Vango Van Lines

I am not one to write reviews but our experience with VanGo Van Lines, was so frustrating that we hope to save others from such a BAD experience. We were very displeased with their work and feel scammed out of ~$2000.We booked our move with Proud American Van Lines who told us it was OK to pack items in sealed plastic tubs. But when VanGo movers arrived on May 7 to take our items,they charged $300 to repack the tubs.This is when we first became aware of the poor communication between VanGo and the co. that booked our move. The biggest issue was that the truck was scheduled to arrive May 28 but didn't until July 27. For these 2 months,we were having trouble getting answers as to what was going on. VanGo, and P.American, weren’t picking up our calls nor returning messages. When we did reach people from both companies, the information about a broken truck and its replacement, didn’t agree. We believe that VanGo was not being honest with us. Meanwhile,we had to buy items that were on the truck so that we could get along daily. The truck that arrived was an extra-long,18-wheeler,even though VanGo was warned that a large truck could not fit on the receiving property.We were then charged an extra $500 because they had to walk things in due to the truck not being allowed close enough. Several boxes never arrived. By contract and according to a Department of Transportation law, the movers are expected to pay $30/day that the items arrive later then the thirty-day grace period that they get to transport. P.American told us to file a claim with VanGo for these monies and washed their hands of this, even though they had set up the move. This claim with VanGo was for several missing boxes and the refund for the delay past what is allowed by law. We have yet to see this refund more than a year after filing the claim; we were told by VanGo that it would take 2 months. Despite numerous attempts to reach out, we get no replies to our calls and messages. We don’t expect to see this money at this point. We’re just hoping to prevent others from the same loss and frustration.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4870

We were told the delivery date was 6/25, but they came 15 days later, after daily false promises. While promised to arrive latest 2:30PM, they came after 6PM and left 10PM; only 2 movers arrived without scissors or tools, and asked us to find them scissors to unpack our furniture. They lost the screws for our dresser, so our mirror could not be attached to it; now it’s on the floor. Our box labeled as “glass” with “fragile” stickers came visibly crushed, with most items broken inside. Many large items they packed also came broken. Never again.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $7600

I moved with Vango Vanlines, associated with Safeway Moving Systems. The quote seemed good but it was down hill from there. The price increased by the minute while the service got worse. The movers arrived but just threw my stuff in boxes with no care. Once the truck left my home, for a month, no one at the company could tell me where my personal belongings were stored nor when they could be delivered. And everyone at the company thought that was an acceptable answer. When my delivery finally happened I got a real glimpse of the non-care they had for packing. Posters folded and shoved into boxes. Wardrobe boxes stuffed with clothes, not hung but simply shoved in the box with mixed with other items. I have never been so disappointed with a company or their service in my life. They made my move a miserable experience.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $17000

Vango Van Lines provided a horrendous experience. First off, the moving day was pushed back a day because the people were too tired to move it the day they scheduled the move. Fine, these things happen. However, when I finally received my items, there was a hole in the entertainment center, and the company lost my desk, lost my coffee table, and lost a box of books. They did not respond to emails, their manager said he was not supposed to talk to customers, and they didn't call back after leaving a message. This was an incredibly frustrating experience that will run me an extra $1,000 to replace what Vango Van Lines lost/broke. An awful experience, and wouldn't recommend this company to anyone.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6000

Having moved 1500mi to 3000+ miles four times before, I have a basis for comparison when I say: Vango packing and loading of my cross-country move was abysmal. I think the crew (there were 3) may have been first-timers. They were several hours late, forcing me to reschedule junk removal and cleaning crews and took approx 8 hours to pack and load a 2 BR apt with 1BR mostly empty, with my assistance and an elevator reservation to assist. They loaded the truck before presenting me with the upcharge. I was denied a coping of the bill of lading when I requested it. At 10:30pm with an 8am flight the next day, I had no real choice but to sign what they gave me. On delivery I noted the paperwork was altered: my initials had been added in checkboxes by someone else and the additional cubic foot charges that I felt I had no viable choice (cancel my flight, rebook another mover for multiple thousands of dollars in cost) except to blindly sign for were contradicted by the independent warehouse cubic foot estimate- by 250 CF. The company has not been responsive so far to my claims totaling approximately $2700. This includes damages to TV, sofa, kitchen table and a few other items incompetently packed/padded as well as having to call the furniture store where I bought my bed to reassemble it after the novice crew removed brackets they should not have. Moving crew in CA were good but unable to handle the reassembly which had been paid for in a full-service move.

Massachusetts to California with a service charge of $8301 inflated from the binding estimate of $5927. Awaiting reply to my claims and involving BBB as mediator at this point.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $8301

Proud American Vanlines subsequently brokered the actual move to Vango Van Lines ("Carrier"). Shipper was not involved in the selection or approval of the Carrier nor were their qualifications to complete the move in a professional manner provided. Brokers failed to provide a list of Carriers they use on their website/advertisements as required by law. The resultant move was subject to delays, damaged/lost/stolen items and missing boxes. Boxes were opened and items removed

Shipper was 1.5 days late on the pickup after being confirmed.

