10/9/17 it appeared that they still had authority to operate but as of this writing (11/11/17) the website shows that their authority was revoked.

In the meantime my son learned through the driver that picked up his furniture that there was no truck problem and his furniture and boxes were still sitting in a warehouse in Denver. Thank goodness for some honest people.

A week or so later we learned that his furniture was back on the road. However, that truck “broke down” in Kansas somewhere. This took a few more days to correct.

A week before the furniture finally arrived, on October 22nd my son received a call informing him that since the delivery was delayed, he would receive a $300 discount on the price. The company immediately recovered that upon delivery by charging him for having to go up one flight of stairs and having to park “too far away” from the door. Charges that were never mentioned prior to the contract being approved. Also, the delivery truck was again not “Spartan Moving and Storage”, it was Action Moving. Interesting for a company that only uses their own trucks and drivers.

As of November 1st, he has his goods but found a number of damaged items that he has documented and is now waiting for compensation. He has also not received a receipt for the payment to the movers. They said that it would “be sent to him in the mail”. This is preventing him from receiving and reimbursement from his new employer. It’s now December 5th and the nightmare isn’t totally over.

Bottom line, as I said at the beginning. Go elsewhere with your business.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3300

We have been moved professionally twice (Las Vegas to Los Angeles and Los Angeles to Washington D.C.) the service we received from Spartan was by far the worst. We have never had a company lie about using 3rd party movers, furniture completely broken apart, boxes of expensive items stolen, failure to use an inventory, wrong items in delivery, late pick-up (7 hours past schedule), late delivery (11 days past our requested date), completely inaccurate pricing, rude/evasive customer service, or using bait and switch to get our sale. We were told by sales rep John S. that we had full replacement protection through Spartan ($4000 with $0 deductible). Also that our packing service would not exceed $799 (it did @ $1127.65). Our "Binding not to exceed price" was anything but, and was ultimately $7383.65+. John did not discuss long carry fees, stair fees, 3% credit card fees. He left it to the mover to tell us. He also appeared to lowball the square footage estimate to lower the price. The packing we received was awful. We were told that: our TVs would be crated, our goods would be wrapped, our shipment would not be taken off the truck before arriving to us, none of which happened. The packing service resulted in 4 out of 6 book shelves/cd cases being completely broken apart, a broken stereo and an expensive couch which now needs to be reupholstered. Boxes were jammed full of items with no packing material and electronics were not crated or wrapped. Items were also stolen and did not arrive. It is suspicious that the movers packed our most expensive items themselves, did not label the box's content and then failed to arrive at the destination, including a PS4 and accessories, an expensive heater, kitchen mats, and toolbox. This a direct result of the movers not taking down a high value list, writing an accurate inventory, or attempting to use it on delivery. The movers who unloaded our goods simply unloaded the truck and did not check anything off. Other boxes/items (suitcase, curio cabinet) that were not ours were in our delivery possibly to act as stand-ins for our stolen goods. John also told us Spartan would not sell your contract out, which they clearly did as the delivery was not Spartan employees but 3rd party movers. John Stevens told me that I could reach out to him and ask questions. I texted him my 1st and only question and he immediately became angry. Taken totally by surprise by his unprofessional-ism and before I could even type a response, he called me and began to cuss me out. It took a few minutes of him ranting before I could interject who I was to which he stated: "No that wasn't meant for you", he had confused me for another customer who apparently deserved to be yelled at. As for why he had yelled at me there was no apology, just: "Welcome to the world of business". Afterwards a service rep named Stacy began to contact us to check in. She completely ignored our concerns. We were also told to give a 1 week notice for our items to arrive. This did not happen and our delivery kept being delayed. When we asked to speak to a manager Stacy ignored our request. Lastly upon delivery Stacy claimed she could not get a hold of me. On her 1st call to me I confronted her about the "3 missed calls" she accused me of missing in a text, as I was standing at the delivery point the entire time, all she did was apologize as this was clearly untrue.To add insult to injury they attempted to settle or damages for $68. When I appealed they offered $98. This experience was a nightmare.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $7383

I would give zero stars if I could. I’ve had a horrible experience with this company. I hired them for a move from San Diego, CA to Atlanta, GA and it was a nightmare.

First off, they state that they do not hire third party movers. That’s a lie. When they came to pick up our belongings, it was indeed Spartan movers. Not so much on the arrival.

We began our nightmare at the end of January as our lease expired at the end of the month. They said the movers would have our belongings to us in about 3 weeks; understandable for a cross country move. Well, 3 weeks passed and no communication from them. So we had to reach out. They said there was some delay because they didn’t have any movers headed in our direction and that they would keep us posted. Another week goes by with no word, and then another. So we reach back out and ask what’s going on to which they responded with the same answer, no drivers headed here. Great. At this point, it has been more than 30 days and they have a guarantee to deliver the belongs prior to 30 days or they will refund $300. It is now July and we still have yet to receive this money.

We finally got word back after a few more weeks that our belongings were loaded on a truck in their warehouse and was going to hit the road the next day. We got all excited only to find out this didn’t happen. How did we find out? Well, another week had gone by and no update so we reached out only to be told our belongings would be sent at a later time and someone would call us to schedule a drop off date and time. We finally got that call a few days later without a 24 hour notice as promised. And this person that called was not even with Spartan movers. You must be thinking who was it then? Well, it was a different moving company. Spartan basically mailed our stuff to these other movers and had them move our stuff. They called about an hour before showing up without masks or shoe coverings. We discovered dents and damages to our belongings such as an office desk. Horrible. We paid them just thankful that we got our stuff and had to deal with Spartan about the damages and still trying to collect our $300 for the delay. This other moving company under charged us (unbeknownst to us) by about $50 because we did not hire them and they did not have the proper documentation. They asked us to pay them the difference via Zelle. Ummm, that’s not how business operate. Felt sketchy so we didn’t make the payment and said we would talk to Spartan.

We finally get a hold of Spartan to talk about our experience, the damages, and our late fee. They do not have a legal dept so they were unable to handle our questions. The owner of the company was in Israel at the time so it was difficult to schedule a call with him. And once we did have a time, he rescheduled because he said he wasn’t “in the right mindset” to speak to us about such an important matter. So we had to reschedule. Ultimately, they said they would give us money for the delay as well as money for our poor experience and damages but ONLY if we signed a contract which basically said we cannot talk about our experience; so it is hush money. Well, needless to say, we didn’t want to sign it and have yet to receive even a penny.

We will be filing an official complaint with the respective govt depts as this is horrible and false business practices. We have been duped and still did not receive any sort of compensation even after 5 months. I highly do NOT recommend.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2500