Unique Van Lines

If I could give no stars, I would. Originally my contract was with American Roadway Van Lines who then subcontracted the move out to Unique Van Lines. It started off fine. American promised me a 3-5 business day move and so 5 business days later I called dispatch. They had no idea where my stuff was or when it would be delivered but they said they had 20 days to deliver. Called again the next day - my things were in a warehouse DESPITE being told at pick up that it was going on the truck and coming straight down.

20+ days later. I get a call from my driver telling me that my stuff will be here the next day and that he will call when he’s an hour out. He says only cash despite Unique Van Lines telling me that a postal money order is acceptable. He says that he is yet another sub contractor and that he only takes cash and that there will be additional fees day of depending on the move. I have a binding estimate with Unique for an amount on a postal money order. So I hang up and call dispatch who says that he will accept my money order.

Moving day comes around. He never calls. I call him and am put on hold for 10 minutes so I hang up and call the Unique office. The lady there can’t get in touch with him either but says he’s “nearby” and “got held up at his last job but will be on the way shortly”. I look up where she said he was and it’s 112 miles away. I still don’t have my stuff.

Don’t hire Unique Van Lines! If you originally contract with someone else and they show up just accept your lost deposit and hire someone else!

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1425

I secured a moving contract from American Roadway Vanlines for my move from OH to NC, and they told me that I would hear from “dispatch” on exact day and time of pick up two days ahead, and that the driver would call and confirm, as well as give us his cell number. After several calls to American Roadways they informed me that they turned over the move to Unique Moving Company. Again after several calls to Unique on both the Friday and Saturday before our move I didn’t hear from them. Then Unique Vanlines called late Saturday night that the truck would be at our house on Sunday, 11/11 between 10:00 a.m and 2:00 p.m. Never did get a call from driver. Truck never arrived until 5:15 p.m. Crew loaded our possessions quickly and efficiently. Told the driver that our first available date of unload of the 16 th. would be good. When we didn’t have a time of delivery I called Unique and was told our possessions were in storage still in Ohio. At NO time was I ever advised that our possessions would not be driven directly to our home in NC.
We were finally advised that a driver would call us, which he did, however, his timing changed 3 times and he arrived at 7:00 pm on Sunday evening. Once the crew unloaded our boxes and totes many, many of them were smashed, ripped, and broken. Very, very unsatisfied with their condition. I firmly believe the transferring from truck to storage, and storage to truck, is what caused their condition, as well as the number of totes and boxes on the dollies at one time are the cause.
There also was a discrepancy of fee and I await a refund. Had to pay half of bill at load and remainder at unload or they wouldn’t load or unload . Very unscrupulous company. I will never use either company or recommend them. One has 30 days to make a claim, and at this writing I have found several broken items, due to box/tote conditions, thus I will be making a claim for their damage and for the over charge. -1*.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1417

I move every couple of years due to work. Unique Van Lines is the worst experience I have ever had. They were subcontracted by Charter Van Lines and then further subcontracted to NuLyfe Moving. Got robbed by one of their guys during move in! Filed police report. Lost my TV, electronics, and an entire box of personal items. Most of my furniture got damaged. They took no responsibility! I could never recommend moving with them! Save yourself the hassle and hire another company.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5000

THE WORST EXPERIENCE EVER! I was contracted with another company and this company showed up to load as a 3rd party. They were unprofessional, and yet I was in a time bind so went with it. They promised a 10-day turnaround from FL to TX. Three weeks later I was calling daily to get a status on delivery. My items finally arrived. Several broken things, including a valuable 50-lb geode rock. The worst part was a missing box full of my special sentimental things that are irreplaceable. They say they could not find it, and they don’t care either way. This is the worst moving company. DO NOT USE THEM.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5000

This was my first cross-state move and I hired All-Pro Moving who brokered Unique to haul, store and then deliver my belongings. I won't even go into the scheduling of the delivery, which was mismanaged (they tried to come before the delivery date/before I had access to my new home) and delayed, but my things arrived damaged. Boxes were totally crushed, and upside down. Plastic bins were also crushed, which takes a lot of pressure! A good deal of my breakables were in fact broken, although I had packed them well. It was as if all the fragile boxes were put on the bottom of all the heavy items, and just crushed. A wardrobe box was crushed down to medium box size. Also, even though they wrapped my grandmother's handpainted desk, so knew what they were dealing with, they broke a leg off.