An explanation of the problems could be the Carrier and its procedures:

Hired workers off Craigslist - Some of which were homeless, sleeping in their cars, obviously not professional movers

Driver got into verbal altercations with moving labor hired over not being paid.

Damaged several areas of both the pickup location and the delivery location

Verbally assaulted Shippers calling them liars

Smoked inside the pickup location

Left food trash, cigarette butts and other trash at the pickup and delivery locations

Hired workers off Craigslist - Some of which were homeless, sleeping in their cars, obviously not professional movers

Driver got into verbal altercations with moving labor hired over not being paid.

Damaged several areas of both the pickup location and the delivery location

Verbally assaulted Shippers calling them liars

Smoked inside the pickup location

Left food trash, cigarette butts and other trash at the pickup and delivery locations

So our review is ZERO STARS This company is a fraud and a scam.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $10651

We chose Compass Van lines for our mover expecting them to deliver a great service but unfortunately our experience was a nightmare, the worst experience we had.Compass Van lines is also associated with Van Go Van lines which is the actual mover who delivered our things months late to Ca but worst of all with missing items. 23 boxes,1 TV,1 chair were missing.It’s a nightmare!When we called them,somebody just gave a phone no.for filing a claim.WE DONT RECOMMEND VANGO Van LINES/COMPASS VAN LiNES

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $8569

I used a third-party moving broker who arranged my move with Vango. The movers who came seemed fine, and the senior of the two was quite professional. They took longer than I expected to move my things (I had packed them), but that was also not a big deal. As a minor note, one of them did use my bathroom and then returned to work (moving my things) without washing his hands. This is a bit silly (and gross), but not too bad.

However, once the two movers had left, my landlord called my attention to some not-minor damage that they had done to the stairwell. Some of it was just large scratches and dings, but they also took about a foot square piece of drywall out of the ceiling. The missing piece was big enough that they must have taken the chunk of drywall elsewhere. So they hid it.

When I called Vango about this I was passed around to a few people until one person said they would get back to me and then never did. He said he was out for the day for a personal emergency (totally fine). However, over the course of a full month, he never returned a call or text. I finally texted him from a different number with a vague text about needing help with a move. He called me back within an hour. He then implied strongly that I was lying by saying that the damage "looked old". If I thought it was old, I wouldn't be going through the trouble, as this was not even my property.

I am just now working through the claims process. It has taken me WEEKS to get a bill of lading from Vango in order to make my claim. I have called probably a half dozen times and was promised it by the end of the day each time. Only consistent calling finally got it done.

When it came time for drop-off, they also would not give me ANY information. I was, again, told someone would call be back by the end of the day...probably 8 or 10 times. Not once did anyone ever call me back. I always had to call, and never got my questions answered. The questions were as basic as...do you have my stuff? Do you know when it might get to me?

It took an extra two weeks to get my stuff, in part because the truck broke down. That is understandable, but I found out after a week that the truck had been fixed for several days and the mechanic was just waiting for them to pick it up. (At one point, they gave us the number of the mechanic. I do not know why.) The man coordinating the drop-off was mostly a good communicator, but I was really frustrated and disappointed to hear that they were wasting days. My things were delivered on the very last day before the company would start to accrue a penalty.

That said, the guys who unloaded the truck were great and considerate and left nary a mark. For those guys, and for that alone, they get the second star.

I hired movers to make moving easier and less stressful, but this hardly did that. I feel years older.

Move size: Studio Service cost: $6000

Whatever you do, do not use this company for your move. Not only is their customer service rude, they don't even know how to use their own scheduling system. We were booked with Vango through Homesafe Transit (also do not use them for your move), and they picked up over three weeks before we were set to move. They picked our things up so far in advance that our things were placed in a storage unit with a first available delivery date of November 1st because that was the day we would be available to receive the items. A few days after they picked up, we realized we should change that FAD to a few days earlier. We called and let them know to set the date to October 25th. October 26th rolls around and we're feeling a little unsettled so we call them. They never changed the date! So on October 26th, the woman on the phone said she changed our FAD to the 26th and it would be scheduled for loading and delivery asap. Between the 26th and the 8th, we called a couple of times to make sure the FAD was correct. They said it was. We called November 2nd and the woman on the phone said our things would be loaded on the 5th or the 6th. The weekend rolls by and... nothing. We called November 8th because we still had not heard anything from the company. My husband calls and gets an extremely rude man on the phone telling him we cannot change the FAD; he spoke to my husband as if he was causing the company problems. I call back later that day and Arielle from customer service tells me that our things will be loaded and shipped this week. Well, they've lied to us more than once before--who is to say they're not lying again? This company is incompetent. Two big lessons learned: Do NOT use this company and do NOT pay them in full until all items are received. Our biggest mistake was putting any faith and trust in them with our life.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3000

Where do I begin! From start to finish it was the worst moving experience ever and I have moved several times from local to across country to across continents.

