Bombish

So, I have been putting together this move since the end of May. My mom helped me find movers while I found a place to live and my husband worked his butt off during basic training earning money for us to be able to move to his new duty location.

We found VanLines USA and they quoted me $1287 to move me from Jacksonville, FL to Sierra Vista, AZ. It is about 23 hours or 2k miles. Other movers were quoting upwards of $2-4k to move so we accepted this offer as doing it ourselves would not only mean renting a UHUAL for 1k but paying for the gas (about another $500) and moving the stuff from our home into the UHUAL and then out of the UHUAL into my 2nd floor apartment. That is a lot of work and we were up to the task but VanLines USA ended up being a bit cheaper and they would do all of that for us. We read several of the horrible reviews: here, here, and here but in the end decided to take our chances due to the price. Boy, was that a mistake.

Let me set the scene. My move-in date for Sierra Vista Apartment Complex (not naming it) was July 15th. When we found these movers it was around June 20th, so a little more than a month before the move-in date. I had not seen the apartment complex but I read TONS of the glorious reviews and people on Facebook seemed to say good things so I was optimistic. I was taking chances everywhere.

As a note, when I say “we” throughout this, I’m referring to my mom and I. She has helped me out through so much of this process from start to finish. I love her so much!

Louis from VanLines USA calls us to set up a quote. Here is a picture of said quote with the private details removed:

This is one of the 4-5 quotes we were given. You can see the move-in date is different than what I needed (I needed Monday, 07/15/2019) and you can also see the amount we were quoted and the pick-up date which was Monday, 07/01/2019. Not bad right now.

The first thing they did was not explicitly state that there was a 2-3 week clock from the “Move Day” listed on the quote. Meaning they can deliver it starting on the “Move Day” but more than likely it will take an additional 2-3 weeks for me to get my stuff. Louis did not explain this to me, no one did until I got here and was going to move in on the 15th and I call to see where it is and that’s when I get the news.

The next thing they did was when we were quoted, we explicitly asked Louis if I had less stuff than was quoted if the quote would lower. He said “yes”. I was quoted for 10 Large boxes, that ended up being 6-7 varying in sizes from Small to Large. Which is why we explicitly asked this question. Come to find out, that is untrue and their minimum for this distance is $1300 so we were already getting a discount on that price. I didn’t find this out until July 1 when they came to pick up my stuff. I had the movers waiting outside my house while I called VanLines USA and spoke to the rudest individual on the phone. Customer Service is definitely far down on their list of what they care about, if they care about it after the sale at all.

Anyway, that made moving day stressful. Here is a list of all the stuff they moved:

Dresser

Bedframe

Queen Matress and Box Spring

End Table

65″ Samsung TV

55″ Sony TV

6-7 Boxes varying in size

Included in the quote was packing the 2 TVs. Now, they had to take the feet off the TVs to move them so they disassembled the TVs. This is important for later in the story.

As you can see, I don’t have very much stuff. The rest of my stuff (about half of it) I moved myself between my mom’s SUV and my car (Kia Forte). So, this is why we were so concerned on the quote and being able to lower it.

Moving on...When the movers were here packing the TVs one guy was newer and younger than the other. The young, new, guy was packing the 55″ Sony TV while I was watching the older guy pack the 65″ Samsung. He did a really good job and I was confident that the TV was going to be OK. He even went as far as to tell me that the screws are attached to the feet when the movers delivered my TV so I could tell them.

After he finished with the Samsung the young, new, guy had just started packing the 55″ Sony and the older guy went to check on him in the bedroom (that’s where the TV was). I heard him explain how to pack it correctly like the guy hadn’t done it before so I was scared something would happen to that TV. Spoiler: Nothing did, luckily, though I did have trouble finding the screws for the feet as it wasn’t explained to me where they were.

Everything else went smoothly. I packed the box spring and mattress in mattress bags we picked up from UHUAL. I had them taped pretty tight and I was confident that they wouldn’t get damaged.

So, moving day comes and they make me pay half up-front. Since it was $1287 total, I paid about $600 up-front and the rest I paid when they brought my stuff. I had the money in cash so everything was fine. They made me sign about 7 different papers worth of stuff and explained everything when signing but the older guy did it so fast that I barely remember everything I initialed and signed. Plus, I didn’t get a copy of everything. I only got a copy of the receipt and the list of items they are moving.

