Virgin Van Lines Inc

They lost some things and banged up a lot of stuff and over changed and very inefficient all together.  They brought my stuff and just dropped it off and didn’t put it together like they were supposed.  It was really a mess.  I was going to put a claim on the lost but you had to put in for more insurance.

FoWhen I spoke with Virgin Van Lines they wanted an inventory of the household items to be moved. I gave them a detailed list and they quoted me a price $3268.00. I was told that since I was referred from the other moving company that this would be a VIP move. A VIP move was described to me as one in which I would sit back and do nothing, they would do everything, pack and load. The movers representatives showed up on the day of the move an hour late, they were suppose to be there at 8AM. They only sent 2 employees to pack and load my three bedroom house. It took them all day and the did not finish until 7PM that evening. Once the truck was loaded they then told me the bill was $6600.61, quite a difference from what was quoted. I was put between a rock and a
hard place and had to pay the $6600.61. The moving company showed up three days later than expected and since my items sat in storage until a new house was bought, it was past the three months in which I had to
file a claim.
The mover/packers they literally threw "expensive", "unwrapped" items into boxes along with everything and I do mean everything.  They didn't label one box as to kitchen, bedroom, ect... Several things were broken. Some very expensive crystal and pictures. The household was stored in storage until I bought a new house. I had unpacked a few items and found several very expensive, broken pieces. This prompted me to unpack everything and I had to repack them for the move into my new home.
BUYER BEWARE.

Simply abysmal. While it is hard to stay composed enough to create a balanced review, I will do my best:
The truck that was supposed to come to pick our stuff in Bellingham was nearly 30 hours late and in that period we received 5 apologies and 5 false promises for the next guaranteed time of a pickup. Each time a call to Virgin Van Lines customer support resulted with their representative (Michelle) being very courteous and surprised stating that such thing never happened before blaming it on the driver (John).
John finally arrived at 4 PM PST on 8/1/2013, with two "packers". It became abundantly clear that these "packers" (one of them a lot more than the other) have no idea what packing means. So, the two bedroom (900 Square Feet) household needed 10 hours to be "done" - and there is a reason I put "done" in quotes: at 4 AM on 8/2/2013 I was told that not everything I have fits in the truck and they would have to come back once again and very quickly. I also found out that their "assessment team" did a poor job measuring up the volume of my load (yes they charge by cubic foot - not by weight) to be 6500 cubic feet, where the actual volume determined between 3 and 4 AM was indeed 15,000 cubic feet. Now, if you stand with this burly driver at 4 AM in front of the truck while rain falls with a good pace, would you say unload everything and go away - or would you say "OK I accept this new definition of the price"?
I took this second alternative thinking that I could certainly find a merciful soul at the company's management who would fix this "rape-like" situation I faced then.
Now, I know that this was a huge mistake and that I should have asked to put everything back to my Bellingham place, as if you think that my bad experience ends here, you are very wrong. However, as I am typing this, my blood pressure rises again, so I will just enumerate the next events that followed.
Instead of coming "right back" for the rest of my stuff, John returned two days later making three consecutive postponements in a row. As I had to leave Bellingham three days before, I had to hire someone to watch for John's return.
My attempts to talk to company's management expecting that in order to compensate me for all what I suffered so far, they will bring back the price to it's original estimate, the best Michelle could do was to try to connect me with her manager. When he finally answered my phone call he started with "What do you want" using the tone that I am not used to hear from anyone. As I have written Michelle the email describing all that I wrote above, I asked him to read this email and it will clear then what it that I want. 
Never heard back from him.
The stuff came to Ann Arbor two weeks after - on Sunday morning. The truck driver (Matt) called me on Saturday, that he wants the rest of the money $3700 in cash, at the time when all banks were already closed. As I was told that the driver will take my credit card I expected that this driver will honor such promise, despite being given sufficient proofs that nothing goes as promised with Virgin Van Lines. So, I was successful convincing the Virgin Van Lines manager (Danny) to make the driver accept $1200 in cash which is what I was able to squeeze from ATM's using 4 of my cards on Saturday night and take the rest of $2500 as a credit card payment.
I am still unpacking and the results are in style:

1. - Many porcelain items broken
2. - Electric Mixer broken beyond repair
3. - Two tea tables broken
4. - Brand new Samsung 60'' TV Stand broken
5. - Tennis bag with three expensive rackets missing
6. - Top of the line Printer missing

I do not intend to report any of that to Virgin Van Lines as it would be no better than to complain to a Great White Shark for eating my nephew. 
I do intend to do everything I can to help prevent other innocent victims to fall in the same or similar trap - to the point that I am considering to appear on 60 minutes show, create a petition on change.org or start a company that would use the most current computer technology (that is my area of expertise) that would make moving a fun experience. Being able to have a full account of what all are my items to be moved, who is handling them in what way are a few elements of the solution which combined with educated and responsible people running the moving process may just be a good start.

