NorthStar Moving Company

Northstar Moving Company were amazing. They were great. I found them on Angie's List and I chose them because of their good reviews and because any negative views were addressed. I think that shows that a company cares about their customers. There were no issues and nothing was broken. They showed up on time. They were courteous. They were professional. There was a young man who was in charge and he gets a lot of props. He managed the other three movers. He actually worked harder than any of the guys that he managed. In fact, shockingly, he was able to pick up a small box that I had put my weights in, that weighed 150 pounds or maybe even more. He literally picked it up, put it on his shoulder and just walked. Along with the other movers who were bigger and stronger, we were in awe. He was amazing. He really was not afraid of the work and not afraid of attacking everything and getting it done. He was truly, truly top notch. I would hire him not just to move things, but maybe even more than that. He's a really, really, great and hardworking, respectful man. They had a great price. I was quoted up to $1,600.00 and it turned out to be $1,100.00. They said I was more prepared for the move than most people. That was a nice compliment.

NORTHSTAR Moving and Storage, then in Chatsworth California, was contracted to move the contents of my family?s home in July 2012. The move was scheduled to take place on August 29, 2012, from Las Vegas Nevada, to Eugene, Oregon. Instead of NORTHSTAR, an unknown to me third party: NEW PLANET MOVING and STORAGE, of Las Vegas NV, showed up unannounced the morning of the move. Three NEW PLANET employees then conducted an In-Home Robbery during that day while loading our property. It was a well rehearsed, divide and distraction method. Isolating us to avoid the detection of the movers stealing personal property. The team leader, a man who said his name was Yana, talked me out of buying additional insurance coverage saying: "NORTHSTAR NEW PLANET is affiliated with MOSHES in New York City, the movers of the rich and famous. You can trust we are the best movers in the country, you have nothing to worry about." Yaniv, claimed to be a citizen of Israel. A second Hispanic man Yaniv introduced as Carlos, later denied his name, claiming his name was Andrew, A third young man Juan, a citizen of Costa Rica. The three men worked together as a team, absconding with at least the following items listed in a LV Metro Police Department report filed the following week: Removed all cash from wallets, ransacked backpacks, GPS equipment for the drive to the new location, A Loaded Gun, Prescription Category 1 medication, syringes, Computer Drives, many boxes set aside and labeled in Orange Tape; MOVERS DO NOT TAKE. During the day someone would constantly be asking us ?what goes, what stays? calling us from room to room. This allowed someone else to rifle through our belongs. They deliberately failed to take articles destined for the moving truck. Hid and camouflaged those articles under shopping bags and blankets. The next day, I contacted NORTHSTAR customer service employee, Wendy. When she was told of the robbery et.al. she chided me for not taking the additional coverage, saying in effect I should not have trusted Yaniv, her trusted subcontractor. When she was told the robbery would be filed in an official police report, Wendy said, "You might as well, I would." She refused consideration of the expressed circumstances, offered no concern, service, or even surprise. When I requested to speak with the President, ABRAHAM KATALAN, she refused. Later during the next telephone conversation, after consultation with her management, she conveyed; "NORTHSTAR stands by its subcontractors, period." IT GETS WORSE: NORTHSTAR then repeatedly refused my requests to delay delivery to the destination address. We needed additional time to determine what to do with the left-behind property, and assess what legal recourse was available in Las Vegas. NORTHSTAR now had our property and hijacked the moving process. They refused our request to delay delivery. Some days later, employee Adam in dispatch told me, "We made the delivery in Eugene Oregon, you were not there, therefore, an additional $2000.00 redelivery charged is now assessed." This was after we spoke directly to the driver, telling him we were not in Oregon, and to wait until he heard from us we had arrived. [Storage would have been cheaper for the customer than a redelivery charge]. NORTHSTAR employee Adam Also informed us that the cost of the transportation would exceed the initial quote by over 300%. The initial quote process was conducted only by phone, by employee Alice, who insisted "all we need is the number of bedrooms to give you a quote." NORTHSTAR employees, who like Yaniv, are Israeli citizens, with accents difficult to understand, made verbal communications more difficult. No prior on-site assessment or walk through was made, by any NORTHSTAR representative, of the contents to be moved. However, it's now clear NORTHSTAR had in NEW PLANET a local Las Vegas sub-contractor capable of an on-site inspection. Two weeks before the move, a Las Vegas "boutique mover? offered a dedicated single truck, not a consolidation load. The quote included loading and unloading and transport. They gave a quote LESS, than the amount NORTHSTAR is now attempting to collect as ransom. Additional storage fees now exceed an additional $5000. It should be noted we were forced to "re-buy" essential living items after finally reaching the destination. Bedding, dishes, clothing, medical supplies, other items equally important, beyond our financial reach. Formal request for investigation was made to the US Department of Transportation after we were told we were victims of a "Rogue Hostage Mover." US DOT informed us NORTHSTAR violated Federal regulations by insisting on pre-delivery deposits, made clever use of forms and contract paperwork to position themselves for a win-lose confrontation. USDOT has no authority to demand return of hostage property; they can only fine NORTHSTAR et.al. DOT never informed us to what extent if any an investigation was conducted, as of this date. Attorneys advised us the only success with "Rouge Hostage Movers" is to quote "Pay the Ransom." The only legal venue is in Federal Court, a two or more year proposition with attorney fees exceeding entire cost of property lost. Which doesn?t include the loss of irreplaceable personal belongings. Personal papers, financial and work related. We no longer have any personal items of family history, nostalgia, photographs of parents, siblings, friends, pets, birth and death certificates, passports, tax returns, receipts, medical records, you know the rest. If you have any experience in these matters that could assist us, please contact management at Angies List. Be advised, NORTHSTAR was chosen for an aggregate good rating on Angies List. After the robbery, a check of NEW PLANET on this list revealed a arating of "F" with similar customer experiences. Clearly NORTHSTAR was aware of the status of its subcontractor. Other member customers experience with NEW PLANET led to the conclusion NEW PLANET had conducted many similar operations. They were fast, and well trained in the art of deception. They repeatedly conducted themselves in an odd manner during the day, but not enough to assume the worst was taking place. A USDOT web site contains information on how to avoid these companies. Had I known it existed, I would?ve been clued in, from the first request for a deposit, that something was wrong.

