We have moved long distance before so we new what the basics
costs would be and about how long it would take to move our stuff from one
location to the next. For our first long distance move (Virginia to Ohio) we
went with Allied,
who was prompt, professional, gave a good estimate, and kept in contact with us
through the whole process. It might have
also helped that during that first move we weren’t in a pandemic, didn’t have
labor shortages, and moved near the middle/end of December. Nobody wants to move in December. For
this second move (Ohio to Virginia) we ended up going with Axis Van lines, and I will never use them
again. First off when they do the estimate, they do
it over the phone and just ask you how much stuff you have, compared to having
someone come out or do video tour of the home to assess how much stuff you
have. It is difficult to convey to someone how much stuff you have, and
estimate the number of boxes you are going to use if you don’t move all the
time. So, the estimate they gave us was
extremely low, because we really do have a lot of stuff when you account for
the number of books, boardgames, photography equipment/props, knickknacks, and other
stuff we have. So, I went them because
the original quoted prices seemed good and they stated they could meet our dates.
I will be upfront I had to change dates on them due to the timing of the house
closing, but they assured me they could meet the dates.
So, a week before the move is when things started to fall
apart. I send an e-mail on Monday asking
if they have a date and time for our pick up. I get a message back stating that
I should be getting an e-mail/call to go over the move and the content list to
make sure everything is good. This
should happen about 24-hours before the move, and with our move scheduled for a
Monday it should happen the Friday before.
So, Friday rolls around and no phone call, I end up calling their
customer service line, and they assure me that the Quality Specialist will call
me either late Friday or early Saturday. I didn’t get an e-mail till after 4PM on
Saturday saying who my quality specialist was and if we had any changes to the
list to let him know. So, I called him right
away on Saturday, (we are now less then 48 hours away from my pickup date) and
I go to voicemail and then start a string of text messages, with one saying they
will call me, I’m the next customer, at 6PM I get a text saying can they call
on Sunday at noon because the quality specialist needs to go to their son’s 5th
birthday party. So, Sunday comes (we are
now less then 24 hours from my pick up), I did not receive a call at noon I had
to text the quality specialist at 1:20PM and ask when am I getting a call. I didn’t get a call till 5PM on Sunday to go
over my list and confirm a pick-up time. We go through my list of stuff and the
price of the move goes up substantially (almost double), and they now must work
with dispatch to find a truck. I get told over the phone they will have the times
to me within the hour. It is now 9:00PM on Sunday and still don’t have a time,
I text them again and ask for a time, get a response back saying we will have
one in 30 minutes. That never happens the best I get is Monday morning. Morning
is a big window of opportunity; we end up getting up around 6:30AM since we don’t
know exactly when the truck is going to arrive. So, it is now Monday, the day
of pick up and I’m waiting for a truck and around 10AM I end up calling the
main company headquarters and get a lovely person named Daisy, who works with
me to find the truck and pick up time. I
find out the actual company managing the move out of Vegas, and I should be
getting a call from the actual crew lead before noon as to when the truck will
arrive. She indicated if I don’t get a response
by noon let her know and she will call the company. I get a call around 11AM saying they will be
there in 1-2 hours; they don’t show up till 4PM. So, we went from a morning pickup time to
late afternoon/early evening. They
finished loading our stuff around 8:00PM.
The other fun catch here is they didn’t have any of my paperwork ready
due to technical issues with their iPads, thus I couldn’t pay the move deposit. The
crew lead indicated the company would call me on Tuesday to submit payment and
set the drop off time. That never
happened, it wasn’t till Wednesday that I was able to get in touch with the company
to get the drop off date and submit payment which I had to do via Zelle because
they couldn’t accept credit cards or do an ACH. Which resulted in me only being
able to pay a small amount of the balance because of Zelle’s limits and forcing
me to get US Postal Service checks to pay the remainder. The company also did not communicate with the
crew lead to tell them how much I paid. My
stuff did arrive on the desired date of 27 May, so that was good.
Overall, the communication with the company to the customer
was atrocious, and I felt like I was being scammed. While I understand that there are labor
shortages right now and it is a busy time for moving the company just did not communicate
and made a generally stressful process more so. The only nice thing I can say is Daisy was
great in the customer service department, listened and did her best to make
sure things happened and the actual moving crew was very professional and
treated our stuff with respect. However,
I will never use Axis Van Lines again nor recommend them, their communication
with the customer is horrible, they don’t do a good job estimating load size, they
change prices, aren’t very forth coming about processes, and they don’t put the
customer first.
The move is now done, we have our stuff and we are basically
85% unpacked. This was a very stressful
move for me, and I’m pretty sure my husband as well since I was stressed out. Now we just
need a nice vacation.
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