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Sterling Van Lines

In-State Moving Service, Out-of-State Moving Service, Professional Moving Service Piano,

About us

Southern California Local (short distance) moving. California Long distance moving covering all of California. Any state long distance small moves (1 - 2 rooms).

Business highlights

34 years of experience

Services we offer

In California - Local moving & storage facilities. Long distance small moves (1-2 rooms) from state to state anywhere

Amenities

Free Estimates

Yes

Accepted Payment Methods

  • CreditCard
Reviews
4.6148 Reviews
Number of StarsImage of DistributionNumber of Ratings
5
81%
4
7%
3
4%
2
3%
1
4%
Showing 1-25 of 148 reviews
Tim L.
Feb 2022
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
They were very neat, respectful. They were extremely careful and efficient. They were on time. It was a good experience.

Lilly V.
Aug 2021
1.0
$4,100
If I can give this company a zero stars I would. I would not recommend them to anyone. They are inconsiderate and unprofessional. I had them come to my apartment to move my housing items to North Carolina. The estimated time frame was within a month and I was totally fine with that (super excited and relieved); And that was on June 17, 2021. It is now August 12, 2021 and still they have not called me in regards to updates on my housing items departure times, never called me in regards to where my items are and never bothered to call me back after leaving multiple voicemails. This is nerve-racking because I hate playing these games of cat and mouse. Again, don’t have my stuff yet, still waiting on them to call me back, redialing to try and get in contact with them, and Tony needs to know how to answer the phone correctly.

Sally H.
Mar 2021
1.0
$2,529
We hired Sterling to move my elderly parents from San Diego to Los Angeles. One of my mother's prized pieces of folk art was loosely wrapped and thrown in with a box of lamps and was damaged beyond repair. When she saw it she was very upset and when I asked Sergio (the head packer) about it, he tried to blame my mother. While they were moving furniture in, they also damaged freshly painted casing banging something into it. We decided not to pursue anything until an entire box of my father's good clothing, collectible hats and some of his personal belongings including an apple TV had not been delivered. That was when we decided to file a claim and were offered only $18 from Sterling. I consulted an attorney who reviewed the documents and told us that we were victims of poor regulations and oversight that allows these companies to get away with this with horrible "insurance" choices that are not explained properly. Besides posting reviews, I plan to contact my state and federal representatives to encourage them to review the business practices of these companies and put in place better protections for consumers. WANT TO ALSO ADD THAT THEY ADVERTISE MILITARY DISCOUNTS BUT WE DIDN'T GET THAT EITHER EVEN THOUGH WE QUALIFY.

Terry H.
Jan 2019
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$450
Everything went well. The men came in and we're done within an hour. Very professional. ??

Jorge D.
Mar 2018
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
Excellent Job!.....

Paul S.
Mar 2018
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$10,000
Well. Would use again.

Jeff D.
Jan 2018
3.0
$2,700
They were over an hour late with no call. After completing walk through (which the whole 4 man crew were part of), the Foreman suggested work would be done in a day and we signed a not to exceed of $1800. At the end of the day we found out that they were only about 1/2 way done and would need another full day to complete the work. The office representative (Roy) then stated that the rates would be different on the second day (charging more for 3 people than we would have paid for the 4 people on overtime) and would not acknowledge or honor the $1800 not to exceed estimate we had signed that morning. They blamed it on us needing excessive packing (again, we started off with a complete walk through) and even berating us for knowing we needed to move and not having done more packing ourselves. The next day they returned with what could only be described as a lame duck of a third person. They left the “old” house without telling anyone, while still leaving about a 16’ box truck of stuff onsite with no intention of returning to pack the remainder. Due to the time constraints, we are now unpacking on our own and finding some pretty interesting results. Dryer is dented and has a missing paint chip where the dent is. Boxes we marked fragile are at the bottom of stacks with boxes of tools and books on top crushing the boxes beneath. It looks like one of our box springs was dragged across the bottom of the truck as the upholstery is torn in multiple places on one side. At the end of the day, they came and they moved stuff. They were late and would not honor their own estimate. They didn’t damage anything with seemingly malicious intent, but we did experience damage and they missed their own labor productivity standards. Maybe they would have done better if we would have sat and monitored their every move, but we didn’t think it would be necessary for a professional moving company. A note for potential customers, they will not unplug/disconnect any electronics nor will they remove anything that is mounted to the wall (if your tv or speakers are on the wall, you will need to unplug it and get it off the wall yourself before they will pack/move it). One of the things they were leaving behind was an all in one printer and speakers (approx $1500 worth of stuff) that were completely unplugged and I had even moved away from the wall.

William S.
Dec 2017
3.0
The movers did some exterior damage to my piano and were not able to assemble it, so I had to hire someone else to put it together.
Response from Sterling Van Lines
"Unfortunately, this piano was picked up from a storage company and was disassembled when it was picked up. It was disassembled by someone other than Sterling Van Lines, in this case we are not supposed to re-assemble the piano due to liability issues. Had we disassembled it, we certainly would have re-assembled it. The damage on the piano was also noted when we picked it up from the storage company, it is not damage that the moving company called."

Chuck W.
Dec 2017
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$1,000
From start to finish, everything was professional, on time at the price quoted and we couldn't be happier we the service we received. From Sandy in the office to Ernesto and Efrain who packed our belongings to Marc who delivered it yesterday everything went smoothly. We unhesitantly recommend that you consider Sterling if you need something moved.

