Wheaton Van Lines

The move started off fine with Braun Moving of Stratford providing a professional estimate and then picking up items on time, professionally crating and wrapping. We paid over $1000 for insurance since we had valuable contents, figuring insurance would help if items were lost or damaged. We were so wrong!
The delivery side was a disaster. They evidently pack the contents of our home along with contents of 4 other homes in a very large tractor trailer driven by a cranky man who complained about all his driving. He then hires local laborers, who appear completely inexperienced, has them put on a Steven's T shirt, and call them movers. They empty the contents, and even manage to damage items that were crated upon opening the crates. We had a Steinway grand piano, and didn't know how to put the legs back on (we ended up hiring a piano specialist to put them back on). My daughter took a video of this clown show which we may post on social media. Aside from items being damaged, they picked up 278 items and only delivered 275 items with 3 items missing. We complained and noted this at the time, and even indicated this on the bill of lading. They told us file a claim and the claims department put a tracer but could not find the missing items. Months later when filing a claim, Wheaton Worldwide (parent company) claims everything was delivered and they wouldn't recognize or admit anything was missing. These folks should lose their license. I believe They sold us insurance without the intention of ever honoring the insurance. We paid over $16,000 and this is the worst moving experience I have ever had.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $16000

DO NOT FALL FOR THEIR REVIEWS ON THE WEBSITE OR GOOGLE. These people will cause you pain that you can not even imagine. From the day my stuff was picked up, problems started. They will send their own driver but will send help that they hire from CRAIGSLIST (Unprofessional, and NOT PROFESSIONAL ASSEMBLERS). They banged/dropped my furniture items on the floor so many times, one guy took over 2 hours to un-assemble one bed. Packed bed parts in separate boxes, where no one will be able to find.

At the time of arrival in another state, is where things got worst and messed up my brand-new house. They brought different helpers. I feel bad for those people, but those two helpers didn’t have any strength at all. One guy even had a leg problem. I feel bad for them, but it’s the company’s problem who needs to understand and hire the right people. These guys started taking furniture items upstairs, and knocked off walls, and left big marks. Assembled my beautiful king size bed set and didn’t put the feet on the railing in the middle to support the weight, and put Mattress on top, so that no one can tell. As soon as we sat on the bed, bed Collapsed from the middle. Texted this So-called SALESMAN who I started this process with, that they need to take care of this, and call me. He called me back and yelled at me not to text him at 8 pm on his cell phone. He screamed the hell out on me that I texted him for that. Number 1, it’s his damn problem to give his cell number out to people. Number 2: NO MATTER HOW MUCH CUSTOMERS GET IRRITATED, NEVER EVER TALK SHIT TO CUSTOMERS LIKE THIS. I Will highly suggest not falling for this company’s gimmicks. They know how to sell but will f…………. up your expensive furniture. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY. Later I realized they even messed up the railing on my second bed set as well and broke the wooden railing. So sick of these people. Filed claim with their department, and only received $60 to fix my $3,000 worth bed set.

My real estate agent took them off from their company’s recommendation list and will highly suggest my fellow friends do the same. DO NOT EVER FALL FOR THEIR TALKS. You will lose your expensive items, plus will be dealing with their claims department after the move. Rather hire someone more professional, and expensive company if you want worry-free move.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $3700

I’m sitting here reading all these horror stories and felt I needed to add my review. Wheaton moved us from GA to NJ and it went perfectly! I think a lot of the reviewers don’t realize how moving works. Our local agency was great- I chose them specifically because of their reviews. I inquired about how they choose their drivers and workers and they told me they choose from the best Wheaton offers. That was true. But I also realize that’s because our local agency was great. Our driver was awesome. The local crew he brought was great and they worked their butts off. The delivery was a breeze as well. The local crew in NJ also worked hard and I appreciated them. Gratefully we didn’t have any damaged items. We did have one missing item, but the driver realized where it was and took the initiative to contact Wheaton for me to get the process of getting it back started. Wheaton corporate was in touch with me from before the move took place until after our items were delivered. I would absolutely recommend them to anyone- but you have to be careful about your LOCAL agency and how they choose their crews.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $9500

We consolidated from two houses into one and did not need/want to move most of the furniture from our house in Wisconsin to our already furnished house in Florida. So, there was less to move than you might expect. We knew that we would share a van with others. We were led to believe that our "stuff" would be loaded onto a van from our Wisconsin house and that van would go directly to Florida with a stop or two along the way. However, Stevens/Wheaton couldn't schedule the interstate driver. So, our stuff had to be offloaded into a Wisconsin warehouse and reloaded again when an interstate driver became available. We have a lot of fragile and expensive art so the unexpected loading, storage and unloading was worrisome but there was little that we could do about it since it was too late to find another mover. The best that we could do was to pay for extra insurance to better protect our artwork investment. Thankfully, all of our art arrived in good condition.

The other major issue revolved around unpacking. We paid for a heavy (~75 pounds) modern art mirror to be taken off our wall in Wisconsin and have Wheaton hire a 3rd party company build a custom wooden crate for the mirror's move (along with 5 other pieces of art in 5 other custom built crates). We were told that the company doing the crating would uncrate, setup the art work and take the crates away in the Florida house. So, we had anchors set in the Florida wall waiting for the mirror. When it arrived, the uncraters said that they had no instructions to hang up the mirror. When I called the moving agent she said that she would instruct the uncraters hang the mirror but upon further questioning, she said that she would need to add that service to my bill. I hung up the phone and tipped the uncraters a sufficient amount to hang the mirror.

