Smart Choice Vanlines

Horrible, if I could rate them less than an ( F ) I would. They gave me a quote to move my furniture from New Jersey to Florida. I went over the inventory of the contents of my home several times with them to make sure I had an accurate quote for the move. They assured me it was accurate and everything would be fine. The day the real moving company appeared at my home, All Star Movers located in Secaucus NJ, they charged me over 3 times the amount I was quoted from Smart Choice. At this point I really had no other choice than to allow All Star Movers to take my furniture. Which by the way took two trips because their truck was not big enough. My furniture arrived in Florida damaged and items missing. When I reported All Star Movers to their insurance company to try to get some kind of reimbursement for my loss, I had to deal with paper work, taking pictures of the damage and was required to present receipts, which I no longer had or I could pay out of my pocket to get quotes for the repairs. Because I moved to a new state and really did not know who to contact, I decided not to pay anymore money out of my pocket. It was an extremely costly and emotional experience for me. All I can say is BEWARE OF SMART CHOICE VAN LINES, FLORIDA AND ALL STAR MOVERS, NEW JERSEY.

I had hired Smart Choice Van Lines for my move from NY to SC and they contracted a local moving company, I guess which they represent called MOVING AMERICA based out of Miami FL. When the movers showed up on the morning to pickup my things, one of the movers barely spoke English and the other one kept yelling at me. They arrived in a plain white truck and I asked them if they were from Smart Choice Van Lines. They said they were from Moving America but did pull up on their phone my moving estimate with all of my details. I didn't know anything about this company and handing over $1000 to someone when I'm not sure if my things will actually arrive at the destination made me very nervous. They were very careless with my boxes and all of my furniture. During the move, the driver informed me my things would actually arrive the next day in SC, when I had confirmed with Smart Choice Van Lines that they were to arrive in 3-4 days from the pickup. I wasn't going to be in SC until 3 days after the pickup date so during the move in the middle of the mover yelling at me, I had to call Smart Choice Van Lines to find out why my move was going to be delivered the next day since it was a piggyback move and I was told when I reserved that it would take a minimum of three days to deliver. To their credit it did seem like they had stacked things in the truck in a somewhat organized way, but it was a very stressful day with the additional communication problems on top of the already stressful move. I had arranged for my parents to be at the moving destination the following day so that I can get my stuff back and call it a day with this company. The next morning I received a phone call from the MOVING AMERICA office which should have been telling me my driver was 5 minutes from the destination and instead I was informed that after my stuff was put on the truck that the driver got in a huge argument with SMART CHOICE VAN LINES who told him they needed to take my things off of the truck and put it in storage. To their credit, I didn't pay for the storage. However, no one contacted me about taking my things off of the truck especially since everything was settled once the move pickup was complete and it was confirmed and arranged that my stuff would be in SC the following day. So, three days went by. In that time, SMART CHOICE VAN LINES would not return my calls about the rift that they caused now and the lack of accountability. The person at MOVING AMERICA did return my call me the new morning that the truck was supposed to arrive that the truck broke down and they had to send a new truck to complete the delivery. Each morning, I had to call the MOVING AMERICA people to find out now where the new moving truck is so I know when my things are supposed to arrive. I kept getting the runaround as they didn't have an estimated date of arrival and my frustration went through the roof as my things should have only been moved on and off a truck twice -- once for pickup and once for delivery. Because of this lack of accountabilty and dumbfounded miscommunication, my things had been moved FIVE TIMES!! Once for the pickup, once for storage, once for out of storage and back in truck, once for out of truck and into new truck and once for delivery. As a result, there was an increased amount of damage to my things because of all of the manhandling. My items finally arrived 10 days after the original pickup in New York. When they arrived and the movers opened the back of the truck, boxes were everywhere. It looked like something blew up in there. Don't get me wrong. I fully understand and expect there to be some wear and tear on the boxes as that happens with moves. The majority of mine were crushed and as I checked boxes off my manifest, there were missing items which the driver had to hunt and search through misc. trash to actually locate. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten everything. As it turns out, I didn't get everything. I have two boxes that somehow went missing, a large picture where the glass on the frame had shattered and dented the picture, books that had some of the spines crushed in because the boxes were dismantled and several additional framed paintings in which the frames had broken. This was not a big move, but somehow between the unresponsive SMART CHOICE VANLINES and the incompetent MOVING AMERICA my move was made into a massive cluster mess. Never ever ever ever again will I use either of these companies.

Nothing was broken except our wallet. We believed them and took them at their word for the guaranteed price of $1995 for a one bedroom apt. which I have in writing. We had to do all the packing ourselves. The movers didn't speak english. The salesperson, the service people/manager and the owner all lied to us and charged us more money. They were dishonest and they cheated us. They should not be allowed to be in business. They stole from us. I would NEVER use this company and I pity the people who do. We didn't get our stuff until we paid in full not the original amount, but more than $1000. more than the original guaranteed price. The owner hung up on me and wouldn't even talk to me about the situation. So in order to get our stuff we paid the $3200.00. I would like to file charges, but I can't afford lawyer fees it would take to get our money back. This company is robbing people and holding their things hostage. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY FULL OF CROOKS!