Wheaton Van Lines

Our move started with the driver breaking three legs on our teak dining table and promising to replace them himself with new legs. At delivery, he gave us badly glued original legs. Many furniture pieces were dented or scratched upon delivery. Some of our furniture pieces were old family items that started with some scratches. The new scratches cannot be claimed because we did not take photographs before and after. Take to time to photograph everything! Also the packers seemed to seek out boxes marked fragile and put them where they would be crushed. Most of our fragile boxes arrived crushed while the non-fragile boxes were fine. The driver hired an elderly couple to do the unloading and they struggled with the job. I would never recommend Wheaton to anyone.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $10553

Worst moving experience of my life. Don't ever use:
* Aladdin Transfer & Storage
* Wheaton World Wide Moving (a.k.a Wheaton Van Lines)
* Bekins (same company as Wheaton)

And don't do business with:
* John Edward - salesman with Aladdin
* Brad Messer - owner of Aladdin

In Summary:
Contracted Pick Up Day: Fri, 7/7
Actual Pick Up Days: Fri, 7/7 & Mon 7/10

Est. Delivery Window: 7/11 - 7/17
Actual Delivery Date: 7/26 - 11 days AFTER the END of the delivery window

The Gritty Details:
We hired movers for our move from CA to CO. Aladdin was the local pick up company and Wheaton was the national company coordindating the move. Aladdin sent John Edward to do an in-home inspection of the apartment but not our 10 x 10 storage unit that we told them we had. They just estimated based on the description of the contents.

The movers from Aladdin/Wheaton were supposed to arrive on Friday, 7/7 between 8-10am for pick up. My wife and I were to leave the next morning to hit the road for CO. (In hindsight, I should have given us a little buffer between pick up day and when we left town.)

The movers showed up at 9:55am Friday morning. Unfortunately, the truck was too small to load everything so they were only able to load the apartment's contents but not the contents of the storage unit. They weren't able to get a second truck to pick everything up that same day so after some arguing with John and Brad, they assured us the unit would be picked up the next day: Saturday. So we gave them a key, the code to the storage facility, and hoped for the best.

The next morning, Saturday, my wife and I loaded up what items we were taking with us in our 2 cars and hit the road. We didn't hear from anyone all day. Late in the afternoon I made some calls but just got voicemail.

Finally, around 8pm Saturday night, I got a text--not a call--from Brad about the storage facility being "closed". The gate closes after 4pm but you can still get through that and into the building with the code I gave them. "Well I wish I would have known that" was Brad's response. This is the OWNER of the company. More texts and phone calls, during one of which Brad hung up on me for swearing at him - I guess I offended his delicate ears - until Brad agreed to pick up the storage unit stuff the next day: Sunday.

Sunday comes and goes and, once again, we don't hear from anyone. We left a few voicemails for Brad but none were returned.

Monday morning I got in touch with Tyler Greer, our move manager in the corporate office, and gave him the details of the weekend. He said he would take care of it and sounded sympathetic. Tyler was the only person in this whole mess who tried to work with us.

Brad finally called back and said the storage unit contents were picked up on Sunday. John also called and said the same thing. HOWEVER, later that day the manager of the storage facility emailed that the movers were there loading things up. So John and Brad both lied to us.

After 4 stressful days of calls, texts, and emails, our stuff was at least finally loaded up.

Several days later we were informed by Tyler that they wouldn't be able to deliver everything until 7/26, 11 days after the end of the original delivery window. He was able to give us a discount of about 15% off the final price of the move because of all the trouble.

Our stuff finally arrived on the 26th and in pretty good shape. With everything else that went wrong I was a bit worried. The movers who delivered the stuff - Colorado Hi-Tec Moving & Storage - were very professional.

Brad Messer and John Edward clearly don't know what they're doing and don't seem to care much about clients. And neither of them are men of their word.

From Brad in an email: "Sorry about the delay in getting your household goods delivered to you but this is a common practice in this industry in the summertime." During a phone call, John said something to the same effect.

Okay, first of all, knowing that other customers are also getting screwed doesn't make me feel any better. Secondly, if you KNOW you're going to have this kind of trouble, either book less work, or at least give your customers a realistic delivery window. We would have packed differently if we knew we would be waiting over 2 weeks for our stuff to arrive.

Moving is stressful enough when things go well without the added stress of dealing with incompetents.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $7200

I am completely in the same boat as Dale. It has caused one of the worst experiences of my life that will take me half a year to pay back. They damaged my things into the thousands value wise, REFUSED to pay the claim saying I signed release of the goods when in fact it was one of THEIR AGENTS on the other end of the move who signed for my goods. They came in $5000 over the estimate and refused to honor their estimate causing me to have to pay it back. Brad Messer did nothing to help me, Claire White was awful at Wheaton as is Todd Emrick. I cannot imagine these people are operating legally. I have filed claims with BBB but so far that hasn't helped. The best I can do is help others not make this mistake of trusting this company. STEER CLEAR.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $13500

I'll just say it straight out DO NOT HIRE WHEATON!! Just don't use them, you'll regret it trust me!! I am not one to write reviews only when burned but this company and their local movers Sopko Moving and Storage have been my latest nightmare!

