Stevens Van Lines

Although Stevens intially offered to resolve this dispute in fair manner, they now refuse to honor their agreement.  Their employee, Mike *[Name was removed per company request], told my credit card company that Stevens would ship my undelivered item back to me at no charge.  But ever since then they have been impossible to reach, evasive, and deceptive.  Now, after about 9 months of holding my item, they claim that Mike never agreed to ship it back to me at no charge - despite my credit card company having a RECORD of him making that very offer.   **  In October 2014, I hired Stevens to move some items from LA to Chicago, including a very large table top and base (packaged separately).  Their LA agent contracted with me for shipment and delivery of all the goods, including the table in two parts.  He and I both knew that the table would require at least four men to carry it up two flights of stairs.   **  We signed the contract and I paid for the shipment AFTER the agent had already moved my items to his local holding location.  He had seen, weighed and measured my table before we signed the contract.  Nonetheless, ONE HOUR AFTER the interstate truck was loaded in LA and headed to Chicago, the agent emailed me that the table would NEVER go up two flights of steps and I would need to hire a separate hoisting company with a crane to deliver the table through a window or skylight.  **  Immediately I and my family told the agent that if he'd said anything like that when we were writing the contract, or when he was holding the table, we never would have shipped it.  (I was sending some items from my mini-storage to my family - it would have been no big deal at all the take the table back to my mini-storage.)  **  Eventually my credit card company got involved and Mike *[Name was removed per company request], an employee at Stevens, told them that Stevens would do its best to deliver the table but that if they couldn't, they would ship it back to me at no charge.  This was in about November 2014.  **  I was referred to John *[Name was removed per company request] at Stevens to coordinate this.  He sent someone to view the site and told me that the table could not in fact be delivered up the stairs.  This took a few months to determine but I felt that he was making an effort.  But as soon as I then asked him to send the table back to me, I began to have endless trouble.  John stopped returning my phone calls or emails.  If I would track him down in the office, he would promise to look into things but then would not get back to me.  He was hedgy about whether the table would be delivered at no cost or if I would be charged.  In the meantime Mike *[Name was removed per company request] had left Stevens and apparently no one could reach him.  **  [Name] was supposed to call me but didn't.  She didn't return calls or emails and was never in her office.  Finally at the very end of June (months and months after all of this started) J** emailed me that [Name] said it would cost me almost $2,000 to ship my table back.  **  Once again it was impossible to reach [Name].  Finally we had a phone call at the beginning of August where [Name] denied that Mike ever offered to ship the table back for free, and complained that they had been storing it in Chicago for so long!  The only reason it was in Chicago for so long is that NO ONE AT STEVENS WOULD TALK TO ME OR RETURN MY CALLS.  I have spoken again to my credit card company and they confirm that [Name was removed per company request] DID tell them that Stevens would ship the table back to me at no charge.  It's in their records but they can't make Stevens honor the offer.  **  So Stevens is sitting on my lovely and very expensive table, and despite having initially offered to send it back to me at no charge, they now want me to pay to ship it back.  (I'm not even complaining about having paid to ship it there for COMPLETELY NO REASON AT ALL.  The table must have accounted for almost half of the cost of the whole shipment.)  **  Stevens is very poor about communicating, but to the extent that I can reach anyone they are inflexible.  There has been no offer to compromise, no mediation, no arbitration, no discount on other moves.  What I get are lies, evasions, and stall tactics.

Service cost: $5700

Being in the military for over 11 years now we've had to endure multiple moves across the country. This company is by far the worst we have ever dealt with. The packers were late, slow and complained about each other right in front of us. They packed fragile items on the bottom of boxes, half packed other boxes and wasted a ton of supplies. There was no motivation from anyone on the packing team. We counted the number of boxes they correctly labeled and it totaled 6. The rest had no label on them so unpacking was a nightmare. They left cigarette butts all over our front yard and broke the bricks on the front steps with the dollies going in and out. Upon delivery in Texas, we noticed that a lot of our items were broken. They packed our son's toys in our deep freezer, which allowed mold to grow on all of them. We had 3 bookshelves that were completely destroyed..I'm talking in multiple pieces upon arrival, as well as multiple other items that were broken, including large dents all over our deep freezer itself. I filed a claim with the company and they refused to pay us for the dents in the freezer and 2 of the book shelves. They said the driver, upon pickup, noted that there were existing damages to the bookshelves so they would not be paying us for them. This was very upsetting as when they left our house they were still in one piece and upon arrival to our new house they were in pieces. They also denied our claim for our freezer because we could not prove that the damages occurred during shipment. It wasn't broke when it left..it was given back to us broken..yet they still will not accept responsibility. If you're shopping for a moving company I strongly urge you to look elsewhere. If you're in the military like us and the transportation office says they were awarded the contract and there isn't anything you can do to have that changed, I recommend taking before and after pictures of everything you have and documenting every scratch on every piece of furniture before they show up. Hopefully they will soon be removed from the list of contractors available to serve our military. By far the worst experience we have ever had with a moving company.