Ann B.
Nov 2017
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
See above . They were excellent

David H.
Aug 2017
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$1,600
...

Freda K.
Aug 2017
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
They were terrific- each member I dealt with. There was a small error which they rectified very professionally.

Rachel B.
Jul 2017
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$2,500
The movers were professional and efficient.

Maureen P.
Jun 2017
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$6,000
Awesome job.

Patty D.
May 2017
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
very efficient, timely, very prepared and knowledgeable. nothing broken, scratched dented, nothing lost. PERFECT. Job was completed as stated.

Helen J.
May 2017
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$3,500
It went well; polite movers.

Jorge Q.
May 2017
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
Exceptionally well. The workers were Professional, Clean and Timely. This is the type of service I will recommend to all my friends and family.

Linda R.
May 2017
2.0
$5,500
TERRIBLE! I discovered Sterling on Angies' List and called them. After describing my one-bedroom condo which I was leaving, I was quoted $2,000 for my move. I was delighted and agreed to use them. I did not look at any other movers. My friends and I had been packing for almost a week in our off-work time and I stayed up packing all night before the movers were to arrive April 6. There was still more to do so I called the Sterling office which said the movers can pack and charge for any extra hours. When the movers came, they said they do NOT pack, only load. The only packed wardrobes, which I had to buy! They looked at what needed to be done, called the office and said they would have a lot to pack, which they did not, and told me it would cost almost $5500.00! I was shocked! That was close to 3X as much as what the office quoted me. I called the office and was told that it sometimes happens. I said that was not what I agreed to and that my credit card did not have that much of a credit limit. I had told the office I had hanging clothes and was told they have wardrobe boxes. THE MOVERS SAID THEY HAD NO BOXES! I had to go buy more boxes and spent an additional $75.00. The movers were rude and derisive. They had me over a barrel since new tenants were moving in and I had to get out of there. I was stuck! When they delivered my possessions a week later on April 13, most of the supports for the shelves on my 40-year-old bedroom set armoire were gone. I have not been able to find replacements, they are all too big. I've gone to 4 hardware stores. The armoire is useless now. They also set up my dining room table and one leg was installed crooked, and had never been before. Despite telling them my credit card did not have that much of a credit line, they still charged $5,319.43 and sent it over the limit. I can't use the card until this is resolved or paid off. I have spoken with Sterling's and said the charges and the service are not what I was promised but I am willing to split the difference. They have not responded. I am looking into my alternatives.
Response from Sterling Van Lines
"We are really sorry that our customer is upset. This move was reported to us as a small move with a small number of items to move and no packing was required at all. We were told that the customer would do all of the packing. She was given a quote for a small number of items. When we arrived the movers discovered that she had 3 times the amount of things to move than was reported and there was a lot of packing to do. All boxes on the truck were designated for other customers. We ended up packing several things and not charging her for it. We discounted the move as low as we could. We have looked for errors in the way this was handled. Since we are a small move specialists almost all of our jobs can be quoted with accuracy over the phone with guaranteed pricing. This move definitely took us by surprise but we have done the best we could do. We will be calling the customer again to see if there is anything else we can do."

Carol R.
Apr 2017
4.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$1,900
.

Gary L.
Mar 2017
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$1,500
everything went well.

Linda G.
Mar 2017
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$750
Professional, excellent service.

Deborah K.
Feb 2017
3.0
$7,400
Customer service was awful. Unresponsive, unprofessional. I had to get my contract sent to me numerous times before it was correct. Told them that this was our first cross country move and that we'd need lots of hand holding and advice. Getting that proved difficult. Movers who showed up in CA brought a too small truck, and took over 6 hours to load, even though we were completely packed and ready for them. They did not call to give us an ETA of their arrival time, as we were promised. I found them parked in a shopping center a few blocks from our home. Broke some items that were well packed, so I can only guess that marking "FRAGILE" on a box was meaningless. Upon arrival in Oklahoma, we thankfully had a much better team! Called when they were close by, took just over 2 hours to completely unload, and made sure that all of our inventory was present and accounted for. The team on the Oklahoma side of things is what saved them from getting a much lower rating from us. Overall, I would not use this company again, nor would I recommend them based on the front-end experience.

Antoinette G.
Dec 2016
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$100,000
no comment

Michael G.
Dec 2016
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$750
Excellent! Major Items were disassembled and carefully wrapped before delivery and then reassembled at the final destination.

Kathleen B.
Oct 2016
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$1,600
I felt a little out of the loop in the scheduling. It was an arrangement that had to be coordinated with another party so it was a little tricky. However, the move was perfection. It was done so well and with absolute professionalism. The piano arrived and was set up in pristine condition. The movers were very pleasant and accommodating about placement of the piano and the settee.
...
Showing 1-25 of 148

Licensing

State Contractor License Requirements

All statements concerning insurance, licenses, and bonds are informational only, and are self-reported. Since insurance, licenses and bonds can expire and can be cancelled, homeowners should always check such information for themselves. To find more licensing information for your state, visit our Find Licensing Requirements page.

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FAQ

Sterling Van Lines is currently rated 4.6 overall out of 5.

Sterling Van Lines accepts the following forms of payment: CreditCard

Yes, Sterling Van Lines offers free project estimates.

No, Sterling Van Lines does not offer eco-friendly accreditations.

No, Sterling Van Lines does not offer a senior discount.

No, Sterling Van Lines does not offer emergency services.

No, Sterling Van Lines does not offer warranties.