Stevens Van Lines

  Stay away from this company!   Moving from WI to CA.  
My family has had to endure many moves due my military career. In our experience, this is the worst moving company to date. After reading all the reviews online, it seems I’m not alone.  
On day two of packing, I overheard the driver ask the apparent boss, “Should we tell him about the dresser?” The boss simply shook his head no and then looked over his shoulder to see if I heard. This crew was terrible. The boxes were not clearly marked; they destroyed my walls and floors and forgot to pack many items then complained about having to pack them.  
They picked up my goods on July 17th with a “contract” delivery date of August 1st. Shipment wasn’t delivered until August 17th. I can understand a company being 3-4 days late, it happens, but over half a month late is ridiculous and unprofessional. Getting shipment updates from this company is also a joke. The only time I was updated on when my delivery “should” arrive is when I called them.  
The delivery crew was also a joke. They complained about unpacking the boxes (it’s in the contract) and tried to deliver many items that didn’t even belong to me (I feel sorry for whomever they do belong to). They also had a 15 year old kid working with them. While this young man was very polite, he was constantly dropping my boxes and I even caught him throwing one into my daughter’s bedroom which contained a lamp. Total I have eight damaged pieces of furniture. Four of those are completely destroyed.  
I’m rating Stevens two stars for now. I have a feeling after all the property damage paper work is done, I’ll be dropping the rating down to one star.  
P.S. Don’t fall for the “We have A rating from BBB” statement. The Better Business Bureau is a joke now. Their ratings are skewed by the time the company has been opened and complaints not being followed up causing them to be closed without resolve.   Stevens has had 19 official complaints within the BBB in the past 12 months and 44 in the last three years.  .

Service cost: $9000

We used stevens to move from the suburbs of chicago to the suburbs of austin.  They arrived the day we requested at about noon.  They had some tire trouble the day before that delayed them, but they called to let us know they'd be late.  Everything arrived intact and was accounted for.  Two movers came with the truck and two I think we're from local affiliates.  All friendly and polite (called me ma'am when asking where boxes should go).  All good with my seven year old son who was around and curious.  They finished at about 6:15 (including time to reassemble a tricky bunk bed set).  I was expecting the worst, and was pleasantly surprised with the results.  We used stevens based on a recommendation from my brother in law who used them for a military move.

Service cost: $7047

Terrible Nightmare..Stevens communication is non-existent with their customer. If you have a moving coordinator I have no idea what they do because they did nothing for us other than take our money. Moving is stressful and we moved 10 hours away. They did not meet the delivery deadline, after escalating calls up to the VP level, finally things showed up only to find the driver states all of our belongings are not on the truck? We watched them loaded and they took the liberty of removing about 30% of our belongings, placing them into a warehouse and squeezing someone else's things into the truck. TWO WEEKS LATER - after numerous calls they MAILED CRATES containing the remainder and hired Atlas Moving company to unload them. There were boxes belonging to someone else in our crates. Damages..too long to list and given our move took place on 6/22, we still cannot get anyone to call back about the damage claim which they tried to short us on. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY and most of all risk all the stress and chaos involved with dealing with Stevens during a time in which moving is already stressful enough. If you are interested in broken promises and exhausting months of your time trying to be made whole again..Book em. BEWARE.

Service cost: $5800

We chose this company because of the discounted rate from our real estate agent.
The initial consultation went well. But when it came time to fulfill their promises, they claimed they never made them. Get EVERYTHING IN WRITING.
1 - Sales rep said we would have our own truck and not be sharing. Lie.
2 - Sales rep said she would come out a few days early to make sure our packing was on track and no issues. Lie.
Pickup time scheduled for between 8am and 10am. I called them at 10:15am. They said the driver was over his hours limit and would be late. They already knew this and could have called in the morning to warn us. Complete failure. They could have also sent over the rest of the crew to start prepping the house with padding and mats and staging items. They were sitting at the office waiting for the driver.
The packing was incredibly slow. We packed most of our own stuff well in advance and had left china and other breakables for them.
They did not leave our house until 4am, yes am, after midnight. Of course, this put the driver over hours and unable to make his smaller poickup the next morning that was filling the rest of the truck. So that customer got screwed over, too.
The driver did not have enough inventory tags or sheets, so much of our shipment was undocumented. After delivery (which went much better), we found were were missing a box of china coffee cups. The tried to deny the claim and eventually gave us $200 of the $360 in replacement costs.
In short, do not use Stevens. Regardless of who you use, get every small promise in writing.
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Service cost: $12000

