Wheaton Van Lines

Wheaton delivered our furnishings, however, many were damaged. They paid us for those. But there were more than $3000 in missing items for which they would not pay us. We wrote several letters to the company explaining what was missing, and sent them photos of missing things. They simply said they did not pack the items, and since we could not tell them which boxes they were in, they were not responsible. They also said that we had signed the receipt saying all items were present, but how does one have any idea if everything is present or not? You can't sort through every box before the movers leave your home. The fact that the movers attempted to deliver to us a large flat screen television and a bookcase that were not ours had no impact on Wheaton's faith in their subcontracted movers.

Service cost: $12000

Wheaton arrived at our house on July 31, 2015. There was a crew of five. My wife and I watched as they went about their tasks. The movers checked each of the boxes that we had loaded to make sure they were full, and then they taped these boxes shut. They also packed some of our belongings into Wheaton boxes. I personally watched the movers remove the legs from the couch, love seat, and ottoman. They took each set of legs and wrapped them in tan paper. They then labeled each package, “couch”, “love seat”, and “ottoman.” These packages then went into a “parts box” along with other parts items.

I watched the truck being loaded. I was not happy to learn that our furniture and belongings would be unloaded at a warehouse in Houston and reloaded on another truck a few days later.

We arrived at our new house on August 5th, 2015. The moving van did not show up until a week later on August 12th. There was only a two man crew. I watched as the doors to the van were opened. I saw that the boxes were stacked and at the top of the stack was our love seat. The two movers had a hard time dislodging the love seat from where it was wedged in at the top of the van.

I was not happy at the way the van was packed, and not happy that there was only a crew of two men to do the job, or the way that they were tossing the boxes around. Before they unloaded my wife asked if they were going to mark off the boxes by the list, the driver said no that everything was there.

The helper asked where is the bathroom. My wife showed him the hallway bathroom. A little later the driver asked where is the bathroom, he was shown the same bathroom, he flushed the commode it kept running overflowing from the bowl onto the floor and he did not tell anyone. Later my wife came from the master bedroom and noticed water coming out of the bathroom going everywhere. I was in the garage when my wife screamed that the toilet was overflowing. I shut the water off at the main cut off valve in the garage. My wife used our good towels to wipe up the water. Later the driver complained because he had put soap on his hands in the Jack and Jill bathroom, and there was no water. My wife told him that the water was off to the whole house because of the commode overflow. We called a plumber and 1-800-Water Damage to try to dry the floors, each came out that day.

The furniture was moved into the house, while the boxes were stacked in the garage because of wet floors and carpet.

The driver set the nightstand down, the drawers came out, and he kicked them shut with his foot.

The movers placed the mirrors to the dresser in the garage, and I asked them if they were going to connect them to the dresser, and they told me to take them into the house. They did not want to put the furniture back together and they had no tools. I had to let them use my tools. They connected legs to the ottoman and the couch, but set the loveseat on the floor. I asked where the legs were, and they told me they did not know where they were. It was obvious from their attitude that they were tired and wanted to leave. They did not pick up the misc. paper they left around the house except for the paper that had been used to wrap the furniture legs in. They took this with them and put it in the van, which I though was strange. Over the course of days we found:
1. The top of the china cabinet was placed on top of the base but had not been bolted down – I had to do that.
2. The bed in the master bedroom was connected by one bolt to the headboard, and the bolt was on by one thread. The rest were missing. I had to go out and buy new nuts and bolts for the bed.
3. I was suspicious of the missing loveseat legs, since they had taken the parts paper with them rather than leaving it for us to clean up like they did with other paper. I went looking for them and found the legs in a drawer of the sewing machine in a completely different room. They had unwrapped the legs and placed them in the drawer because one of these workers did not like it when I asked them to put the furniture together, which was a service that Wheaton said they provided . Additionally, the ottoman legs had been intentionally placed on the couch and the love seat legs had been put on the ottoman. The packages had been correctly labeled by the initial movers because I was watching.
4. The mirrors to the dresser were each put on wrong and were being held in place by one screw. Some of the screws were left on the floor.
The commode that over flowed flooded the bathroom, library, one bedroom, pantry, laundry room and the living room and hardwood floors in the hall (which resulted in all of the hardwood floor having to be redone.
When the plumber looked at the toilet, he showed me that the wire connecting the float valve had left the toilet running. 1-800-Water-Damage Co came out to dry the floors.

This began a four month period where we could not use not unpack most of the items and we were living out of suitcases. The insurance company had to redo the hardwood, replace carpet and tile. We had to pay a $2500 deductible.

Because our furniture was loaded on a truck, unloaded to a warehouse, and improperly loaded back on a truck, a large part of our belongings are damaged, destroyed, or missing. Someone had access to our belongings and helped themselves to what they liked.

My wife called Preferred Movers who had set us up with Wheaton the next morning after the move to inform her of what happened. She said to turn in the water damage deductible bill and would get a claim form out to us. We could not get internet service for quite a while because our house looked like a war zone. We called Preferred Movers 4 times before we got the claims forms. We had given our address and also email address and were checking for it at the library since we did not have internet service for a while.