Besides these two "surprise" issues, the move was as boring as we'd like it to be. Both issues could have been prevented by better planning and communications from Wheaton. I gave Wheaton a "Good" review because I expect to have a few disappointments during a move. The disappointments in this case were resolved with minor aggravation and some cash. Total bill was around $5k for one bedroom, several pieces of artwork, some lamps, TV's and about 60 boxes of "stuff". This price included the additional insurance that we believed was necessary due to the unexpected extra loading and unloading, and the extra tips necessary for hanging a very heavy mirror. So, no real problems; just a few hundred dollars more to smooth out a couple of issues.

The men that Wheaton sent to load and unload were very professional and communicated easily. The 3rd party craters were a little rough around the edges but OK. The original loading was completed as scheduled. The unloading/uncrating had a one week delivery window and it occurred within that week even though we had the extra handling and time in the warehouse. So, this review is "Good".

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $5000

I have done 16 intrastate moves in the past and have never had so many furniture pieces broken in delivery. My mistake was not getting full replacement but even with that I dont have confidence in this company that they would have had my items repaired. With that the claims department when I complained sent me a contact whose email response was an continually out of office. And now they will send me a check and with that they said 30 days at least to process. I must say this has been a horrible experience. In my other moves I had one or two items break, one it want furniture and two the company was quick to response. Again think twice before going with wheaton van lines and ensure to get replacement cost.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $11000

I read a couple of horror story reviews of long-haul moving companies so ended up using a local company (that had good reviews) that uses Wheaton as their trusted long-haul moving company. Everything was good, up until waiting for our things. There was good communication about the process and our things were packed up on 12/7. In our contract, the pick-up date 12/8 with delivery between 12/14-12/24. Our stuff was in storage for 2 weeks because there was a shortage of long-haul drivers, the holidays, and the previous week, our stuff didn't fit onto the truck. I was only kept updated about the status of our stuff after I kept on following up via e-mail and calls. Our stuff finally came on 1/2 - 8 days after the agreed delivery date as per our contract. The furniture wasn't really damaged (except one piece) and one of the movers wasn't wearing a mask (which I had to ask him to put it on). No items were missing, except some detailed parts. I asked for a discount because the contract was broken, but we never got one. Instead of calling me back, I got e-mails instead. Overall an ok company, but not the best.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6500

Stay away from this organization. Our experience thus far has been a sad disappointment. From not showing up on the day of packing to not informing us about storing our property, to loading our property onto a truck with another customers property and then using a Uhaul to store the rest of our stuff until they could find another truck to come get it, to not showing up on the day of delivery, the list of failures goes on. Their customer service help line is not worth the time it takes to place the phone call. Highly incompetent. The leadership team for Wheaton is completely insulated from the reality that their company is failing their customers. I tried to contact higher management to resolve my problems but was always redirected to the dismal customer service line. We are currently sitting in our new and empty house for another week waiting on delivery. Sad outcome for us.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1000

Wheaton Van Lines has been holding our belongings in storage for one month because, they say, they can't find a driver to bring our goods to us in Knoxville from Portland, OR. They have no solution and say they don't know when they will find a driver. This is a national company and they can't find a driver. We placed our move order 2 months prior to the actual pickup date at our previous residence so that means they have had THREE months to make this move happen. All I get from them is "we don't have a driver yet, have a nice day". We don't know what to do or how to get our belongings. We are frustrated by their lack of concern and their inability to find a driver within their own national organization.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $17000

I hired WM Meyers Movers out of Itasca, IL, in 2020 to move my Chicago area home into storage for 2 years while my Charlotte area home was being built. I put my trust in the company that touted themselves as “official movers of the Chicago Bears”. At the time, they were not affiliated with Wheaton or if so, it was not communicated to me. Had I known I would have gone with another company as I give good credence to reviews.

Move in date was February 15th of this year. Many damaged items were immediately evident and in the subsequent days of unpacking more and more was discovered. Frustrating yes, but at that point I wasn’t too alarmed. Having made several long distance moves, I understand these things happen and why I opted for the best zero deducible insurance coverage offered. After thoroughly documenting everything with photos, receipts and descriptions, I submitted a claim for 16 items totaling $3,200. The claims adjuster upon learning that I had the damaged items repaired and discarded the broken ones immediately called out a excerpt from their terms of service policy stating that “they have the right to inspect and repair damaged articles”. A clause they used to absolve themselves of fair payment despite the indisputable visual evidence. Upon going back & forth with the adjuster, the contradictory feedback made it clear to me they had no intention of accepting responsibility citing “we didn’t have the opportunity to inspect”.

Here are just 2 of the many aforementioned contradictions:

• 3 of the denied items claimed were observed and noted by the crew chief of the delivery team which to me checks the inspection box.

• They did cover 3 items for $665 based solely on photo documentation with no inspection requested. Yet inspection was their sole basis for denying the majority of the claim.

With moving and storage, I spent over 40K with this company. They used a buried gray area policy with arbitrary application to save $2,300 from their bottom line. And if this all sounds like just one disgruntled customer going on a rant, check out the 100+ 1 star google reviews and 2 star Yelp rating. That should speak volumes about the integrity of Wheaton Worldwide. Do your due diligence to find a reputable moving company that will treat your belongings with the care they deserve and you with respect.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $40000