Received a full quote for a 3 bedroom apartment, gave a detailed and accurate list of all items in apartments.  Packed my own small items in durable rubbermaid plastic totes.  Received a quote for just over $1400 for a move from Portland Oregon to Southern California.  On the day the movers arrived they were late, the foreman (Orrin or something like that) then told me the price would be almost $3500 because it took up more space than expected (Even though there were NO additional items beyond what the quote had).  Please note this is more than double the original quote.
During the move the walls of the apartment were damaged as was the floor.  The foreman refused to disassemble one of my beds telling me I'd have to do it because it looked too hard and he didn't "have time" so they'd have to come back another day to pick it up.  This delayed my move out by a day (which I was charged for) They then packed the bed the following day into their Budget Rent-a-truck. The Foreman asked for payment in cash and refused a check or credit card or anything that could be traced.   
The foreman then said that the truck was full and to expect delivery in 3-4 days.  15 days later I call the office and their dispatcher says "Tomorrow or the next day for delivery"
18 days later I call the office and their dispatcher says"This Friday for Delivery"
21 days later I call the office and the Dispatcher says"ok, next thursday or friday for delivery, your stuff is just arriving in California"
Where had it been for almost a month?   Last I checked there are no states between CA and Oregon.When the stuff finally arrives the bed that they made me disassemble is totally destroyed (side rails literally snapped in half) 
My rubbermaid totes are cracked, have holes in them or have had their tape cut off and re-taped indicating they've been rummaged through and two parts of one of our other beds are missing off the inventory list to which I'm told "Make a claim".  In addition 3 or our 5 lamps were broken, my Le Cruset cookware was broken as were a good number of the plates (keep in mind they packed this box).  Nightstand leg was snapped off and our mattresses (which we had bagged and wrapped professionally) were absolutely filthy.The two men who delivered the goods said this was typical of Orrin and his crew and urged me to make a claim against the company.

Based on my recent experience with Virgin Van Lines of Van Nuys, CA, all I can say is, stay away. They picked up and delivered on agreed upon dates, I will give them that. And the telephone sales person (Mary) was efficient and cordial until the company had been paid; now she does not respond to emails and phone calls. The problem in a nutshell: Basically everything arrived broken and/or damaged and/or dirty. Yes, almost every single thing. (Some things in such bad shape that even Habitat for Humanity declined the donation.) And the final cost ended up being $2,966.00 as opposed to the quoted contract sum of $1,246.96 – an overage of more than 100%. And this despite a detailed list from us of items to be moved. Caveat Emptor.

Our experience with these movers has been beyond terrible.  I was contacted shortly after I had already made arrangements with another carrier.  It was pointed out to me by multiple sources that the carrier was not in high repute so I switched to Virgin Vanlines.  They had what looked to be an impressive line of references and no complaints with the BBB.  The price quoted to us was also highly competitive. 
On the day of what was supposed to have been our move we had not heard a word from anyone about what was going on.  When I called the representitive that I had been speaking with he asked us if we had recieved a call about when the move would happen and when we told him we did not he switched us over to his dispatcher.  This dispatcher immediately said that our move was scheduled for the next day.  When I told him that our contract had said "today" he immediately came back with a revised time.  As the time frame neared it's end we called again and asked where the moving van was  He told us that they were minutes away and that he would call us back.  After waiting another half hour we called again and recieved the same answer.  This continued on until late into the night when the truck driver called us and said that he would not be showing up that night.  It would not be unti midday the next day until a moving truck finally arrived.  After impressing upon the mover that we had already missed one hotel reservation and were close to missing the next we were finally on the road.  
We had little with the company through no fault of our own.  We called multiple times and found that our things had not even left WA yet and that the reason for our late start was a broken down truck.  Late into the week they told us they had a revised estimate for our move.  The price had jumped by $1500.  At this point we had missed two hotel reservations and had to cancel visits with friends and family.  We told them that was unacceptable, and after much talking they agreed to only add $1000 to our move which I still felt was unfair.  When I said that I was dissatisfied and that I would definitely be commenting on the service the dispatcher said that we would have to sign a contract stating that we would not file a complaint to recieve the $500 "discount".  I never recieved any paperwork to sign to this effect.
The next contact we had with them was the following week because they had "ensured" us that our items would make it to the destination.  Needless to say this was not the case and we had to endure another week of not having our goods.
When the movers did finally show up the truck was a mess.  It was clear that the truck had been improperly packed and our goods were smashed in with another customers.  The driver told us that he did not pack the truck himself and that he was not aware that the truck was in that condition, even though he had done four moves previously before us.
There were very few boxes of ours that were not torn up, most of our bigger items had some sort of damage, and they had lost our dining room table.  Upon going through our boxes we found that some of our boxes had been repacked and that there were a number of items missing.  Overall this was a horrifying experience.  I would recommend never using this moving company.