Service cost: $1000

Our move is in two parts. Part one was into storage in Michigan. Part two will be delivery to Arizona when our new home is built.
The part one experience exceeded expectations. Very important, the sales quote was right inline with the actual price. Secondly, we were overwhelmed with packing. The mover asked us to tell them our needs the day before and they provided the manpower to get everything done. The movers were friendly, professional, and provided suggestions as we both completed packing. They also did a great job crating large glass items.

I am expecting a similar fine job when our items are transported and set up in AZ.

Service cost: $16000

I wanted to like them. The people on the phone were helpful. The estimator was helpful and professional - but is not returning calls.
The crew was lazy, lackadaisical, took tons of breaks, missed multiple items that had to be pointed out again and again, left cigarette butts and other trash on both ends after I nicely asked them to clean up, rushed the move in, put things in the wrong places despite labels, seem to have lost at least one box, and more. And, the crew lead made a racist comment on the way out. I guess he missed pictures of my son. Shocking. Even worse, I have called estimator and main number and no one has called back. Do not use. They were not first choice. Another mover recommended them. Suspect I got the crew no one wants.

Service cost: $1500

This was the first time we ever used a professional moving company for a long distance move of our household. We were very pleased at the courteous and professional service we received from Triangle Movers Inc in New York and Fred, their driver and crew in North Carolina. Bobby, Steve and Kareem conducted themselves well and were finished at the time promised.

There was only one damaged item and one missing item and Stevens is currently processing our claim.

Jack and Cathy Eschbacher are very professional and reasonably priced. We wholeheartedly recommond their firm and Stevens to anyone.

Service cost: $4300

This is the worst moving van lines that I have ever dealt with.

We moved from Cleveland, OH to Sacramento, CA this time and upon receiving our free estimate, Stevens sure does a good job a putting on a fancy face and making you feel like they will do a great job. (NAME EDIT) (I don't know how to spell his last name), scouted our house and gave us a great, reasonable estimate. We were looking at under $5,000 for the whole move, which is very reasonable. He was open to take my phone calls and answer all my questions, though later we had our misunderstandings from false information we were given. .

The beginning of the move went great, (NAME EDIT) was our move Consultant, our go to person for everything our move. She notified us 2 days before our scheduled pick-up and the truck was only 15 minutes late on July 29. My husband was doing the check-list of boxes with the movers and once our stuff was collected, we thought we would be on our way.

Since our move was all the way across country we asked (NAME EDIT) to inform us at least 4-5 days before it's arrival to California. Little did we know that as we sat happily spending our last few days at our families homes, they without our knowledge or consent, took our stuff off the truck and loaded it into an entirely different truck (which my husband nor I was there to supervise). We ended up calling (NAME EDIT) to find out our stuff will be there August 9. She double checked with two of her other staff members and we even called back the next morning before we left in which they reassured us the driver would be there on the 9th, so with 6 days ahead of us, we hit the road.

It was August 6th when WE called (NAME EDIT) to double check/confirm our August 9th destination delivery, at which point she says to us that the truck hasn't left yet, it will arrive on August 13th. We were only a day away to our new home in Sacramento and the truck was over a week behind us now. Now my husband and I, with 2 huge road-trip sick dogs are staying in a hotel with large dog fees and having to order out everyday. We quickly came to find that, that lifestyle was unsustainable for the next week so we camped out in our empty apartment with sleeping bags on the floor and microwave food in the freezer, eating with plastic silverware for the next week. We called (NAME EDIT) to let her know how unprofessional this has gotten with a shift of our belongings without our knowledge and now the wrong destination date, she told us in her own words, "I can't do anything about it, I am just a middle man." EXCUSE ME! Just a MIDDLE MAN! YOU ARE OUR MOVE CONSULTANT. You are supposed to be the one person that knows every aspect of our move, that we can call for peace of mind.

