National Van LinesReviews of nationalvanlines.com

My wife reached out to National Van Lines as we prepared for a move from South Carolina to Michigan. We had a very bad experience with another moving company for the move to SC, which my wife explained to the scheduling consultant. My wife was assured things would be very different with National Van Lines and that it would be a much better experience than our previous multi-state move. Things went sideways as we got close to the moving date. First, the subcontracted driver called on Monday to inform us he would be there on Tuesday, even though National Van Lines had scheduled his arrival for Wednesday. (We had made arrangements to have our pets transported on Tuesday so they would be out of the way when the movers arrived.) The additional loading help was a no-show, so another crew had to be found in the spur of the moment. They rushed and rushed to help my wife finish packing, since I was already in Michigan to close on our new home. At the end of the day, a good chunk of our possessions were not loaded into the truck and the driver claimed a personal situation would delay the delivery of our possessions for two weeks. My wife was extremely stressed and upset over the experience. My wife delayed her departure to Michigan until Wednesday. She spent most of the day sorting through what had been left at the house, taking a bunch of things to the dump and some to be donated. She loaded her vehicle to the max and began the two-day drive to Michigan Wednesday night, leaving more stuff in the house. She arrived in Michigan late Thursday night, still stressed and upset. She had been in touch with our consultant at National Van Lines, who was totally in the dark about what the driver had communicated to us. I made travel arrangements to fly out of Michigan early Friday morning, landing in South Carolina late in the morning. I rented a van and drove to our house. I finished loading the rest of our possessions into the rental and cleaned up the mess left behind by the movers. Then I made the two-day drive to Michigan, arriving late Saturday night. We unloaded the moving van Sunday morning before I returned the van and hit the road to travel to a client site. Between the flight, van rental, hotel, and travel expenses, that was more than $1,000 of additional expenses (on top of a bill of more than $13,000) out of pocket. We were out running an errand about an hour from the house on a Sunday when my wife got a call from National Van Lines asking where we were, because the delivery driver (a different person than the one who picked up our stuff) was at the house ready to unload. We rushed back to the house and worked with a great driver and crew to get things unloaded. I reached out to National Van Lines afterward about filing a claim for the additional expenses of my trip to South Carolina to finish the job that we paid them to do. They denied our claim because we had already received a meager stipend for the delay in delivering our stuff (a couple of hundred dollars). The fact that the extra expense was a direct result of their contractor not completing the job was completely ignored. When I contacted them to ask for a reconsideration, they stopped replying to us. The consulting team is great. They hyped up the quality and standards of National Van Lines, and how their contractors follow the same high level of professionalism. Unfortunately, that isn't the case. Thankfully, we do not plan to move again. But if we had to, we would not call on National Van Lines again.

Last June, my sister had this company in Erie move her house belongings to storage there in Erie till she found a place to live. Cost was terrible. She paid alot monthly for storage. She found a place in Erie, a week into this month. They delivered her furniture, and discovered her large tv was broken on the corner. When Direct tv did her hook up, the TV didn't work properly. It worked great at her last home. My sister called them about the broke TV. After reviewing the problem....they gave her $30 towards a new TV!!!! Really? She should have also gotten tree months of storage money back, but she didn't. This company sucks.

