Protected Van Lines

This so-called moving broker, took over $1800.00 from me and only made one phone call to one mover in New Jersey who showed up at my house in New York with a truck too full to move all of my things. They were supposed to set me up with a mover who would move my things and my car together and they did not.

When I tried to call them back they did not answer the phone nor did they answer my emails.

I had to schedule my car to move with another mover. It is really a crime what they did as I am retired and have very little money left.

This company had quoted me $2,095 when it was complete I was charged a total of $5,146.Upon arriving in Los Angeles he said I had more item and had to charge me more. But all of my things didn’t fit in the truck and I had to get rid of lots of furniture.

A week later I got a call at 4pm saying they would be at my house at 8am to deliver. I still had a balance left which only gave me an hour to get a money order. The night before I was arguing with the company because they were still asking for more money, because I had 36 stairs. The driver came with 2 men from Craigs list to help but left after 1hr and they said they can’t do it and it’s too hot.My son and I continued to carry our stuff up 36 stairs with no help except the driver.

3 hours later, 1 man from Craig’s list showed up in jeans & my son gave him shorts to wear but complained about moving boxes. My son and I continue to carry boxes and unwrap the furniture.After it was done, both men jumped in my pool to bath and cool off.The boxes were smashed and numerous items are broken.I wrote a review on yelp and they called to ask me to take it down and they would pay me $100.

Hundreds of dollars of broken items is the least of my problems! Held my belongings hostage through a subcontractor who raised the price to 10k!

From an original quote of 2! Can't teach them on the phone. Lied about how much space I used.

Unhelpful! Use ABF!

Protected Van Lines is a scam and rip-off company. You don't want anything to do with this company.

We have hired an attorney.

This company will scam you out of your money and your furniture. Stay away from them.

Quoted a semi truck to pick up and load with 4 men at a cost of $4859.10 for a 2 bedroom 2 bath apartment. Pick-up was to be 3/15/16.

2 non-professional movers without any moving equipment and extreme lack of experience showed up on 3/17/16 driving a Penske 24' rental truck at 4:30pm. Did not have truck completely loaded until 11:05pm. Contents of apartment were not loaded correctly and many items left behind.

Delivery was 3 days late. They had stated the night before they would arrive the following day at our new apartment. When they finally did arrive 3 days late they stated the reason was because they were "held over" at the weight station by "authorities" for being overweight. The paperwork shows they had stopped at a truck stop called Travel Centers of America to weigh the truck. There are no "authorities" located there.

Protected Van Lines "brokered" our move to another company. That company Interstate Express Moving demanded over $5000 more than the original estimate by Protected Van Lines once they arrived before they would unload our belongings. They would only except cash or cashiers check. If we did not pay they stated the belongings would be put in storage and we would be charged additional storage fees until we paid in full. They held our belongings hostage.

We paid the additional money after numerous phone calls to both Protected Van Lines and Interstate Express Moving. I will not detail the phone calls, bottom line - it was pay more now, or pay even more later.

The two inexperienced movers who delivered our items proceeded to unload the Penske truck they rented, it took from 9am until 8pm to unload due to lack of experience, man power, numerous smoke breaks, etc.

They did not put together our bed or reattach the dresser mirror to the dresser because they had broken the attachment legs off the mirror. They did not unload in a neat and orderly fashion, boxes were just tossed in rooms without any order. All the while one of the movers had his phone playing hard core profanity spewing rap during the entire unloading process.

At the end of the unloading we showed one of the movers all the items we could see that were damaged, mostly furniture. He refused to document any stating they were already damaged. He had no proof of this and we did not take pictures ahead of time of every piece of furniture we own. The movers damaged the furniture and refused to acknowledge this.

At this point we had already paid and were getting nowhere regarding the damage. He even had the nerve to ask us if we were going to give them a good review. I had to tell him to leave or I would call the police. Unreal!

After the movers left, we had to drive back to our previous state to pick up the rest of our belongings at our additional expense.

Truly the ABSOLUTE WORST MOVING EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE!!!

Save yourself the cost, aggravation and heartache. DO NOT USE PROTECTED VAN LINES they will only broker out your move to be handled by crooks and not care one bit about the outcome. HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE and PAINFUL LESSON learned.

Steer clear of this moving company! They came a day late saying a truck broke down, the guys that picked up my furniture told me I had to pay them $2,200 more that my estimate even though I already paid the agreed upon 50% deposit!

When I told them no, they threatened me and said they would keep my furniture!

The bottom line is, Protected Van Lines had not paid the moving company anything and expected me to pay them separately another $2,200....exceeding my entire moving amount! I am still trying to resolve this and it has been 2 weeks, meanwhile my furniture is sitting in NJ!

Protected Van Lines representative Bruce responded to an inquiry for a shipping company to haul my stuff from NJ to TX. He said he represents top lines like United, Mayflower, Aero Van Lines and other big names.

Since they give them so much business, they get discounted rates. Now 10 days before move date when I contacted them who is picking my stuff they gave me the name of Prestidge. When I call the number recording is of another line, when I checked DOT site, it says company has 1 truck and 2 drivers. I called the company to request for full refund, now they are not even responding back or returning my money.

I called the credit card company to dispute the charge. Let's see what happens now.