Jun 19,2025
Back in February 2025 I booked a truck with American Van Lines for a move on June 2nd. My representative, Junior, was great. We did a walk-through with screen-sharing, where I showed him every room and what needed to be moved. He seemed very competent and well-versed in converting items to cubic metrics. He was also good at assuaging my fears that all of it was going to fit in the truck they would provide. He told me they would pack the truck Monday and load it and drive off on Tuesday. Our plans were made for those dates, and I couldn’t be happier with the process. However, things started to go badly as the date was approaching. Poor Communication I was expecting a call a couple of weeks prior to the move just to go over the contents once more, as I was told by Junior was standard procedure. When no one called, I decided to reach out to AVL. My contact was a man named Roman, whom I spoke with two weeks after speaking with Junior. I did not have his direct line, so I just called the general line. They said that my contact person was no longer Roman, but Megina. She was not available, so I was passed over to someone else. I told him I was concerned that no one called to review the move, and he said someone would be calling, usually 72 hours before the date of the move. I told him we made some changes, he sounded disinterested and was very vague in getting me any information. He assured me that before the move someone would call me and go over the details one more time. He also said it is probable that AVL would be able to pack up the house AND load the truck all in the same day. This was news to me, so I then had to create a backup plan for leaving Monday instead of Tuesday. If the house was empty there would be no place for my family to sleep. This made reserving a room more challenging, but I was trying to be flexible. No one ever called, I heard nothing again from AVL. Poor Execution The Friday before the move (on Monday), Jennifer Vale reached out through email and said we have 72 hours to make any changes, and the notification went on to read that office hours are Monday through Friday, 9-5 pm. I am reading this email at Noon on Friday, wondering who is going to be reviewing this if no one is there on Sat/Sun. I’m not sure why any company would give people such a short time to respond, especially when I called weeks before asking to talk to someone. She responded and said I had until 2pm (EST) on Saturday. Irritating as that was, we went through everything, updated the inventory list, removed many of the items originally quoted, and forwarded it before the allotted window. We never heard anything back. To this day I don’t know whether it was received or not. Three days late On Monday morning, house all packed, family waiting for the movers to arrive, most utilities terminating that day, I decided to call and ask what time I should expect the truck to arrive. I spent about 10 minutes trying to get a real person on the phone, and when I finally do I am transferred to Roman, who I was previously told is not my contact there. When I asked what time they would be here, he quickly responded, “Oh, they’re not coming today.” What? I booked this over 5 months ago, what do you mean they are not coming!? He went on to explain that the truck we were waiting for was actually in Texas, 18 hours away. This is the first time I have used a mover, and it was absolutely unthinkable to me that I can reserve a truck, sign a contract, pay a large sum of money (approx. $17,000) and not have it arrive on the agreed upon date. So we sat and angrily waited. No TV or internet, 7 people, house ready to be moved, trying to find things to keep us busy. But it got worse. They didn’t come Tuesday either. On Wednesday morning we realized there was no way they would be able to box everything and load it all and get on the road Thursday (the day we had to be out), so we started boxing up some of the items ourselves to expedite the process (even though I paid for AVL to do it). On Wednesday the driver called and he said they would be there around 1-2pm, and instead they arrived at 7:30pm. So, all our planning for the last few weeks was a waste. The anticipation for a Monday morning arrival happened, in reality, Wednesday evening. Almost 3 full days late. Hirelings When I signed the contract with AVL I was expecting professional movers. I was expecting an American Van Lines truck, with American Van Lines employees, but what I got were two men who worked for another company, who had a rental truck. Apparently AVL hires other moving companies to fulfill these contracts? Not what I had signed up for. One of the two men was competent, the other seemed like he had no idea what he was doing. I watched him box up the contents of our closet and the amount of tape he used was absurd, and even the other guy said something about him using up all the tape. These are my professional movers? Another guy showed up (who neither of them knew, another hireling) and he proceeded to start boxing up items in another room. I was starting to get frustrated that the contents of my home are all in the hands of these strangers, who don’t even work for the company I hired, and my vision of hiring a professional moving company quickly dwindled before my eyes. The next morning the two men show up again, start