Suntrust Van Lines

Sun Trust follows an interesting business model based on the Christopher Nolan film "The Prestige." The transaction takes place over three distinct acts: the Pledge, the Turn, and the Prestige.

The Pledge is pretty obvious. Someone warm and friendly gives you a suspiciously low estimate to move all your life's belongings for you. It's very convincing because it comes with a NO HIDDEN COSTS (their all-caps, not mine) guarantee.

In my case, the warm and friendly representative was Natalie, and I did my best to probe her on this guarantee. "Is there ANYTHING that could cause the charge to be higher than this estimae other than if I go over our agreed-upon square footage?" I asked. The answer was no. I couldn't find the catch! So I signed the papers, gave my credit card information, and then the magic began: Natalie disappeared, never to be heard from again.

The next stage, the Turn, occurs when they arrive for pickup. Suddenly you learn the many inventive ways the document you signed can me reinterpreted to allow for new charges above and beyond what you were guaranteed in the NO HIDDEN FEES estimate. In my case it was over $800 for packing material they insisted upon above and beyond what I had already provided, and $300 for stairs that I had told them about prior to the estimate, but which wasn't included in it.

It's a great lesson in how the trappings of society are by and large imaginary, and when a company has you utterly by the gonads—as in, you need to be moved out of your apartment by the end of the day and there's no time to hire anyone else—the notion of honesty or integrity disappears.

But as Michael Caine intones in the movie, "making something disappear isn't enough. You have to bring it BACK." The tension of the final act is amplified by Sun Trust drawing it out. In my case, they did not complete the delivery for well over a month. Long enough to forget what life with possessions is like. It's like being homeless in your own home.

I ruined the surprise a bit by calling Sun Trust to find out when my stuff would arrive, and threatening legal action when they refused to answer the phone. It wasn't a bluff—I had been talking with a lawyer, who let me know some surprising facts, like how legally Sun Trust could keep my things for 90 days (or, 78 more than their longest estimate) before I could do anything about it. Until then, they could continue to sit in a warehouse in Miami while Sun Trust waited for enough westbound business to make the trip worth their time.

When the Prestige arrives, it's a little underwhelming.

The possessions reappear different from before, sure. Some stuff is broken, with a laughably low reimbursement offer that is barely worth the ink you would exhaust filling out a form.

Other things are missing, but after 5 weeks without possessions, who can really remember what was packed and what was left by the curb? Their notes aren't really detailed enough to know for sure. I thought I had a floor lamp that I really liked, but maybe it was all a dream from sleeping on the carpet of a dark room, wondering what it would look like when illuminated.

And sure, there are last-minute fees that are icing on the cake. In my case, a shuttle fee because the movers they outsourced to couldn't fit their truck in my new apartment complex. It seemed like the sort of thing Natalie might have mentioned when I asked about anything that might come up, but not only was Natalie gone, Sun Trust was, too. The goons who delivered my stuff were contracted out and didn't give one fig what was said back when I was giving my money to some other group of goons, ages ago.

But after all the slight of hand you've already been through, it lacks punch. Maybe replace my family photos with photoshopped duplicates where everyone has tiny eyes and snaggle teeth? Cover my furniture in itching powder? Deliver a video of using my cookware as a toilet but only after I've made a few meals with it?

The treatment I received on the phone while I waited for them to deliver the possessions that they accepted money in agreement to deliver was pretty rough, the sort of disorienting runaround that feels vaguely like you're a detective in a movie trying to break a massive shadow conspiracy. It left me expecting something with real punch, not just the bar-none worst service I've ever received from a business full of greedy con artists.

Have some showmanship, Sun Trust.

Service cost: $5000

Suntrust Van Lines provided us with a wonderful moving experience. Our move took place in August and was consisted of a 3 bedroom home 9500 lbs and two vehicles transported from Florida State to Los-Angeles, California.Our family was very pleased with the service of the moving staff that serviced our move as well as the gentlemen that handled the transportation of our cars. I have had a few moves mostly international and would rate Suntrust van lines right at the top of best US moving companies.     The employee Marc was very friendly and he updated me on every move they made.We are very pleased at Suntrust Van Lines. Thanks a lot.

Service cost: $1326

This company is a piece of crap. They were so nice and friendly while on the phone trying to get our business. The pick up crew was really nice as well. That is where it ended. Lie after lie. They quoted us a certain amount of cubic feet. They said we had double that. They refused to deliver to our door and made us drive over and hour and a half to get our stuff. Then almost every item was damaged. They lied about contracting a third party for the move. The driver threatened to leave our stuff on the side of the road and cursed at us. We had to rent a Uhaul to pick up our stuff and we had half as much cubic feet than we paid for. Dispatch will NEVER return phone calls.
These other reviews are clearly fake. There is no way anyone could have a good experience with them. The third party company even wished me lucky trying to get a claim for my damaged items. Once this company gets enough bad reviews they will just change their name again.