They rush you through all the paperwork and then, when it ends up costing 2K more than estimated, they say "well you signed this!" so have to pay. It's totally horrible customer service. Plus, they only insure $.60 per lb, which again, I was rushed through the paperwork so did not know to read the fine print. So if you have $1000 vase that weights 2 lbs and they crush it, they only give you $1.20. It's total insanity. If I could go back and do this over, I would rent some sort of pod, fill it myself, so that I know how it will be handled and stored. They do not care one single but about your belongings, only making money. This was already such a stressful move, total life change, and they made it 100 times more stressful and horrible. All-pro was no help. Once my delivery date came, they never called or texted me back again. They stepped out and never came to help. I hate them all.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $8000

I would give 0 star for this company. Worst customer service and worst Moving company.. I booked through another company (Alliance Van lines) and they gave contract to this company at pick up and when My goods were delivered, some other company delivered my goods. The boxes were totally damaged. Initially I said I can pay by card only and they were okay with that but when they are delivering the goods they said they can accept cash only or else they aren’t going to deliver the goods. And at my delivery location the driver said he would charge 75$ extra for elevator which is not included in the agreement. And overall they want to charge me 300$ extra at my delivery location, with the extra HIDDEN costs. They left my goods at the entrance door and I have to carry everything on my own after paying 1800$ for the move.

Don’t go with this company, when you are booking through a company ask them whom they are going to deliver with and If they say Unique van lines just forget it. They won’t deliver your goods on a promised date. You will loose your peace of mind and Money.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1800

We hired Alliance Van Lines which did NOT tell us they are subcontracting to UNIQUE Van Lines, or we would have never hired them!

I hired Alliance to take 3 shrink wrapped pallets of furniture plus a dresss, armoir and 2 night stands. Thats it and it was $1950. OK, no problem I need the stuff moved. I informed Blake at Alliance that I will have to have stuff by a certain date and I would be flying down to FL to receive the items for my new house. He said NO PROBLEM AT ALL! they give a 1-10 day max window, and I said it must be that following MON, Tues or Weds delivery. He said no problem at all, you will get then.

Anyways 2 weeks later the moving company was to be here WEDS and they call Weds and say we will be there tomorrow. So thursday at 430pm they call and say hey sorry mechanical issues with truck and wont be there til maybe tomorrow. I said okay so you are a few days late and I need to make sure you are delivering next Weds at the LATEST as I was promised. Unique Van lines said, NO WAY, we don't promise any time delivery!! WHAT??!! I freaked out and was ike are you kidding me? I was promised this delivery and you have to. Patricia from UNIQUE said that it could take a week, 2 , 3 or 4 she would have NO IDEA! I went off and said how do you expect a family to sit there move from one house to another and have NONE of their stuff for 1,2,3, or 4 weeks? And I also asked where does MY STUFF go? They informed me that they take to a storage area in COLUMBUS OH to keep there until they have enough stuff to fill truck to go back to FL. And they never know when that is.. I said I was hired by Alliance, you were NOT approved to get my items by me because if they told me UNIQUE doing then I would have said NO WAY due to the absolute worst reviews I have ever seen .. AND They asked me to pay cash. SO LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT.. you want to take all my belongings give you $1300 now and $700 more when you arrive and won't tell me exactly where MY stuff is and when it will get delivered? She said yes.. I said no way I refuse to use you and called Alliance Van lines.