They were very efficient, professional, and organized. We will definitely use them for our next move.

They were okay, it took little bit longer than I expected. They did cause some damage to my new home but they fixed it within two weeks, so that was good. Overall the service was okay. Would I use them again? I don't think so. The price is reasonable, they were professional. Another comment I wanna make, they did damage a little bit paint on my wall and they were very professional about it and repaired it in two weeks, that one I thought a good service that they performed.

The movers arrived on time, were extremely courteous and professional. They offered to help with additional packing but did not pressure me in any way. The 3 guys who came on my job were friendly and worked very quickly, instead of trying to stretch out my job so that they would get paid more hours like some other moving companies have done. Their rates are very very reasonable and not once did I feel like any of my things were in danger of getting harmed or lost. They were fantastic and I would highly highly recommend them again.

It was an Angie's List Big Deal that I purchased. It was great. The guys were wonderful. I thought they were gonna come earlier but it turns out that it was my mistake. They came at the very last 5 minutes of the window which is not good for them because they were exhausted. They had been working from 8 AM and they come there at 5 PM and they had to do all this heaving moving so they were really tired when they got to our house. It wasn't fair to them. The company pay those guys minimum wage and they charge us a lot of money. I feel the guys were being taken advantage of. We did little extra things for them like buy them food because we felt bad for them and they were really nice. The actual movers were excellent. They called me "ma'am," I was very impressed with how professional they were.

They are storing all of the furniture and boxes from the house in storage temporarily until it's ready to moved. They are great and didn't have any problems. They came in very organized and was able to keep the project going on time. They were also very nice people. They are very responsive and have open communication.

They showed up on time, but spent a LOT of time extensively wrapping/rewrapping furniture (to be fair no dents or breakage, but I think they overwrapped and wrapped things that weren't breakable too). I had packed everything in same-sized Home Depot boxes, and thought the move would go quickly, but it ended up taking almost 6 hours to get the truck loaded with all the wrapping (that was an extra $85 in materials too). The guys worked hard and admittedly there was a lot to move, but it took 11 very long hours, 3 of them overtime, and I was very surprised it took that long. I had expected 4-5 hours, and a much smaller bill. $1600, even with the Angie's List deal, was a lot higher than what I was expecting for a local move. Overall good quality, but misleading on cost estimates and expensive.

They didn't arrive at our house in CA until 6:00pm and didn't finish until almost midnight. They stored our stuff for 2 weeks and only shipped half the load. When the second half was shipped pieces were lost. One positive Edgar kept searching until he found the lost pieces, unfortunately, it will be weeks before I get the shipment...It is now Mid-JULY. Sorry I cannot recommend North Star for long distance moving.

