METRO VAN LINES

I booked with Metro Van Lines three weeks in advance. My move was to be a small-load, long-distance move, so I expected to need to be flexible on pickup and delivery dates. It seemed too good to be true, then, when MVL?s booking agent said they could pick up on the perfect date for me and make the move for only $700. Turns out, it was too good to be true. I was in touch with the company during the next three weeks, and I confirmed my move one week before. On the day of the move, they failed to show up. It was a Sunday morning, and I struggled to get anyone on the phone when I called the one phone number the company issues. A couple of times, someone did pick up and said they?d look into it, but then I think they came to recognize my phone number. They avoided my calls for the rest of that Sunday. The next morning, Monday, I got ahold of the booking agent I?d been dealing with. Around midday, on my second or third call to her, she admitted that they didn?t plan to execute my move. She said the only way they could pick up my furniture that afternoon ? almost 36 hours after scheduled ? would be if I paid them another $200. I asked to speak to the supervisor there. She went away and when she returned, she said the supervisor didn?t want to speak to me. She said they were cancelling my move. At least ? at the very least, the very smallest consolation ? they returned my deposit to me. But because Metro Van Lines didn?t hold up their side of our agreement, I had to eat part of the cost of a rental car I?d booked. And because June is peak season for movers, I couldn?t find another company to hire on short notice. I ended up renting a truck, loading it with a friend, and making the drive myself. If you actually expect your movers to show up, if you don?t want them raising their estimate after failing to show up, if you want to be able to get someone, including a supervisor, on the phone ? if you want your move to go smoothly ? look elsewhere. Metro Van Lines is a disaster. I strongly recommend against using them.

Worst Moving Experience ever... They took my deposit on the phone without telling it was non refundable. The movers showed and asked me to spend extra for packing. I had to move half of my stuff myself. Very bad customer service. I would prefer to do u-haul or any DIY rental and hire moving help instead for all my future needs.

Not too good. They didn't really pack things, did not label things, a lot of it is chipped and damage 1200 more than their estimate. They would of only sent one truck and we had to ask for 2. They left our lawn furniture out at 11 at night. Just pretty bad. They didn't pack some areas of the house. They were just exhausted and their truck was full. The guys were good working but they were untrained. They guys worked hard for 12 hours.

The experience overall was terrible. The company individually wrapped every little piece we were moving and charged us for every little thing. We were charged for much more than what I had initially thought we would be. At the time I was pregnant and thought about pursuing legal counsel for the terrible experience, but ended up just paying the cost due to the stress it put us under. Also, when I tried to get a hold of the service provider to try to gain a resolution, I could never get anyone on the phone. I would not suggest anyone else in the Rockville, Maryland area to use this company.

I have used this company twice - both times were excellent! The movers were incredible, very professional, and did not cause any damage even with moving large furniture on 4 flights of stairs. A bit pricey.

Don't use them

My son signed a contract for the move at $276. The add-ons came to $506. I spoke with a supervisor 01/19/2010 and had everything explained to me from their point of view. There were 4 documents which had to be read and processed the day of the move. Two were presented at the beginning of the move by a nice gentleman who was very difficult to understand but I felt we were clear. At completion of the job there were two more which totalled the hours at 5. We had them for 3. Another document listed materials used. We watched them load up and I was with them each step of the move. The additional materials came to $315. The list of materials is two full columns and we could not have known ahead of time what they meant or how they would be used. This may be a typical moving experience but I wish to save someone from having it happen again.

The movers proceeded to wrap everything, including my cheapo Ikea bookcases -- in pads and tape them up -- charging me $20 for each pad plus the price of the tape. When I finally realized what they were doing (ripping me off), I told them to just put the furniture in the truck without padding it. The guy in charge said it was company policy that all furniture HAD to be padded (to the tune of $20+ per piece of furniture) -- it was company policy. There was a small clause in the contract that stated that furniture had to be padded before being put in the truck, but nowhere did it say that would cost me extra! I told them to stop packing the furniture and just take boxes. They retaped all the boxes I had already taped (of course charging me for the tape), and packed my glassware so badly that some of it was broken when I unwrapped it -- one brandy snifter was shattered. The original estimate was $483, after I had filled out an online list of furnishings and items to be moved. They charged me almost $1,00 extra and of course wouldn't take the stuff off the truck until I paid up. The cost of the gas to drive 8 miles was more than $90! It was a nightmare. It took them 6 hours to pack and move (and unload) part of the living room and dining room and a bunch of boxes. They took so long to wrap each piece of furniture that they didn't get any more than that done. DO NOT EVER USE THESE GUYS. I will see them in small-claims court with any luck at all.

