Zippy Shell Incorporated

I have trying for 2 weeks to locate my stuff since Zippy Shell reorganized their warehouses. I want my things delivered to me. The 1-800 # is useless. They could not even locate my account that I have had them for over 18 months. The local number has had me on hold for over 2 hours. My only contact with Zippy Shell before Zippy Shell reorganized has texted me saying someone from the new location will get in touch with me. That was over a week ago. Stay away from this company. My move was approximately 30 miles. God is your only help if you move out of state.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2000

Customer service reps: awesome.

My experience: ridiculous.

I was told over the phone that my pod would take 8-10 business days to move from the warehouse in my state of origin to the warehouse in my state of destination. It took 17 business days, and now the first day available for my pod to be dropped off from the local warehouse is 44 calendar days after the pod was picked up. I don't need to outline how frustrating it is to live without my property when I have kids to care for, a house to move into, and a job to work. My only options for getting my things earlier are to pay for movers to get my things out of the pod at the warehouse and transported to my house, or go to the warehouse with a rented truck and do it myself. The only reimbursement for this drastic inconvenience is $100 off of the fee for the movers, which is about a 25% discount on only the movers. I'm already $2200 out of pocket for a pod that fits a 2-3 bedroom apartment's worth of stuff, so I already had to rent an additional truck to transport larger, more awkward items. Now I have to buy kitchen equipment, clothes, bedding, and a large number of other basics to get by until my pod arrives, or I pay $300 for movers. Though I can go get my things and time I want, it still feels as if I'm in a very difficult situation.

Military families, only do this for a DItY move as a last resort. The Army was far more reliable and timely. I thought that this option would save me stress, time, and energy. Obviously, I was wrong. To be clear, this was a civilian move.

My husband is now a disabled vet and I need options that make my life a little easier. I'm sick with disappointment.

The customer service reps were unfailingly kind and patient. Hold time was between 10-25+ minutes before initial human contact.

1-800-packrat has joined with this company. My pod has 1-800-packrat on it. You'll get the same experience from both companies but calling the two different companies resulted in different price quotes for me, Zippy Shell being the less expensive option.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2200

I wish I was able to give them a negative 5 star rating- I contracted with Zippy Shell and had an absolutely horrible experience from the hard sell to book the contract on to the entire process throughout the move.

Zippy Shell’s customer service is pathetic and unprofessional. It is difficult to get a human on the line or to get a human to call you back. The people who do answer are unable to facilitate a response. I don’t know how many total hours I spent on the phone with them waiting for someone to help me.

My move was picked up & was to be moved immediately with 6- 8 days in transit. It was 20 total days getting to me and would have been longer if I hadn’t hounded them. My items did not leave the originating location as contracted. They did not give me a key to my Shell as promised. When it finally got to its destination Zippy Shell wanted 3 additional days to deliver it. I believe all the problematic issues are within the Zippy Shell corporate/billing customer service, and logistics arenas. Zippy Shell doesn’t care about their performance. Zippy Shell provided the absolute worst customer service that I have ever experienced. I hired moving labor for 3 hours at each end of my moves. The actual movers were good and efficient. Outside of the moving labor, NOTHING ELSE went as planned. DO NOT use this company, you will regret it if you do. It is all “I know you are frustrated or so sorry” but no resolution to their horribly mismanaged operations.

I picked this company because the salesperson told me my things would arrive on my move in day which was a Saturday. This is the only reason I went with them.Their inability to make this deadline costs me additional rent and several days away from my job.

I called the company all afternoon until 7:30-8pm on the day my move was finally to arrive. It didn’t arrive. I finally got my stuff when the local vendor interceded after the Zippy Shell Manager promised I would get my things that didn’t arrive. I really hate that the local movers associated with Zippy Shell get a bad rap. The issues all seem totally corporately driven & based on my experience Zippy Shell’s corporate could care less about anything. Using any other company will save you time, frustration, heartbreak and major anxiety.

Move size: Studio Service cost: $2400

To whoever needs to hear this, the price may be comparable, but it is 100% not worth it. DO NOT USE THEM.

They don't communicate with you during the move at all, I called multiple times to check where my unit was and they said they don't have tracking on them. Also, I specifically asked them to provide a lock (which it says on their website that they will), they forgot to give me the key when they picked up our stuff, so I called to have it sent to our new place. They mailed me a key, and when I went to my storage unit, there was no lock. They literally just mailed me a random key.

Also, the storage pods are just big cages, which I didn't realize. I thought they would be actual pods that you can't see in to and that were more protected.

They have now charged me for two months of storage when they shouldn't have. I literally don't have anything in storage with them and they are still charging me. I have called 4 times asking for a refund, they say they issued it and that I will see a credit in 3-5 business days, then I don't see anything come through and end up calling back and going through the same process again and again..still waiting for two refunds now.