Everything went very smoothly. I would certainly recommend NorthStar to my friends and neighbors who are looking to move.

The service was great and the price was good. They were very courteous and good communication, they showed up on time and worked very hard. They were careful with the goods.

The 3 movers (Omar, Luis, and Juan) arrived 15 minutes early (though didn't charge until we were ready for them at the scheduled time). They worked steadily the entire time to pack and wrap some of our items, and move the contents of our home. They didn't complain or slack off even though we had a lot of stuff and it was pretty dusty/dirty. After having bad experiences with movers in the past, I felt North Star was worth every dollar we spent.

They were very good. They underestimated the job and we had more work for them to do than they had planned for. They worked a lot longer into the evening and I really felt bad about it, but they didn't complain at all. The price was very reasonable, too.

They were great. They did a good job as we thought they should. They met our expectations.

From my initial phone call to the meeting with Ron for the estimate to the actual packing and moving day, my experience with Northstar was phenomenal. Ron happily provided a couple of estimates due to changes that occurred during the process. The team that packed and loaded our belongings treated our things with great care and the delivery team was prompt and professional. Everything arrived safely with no damage. Would definitely use this team again and will recommend them to my friends and colleagues.

It was flawless. The same two movers loaded me in Charlotte using my home and a storage facility. My home address was difficult to negotiate with the truck but they made it look easy. They were very professional and took care with each piece of furniture, some of which are valuable antiques, paintings and mirrors. The same two movers delivered the contents as planned in Montana to a remote area with a difficult side road entrance. I still don't know how they negotiated the road. Most people would have refused, but they pulled it off. I have nothing but praise for these two individuals and the company they represent. I highly recommend them for any long distance moving situation.

NorthStar was very good, and we had a very positive experience with them. All of the customer service representatives were helpful, and a few stood out as really great. From phone confirmations, emails, and contact before the move, to the moving day (with a terrific Team Leader, and great moving staff) to the move-in day, everything went better than expected. The only reason we're giving a couple of B's, is because we noticed some dings here and there on our custom wood furniture, and had a broken leg on our bedframe (which we had to get repaired.) However, that was it! Nothing else was damaged, and the service was very good. We assume that because NorthStar had to move our items around (due to consolidated shipping), the dings and breakage were probably inflicted when moving from one storage container to another -- we did not notice any dings or damage on the moving day, and had a really pleasant experience. The movers were quick, professional, kind, helpful, and worked very hard the whole time. Also, Wendy at NorthStar was excellent in assisting us with the bed issue - she helped us get everything sorted out in a quick and timely manner.

Took all day but the moving guys were great. They went the extra mile to help us with our stuff, were on time and extremely professional. We would definitely use them again.

The movers we actually 30 minutes early on Saturday morning. The movers were very professional and quick to get going. They were extremely careful with our furniture and boxes. I would recommend Northstar Moving to any one looking for a move within SF.

We moved last June to Oregon. We weren't moving in right away, not until March this year. We needed things stored. We needed only about a third of what we owned, because we were both retiring. We had everything stored by them at 5 different containers at their facility. When we called and said we needed it, they moved it up to us in Oregon. They lost several boxes of personal items. Being the time difference between June in March, we didn't know where stuff was stored. We didn't realize until we started unpacking. One of the dining room chair's arm was busted, a couple other things that we took care of. I think what happened was when they transferred from a larger truck to a smaller truck in Oregon, some of the smaller stuff got lost. We made a claim and were told we hadn't taken out sufficient insurance. We only took out insurance that paid by the pound. We got a settlement. It wasn't satisfactory, but it was some settlement. We needed to get into one of the containers to get some ski stuff to go skiing in January/February and they said they would put it at the front of the container. They didn't and we had to search through the container. Initially they were very good at communicating with us. When it came time to move in their range for them to deliver, they gave us one date. Then they changed their mind and said one, two, even three days earlier. We had people that were moving out of our rental and we were moving in. We had a hassle trying to get to the place from where we were staying. Communication and delivery was a hassle. The packing and everything was done well but the delivery was lousy.

