Don't Hire Stevens (Worldwide) Van Lines
Richard Engels
Submitted this review about
Stevens Van Lines
Review made Live: 6/24/2011 11:46:00 AM
The above ratings apply to the actual moving men and claims service. The sales people were very prompt and helpful. Sales - very good. Moving and claims - awful.
We moved from Michigan to North Carolina in February 2011. We got estimates from Stevens Worldwide from Waterford, MI, Mayflower Premier Relocations, and Corrigan Van Lines. We chose Stevens primarily due to price. I was concerned that shuttle service would be required in NC and only Stevens broke out that charge of about $750 so that I would save that money in unneeded. The other 2 bundled the shuttle charge into their estimates.
Our salesman, John, was very helpful, cooperative and responsive. Everything looked good until the actual move. We packed all our own things with the exception of a few special items we wanted Stevens to be responsible for.
We had been guaranteed that all doors, floors, railings etc, in our home would be padded and protected, however no padding or protection whatsoever was provided. The helpers were polite but clearly annoyed with the driver who frequently sent them back inside with furniture that had not been padded or protected. The helpers expected to be done by 2 or 3:00 PM but did not finish until 8:15 PM. The only pieces of moving equipment available were one hand truck with a canvass strap and 2 dollies.
The real problems surfaced at our new home. When the furniture was brought in the damage was extensive. Our 30 year old teak dining table suffered the worst. The surface of the leaves and table top were deeply gouged. The trestle style leg on one end was broken. They must have piled hundreds of pounds of stuff on the table inside the truck to cause such extensive damage. We also had two 30 x 40 inch framed mirrors that we purchased and never used, so we paid Stevens to pack them. I was shocked that their packing had left all 4 corners of both mirrors unprotected and they were crushed. In addition, the frames were cracked through at the corners. Stevens also caused numerous small dents and scratches to our bedroom and office wooden furniture. They had no moving equipment in NC other than 2 dollies. In fact, they used my light duty hand truck to move many of the boxes we had packed down our 100 foot driveway.
We had a fully packed very heavy 5 drawer steel filing cabinet that was taken out on Steven’s hand truck. When they delivered it without a hand truck I offered to unlock it and remove the drawers to reduce the weight but the movers refused. Instead they “walked” it up the brick entrance stairs, one corner at a time, and cracked the corners off many of the bricks.
We reported the damage immediately, but getting a response from Stevens proved to be an exercise in frustration. Communications to the people at HQ, who are supposed to handle damage claims, were ignored. Each time we had to reach out to our sales person in order to get any response whatsoever from HQ. They did arrange for a local furniture restorer to repair our dining table but his work was atrocious. Gouges in the wood were colored over but still clearly visible. Hinges on leaves are still bent. The “repaired” trestle legs are not stable and the table top is no longer securely attached to the base. We complained but Stevens’ response was to cut a check for about $550 to cover all damages. We cashed it because we were tired of fighting over it. Later, our salesman persuaded the VP of Risk Management to call us personally. He admitted that he had not yet reviewed the file but offered many excuses. Even though we told him that we had cashed the settlement check, he promised to review our file personally and get back to us promptly. What a joke! I contacted his office three weeks later but they did not ever respond.
We should have listened to our realtor who recommended Corrigan based on the experience of his clients. He described their moving skills as “flawless”. If I had it to do over I would pay the extra $750 and avoid the stress and damaged furniture.