- First they charged me an additional $5000 above their quote because they miscalculated my inventory

- next, they couldn’t fit my stuff in one truck (even though they zoomed all of my inventory) and had to send a second truck

-They were supposed to come the next day but I had to beg them to show up with the 2nd truck 2 days later

- They demanded full payment (money order) before they would deliver my belongings

- THEY LOST ALL MY BELONGINGS ON THE 2ND TRUCK (true story)

- They lied to me and sent me fake photos of crates claiming that was my stuff (stalling in search of my furniture). When I asked to have the crates opened, they refused

- 6 weeks later my furniture was being delivered to a family in CA (I live in GA)

- Thank God the delivery man was the same delivery man that delivered my 1st truck so when the family started saying “this isn’t our stuff”, he remembered taking our list of lost inventory.

- They lied constantly, overcharged, and wouldn’t return phone call

- They did compensate us $800 for our troubles ?

SAVE YOURSELF AND RUN FROM THIS COMPANY

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $17000

I contracted a move from Philadelphia to Chicago through a broker called Safeway Moving Systems, LLC, who paired me with Vango. I had a terrible experience with both the experience and the subsequent customer service after Vango lost several of my items.

1. Pricing estimate was mostly accurate after a phone call and video conference to estimate total volume. However, on the day of the move, I was told that I was over volume and would have to purchase additional boxes from the movers to package up the furniture cushions. There was no indication of this upfront, and ended up costing me a few hundred extra dollars because I had to buy them day-of.

2. Vango gave me a 2-3 day estimated pick-up and final delivery range. To be prepared for the first day of pickup, I had to purchase a 2-day parking permit from the City of Philadelphia. This proved useless, as the moving company did not show up until 1 day after my estimated range. Meanwhile, I received no updates on where the truck was or when it would arrive, despite sending numerous emails and calling several times during that day. When the movers showed up, one of the movers was late and hardly contributed any work (sitting around, asking for snacks, taking personal phone calls, etc.). The entire packup should have taken 3-4 hours but ended up taking nearly 8 hours.

3. I gave them my earliest date for delivery after my 30-day storage window was up (Aug 1st), and didn't hear from anyone for 2 more weeks (Aug 17th). I was flexible in getting to Chicago, but I had to just wait to get confirmation that the company was on the way. When they finally delivered my items, I was required to pay the mover upfront before he would unload anything. It wasn't until the end that we noticed several major pieces of furniture were missing (couch, armchair, bar stools, etc.). According to dispatch, they were able to find the missing items and put them on the next truck out. It is currently January and I have not received my items, and I don't believe I'll get them.

4. As I tried to locate my items by calling and emailing both Safeway and VanGo, customer service blatantly lied to me for 6 weeks telling me they knew where my items were and that they were on their way out. I eventually spoke with a rep who basically told me, "We can't help you -- We don't know where your stuff is. You might as well file an insurance claim." Neither Safeway nor VanGo seemed concerned about responding to my requests or finding my possessions.

Avoid Safeway at all costs! This was the biggest headache and resulted in over $700 of missing goods. Will be filing a claim through BBB and writing a similar review of VanGo so nobody else has to deal with this.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6000

I’m not sure who they have writing positive reviews because this company is nothing short of worst moving experience ever. Cheap packing boxing all of my items were crushed or lost on arrival which was 45 days late. They “lost” a custom smoker that was easily 1000lbs and offered me 30$ for replacement. This was after 8 months of me constantly trying to contact them after filing a lost claim. Every part of this company is shady all the way to the BETTER Buisness Bureau not certifying them..

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $12000

They are deceptive liars. They have lied to the BBB of NJ in writing (complaint #18015787 & 15759750)

Van Go Vanlines was scheduled for a pick on 6/28/21 and didn't show until 6/30/21

Van Go Vanlines hired craigslist workers that stole from us and broke our belongings for $8000.

Nov 2021, I submitted an insurance claim to Van Go Vanlines claim department without a response.

Van Go and Proud American never furnished a bill of laden.

Van Go stored our belongings at an offsite location that was public storage without our authorization.

I contacted the BBB of NJ, where Van Go Vanlines is registered. Van Go agreed on 4/21 to a settlement of $2500 to close the BBB case.

The NJ BBB notified me that the case was closed; when I reported that Van Go Vanlines had gone dark, the BBB of NJ reopened the case and forwarded a copy to the Attorney General of NJ.

There are many, many, many complaints against Van Go Vanlines.

They have broken my belongings, stolen from me, and now lie to close the case, all while creating a paper trail.

I have recorded conversations and a full case paper trail with both PRoud American and Van Go Vanlines

Something needs to be done about these people.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $10000