I looked at several movers and selected NorthStar primarily because they were well reviewed and their price was a bit better than the other places. (The per hour charge was about the same but an additional person, which helped a lot.) On the day of the move they called me exactly when they said with an estimated arrival window. When they were late I called them to find they had gotten lost because of GPS. (This is understandable as we were on a newer street but that I had to call them was not okay, I expect to be contacted if they aren't going to make the time promised.) They got there 30 minutes late. The move itself went well. The guys were well coordinated and friendly. It really helped having that fourth person stay in the apt and prepare everything for the move. Likewise the move into the house went well. They listened when I asked to take care of certain items and worked to not hit walls when taking items upstairs. There was one dresser that had minor damage. There were two items that have me rate this a B. - drive time. They did tell me about the double drive time policy, what was not shared was the 30 minute minimum. So I was charged for an hour for all of 15 minutes of driving. - pricing the final bill. It felt a bit inflated. They priced the move out before completion which is perhaps standard practice but I didn't have that with my prior mover, so it felt weird. After thinking about the bill it felt a bit high in the hours, maybe that was the double drive time. They did take two breaks, which I wasn't aware they were going to do (would have been nice to be given a heads up about that policy as well so we could have planned better.) I'm not sure how that time was calculated. Oh and they LOVE tape, they used a ton of tape. Overall they did a good job and I would recommend them but I should have asked better questions so I wouldn't have felt a bit disappointed at the end.

I originally chose NorthStar because they were so highly rated on Angie's List. From the beginning, two guys came to my home to load up all of my belongings. It took them two days to do this. The reason it took so long is because one of them spent most of his time on personal phone calls and the other spent most of his time chain smoking, in my home! It's not like I was going to be living there anymore but still all my furniture was exposed to that. Additionally, they also spent a lot of time yelling at each other. When I questioned them about it, they told me that they were Russian and that's their culture. The neighbors were asking me if everything was okay because of it. It was really very bizarre and unprofessional. NorthStar said they "carry you all the way" and don't subcontract out, which I have found not to be true. They said they don't put your things in storage which I also found not to be true. They transferred my belongings to storage and between trucks several times along the move which allowed for many opportunities for damage. At least 75% of my furniture was damaged! Of course when I complained about that, that wasn't caused by their company. It must have been one of the other companies (even though they don't subcontract...) I have a Sleep Comfort bed. The movers didn't know how to set it up. They came back the next day to try but were unsuccessful. So now I have my bed propped up to make it right. When i called to file a complaint, the lady was very nice and tried to be accommodating. She called me every day to try to make sure I followed through with the complaint process and didn't post a negative review on Angie's List. I just didn't have time then to be able to follow up with all their paperwork processes. I would not use them again and do not recommend them.

The move itself went well. Workers were on time and professional. Unfortunately by the end of the day we noticed several items were significantly damaged. I e-mailed customer service and called and left my name with someone who was supposed to have another person call me back and they never got back to me. I wrote a negative review on Angie's List about this and quickly heard back from NorthStar. The staff member I had spoken to in customer service had left the company, so my call was never recorded. North Star made every effort to make things right and helped me with my claim for the damaged items. I would recommend anyone moving get additional insurance to fully cover any potential damage because accidents do happen, but NorthStar really will make every effort to provide a positive experience for you if you are not fully satisfied with your move.

Overall the move was a good experience. The movers were on time, were reasonably careful with everything, fit everything in the truck in one trip and the cost came in slightly under their quote. They were actually the lowest of the three quotes we got, likely because they sent 1 less mover than the other companies quoted for. They were able to get the job done as promised though. There were a couple of minor scratches on two pieces of furniture and the stand for our flat screen tv broke during the move. We only had the low-coverage default insurance, but that turned out to be sufficient to pay for a new tv stand and buff out the scratches in the furniture. One of the scratches was on a crib which weighed quite a bit, so that helped increase the amount of reimbursement we were eligible for. The company indicated they would have considered going somewhat above and beyond the stated limits as well if it were necessary to take care of us though. The customer service rep was responsive in handling the damage claim and reimbursed us quickly once we submitted quotes to fix the damage. We would use them again for a future move.

The representative arrived on time, and walked through carefully and politely assessing what was to be moved, and then left after about an hour. Almost a week later, after I made several calls to the rep, I finally received their estimate. We were shocked to find that this estimate was literally more than twice as much as the others we had received. After leaving numerous voicemail messages for the rep hoping for some explanation or adjustment, I simply gave up. I don't know whether the rep was incompetent or out to rip my folks off, but I for one would advise other AL members to stay away from this company, because neither possibility is very encouraging. I don't know how to account for the other largely positive reviews by AL members, but I find it troubling that I had this experience with a company that apparently has several times won Angie's List top awards.