Kori is who answered and could care LESS about the situation.. I informed her of what's going on and she said ok well your stuff will be delivered. I said BLAKE is the one who sold this to me and promised me and I have it on a recorded line so you can't sit there and tell me that you didn't promise. She said sorry. I said give me to a manager, she said there is NONE. EXCUSE ME?? she said you can send an email to dispatch, I want a manager I said. SHE said sorry they don't talk to people. funny how the customer service line everytime I called night or day KORI answered. I said cancel and give me the money back that I did for holding the truck. She said no! I said excuse me > she said we do not give money back when you cancel! I said I Have to cancel because you did not follow the contract that we have with the pick up for WEDS and Still 2 days later NO pick up and no way the drop off will be in time. SO I called bank and disputed charges due to NO SERVICES HELD BY THEM.

SOMEONE needs to shut these companies down that LIE and steal and break peoples items. THIS should be illegal to do this to people. WHO will do something about this>??

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1950

I didn't choose this company on my own accord, I contracted with a company with a very good reputation and somehow got pawned over to this mess. This is the most unresponsive company I have ever worked with. Trust me, all you have to do is call once and hear what’s on the other end of the line to understand what kind of service you’re going to get…

They showed up on the day of my move saying they would take cash only, in all prior conversations they stated that the first half of payment would be accepted via debit/credit or cash. I was yelled at on the phone (amazing customer service again) for not having cash, turns out they do take cards they would just prefer cash…so they’ll yell at you and try to back you into a corner. Additionally, during my move-out, the guys told me that it would take about a WEEK for my stuff to come…

3 weeks later—they show up unannounced and call me wondering where I am. I had been calling the office every single day prior asking them to be transparent about when they had an ETA because I would be at work and need 45 minutes to get home.

When I finally get the payment taken care of the men started unloading the truck. I was sitting in the main room while they unloaded everything watching them work. At one point a man was carrying my large mirror box and I could hear broken glass rattling. I hear them go in into the other room and DROP it onto the floor, only to continue laughing about the $250 mirror they managed to shatter. Of course, they tried to be sly and not say anything about their mistake and they tried hiding that box alllll the way in the back behind the rest of the boxes…red flag. Another huge red flag to me was that many of my boxes showed up with the tape completely peeled back, which was an indicator to me that someone was looking through my items, they, of course, tried to tell me that was “normal”.

Once I got everything unpacked and sorted the amount of damage to my stuff was astounding. My mirror was completely shattered. A wooden barstool had a chunk taken out of it on the seat. My plastic bins were crushed and bent with nice black footprints on top. 2 of my clothing boxes were completely “missing,” I’m going to go ahead and assume they were stolen considering the fact it was clear that someone was going through my stuff. And finally, the two boxes left of my clothing were WET and covered in MILDEW (I have washed and dry cleaned and the stains aren’t coming out).

So after all of this mess, I try to file a claim for all that was lost and damaged. I was told that I needed to compile a list with receipts of the clothing that was lost (which is an absurd ask when you lose half of someone's wardrobe) and for the items that were damaged. I spent hours compiling receipts and photos and sent them over to Unique. Weeks passed and I hadn’t heard anything back, of course when I tried to call they wouldn’t answer so my strategy ended up being going around the office and calling with different phones so that they wouldn’t know it was me calling…surprise!! Every time I got someone on the phone they would say they “didn’t have me in the system”. Finally, on the 5th try, I just about had it so they just gave me the number to the claim agency and I worked with them directly. After a few weeks, I finally got a result on my settlement, turns out Unique only insures $.60 per pound. So even though they lost and ruined THOUSANDS of dollars of my stuff, I got a whopping $111 in compensation.

