Worst moving experience
Kevin
Submitted this review about
Nationwide Van Lines
Review made Live: 9/20/2015 2:40:00 PM
I've moved with other companies in the past and have never had such a bad experience. In addition to their practice of suppressing negative reviews through signed settlement contracts, you should avoid Nationwide Van Lines because KNOWINGLY send out movers that are unprepared and behave unprofessionally and who cause damages to your property.
Despite the fact that Nationwide Van Lines, Inc. sent out a mover that has received multiple complaints and has since been dismissed from their company, their claims process is inexplicably slow. It took them over 30 days to even acknowledge the receipt of my claim and over three months to process the claim.
Here are some details about my move:
1. Unprofessional behavior:
On pickup, the movers strongly hinted to me 3 to 4 times to generously tip them, as this is not an easy job and that they're the ones doing all the hard work. They also told me that if I took care of them with a tip, then they would take care of me. This is not acceptable behavior. Any person in this scenario would believe that if they didn't tip them, then they would not take care of their stuff.
They completely missed both pickup and delivery windows. The pickup window was from 9 am - 1 pm. They didn't arrive until 3:30 pm. They blamed it on bad traffic. They spent an hour setting up blankets before they came up to the apartment at 4:30 to start wrapping furniture. I had to stay there until 10 pm before they were finished completely. And this is even with having packed all of the boxes before the move.
The delivery window was also from 9 am - 1 pm. They did not arrive until 7 pm. Again, they blamed it on traffic and sent me photos via text of traffic, but they told me they were coming from Virginia, which is only a 4-6 hour drive. They were not finished until 11:30 pm, creating a lot of noise for my neighbors, and I received complaints from the leasing office about the noise that they caused at a late hour due to them arriving late.
The method used to wrap the furniture was not done in a professional manner. It left considerable adhesive residue from the tape on the furniture, which I had to carefully remove. Additionally, a lot of the blankets used to wrap the furniture were filthy, leaving lots of black soot for me to wipe up.
2. Unprepared: They took apart my futon when no other previous movers had taken it apart. This would have been fine with me, but upon delivery, they forgot how to put it back together. Fortunately, I was watching them take it apart and had to give them directions. Also, in order to unwrap the blankets, they needed to cut the tape on there. They didn't even have a box boxer available and asked to use my chef's knife to cut the tape. Fortunately, I had a box cutter available that I provided (Ironically, the box cutter was left over from a previous moving company's move - they were prepared!).
3. Damages:
All of the boxes upon delivery were dented or smashed in some way or the other, which only happens if items were improperly secured or if the movers stacked too many boxes on top of each box. My bike was bent from too much weight being placed on top of it.
There was a large dent/chip into one of my solid wood bookcases on the front that was transported. I noticed upon moving that the movers only wrapped the sides of the bookcases with blankets, leaving sizable gaps for the shelves to be exposed. This would not have happened if they wrapped the bookcases completely. The company considered this damage "cosmetic" and would not even offer the full measly $0.60 per pound.
BOTTOM LINE: If you want any semblance of a professional move, undamaged property, and a responsive company, do not use Nationwide Van Lines. I'll give up my settlement money so other people won't have to go through this awful moving experience.