Honestly, I will never use Zippy Shell again.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3000

We moved from Florida to Colorado. Choice them because of price but was a mistake. The have terrible communication. The process that I was told would happen DID NOT! I had to call numerous of times to find out where my container is. Transit and arrival of container were never accurate. The "team" doesn't know what the left hand is doing from the right. We ended up finally getting out container 2 weeks passed the 2 weeks they said we would get it. The move out was the worst. The hired BellHop and they showed up two hours late and the lead guy rushed loading without already showing up with the items we were told they were going to have to protect our things. He said he had two hours now instead of four to complete the job. Because of this all of our stuff did not make it in the container and we were very upset because we saw and told them there was space and they didn't listen. Very difficult day. After a very difficult time without our things for two weeks we were reimbursed $75 a day including weekends (which they tried not to pay) which totaled $1100. However this was a very difficult process to get them to agree to and I still would not deal with the headache. Now unfortunately there is damage to a few of our pieces and the process to claim them is also a nightmare.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3200

No way to contact Raleigh Durham storage center once they take our belongings for almost a year had to call and leave a message and then he text back or maybe call. They have Double billed two different credit cards for 5 months. Corporate call center told me my box was sent to Houston vs Dallas Ft Worth as I requested . Dallas Ft Worth zippy shell number told me they no longer serviced zippy shell and had no idea where my stuff was

Houston location told me it was in DFW. (Houston guy was nice). Drivers are friendly and courteous and good at what they do. After 5 phone calls and being on hold for 20 - 45 minutes each call We have had to contact our credit card companies to dispute charges bevause 'customer service' number does not connect you to accounting dept. Horrible storage and moving experience.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3300

I made the mistake of using ZippyShell for a move from NYC to GA.

The move was scheduled for Friday morning. The truck missed the agreed-upon time window, I had to call to find out what was happening, then I proceeded to get contradictory and misleading information from ZippyShell. At various points I was told by ZippyShell and their local subcontractor:

1) We have to reschedule for 1 week later.

2) We might be able to find something for Monday.

3) We might be able to find something for the next day.

They jerked us around all weekend, then on Monday they once again said a truck was on the way--when it didn't show up either, I called and they said the next available slot was on the following Friday.

I asked if they were delivering ZippyShells to other customers in NYC while I waited, and they said yes. I asked why I had to wait so long even though they had shells available, and they said they couldn't do anything about it.

Basically, they didn't deliver, then provided such bad information that we wasted days trying to work with them. Meanwhile, I missed work, overstayed my lease (and had to pay a penalty for that), and ended up having to book a different company anyway. Our entire move schedule and work schedules got completely disrupted, and we ended up having to pay a lot more to book a last-minute alternative moving service

ZippyShell did eventually refund my money (although I spent hours even getting that to happen) but when I tried to ask them to help me with the significant damages suffered because of their failure to deliver not only on the agreed day but even 4 days later, they hid behind some language in their contract saying they're not liable for delays. Note that that language isn't even in the contract that you sign; it's buried in a .pdf file that is linked in small print.

They are quite good at the whole "brick wall" approach to questions and complaints, never admitting anything and never providing any real help. It took me weeks to even get somebody to simply say "I'm sorry" (albeit without admitting they did anything wrong). They are never proactive; you have to call them to find out any information.

TLDR; Do NOT use Zippy Shell--they don't deliver, they don't communicate, and after dealing with them for countless hours I can confidently say that they don't really care. Moving sucks, but it doesn't have to suck this much.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2600

For those who are looking to move and thinking about who to use for a mover, I strongly do not, repeat, DO NOT recommend Zippy Shell. I used them back in 2017 when we moved from San Diego and it was great. I had an assigned customer service guy who shepherd me through the process and gave me step by step update. This time no such customer service. They merged with 1 800 Pack Rat in 2018 and the customer service went down the tubes. First of all, they don’t work on weekends. What moving company doesn’t work on weekends? Very inconvenient. They seem to have very limited resources and it took 14 calendar days to move 250 miles.

Our first bad experience was when we moved out, they hired a third party mover in West Palm Beach to help load the container. These movers were typical stereotype that kept upselling and intimidate you if you don’t listen to them. They said do you want to buy our moving blankets. I said we have some already and asked them to use those. Did they? Nope. They convinced me to buy their rope to tie things down. We told them to load the furniture and the big-ticket items only. They ignored and started packing boxes until they said, we can’t fit all your furniture. Well no kidding. I told them to unload the boxes and load my furniture. The foreman argues saying that it’ll create void in the container and the furniture will shift. I said, okay I will take that risk, unload the boxes and load the furniture. He lost it. Started cursing, shrugging his shoulders, saying “I don’t care, I don’t care” and treating my stuff like garbage. When I got my stuff delivered it had so many scratches.

When I ordered the container, Zippy Shell said it’ll take 4 to 6 days to deliver. After the container left, the customer service said, it’s 4 to 6 business days for transit. Once it arrives the destination warehouse then we can schedule to deliver the container. So, we moved within state line about 250 miles. It took 14 calendar days to deliver my stuff. They must have pulled my container via oxen across Florida.

Good news throughout this process was their third-party mover they used to deliver our stuff. Actually, if I have known this company existed, I may have just used them instead (https://www.hireahelper.com/moving-companies/long-distance/). They assigned to me a dedicated support person. Unfortunately, they didn’t open till 10 am so when they said my container will deliver between 9 to 10 am, I had to wait till after they opened to get an ETA. They showed up at 10:15am, unloaded in 45 minutes with care.

We had too much stuff and didn’t move far enough to justify the long transit period to use Zippy Shell. If you are moving out of an 1-2 bedroom apartment/condo, crossing multiple state lines, and you don’t mind a LONG delivery timeline, Zippy Shell is an affordable solution. I suggest you hire your own loaders/unloaders. Don’t expect customer service to give you an ETA of delivery. It’ll show up when it shows up.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2860