I know this was a bit of a rant but I want to warn anyone considering this company to take your business elsewhere. This company is criminal and quite honestly I’m not sure how they’re in business. They have no care or regard for any of your belonging and judging by other reviews, they will lose and ruin your stuff with absolutely no remorse. Take your money elsewhere and if you get brokered to this company fight to change it, I promise you will regret your decision working with this company.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2800

DO NOT USE UNIQUE VANLINES OR ALLSTATE USA TO MOVE!!
Never go through a broker (Gateway Express Moving) because they will set you up with the worst company (AllState USA or Unique Van Lines) and not care. We were told our stuff would arrive in 3-5 days so we brought nothing except our dogs and a small suitcase with clothes on our cross-country move from Indiana to Colorado. Our stuff arrived yesterday.. exactly ONE MONTH later. If we were told that our stuff would arrive in a month then I would have no complaints, however, these people lied to us, contradicted themselves in every phone call, took our stuff to a warehouse in Ohio, were extremely rude, unprofessional, incompetent and refused to send us the contract since we weren't there for pick up (they arrived 2 days after they were supposed to and we had to leave to go to Colorado already). Ariel and the owner of whichever company this actually is were by far the worst people I've had to work with.
Words cannot describe how absolutely awful these people were to work with and how shady they were. AllState was supposed to move us but Unique Vanlines picked up. Every time we called they just said Moving Company and kept contradicting who they were. This is a huge scam, they have one company doing the dirty work and probably the other to hide their money. They charged us $700 more than in the contract when we did not end up taking our couches, side tables, coffee table, lawn mower and vacuum. They showed up to our house yesterday with a U-Haul instead of an actual marked truck and of course glasses were broken, boxes look like they were hit by a truck, dents and chips in furniture. Stay away from these awful people and save yourself some stress. I wish we would have rented a truck and did the move by ourselves.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4533

TLDR: DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. Karin, Leann, and the entire staff of Unique are rude, disrespectful, and should get out of the moving business. Not only do they not respect their customers, but they lie to them to save their face. When caught in a lie, they won't answer or return their customers' calls. I was promised next day delivery of my possessions, (1-5 days max). After MANY phone calls, and questions, I FINALLY received my delivery 3 WEEKS later. 100% unprofessional and a horrible business. The ONLY thing good about this business is that the drivers were actually nice and professional. The team working in the office should quit their day jobs and find a new business to ruin.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3500

I am not one to write bad reviews. In fact, I have never written a review like this before. The only time I would decide to write a negative review is if I had issues with the company on multiple occasions and they did not care to ensure that my needs were met and empathy was involved. This is that instance. They kept charging me more and more money that I had no choice but to pay. I was not informed about many of these instances until the last minute where I had no choice but to pay the extra money or I wouldn't get my stuff. Many items arrived broken. Many items are still missing. I filed a claim to get this taken care of. It took months to hear back from them. About six months. Once I kept calling and hounding them, they finally sent me a settlement of, get this..54.00 dollars and they backed it up with the contract. I'm sure whoever is reading this can agree that is ridiculous. And I think the worst part of it all is, they were rude and apathetic to the situation and my feelings from the beginning to the end. Lack of empathy, professionalism, accountability, ethicality , consistency, and honesty. Let me take the consistency park partially back. They were consistent with their apathy and unprofessional behavior. That was all they were consistent with. Worst company I have ever dealt with hands down. I hope one day someone can file a lawsuit against them so this company cannot screw people over and treat them unkindly in the process. I know I wasn't the first person to have this issue with them and unfortunately, I'm sure I won't be the last. Please do not work with this company. I want better for others than what I experienced with them. No one deserves the treatment I received from them.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6800

The worst and most inadequate moving company I have ever experienced. Completely dishonest and broke all of my large items that were moved. Every single thing about my move was horrendous. People that work for the company are very rude, lack any sort of communication skills and are completely shady.

1. The owner and every single person who works there is an absolute nightmare to talk to. They are all consistently rude and patronizing. They will treat you like you are a child and also lie to you.

2. On the day of my pickup, I could literally hear the movers clunking and throwing my boxes down the stairs, which were labeled fragile! Their complete disregard for my things was a joke.