working, and a short time later two other men arrived (neither spoke English). They started loading the truck and I was confident after watching them for a short time that these were not movers. These were day laborers who were probably hired outside of Home Depot or U-Haul and were most likely doing whatever work they could find for that day. One of the men was at least 65 years old, maybe older. These were the men who were going to ensure that the truck is packed properly and that everything fits? One of the first two men came to me and said they ran out of tape (no surprise) and asked if I could go pick some up. At this point I just want to get the job done as we are 3-days behind already, so I was fine with it. Frustrated, but willing to do anything at this point. When I returned, the two men were smoking marijuana and reeked of it for the next hour. I knew that I just had to ignore it and get the task at hand done as quickly as possible, because we were running out of time. Damage My wife and I are doing what we can to help, and at one point the two Mexican men are moving a large armoire down the stairs (freshly painted walls) and the older gentleman is down the stairs trying to bear the weight, but couldn’t. It slips and the corner goes right into the wall, leaving a massive hole. In addition to this there were dirty handprints all up and down the walls, dings and marks on the corners, and another gouge in the wall and floor downstairs (pictures available upon request). We had just had the house painted, and our open house was 48 hours away. All of a sudden I was on the phone trying to find someone who could do a rush job of patching the wall and painting. Not enough space That afternoon, the main guy approached me and said we need to talk. He showed me the truck and what little space was left, and we both stared at all the contents of the garage that were still remaining (maybe 15% of the agreed upon items). He said he was already overweight with the truck and loaded a few smaller items but could take no more. I asked what I can do about this, and he shrugged and said I need to hire another truck. As I write this I am 1,000 miles away from our garage which contains approximately 800 cubic feet of our belongings, and yet I was promised multiple times that everything would fit. Our revision of the inventory list was less than originally agreed upon with Junior, which means it was not properly assessed. Not even close. (I am in the process of finding another mover to do this). Haphazard packing When we started unpacking everything a few days later we found major problems with how many boxes were packed. Not only did a few very large boxes contain very few items (large box with a lampshade, sock, and football), but a couple of the garment boxes did not even have the clothes hung on the aluminum rod. This resulted in bunches of clothes still on hangers just packed into a box leaving everything horribly wrinkled. For some reason all of my lighter items (flannel shirts, short sleeve, etc) were hung up properly, but all of my dress shirts and suits, dozens of items, are so wrinkled they all require dry cleaning. At this point I am beside myself at how poor a job that AVL has done, what a dismal service they provide, and how I spent $17,000 to do all of this. AND I will still have to spend about $5,000 more to get the remainder of my items. I could have saved $10,000 if I rented my own truck and hired day laborers. I have never been so disappointed in any company in my life, and I am very tempted to reach out to the Better Business Bureau to describe my experience and urge them to warn others about how AVL operates. It is hard to put into words how upsetting this entire experience has been.
Move from :
Northridge,CA
To :
Star,ID
Move Size :
4 Bedroom Home
Service Cost :
17000 USD
Mar 18,2025
Well it all started wrong with American Van Lines leased my job out to another company. Paid 20K for a move from Morristown, Tennessee to Las Vegas. The boss man fm the leased company (Russian Decent) was a jerk, broke things and argued about accepting my AMEX Card which American Van Lines told me I could use. When I arrived in Las Vegas for the dropoff the Russian Contractor delayed my delivery and laughed at me. American Van Lines promised to pay for my hotel but they never sent email and lied also.I had bought extra supplies from Home Depot that the Russian Contractor refused to use (TV Boxes - 5, Mattress Cover - 2) and then would not allow me to load them on the truck to return them since my car was already shipped; he then charged me more money for those items being packed. Numerous things broke, the 85' TV that he packed instead of using the box I bought now has a scratch on the screen, broken picture frames, and the TV stand.
Move from :
Morristown,TN
To :
Las Vegas,NV
Move Size :
3 Bedroom Home
Service Cost :
20000 USD
Sep 24,2024
The process of setting up the move on the phone was straightforward. They communicated every step we took to complete this move-out, smoothly. They answered all my questions clearly, the team lead, promptly made the phone calls to ensure that our things are correctly accounted for. Nancy and Terri, two of our moving coordinators, were easy to reach.
Move from :
Bowling Green,KY
To :
Kingsland,AR
Move Size :
4 Bedroom Home
Service Cost :
7410 USD