They (SOPKO) gave me a binding estimate which says I won't need to pay more than the estimated weight. They weighed the truck post-loading and told me it was 600lbs over and then asked if I wanted to meet halfway to pay the difference. That was the biggest mistake I made being considerate to say Ok I would meet halfway based on the new weight of 3500lbs I was given (I only agreed because at the time I liked the Sopko agent I was working with and even empathized with her on estimates not being an exact science). Big mistake! They move my stuff and took over 2 weeks to deliver with no apologies. On delivery day, the driver and a rep on the phone tell me my final weight was 3200lbs not 3500 as stated by SOPKO. So someone either lied or gave incorrect information and SOPKO conveniently failed to put the so called actual weight of 3500lbs in writing (red flag). Based on this misleading info and the sloppy customer service I refused to pay the additional amount and decided to stick to what I signed for (which is my right by the way). Wheaton has now sent me an invoice for the additional amount citing my email of meeting halfway as justification for this. EPIC Nightmare and horrible customer service with their collections department!

Beware of companies that call you and fail to put stuff in writing and do not be in a hurry to put any agreement you have in writing too until they do! I pride myself on reading reviews and making purchasing decisions of them. I did rely on reviews for Sopko, I just forgot to check for Wheaton! if I had seen all the reviews on here, I would NEVER have used this company. Organizations often fail to understand the power of reviews but perhaps we the consumers can start to paint a picture and write stories they'll start paying attention to. Wheaton may win this battle but lose the war when they start to see profits dwindle for their lack of professionalism.

There's a reason they have less than 2 stars and mine is one of them! Do yourselves a favor and go with an organization that values customer service, integrity and professionalism.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2882

Wheaton World Wide Moving

My entire difficulty with this moving company involves the use of the word “window.” To remind you of this concept, let’s say that your refrigerator breaks down and you have a family to feed. You probably can’t do without refrigerating food for many days, so you call the appliance repair guy and he says he can fix it the next day. He gives you a “window” of between, say, 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon. Meantime, you make do with ice chests and pizza delivery and know that the problem is fairly minor and you’ll all get back to normal soon.

You can probably imagine a similar situation for just about anything: an over-flowing toilet, a downed tree limb, a broken door lock, you name it. You’ll call someone who can fix the problem and they’ll make an appointment with you for that day or a few days later and give you a window of a couple or several hours on the day of the appointment.

The moving business, however, is somewhat different. The moving van you trust to carry all of your belongings to your next residence has a major impact on your entire life. A moving van costs a lot of money, a whole lot of money. And until you see the driver at the other end you are, quite literally, bereft of all of your possessions except for those you could stuff into your car or suitcase. It’s like being a refugee---without home, without comfort, without possessions, without help.

One would hope, therefore, that a window would consist of a reasonable length of time. You know you can’t expect to obtain a window that adds up to mere hours, depending on the distance of the move, but a few days seems fair, even realistic.

Not with Wheaton World Wide Moving, or, specifically one of their many subsidiaries: First Choice Movers. My window turned out to be two weeks. The window noted on the contract indicated a time lapse from loading date to delivery date of two weeks. That is a very long time to live on the road, in hotels, or in an empty house with a couple of suitcases. This situation also creates new and substantial expenses, given the lack of goods and essential services associated with one’s possessions. MuItiply the expenses and difficulties by the number of adults, children, or pets in your household and try to assess just how much hardship two weeks can cause.

I was never given any indication that the last possibility for retrieving my goods would be two weeks from the loading/moving day. None of the experts involved---the two loaders, the driver, the salesman, the office manager, the corporate mouth---ever indicated that such a lengthy period of time was possible, let alone the severe reality and hardship that it turned out to be. On reflection, that seems to me to be a deceptive practice; omission of essential information is equivalent in seriousness to lying.

OK. I signed the contract. I read the fine print. I should have understood that I would be a refugee in limbo for two weeks. And I certainly should have prepared for that. But let me ask, how would you prepare for such eventuality, especially if your window stretched from hither to yon or above and beyond without any warning?

Well, you wouldn’t because you couldn’t. Like me, you absolutely would not anticipate such major problems. But now I have warned you through this review. Cross Wheaton off your list.

But why no warning? Well, it’s very simple. If Wheaton (or its subsidiary) doesn’t clearly indicate (beyond the fine print window dates) to the prospective customer the possible future problems with their window, they have a far better chance of profiting. Because once your stuff is in their van, you’re over their barrel and any attempt on your part to correct the situation will be met with corporate protocol, policy, and procedure. In other words, you have no recourse and are completely at their mercy.