Stevens moved us from Seattle to Sun Valley, Idaho.  Their representative visited our home and gave an estimate of weight and time to pack and load.  When moving day came, two trucks with crew came to our house.  When the trucks were full, they simply left, leaving many items behind, items that had been included in the company's estimate.  We called to complain, they returned the next day to pick up what they had left.  In Seattle we were told that items we packed would not be covered by insurance and that they should pack the valuables.  We did pack some ourselves and rented a small Uhaul truck to move them.  Nothing moved by us was damaged.  The contents from the trucks that removed our household goods were transferred to a "long haul" truck.  Upon arrival we found extensive damage to dishes, glassware, and pieces of art and furniture.  Our dining room table had numerous small scratches on it.  Later they denied they had moved the table. They moved several items that we had sold to the people who purchased our house, they were clearly marked that they should not be moved, but they were and had to be returned to Seattle.   At the end of the day unloading, the supervisor who had been monitoring the move and noting the arrival of the goods by marking them off on the inventory sheet, commented that he had started his career in moving as a packer and, as he had noted the large number of broken or damaged items during the day, suggested I sit down in front of him and list what had been damaged and our general feeling about the move.  He commented that whoever had packed our goods did not know how to pack.   I did write the letter, signed it as did he.   We filed our report of damages and received a visit by the company's representatives.  They took a number of photographs and also commented on the extent of our damage. After some time, we recieved a response from Stevens as well as a check for damages.  The check was for $150.  That amount does not come close to paying for the damages they made, for the clean-up still required or the destroyed items.  And, as mentioned they even denied moving our dining room table.     I urge anybody reading this to not, under any circumstances, use Steven's Van Line. They are not professional, do not admit their mistakes or responsibility.  So we were left with no alternative but to seek legal damages.  Avoid them at all costs.

Service cost: $10000

My Mom moved to CA from MI. My parents have used this company in past years and were very happy, hence the reason we called for a quote when my mom needed to move. This experiecnce was very poor. They communicated very little, seemed uninterested in our inquires, were late delivering the goods to our home and  there was damage to furniture and box contents. Of most importance was the lateness of delivery and the non-caring attitude that they were late and could do nothing to compensate my mom for the fact that she did not have her personal belongings for over a week beyond what was promised. Fortunately we purchased the insurance to cover the damaged property. Because of how they transport - our goods were loaded and reloaded into different cargo units at least 3 times. One more area of risk for increased damage.   I would not use this company. Find one that genuinely wants your business.   I will say - the company that delivered my mom's property on behalf of Stevens was fabulous. They work independantly and with other companies and I would recoemmend them. They were nice, caring, experienced and very careful with all the property. Their name of the company is Grace Moving.

Service cost: $4300

I move around a lot being that my job does consist of it and every single time I have moved it is always a hassle something is always broken or missing. My friend recommended me to call Steven Van Lines and I am sure glad that I did from the moment I called they were so nice and friendly and reassuring. Everything was packed nicely and when I got to my new home everything was there nothing was missing or broken the whole time I that I didn't have my stuff I was worried, worried for nothing about because every thing arrived perfectly. I want to take this time to say thank you so much I am so glad I finally found someone who I can trust and is honest. I will never ever have a stressful move again knowing that they have my stuff all taken care of I can't thank you enough I will be recommending you to all my coworkers and everyone else that I know who needs to be moved thank you.

Service cost: $2000

My wife and I were given your moving service for our military move from Castle Rock, Colorado to Dayton, Ohio this past August and it has been by far the WORST move in our 10 years with the military. I'll start at the beginning. Our goods were originally scheduled to be packed up over a two day period, when no one arrived by noon on my scheduled packing day I called the company to find out where everyone was. They informed me that they felt it would only take one day to pack so they canceled my first day. No written notice to me, no phone call, nothing. Just didn't show up and cost us a day at work sitting around waiting for nobody. Day 2 they showed up on time and were great in the beginning, until around 5pm when they still had several rooms to finish packing. They finished around 7:30pm. It wasn't until we received our belongings in Dayton that we realized the last boxes that were packed (which were in the garage and pictures from around that house) had absolutely no padding and were crushed during shipment and storage. Speaking of the delivery, I asked the delivery team to show me the boxes as they came in so I could check my inventory and make sure everything was there. The crew leader informed me that he already checked it off and had his team unpack them and throw them in the truck before I could see all the numbers. I still don't know if we received all of our boxes. On top of all this, we had a very large claim (dishes shattered, air conditioning unit smashed in, furniture legs torn off, refrigerator plug torn off) which we notified the company of over the phone within a month, yet when we filed a claim it was denied noting that they "respectfully denied responsibility."  I'm not sure why they feel they can treat their military customers so poorly, maybe because of their contract they know that we cannot CHOOSE their service and therefore our opinions don't matter. I can tell you I will do everything in my power to NOT use this company for our next move.

Service cost: $1000

We could not have had a more unpleasant experience. Like the previous reviewer I also had to contact the BBB. Shipment was 2 weeks late, no communication at all and refused to reimburse for damages/items that weren't delivered. After helping unload the entire truck in the dark with only one other mover, the driver forced us to sign the landing bill (since it was 11pm) before we were able to go through everything assuring us that we had 90 days to make any claims. This should illustrate how they like to do business:They shipped a box of framed art work separate from our belongings-all of which were damaged beyond repair-and refused any compensation whatsoever citing that they had no record of the shipment. I kept the box that is clearly labeled "Framed Art Work-32lbs" and has a shipment label from "Steven's Vans Lines" printed on the box. When I sent them a picture of the box/shipment label they still denied my claim! Again, they said there was no record. Even with photographed proof they refused. Apparently, the customer is always wrong. What a nightmare. There isn't a price someone could pay me to use this company again.

Service cost: $3900