Service cost: $3800

Beat my expectations! Humberto, Hans & Joe were amazing. Very professional team from start to finish. Suntrust is the moving company to hire. I received lots of quotes and spam from other companies. By spam I was told to not use a broker and to not use Suntrust but I trusted my gut and research and was not let down. One suggestion I would make to anyone moving is to know approximately how much space your belongings is going to take on the truck with any moving company. You are always asked to complete a items list but it does not ask you how big your items are, this is key to getting an accurate quote. Suntrust gave the best quote based off the information I provided but I did not provide the size of my items nor did they ask so my move was more than the initial over the phone quote because I took up more space than estimated on the truck. Nothing was damaged, everything was delivered and unpacked by professionals.

Service cost: $3000

My boyfriend and I contracted with Suntrust to move our stuff from Atlanta, GA to San Francisco, CA in June 2013. We had literally the worst moving experience anyone has ever had and I am now on a mission to protect others from this terrible company. The following is a list of issues we had with them:  1) FAKE QUOTES & HIDDEN FEES: They initially quoted us $1800 and after loading our stuff the quote jumped to $3765. Prior to selecting them, I gave them an unbelievably thorough list of our belongings, so clearly they just underestimated size to get our business. - Extra ridiculous costs included $226 for packing tape. Keep in mind we packed everything ourselves, but in wrapping our 1 bedroom apartment's furniture with blankets they somehow needed that much tape. We were not warned that they were charging us for the tape until it was too late. 2) FALSE DELIVERY CLAIMS: We we're quoted 7-10 days to drop off our stuff and it took them 6 weeks. In the interim they lied to use, avoided our calls, and made completely insane excuses. Finally, we had to get a lawyer involved to ensure our stuff would get on a truck. During this time we lived on an air mattress and spent $1000's on living expenses and eating out. 3) UNAUTHORIZED STORAGE: I signed a contract stating that I did NOT want storage and yet, Suntrust took our stuff to their storage facility in Miami (the opposite direction of SF) and held it for over 5 weeks. 4) RIDICULOUS & EXPENSIVE CHARGES: We paid $150 extra for two flights of stairs in the original contract. When the movers arrived to drop off our stuff they informed us that we actually had 8 flights of stairs and that it would be an additional $375 if we wanted them to deliver the stuff, because they deem a 'flight' to be 7 stairs. We live on the 3rd floor with stairs that are average height. It was just one more way to scam us. We ended up having them drop the stuff in the lobby and hired two guys on Craigslist to move it up stairs for $50 total. 5) BROKEN FURNITURE: MOST of our furniture (which they packed) arrived damaged. We had corners missing from our wood furniture, wheels missing from chairs and torn leather. Every box was smashed, but thankfully I packed well and we only lost a couple of dishes. 6) SUSPICIOUSLY 'LOST' Item: After unpacking our stuff we realized the only box missing was an extremely expensive stereo that was packed in the original box. We tried calling to resolve the issue, but they avoided our calls, lied and made more excuses. One rep actually told me she thought our box was stolen and that we should just file a claim. The basic insurance they give you would reimburse us about $12 for the box even though the stereo was worth around $800. After the CEO avoided my calls for two weeks he finally tried to say we never had that box and that we were scamming him. When I said that his company was incompetent and either stole or lost the box he hung up on me. How professional! 7) WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE: Overall this company has THE WORST customer service of any business I have ever experienced. They will lie to you, avoid you, make up insane excuses for why they don't call you back or have anyone that can help, steal your stuff, break your stuff, yell at you, hang up on you, charge you WAY more than you originally were quoted, and hold your stuff hostage for weeks. DO NOT USE THEM OR BELIEVE ANYTHING THEY SAY. We worked with an attorney in the moving industry and the actual movers on the drop off day and both said Suntrust is the worst moving company of all.

Service cost: $3765

All moving company’s websites are very similar  to each other and that makes it very difficult to choose the right one, I never give a way my phone or cell-phone when I need to get an estimate! But accidently I gave Suntrust Van Lines my cell-phone number. I realized that only after I got a phone call from Natalie…I’m so happy she called me, otherwise I most likely would have hired some other company.Natalie was so professional over the phone, and the quote she gave us was very detailed and very fair.I decided to hire them, Tina (my wife) decided to take over and called Natalie million times just to let her know how they have to be very careful with her family’s old dining set and not to forget to show up on time… (I’m just happy they didn’t drop us!)So finally, we moved about 2700 miles from FL to CA, Tina was there waiting for the crew to arrive in CA (which they did, on time), after all, everything went perfectly well and I can join my family in our new home.Every business can have few complaints, so I don’t really mind if the ratio is about 3/10,  that only shows that they are real, this company exceeded all of our expectations in every aspect, professionalism, pricing, communication.