Wheaton gave us a hassle and initially did not pay for the missing items because we were suppose to check close to four hundred boxes and furniture to see if anything was missing while the movers were still there.(Impossible) With the water damage, it took four months to get the floors done and unload the boxes in the house and do a complete inventory.

Wheaton would not pay us for the deductible of $2500.00, because they said they had no proof it was their people. We offered to take a lie detector test. We could not move in and enjoy our house, and lost hundreds of hours of additional work needed to handle all of the problems that this mess has caused us.

Wheaton was a nightmare!

Service cost: $9929

We were told the volume of our household required the entire trailer and that was what they were paid for. Instead they squeezed a second load in with our load resulting in items been left behind and containers and appliances been squashed, damaged, lost and destroyed and 21 days of second accommodation been necessary.

They used unskilled scab labor and were totally unprepared for wet weather resulting in water damage on top of the rest of the botched move.

They literal dumped our belongings in the rain, mostly in the basement and my wife and myself had to later move large items of furniture into there correct rooms. They took more than a month to send a person to look at some of the damaged items and the items that we fixed to use in that time, they refused to acknowledge.

Their insurance department entered into a paper war with us and it has to date been over 5 months without a hint of resolution.

Service cost: $22000

Wheaton Worldwide Moving - the single worst movers worldwide.

Want to have your personal property destroyed and discarded?
Want to be rippedoff and taken advantage of?
Want to be lied to and stolen from?
Want to spend money on a moving insurance policy and not be paid?
Do you like to be treated like dirt?

Then Wheaton are the movers for you!

If I could select no stars I would! What a nightmare my moves has been. When I reported several items missing suddenly I signed in the wrong spot and the wrong signature was crossed out. I am missing several boxes and items worth several thousand dollars and Wheaton wants to pay me $0.60 per pound. Instead of full reimbursement that I paid for and mysteriously I was issued a credit to bring my payment down to the $0.60 a pound and no written notification was sent explaining the credit. The lost items were reported immediately and the tracer to find my items was not done for 45 days after the reported loss. Naturally next to nothing was found. The pickup agent and the drop off agent did nothing to assist in locating the missing items.

If you don't care about your household goods hire Wheaton! Wheaton will not take reasonable care of your household goods while in possession of them!

Thank you Wheaton for a wonderful experience. I will never use or recommend your moving services!

Service cost: $3750

This company done fine except one driver stored the legs to our living room furniture inside the bottom of each piece. The delivering driver and helper apparently could not see the easily visible zippers and ripped our dust covers on every piece of furniture. Wheaton had me open a claim and then said my sectional was paid by the length instead of by the weight like I was charged to move it. And the said my ottoman weighed 10lbs when it was charged at a 100lbs because of the size. When asked why they will not send someone out to repair it I was told because paying this way is cheaper for them. My suggestion is don't use Wheaton, they charge less than everyone else for a reason.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5194

We recently moved from Key West Florida to Santa Rosa California. Used Wheaton out of Tampa Bay. Had damage to items, missing items and most importantly $3,000 of damage to our car.. which they refused to pay for. It evident the damage to the Porsche was caused by the moving process but they will not take responsibility for it. The packing was poor causing damage to items.. such as our Lexmark high end printer/scanner. We provide pictures of the packing and pointed it out to the driver right away.. they would only pay $30.. are you kidding me? Printer was unusable! We have moved across country several times and never had problems. Avoid these crooks.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $16000

Our home furnishing, clothing etc. was in storage in Florida until we settled on our house in NC. When Wheaton came to pick up our shipment - the truck already had two other shipments and could only hold 1/2 our load. Since it was not coming directly out of our home, they could get away with this. The first shipment came on a Sunday and now, 10 days later, we're waiting for the remainder. This has been a nightmare and we'll never use Wheaton again. Their customer service reps tell us - too bad.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5800

We recently had the contents of our fathers' storage facility moved from Montana to Boston after he passed away. We repeatedly informed the company that we live on a small residential street that could not accommodate or be reached by a large moving truck. That message didn't seem to get to the actual movers, who had to rent a small truck when they got to the area and then move our things to that truck to get to our house. All that would have been fine, except they left one very important box on the big truck. We immediately realized that and informed the driver, who assured us it would be shipped in the next day or two. It is now 6 weeks later and there has been no movement. We get plenty of "we'll take care of it and it will be shipped in a day or two," but still nothing and no call backs when days go by. During the last call, we learned that the mover no longer works for the company and he still possesses the box. We have disputed the full charge on our credit card and intend to bring suit if that's what it takes for them to find the box. Our fear is that it is long gone, though, and since it was a table that was handmade by our brother, who has since passed away, no money will be able to replace it.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $2100

Moved from South Carolina to Jacksonville. Bedroom suite ruined, television broken and mover left bolts in the washer drum. Claimed I chose a higher deductible despite paperwork that said otherwise. Fought me every step of the way. The only ones who tell the truth are them, the third party inspectors and the movers. The customers are liars!! Will NEVER use them again. Stay away!! Sharon Wilson is a horrible and arrogant customer service representative at Wheaton. No compassion not belief that the customer is not trying to milk a claim but rather be made whole due to their negligence! Why purchase insurance if it can't be used appropriately.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5000