The Driver: He’s just the driver and follows the schedule based on what houses to supply when, in accordance with profit-based time-lines. You could be anywhere on the list and you won’t be told your position in advance.

The Salesman: He talks a good game and is charming, will supply you with all manner of boxes and tapes but will never alert you to the details and fine print involving windows and other matters. Seemingly helpful but totally uninvolved and indifferent to your plight, that’s your salesman. Remember that all he has to do is sell and that’s all he will do.

The Manager: He will attempt to honor your requests for loading day and time, obfuscating the central issue of a delivery window. He will emphasize the difficulty of getting you your preferred loading time over and over, other essential matters disappearing in his so-helpful manner.

The Corporate Mouth: Totally useless to you. He simply ignores your pleas for help and refers you to your contract. He is as cold and intractable as the faceless corporation demands.

I haven’t done a lot of moving from residence to residence and you probably haven’t either. These events occur just a few times in a lifetime. Trusting your worldly goods, comfort, health, and safety to a moving company involves a major decision. Make sure you make the right one. I recommend that you avoid Wheaton World Wide Moving or any of their subsidiaries. They caused me more trouble than anyone should ever experience. Take this warning from me. Wheaton won’t warn you at all.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2800

0 Zero is my rating DO NOT HIRE!!
My furniture and personal belongings were in storage for 34 months. Supposedly packed and stored by Wheaton which I found out later it was 8 + touring which is a subsidiary of Wheaton when it was time to move my furniture I was told my furniture will be moved Wheaton because they go Nationwide the day before my move I'm I found out that I've been moved by Belkins no communication from these people for 2-3 days after they pack my furniture supposedly I was supposed to be the first one the first stop they left North Carolina on a Tuesday it is now Thursday I get a call on Wednesday from Wheaton telling me that they will arrive at my house somewhere between 9 and 10 8:55 Thursday morning from Belkin stating that they would arrive at my home somewhere between 11:30 and 12 I asked them why was it so late the guy kind of blew me off and basically told me that's what time it's going to be unprofessional I called the corporate office spoke to someone there and of course there's nothing they can do I have been sitting here waiting for some kind of communication from them again I get a call from the corporate office now they have to call them to see what happened and why they're having arrived at my house it is now 11:40 so right now I am mad as I can't say it on the internet I will keep you posted because I will be videoing every move that these people make because they are known to damage your furniture they also are known to have missing items which I found out this morning they unpack the truck that my things were on so right now I'm hoping and they better hope that none of my items are missing do they're going to have some good publicity and not just on the internet I'm going to have an attorney and I'm going to get some good publicity for Belkin / Wheaton.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6500

From what I have experienced..
1. Wheaton van lines packs your boxes with a vague label description so that once the boxes go missing you will have no idea what has been lost.
2. If a full delivery cannot be made and they are liable for paying you for a late delivery reimbursement, Wheaton delivers the heaviest items first so that they can claim that the majority of the weight has been delivered and thus avoid the penalty.
3. Even if you purchase total replacement cost insurance and Wheaton loses boxes, they will try to pin it back on you and state they are not liable for missing boxes.
4. The claims agents will boldly lie unless you document everything with emails.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6300

Lost items and damaged our furniture! The movers were extremely careless with our boxes and items. Even the ones that said "FRAGILE"on it were simply placed in the middle of heavy items and placed upside down in our apartment right in front of our eyes! We have moved over a month ago and HAVE YET TO FIND A LOST BOX which they claim to be searching for but it could be anywhere from a storage place to another customer's home. So now, our hardly earned and personal items are who knows in whose hands.
This isn't our first move, we have moved across the country a couple times before and this is by far the worse and most expensive experience. We used them because they were recommended by someone but couldn't regret it more.
They picked it up on time and delivered on time but at the cost of losing and damaging items that cannot be replaced!

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6000

The move started off with with a local, competent estimator. Went downhill from there. They were over one day late picking up goods, with very poor notification of being late. They also brought two large trucks into neighborhood after being warned of restrictive access. Loading went fairly well. Off to the staging warehouse. They delivered over two weeks late, again with no contact other than what we initiated. Then they only delivered a partial amount. It took over one week for the rest to be delivered. Again, no one at Wheaton thought it was necessary to tell us when things would be delivered. Unloading personnel poorly trained in unloading household goods. Constantly placed items in wrong places after being directed where to put things. Many boxes placed upside down so box ID was buried. Moving van was loaded way too high for stacking strength of boxes - no one seemed to understand a box can only support so much weight by design. Many boxes were crushed, particularly wardrobe boxes. Workers were friendly but not competent. And Wheaton scheduling makes the airlines look excellent. Absolutely not committed to customer needs.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $13500