Service cost: $250

This company was AWFUL!! We got a quote for $2400 to move from FL to VA and AFTER they loaded our stuff on the truck, they told us we doubled the space on the truck and we had to pay $6500 total for the move!! They picked up our stuff on friday, we were told they would deliver that sunday; sunday came and went, we didn't hear from them. Then they told us we would get it Tuesday, never came. They ended up coming Wednesday night at 7pm!! They broke a lot of our furniture pieces and broke and crushed a lot of the tubberware boxes we had. This was such a waste of money and time. Also, the company had told us that it would be the same truck and driver delivering our stuff and it was a totally different sub-contractor and people that delivered it, with another truck. So they had put our stuff in storage, and moved it to another truck and company; which they told us specifically would NOT happen. This company is a scam and are liers!

Service cost: $6500

Brittany promised to call me the day before pick up to give me the time the movers would be at my home. When she had not called by 5:00, I called the company, and was told by a gentleman who answered that my pick up date had been changed to the following week. I was told that the truck had to be serviced. The pick up on the day it finally came, was handled by a professional crew. They advised me that a load as small as this move was should have been sold to me by weight rather than volume, because it would have been much cheaper. The bill came to 50% more than quoted. They told me I could cancel then, and pay a $500 cancellation charge (that was coincidentally the amount of the "overage.") Then I was told that my goods would be delivered on the 27th or 28th of December, up until this morning.  I called back after a FIFTH call today to get the name and number of the driver, which had been promised me since last week, and was told that the shipment would arrive sometime NEXT week.   So, if you have a budget or a schedule DO NOT use this company. On the last call I asked to speak to a supervisor. Brittany told me he was not available and hung up on me. .

Service cost: $1500

This company has a license to steal and utilitizes that license to its advantage fully.  They can steal [which they did] and destroy items [which they did] without blinking an eye.  Our orginal price was for $1300 plus but ended up over $3900 with their "extra" charges.  I was guranteed they would delivery the items with their own people but this was untrue as they contarcted it to an independent.  When they had all the items supposedly packed and placed on the sidwalk outside the aptartment we were basically told I had to pay the price or they were leaving without the items. Mr. Kevin Levine, regestried owner, must surly enjoy the fruits of the items he views and never dellivers. I unfortunately retainted them to move my future wife from Inverness, FL to Newton, AL to be done on 31 August 2013.  They were to arrive for the packing, which I had arrange with them, at 11am but finally arrived at 7pm.  From then on it was a nightmare as she had to be out of her apartment by the next day.  They were to pack her china, crystal from the 17/1800's from England, valuable china tea pot collection and clothing [using wardrobe boxes which they didn't]. We paid extra for storage, as didn't take delivery for about 5 months, a their "bonded warehouse". Well they took her fur coats and bundled them up. placed them in bottom of boxes and plied other items on top which ruined them.  Suppose to wrap her tea pots but didn't. Upon delivery I was was charged an extra $250 because the delivering driver didn't want to back into my driveway.  The contractor brought the items in and basically piled the boxes and would not unpack them for our inspection because we were his 1st stop and he had to get to GA for the next one.  When they brought in the China Cabinet it was damaged with pice broken off.  I was told just to get a nail and hammer back on. Real professional !!  The new foam fusion mattress was missing and we were simply told they "forgot" to load it and it was noted on delivery bill. Bottom line of all the damages/missing items/false charges: charged for new boxes but actuallu they were used as had 2 other number stickers on them; no complete inventory list; no wardrobe boxes used; no bubble wrap around tee pots; missing 380 Tarus pistol [witness saw their employee with it]; no mattress; broken china cabinet; damaged/ruined fur coats; household dishes broken; valuable vase/statue broken; NO CHINA OR CRYSTAL DELIVERED AT ALL AS NOT ON INVENTORY LIST. I filed a claim for almost $10,000 in broken, damaged and missing items and found out we would recieve only $134 for everything and this included $60 for the new $585 mattress.  Unfortunately it's the under law which movers can work and we're screwed. Mr. Levine and his firm are nothig short of strong armed crooks using the law to enrich their lives at the expense of other fine folks. IF YOU GET ME DRIFT THEY SHOULD BE BARRED FROM THIS BUSINESS AND SHOULD NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCIMSTANCE BE USED !!

Service cost: $3900