Like many folks, I tried my best to perform my due diligence prior to selecting a mover. After reading moving companyhorror stories everywhere, this company seemed to have the least terrible reviews. We were not looking for the cheapest, we were looking for a company we could trust to provide good reliable service at a fair price. Our experience with this company has been the worst customer service experience of our life. It all started very positive on the sales side as I spoke with John K who gave a “binding phone quote”, which equated to approx $4500. Yes he explained that final pricing could be higher or lower after everything was loaded. He explained that delivery would take 14-21 days, which they were required to disclose per law. I questioned if they contracted their services, and he confirmed they use their own people, trucks and movers are all Long Distance employees. I explained our apartment lease began May 7th, so we can take delivery anytime after that. With plans for me to start my new job May 15th, and anticipating we receive our items between May 14-21. We arranged a pickup date of May 1.
Pickup day was mostly smooth, they did arrive a couple of hours late, not a big deal. The movers did a good job, wrapped everything up and loaded the truck professionally. Then came the first surprise, the final price came to $8500. I think everyone is mentally prepared for a slight shift in price, but nearly double? I don’t think our furniture is even worth that much, at that price, we would have simply sold off most of our furniture, and only shipped keepsakes and such. I spoke to the driver, and he said that items should arrive quickly, I confirmed with him that we could not take delivery any earlier than May 7th, since we cannot get into our apartment before that. At this point, I was actually worried that they would deliver too early. Joke’s on me.
The sticker shock was the first sign of your classic “bait and switch”. It was disconcerting, but we were fine paying, as long as our items were handled and delivered timely. Unfortunately, things only continued to get worse from there. To keep it brief, lets just say, my trusty service rep became inaccessible (I was told he came down with health issues). I began dealing with one of the managers, Ryan S. Between him and Tommy answering my calls, every time I called to check on update, they assured me in various forms that our belongings were scheduled to be on the next truck, and would arrive within the next week. This song and dance went from the week of May 7th all the way until we finally received delivery June 20th. Yup, every week I would call to confirm our items were shipped only to be told, sorry, no, but they are scheduled to be on the next truck leaving in a few days…
By about the 3rd week of waiting for our items, I was convinced that the folks in the office had zero control or knowledge of what actually happens with dispatch. The disconnect was just sad. BTW, very important detail for those reading, when they say delivery window is 14-21 days, it is actually 14-21 BUSINESS DAYS, and also, the window does not necessarily start the day your items are picked up. There is a separate and unique “delivery date” they use, that is the start of your delivery window. Ours was apparently May 8th, which was the date that we said was the earliest we could ACCEPT delivery. These details were not made clear to us at point of sale, so please don’t fall victim like we did. BTW, based on these terms, our delivery was due June 6 (21 business days from May 8).
When we finally received delivery, after waiting 7 weeks, it was the most disconcerting and ridiculous experience. The driver was several hours late, initially scheduled for 11-12, and pushed back to 4, and then showed up 6pm. He said he could not take the truck into our apartment complex, would have to do a shuttle and charge $400, okay fine, I was aware of this fee, even though it was advertised as $300 by the company. However, because he arrived so late, uhaul was closed and we were unable to get a truck. Instead of waiting until the morning, he decided to park at the front of our complex and I ended up shuttling our items in our minivan from the truck to our unit and also help manage and move everything. He asked me to identify items on the truck that did not belong to me as we moved. Apparently, that was his inventory system. He ultimately had to hire 6 movers to help, and we ended up moving from 7pm-1am, with me driving our minivan back and forth about 20 times. Ultimately, I had the privilege of paying $500 extra for this experience.
The only credit I can give here is that Ryan maintained contact with us throughout this time up until delivery. He did convey some sympathy to our situation and promised to look into making things right, as they did ultimately miss their delivery window and also provided us terrible communications on their delivery updates. He told me that they do compensate $30/day for late delivery. However, despite numerous attempts to settle and obtain any sort of compensation for their terrible service and late delivery, Ryan and Long Distance has not responded to any of my attempts to followup with them ever since we received our delivery. We’ve been ignored and dumped like a bad habit. No effort to make this right and preserve their integrity.
I would never use this company again, and would not recommend them to my worst enemies. Listen, I saw some of the negative reviews, but most were positive. Just like any company, there could be some anomalies with their service model as long as most of them are positive, you’re probably going to get a positive experience. I can’t speak for the other reviews, other than I’m convinced at least some of the positive ones are fabricated. I can assure you mine is genuine, and unfortunate for us, we were one of the customers that had a negative experience. Do business with them at your own risk, but based on our experience, I would not work with these guys. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya. Happy to discuss my experience in detail with anyone that is interested. We just want to put this nightmare behind us, but we have to warn others first.
Last thing to point out, we gave this company every opportunity to address our concerns prior to writing this review. I asked for a call from senior management over a month ago. Nothing, radio silence.
1/5
July 30, 2018 12:00 am