Now, I’m getting everything in order in my car and I start driving on July 10th to Sierra Vista. I head to my parent’s home in Montgomery, AL first and spend a few days there and we leave Friday, July 12th to make the ~20 hour drive. We split it up so I was able to get to Sierra Vista and see my husband on Sunday at about noon, which wasn’t bad at all.

Now we are at Monday, July 15th and I had just called to see where my stuff was and was told that it could be another 2-3 weeks before I get the stuff. I am annoyed but my parents are here so they are helping as much as possible. I get all the stuff we brought between our two cars moved in and they decide to go to big lots to buy a new queen bed set so they can stay the night in my apartment as they were going to the Grand Canyon after a day or so. We also do a wal-mart trip and I pick up a twin sized air mattress and pump and sleep on that while my parents are here. It takes about a week (my parents are home in Montgomery, AL by this point) and I get a call saying my stuff is going to arrive. This was this past Monday, July 22. He said he will be here around 3-4pm. It is sooner than I thought so I give him the benefit of the doubt and tell him to take his time and if he has to come Tuesday, that is fine, too.

Sunday night I came home from visiting my husband on base and meet my downstairs neighbor. He is a big guy (one of those guys you see on the Planet Fitness commercials that they don’t allow in) with a big 4x4 truck. He is super nice and I thank god I met him now.

Anyway, Monday rolls around and it is about 3pm when the mover knocks on my door and tells me he sees a sign that says 53ft trucks are not allowed. So, I go with him to talk to my office manager. She confirms. I then walk around trying to see if there is someone’s truck I can borrow because there is no way in hell I am going to be able to fit that stuff in my car and the guy stated that there is this surprise $250 charge to move it to a smaller truck for redelivery. I don’t have $250 because the move has been expensive already so I try to find any help I can. The mover also stated that he will move it into the person’s truck (or my car) but there is an extra charge for him to move it from there into my apartment.

Not knowing any better, no red flags go off for me there. Not that they would have helped if they did.

Anyway, I talk to my downstairs neighbor and he tells me I have balls asking and he likes that and he agreed to help me. As we are unloading everything off the truck one of Arizona’s famous “Monsoons” comes in and drenches the mattress and box spring and gets everything wet except what I could load in my car. The rainstorm lasts about 30 minutes and when it lets up we start moving everything in.

My neighbor is the most amazing person I could have ever met. He moved 90% of it in. I did most of my boxes and some of the bed frame but by the time we got to anything else I was so exhausted I couldn’t do much more. I was almost to the point of throwing up several times through this process but kept pushing through and he moved 90% of my stuff by hand. The only thing he used a dolly on was the dresser. I am so impressed and I hope I can get to this point anytime in the future.

If you are keeping count here are the things that VanLines USA screwed me over for thus far:

Misquoted the “Move Day”

Incorrect information on quote price and ability for it to be lowered

Uninforming me of $250 redelivery fee

Uninforming me of additional fee for extra work for movers (from my car to apartment)

This all doesn’t include the next HORRIBLE things they did. I finally get everything in and call my mom. She goes off on them. Come to find out I did sign a paper that explained all of this when the movers took my stuff and I agreed to everything above. There are a few problems with that though:

I didn’t understand that a 53ft truck was a semi. I just didn’t put 2 and 2 together. Plus, having never visited my apartment complex, how was I supposed to know this?

I signed and initialed so much, how was I supposed to remember these small details?

I wasn’t given a copy of this paper until Tuesday, July 23rd, when I specifically requested it. So, how was I supposed to remember?

I am a 26 year old female whom they took advantage of because they knew they could. My mattress was almost ruined because when they moved it holes ripped in the plastic all around it and it got drenched from the rain. My TVs could have been ruined from the rain.

I ended up having to put together my TVs myself. The bed frame wasn’t together in FL so I expected to have to do that myself (not a big deal) but everything should have been moved into the apartment by VanLines USA. That is what I paid $1300 for and I didn’t get what I paid for. They deliberately choose a huge semi to deliver several days worth of deliveries to get out of doing work. When they showed up here in Arizona, it was only ONE GUY in the truck. Now there could have been one in the bed that never came out but ONE GUY (and my neighbor and myself) did all of the moving from the truck, to my neighbor’s 4x4 and my car. Then my neighbor did most of the moving for me because I am a 26-YEAR OLD FEMALE. I COULDN’T POSSIBLY MOVE A DRESSER BY MYSELF. What the hell?!