3. I called them a few days before my scheduled date of delivery and they said “90% chance the driver will deliver on your date of delivery”.. this same statement was made for 2 weeks consistently. The craziest part about this is that I continued to call and ask where my things were and the assistant told me that the driver loaded the truck and left which was a LIE! So I had to drive from Ohio to Chicago and left in a hurry to meet the driver with my things, only to find out that she lied about them leaving. I was left in my apartment with no furniture for 2 entire weeks. So my things were delivered 2 entire weeks late. They continually had tons of excuses (e.g. the driver’s car is in the shop), when they were just jerking me around so they could fill the truck with other deliveries, which they did because my delivery truck ended up having 11 total. This makes them completely dishonest. They are too shady to tell the truth about what’s going on.

4. I hope you didn’t assume the delivery date went well either. The driver called me 3 hours before the delivery and said he needs to transfer the items to a local delivery truck because his 18 wheeler wouldn’t fit. He said it would be an extra $350. First of all, is the moving company that inadequate at their jobs that they can’t even look up my address to see that you have to take the highway which has bridges?! It’s almost a joke at how horrible they are. Best part- they had no documentation at all to prove that they had switched my things in to a local moving truck.

5. After this entire debacle of me being forced to pay all the extra fees, when my things finally did arrive, every single piece of my large, expensive furniture was broken. Literally all boxes were crumbled and busted open too. Items were missing. Things were even broken on sight in front of my eyes.

I submitted a claim only for the claims department to tell me I was entitled to $149.70. An absolute slap in the face.

Please, after this lengthy review, let this be confirmation to NOT book with this company. You will not end up saving money. They will charge you for extra things and nothing will arrive intact.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2700

ITEMS HAS YET TO BE DELIVERED WITHIN THE TIME FRAME PROMISED IN THE CONTRACT SIGNED AND DATED. ITEMS WERE PICKED UP ON 5/28/18. BY FAR THE WORST COMPANY TO EVER DO BUSINESS WITH. mY GRANDMOTHER ITEMS WERE PICKED UP ON MAY 28, 2018 AND WHEN THE DRIVERS ARRIVED THEY ADVISED MY GRANDMOTHER WHO ONLY HAS BOXES AND TWO COUCHES TO BRING THAT SHE WOULD HAVE TO PAY EXTRA TO BRING HER COUCHES. SHE HAS NORMAL SIZE COUCHES A LOVE SEAT AND SOFA (NOTHING BIG). WE WERE ADVISED AS LONG AS THE WEIGHT LIMIT IS UNDER 2,000 THERE WOULD NOT BE ANY ADDITONAL FEES. WE WERE ALSO TOLD BY LONG DISTANCE DRIVERS THAT THE TAT FOR HER ITEMS TO ARRIVE IS 2 WEEKS. IT IS NOW 6/27/18 AND HER ITEMS HAVE YET TO ARRIVED. HER ITEMS IS STILL SITTING IN THE WAREHOUSE. PATRICA THE MANGER IS RUDE AND STATES THAT THE ITEMS WILL TAKE 214-21 BUSINESS DAYS FROM JUNE 20 WHEN AN EMAIL WAS SUPPOSEDLY SENT. PER THE CONTRACT THAT WAS SIGNED BY MY GRANDMOTHER ON MAY 28 WHEN THE DRIVERS ARRIVED THERE IS A DETESTATION ADDRESS LISTED AND IT ALSO STATES THAT YOUR ITEMS WILL BE DELIVER WITHIN 21 BUSINESS DAY FROM THE DATE OF PICK UP. THEY ALSO START TO CHARGE STORAGE FEES AFTER 30 DAYS OF THEM HAVING YOUR ITEMS. THE COMPANY ALSO PROMISED MY GRANDMOTHER IF HER ITEMS AREN'T HERE WITHIN 21 BUSINESS DAY FROM THE DATE OF PICKUP THEY DEDUCTION MONEY. THIS COMPANY IS A BIG FRAUD AND I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND DOING BUSINESS WITH THEM, THEY ARE RUDE, UN KNOWLEDGEABLE, POOR COMMUNICATION AND JUST PLAIN OUT SUCK AT DOING BUSINESS.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1500