We’ve had good movers and poor movers, and the group we had from National Van Lines was absolutely in the poor camp. They aren’t the worst movers ever (North American Van Lines, you still own that title in my book), but they are in the running for second place. The promises and lies: “You’ll be the only load on our truck.” “You’re big, so you’ll be the first and only load.” “Only load.” Multiple times said by the driver. A lie each and every time. We were not the only load, the driver went and picked up another. And delivered it before ours (for the second lie). “Guarantee delivery on Monday.” “Promise, we are headed to Iowa first.” “You’ll be the first stop, guarantee.” “We’ll be unloading you Monday, I promise”. Nope. Went to Michigan first, and then finally delivered here on Wednesday. Can’t be on time. More broken promises… “Be there at 8 am to unload.” The truck was only 10 minutes late, but the unloading crew was more than an hour late. Once they arrive, they still spend another half hour in their van, making phone calls, etc., before they open the door of the truck and unload the first item. 8 am unload time, first piece off the truck, 9:30 am. “If we take it apart, we put it back together.” Nope. Another lie. They took our bicycles apart (after we asked them not to), and then unloaded them in pieces, and that was that. No assembly. Guaranteed price? Not so much. The driver of this truck decided he could not get down our driveway, and so… extra charge (and delay), to rent a U-Haul truck to take things from our house and drive it down an asphalt driveway to the street, about 250’, and load into the big truck. Oddly enough, just 18 months before, another driver from another company was perfectly able to get his exact same size tractor/trailer down our driveway to unload. The difference, apparently, is that if they cannot get to your house to LOAD, you pay for the extra. If they can’t get to your house to unload, THEY pay the extra. So, there’s no incentive for them to try to get close to load, and plenty of incentive to do whatever it takes to get close enough to unload. The packers were Honestly, just horrible. It was a constant fight to try to get them to listen to us, to do anything right. I know that we aren’t “professional” packers, but I myself have moved almost 20 times in my life, and I learned a thing or ten about the process to know what works, what doesn’t. Problems with the packers: Room marked “DO NOT PACK. ALL ITEMS STAY.” We put our suitcases and clothes for the trip in this room, and items for the first few days at the new house. Packers went into the room, took things OUT OF OUR SUITCASES, and packed them. We marked the towels in the bathroom with “DO NOT PACK”, and they packed them… leaving us no towels for showers after loading day. they failed to pack anything else in the bathroom, leaving that for us to find on our final walk through. Specifically asked the driver to speak with the loading crew, to NOT turn items upside down. Pointed out that somethings we had packed should NOT be turned upside down. Pointed out that I had a lot of storage cubes with drawers, the drawers full of tiny parts, beads, pieces, craft items, etc., and that if they moved them right side up, all would be fine. Multiple times, I see the loaders grab a cube, lay it on the back, wrap a blanket around it, turn it upside down, roll it, etc.. Six months later in Iowa, I am still sorting things out, and putting screws, bolts, nuts, parts and pieces back into the proper bins again. We have a hand made dollhouse, we specifically asked them to be careful with it, to keep it upright, to NOT turn it upside down, and when I see it in the truck… it’s upside down. Wooden sewing box, full of needles and pins and thread and ribbons, with obvious top (handles and drawers) and bottom (legs/feet) and they lay it on the side, blanket wrap it by rolling it upside down multiple times. It’s a mess. We had three dogs, and we arranged for my wife or myself to be with the dogs in a closed off porch area all day, so the loaders could work without the dogs bothering them. We asked that the dog beds/blankets be last to be packed, so the dogs would have someplace to relax. My wife, who just had knee surgery, had a rolling office chair there in the porch, so she could sit with them, keep them calm, and keep them from barking at all the activity. Loader told me “we need that chair, it gets loaded next”, so I told my wife it was time to give up the chair, and she would have to sit on the floor with the dogs for the rest of the load. I pulled the chair out of the room for the loaders, and gave it to the guy. He put it in the middle of the living room, and it stood there for another 3 hours, before they wrapped it and packed it. My wife could have been using that chair, instead of sitting on a floor, for THREE HOURS, but instead, they took her chair from her for no reason.

I moved from Missouri to North Carolina. The people who loaded my stuff in Missouri did a great job which is the only reason I'm giving 2 stars. Ever since then, it's been a nightmare. I had a driver call me and tell me what day he was going to be dropping of my stuff, well within my contracted window. So I drove down there ready so I would be ready to recieve them. No phone call the day before or of,so I called them only to be told they allowed the wrong driver to pick up my stuff, it was currently in Michigan and would be delivered 8 day outside my contract window. When I called National Van Lines to see what they could do to make it right, they basically told me there is nothing they can do. Did not even attempt to make things right. Would definitely think twice before using this company despite its "A" BBB rating

Driver was late and didn't know what he was doing. Movers damaged many pieces of furniture and every single one of our boxes had some kind of damage. 75 inch TV was damaged by the movers. Don't use.