This moving company stole about $2,000 from us. I can?t describe it any other way. They quoted us $900 for a 10-mile move within Northern Virginia, and they ended up charging us close to $3,000. We moved across the country the year before with another moving company, and that company charged us barely more than that for a move over thousands of miles. They over-charged for everything: rolls of packing tape, the use of the packing blankets, bubble wrap, boxes. They wrapped a plastic toy mirror that we used in our baby?s crib with bubble wrap and packing tape, and they charged us $19. Wrapping up one of our TVs cost us $60. We paid for each blanket that was used to pack our stuff, even though they kept the blankets. They profligately used packing tape and these other materials, and why not when it was costing us something like $5 for each roll of tape and $10/foot of bubble wrap. Even worse, they held our stuff hostage in the truck until we paid. After an hour of phone calls trying to resolve it with a manager, we decided to pay but to note on the contract and credit card receipt that we were paying under protest (as we were now planning our lawsuit). They would not accept this and demanded payment with NO changes on their documents before they would release our goods. We had to call the police to get the movers to allow us to pay the extortion, but with a note on the paperwork that this payment was made ?under protest.? After the police officer forced the movers to allow this statement, my wife went with the mover into the kitchen to find a horizontal surface to use to sign. With no shame, with the officer in the living room a few feet away, the mover in charge of collecting the payment tried to trick my wife into signing a separate document that expressly signed away all our rights to dispute the charges at a later date. She brought the new document it to the police officer, who *again* forced the mover to call his supervisor, who again only reluctantly permitted us to get our stuff without signing this release of all our legal rights. Of course, we had to pay the moving company for the extra 2.5 hours it took to resolve the whole dispute. Then, at the end, the movers kept a few boxes in the truck and made us pay another $150 before they?d release them to us. We were too tired to call the cops again, and what?s the difference between having $2,150 versus $2,000 stolen from us at this point?

We were expecting them to arrive at 8 AM because that is what we requested, but they showed up around 8:30 AM because they decided they would be there between 8 & 9 AM. I provided 6 rolls of tape for them. Getting everything out of the house was fine. They did it efficiently and quickly. They arrived at my new house and then told us the bill would be $815. Our estimate was about $350. I knew there would be extra for materials, but we ended up paying an extra $350 for materials and then a $115 fuel charge! I was charged for 6 rolls of tape and for 5 hours of service when it barely took them 4 hours including the driving time (I have put in a phone call about this but no one has returned my call). They moved everything in without a problem. It was a little frustrating that only 1 of them spoke English, so even though I labeled every box with the room it belonged in, it didn't matter because they couldn't read it so I ended up with almost all of my boxes in the living room. At least the furniture made it to the right rooms. So they did ok, but I wasn't wowed. It seems that no one wants to wow you with customer service anymore. called them back today, and they said that they would send me a check in the mail today for the extra hour that I should not have had to pay for. I was pleased that they resolved the problem.

I did a google search for movers in Virginia, Metro Van Lines was one of the top results and their website looked very professional so I gave them a call to get an estimate. I told them exactly where I lived and where I was moving to, and I was never informed that the company was located in Maryland, approx. 2 hours away. I was quoted $495 for the entire move - $297 for the men/truck and $198 in travel time ($99 per hour). Sounded good to me. It was noted in fine print on the quote that packing materials were not included in price, but I did not look into it further because I had already packed and boxed all of my belongings. They showed up 30 minutes late on the day of the move, informed me that I needed to pay $396 in travel time (since they are FOUR hours away) and estimated that packaging materials would come to around $600 since they cannot put anything into the truck without proper wrapping/padding. Note that they charge $25 to "rent" a padded sheet used to transport furniture and also charge extra for moving TVs and other normal items which most people own. They also shrink wrapped everything an absurd amount. In addition, they added a 15% gas fee to the total bill. When all was said and done, my $495 quote turned into a $1600 affair, just to move SEVEN miles away from my original apartment! When I called later to complain, they listened to my experience and continued stating that the quote was fair. After pushing them for quite some time, they agreed to refund me $120 which is not only not enough, it hasn't hit my bank account yet. This was a terrible experience that I hope nobody else needs to go through.

STAY AWAY FROM THESE GUYS! They are a rip off. They quoted us $475 for the move and the final bill was over $1,300.00. The overage was mainly due to "materials" that they insisted they were required to use for insurance purposes. We've moved many times, using larger companies than this, and I've never seen someone use so much wrap, boxes, tape and other materials. The bill would have been over $2,000 if we didn't insist on speaking with their boss when they informed us that a wall unit would require $900 in packing materials to move. I WOULD NEVER USE THESE GUYS. THEY ARE A TOTAL SCAM! Look for similar reviews on other moving websites about them.