Then comes August 12th, we get a call from the Stevens office telling us we didn't pay yet, which I gave my credit card number to (NAME EDIT) the day before the movers picked up our stuff in Cleveland. How unorganized and unprofessional. By each phone call we were more and more nervous and stressed about our personal belongings on this truck.

Well, thankfully August 13th (a Saturday) has finally come around and we are beyond excited to receive our belongings. They were to arrive at 10am and the driver was to meet up with a crew of 2 men, in which time they would go get there shuttle truck (since our apartment roads are too small for the big 18 wheeler) and would get our belongings in the home. Well, (NAME EDIT) pulls up around 10am right on time, so I head with the dogs to a dog park to get them out of the way and out of the house. (NAME EDIT) informs us that the 2 man crew that is supposed to help him hasn't shown up and he can't get ahold of anyone in the office. So my husband calls the office but on a Saturday it's closed and (NAME EDIT) hasn't given us any out of office contact number for anyone. We call (NAME EDIT)e because he is the only cell phone number we know at anyone in the company but we only get his voicemail. (NAME EDIT) our truck driver can't reach anyone on the 2 numbers he is given. Well, (NAME EDIT) goes and gets the shuttle truck by himself and comes back to start loading.
By this time it is past noon and too hot to be out at the dog park anymore, so I bring the dogs back to the apartment. My husband and I drive over to talk to (NAME EDIT). He begins to tell us he doesn't even work for Stevens and he is a third party moving company that Stevens hired. WHAT?!?! I thought I just gave 5 grand to STEVENS to move our stuff, I could have hired a third party mover and saved money if I knew that is what Stevens was going to do. (NAME EDIT) was also telling us that he has been asking anyone who looked fit that walked by if he could pay them and they would move our stuff into the house. HE IS ASKING STRANGERS TO COME INTO OUR HOME!
Long story a little shorter: (NAME EDIT) ended up calling a entirely different moving company, who sent over 2 of their guys to help us. The job was done around 4pm but A COMPLETE NIGHTMARE!

We started unpacking shortly after and found that not only some boxes were already open but many items were damaged, some missing, and we even had OTHER people boxes that weren't ours.

STAY FAR AWAY FROM STEVENS! WORST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE!

Service cost: $5000

Love the salesman who sold on using Stevens for a local move, but the end result was very disappointing. So many pieces of furniture were nicked , scratched and gouged. When filing a claim, Stevens would not send anyone out to assess. Salesman looked at damaged and agreed nicks were new but when questioned by company he folded.
Don’t use this company. Guys who moved were nice and helpful but not worth trusting your things with this company. Wish I had read reviews before I booked them.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5000

We moved from Arizona to Illinois in October. The first crew marked every box and helped packed some things in the garage. Needless to say we had a lot of boxes. The driver of the first truck said his wife would be at the other end of the move to help. Locked up the truck and said they will take good care of my stuff. Boy did they ever!! So many things were missing !! The second driver and crew arrived on a very rainy day. The first driver had a family emergency so he wasn't delivering the furniture. They told me if "anything is missing or broken to file a complaint. What a joke that is. They want you to file a arbitration which costs $650.00 . The move cost us 13,000and wanted us to pay more money to find our things.Really!! I was missing some artwork that I found and let them know, so they told me to keep looking in boxes for my other things. All boxes were open and guess what, my stuff was not there. So where could it be at if the truck was locked?? There were things from my mother in law that I can't replace. I wish I would of read some of these reviews before we moved, but the gentleman that came to measure everything said the move would be fine no problems. They should have VERY POOR for reviews not just poor. We picked this company because they said they were for veterans, came highly recommended for the service. Thieves, thieves, do not recommend!!

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $13000

I had planned a move from Asheville to Mpls. When I called for a final date and quote I got the news that they were unable to move me after all. They had no trucks going to the Twin Cities at all in the foreseeable future. I had used the company previously to move to Ft Myers and Asheville with great results. I find it hard to believe nobody is moving to Minnesota or North Dakota or South Dakota or Wisconsin which is what I was told. Beware. They have gone down hill in the last few years.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $7000

Everyone beware of Stevens Worldwide Moving Company. They are dishonest liars and will pass the buck to try to not pay off on any claims. They have teamed up with Bannister out of Arizona they are packing storage moving company that work with Stevens and they're just as bad as Stevens spent over $13,000 for a move and had nearly $5,000 worth of damage I'm not wanting $5,000 in retribution but I'm wanting it honest attempt at settling this and they do not care at all. Beware of these people y'all.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $13000