Transtar Moving Systems

Perfect. Just the way it is suppose to go!

I first dealt with Pat for an estimate. He was very professional and advised me hoe to pack items like mirrors and TVs. His quote was high but I heard good reviews from them so I went with them. Pay even said he estimates higher so there aren’t any surprises at the end. The day of the move it was snowing out. The guys were all professional and handled all my stuff with care. They wrapped every piece of furniture even I said don’t worry about it. I had to store my things in their warehouse so they went into pods. The packer was insane on utilyzing all the space for one pod. This saved me tons of money. They were done way under the estimated time and estimated pods needed. The day we moved in a different crew came out and was just as professional. They put all my things into the rooms and assembled my furniture. Again they were way under the estimated time frame. All in all I saved around $1000 from the estimate mainly due to the workers moving quick and packing efficiently. I would recommend having all the things in boxes that you can and I had all my boxes downstairs ready for them to go to loading was much quicker. All the prep work saves time and money for you.

Dave Raymond, Reese, Scot, and Viviana were all helpful in their specific roles. Every aspect of this type of move was new to me. My questions were answered thoroughly and respectfully. The estimated cost was lower upon arrival. A definite plus! They were recommended by a friend whose opinion I value. I highly recommend them also.

I would urge anyone reading this review to stay far away from Transtar Systems. I chose Transtar on the recommendation of a colleague who had no issue with them but reading various reviews I see my experience was not unique. I will start with the good since it is the shortest part of my experience. Patrick’s estimate was significantly lower than the final bill I was presented with when my furniture was delivered. I spoke to a representative of Transtar and between us we were able to reach a compromise that was satisfactory to each of us. For that I was grateful. Unfortunately, that was the only part of my transaction that I consider a good experience. The company sent 2 employees to pack on Friday. They arrived early and were polite and competent. They however ran out of supplies before they finished their packing. Patrick had told us a number of items could remain in drawers but the packers said he was wrong. The following day (Saturday) the truck arrived early and 4 employees came into the house to start loading. They had to divide their attention between loading and finishing the packing that had been left incomplete from the prior day. As they were loading their action was more typical of teenagers having fun than adults doing a job. The driver had to tell them to get back to work on numerous occasions. Once 2 of them were arguing so forcefully that I told them to take it outside before they came to blows in the house. They were in the house for 12 hours and when they left the inside of the house was a total disaster. There were empty tape rolls, packing material, cut down boxes and remnants of their snacks and lunch all over the floor. I had to hire someone to clean up the mess they left. Transtar delivered the goods the following Wednesday. Again there were 4 employees including one who had been with the truck since it left our old home. There was much less fooling around, in fact they were rushing to finish unloading so they could get to their next delivery. In their haste they failed to check inventory tags with the master inventory list, missing a number of items. They also were careless when they brought items into our house, newly constructed. 2 walls had to be repainted to fix scrapes and scratches they left as they rushed to bring furniture into the house. The biggest problem had to do with what they took out of the old house and failed to deliver to the new one. We had a few boxes located in a closet we would be bringing in our own vehicle. They had been told to leave the boxes where they were but when the truck left, the boxes were gone. I assume they forgot or one of them had not been told and I expected to see the boxes on their arrival. As I stated, they did not arrive. The one box that was most concerning contained a number of valuable items. Passports, birth certificates, social security cards, collector stamps and coins, automobile titles. And 6 generations of my family antique jewelry. Transtar claimed no knowledge of the items. Their explanation was so illogical as to be funny but we were not laughing. They first claimed the box had never been on the truck since it wasn’t on the master inventory list. There were numerous line items described as only ‘carton’ but they were certain none of those items was the box in question. The next paragraph blamed us since we didn’t fill out the excess valuation certificate. If we knew they had put the box on the truck we certainly would have, but why would they expect me to fill out such a form for an item they swore wasn’t on the truck. Patrick used the $100k insurance policy they offered as a bonus in his sales presentation. I filed a claim and found the policy covered items damaged in transit but items lost and/or stolen – not so much. Transtar only gave the briefest lip service to the police investigation even though they stated they would offer their full cooperation. Their final word was that if I expected anything from them I would have to take my concerns to court. Stay far away from Transtar.

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After a horrific experience with another moving company, Transtar came to our rescue.  They promptly scheduled a walk thru to give us an estimate.  The representative, Scott Davis, was thorough.  When Scott gave us the estimate he explained the bottom line was the maximum payment, it would not be higher.  This was comforting to hear, since we had heard so many horror stories of belongings being held for ransom, with the price being much higher than originally quoted.  The turnaround for the contract was quick.  All the representatives were extremely friendly and courteous. They gave us a 2 day window for the move, but when I explained to them that I needed to make an appointment for my 2 dogs to be in doggie day care, they were extremely cooperative and were able to pin point a date.
The day of the move the team of Bob (driver) and Ashley (expediter) and the crew were extremely polite and courteous. It was like a well choreographed play.  My husband and I had been so busy packing and purging for so many days (we had lived in our home for 30 years) we didn't know what to do with ourselves!
We were give a window of 7 days for delivery.  My son had to fly out of NC on July 1st and we were promised delivery before that, it was within the window.  We would be living in our house in Florida, so the time frame was not that important for our delivery.
At this time, things began to get a bit sketchy.  There was a lack of communication between dispatch, driver and myself.  We were told delivery would be in NC, at the storage unit where my son's belongings would be delivered, between 8:00-10:00AM. My son sat there from 7:30 to 10:30, waiting in the July heat.  NO moving truck showed.  NO phone call from anyone.  So I had to keep calling to find out where the truck was.  The driver forgot he had to deliver in NC and went on to SC.  After calling dispatch several times, the driver called and said he would head back to NC after his delivery, but by the time he would arrive in NC, the access road for tractor trailers would be locked and wouldn't reopen until 7 the next morning, so there was no way he was going to make it back to NC.  They were going to have to wait until my son returned to NC in a week to deliver his things.
A few hours later, we received a call that our delivery would be the next day.  Lo and behold it was our original team of Bob and Ashley, who solely unloaded our belongings and again were wonderful! 
All they needed to do was to communicate with us.  Call us and let us know what was happening and we could have dealt with it.   BUT I had to do all the calling!

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Let me preface by saying that I don't usually write reviews, nor do I send food back at restaurants. I'm usually OK with the fact that not all service is going to be A+. Sometimes there are extenuating circumstances. That said, I feel compelled to warn people against using Transtar. 
Our interaction with Transtar started fine, with Scot D. coming out to the house to do a site survey. He walked around the house, taking a look at every room, and estimated a certain number of boxes, and counted the pieces of furniture and extras such as treadmill, kids' plastic yard toys, grill, etc. Seemed somewhat diligent and rather friendly. At the end of the visit he provided us with a quote around $950. (Our last move, only two years prior cost us $700 using Steedle Moving, which was unfortunately booked on our date this time). 
We received a contract from a lady at Transtar, which detailed the survey, date etc. It was missing the treadmill. So I emailed them and let them know, and she responded simply "go ahead and sign, don't worry about the treadmill."
There was little communication between this date and the move date which was almost a month later (but that's OK. There wasn't much to communicate). I did check in the day before to make sure everything was set. All good. 
The day of the move, the team arrived exactly at the beginning of the timeframe I was given (which was 8a-10a). They arrived right at 8. Three guys, one of whom must have weighed about 100lbs and looked like a highschool or early college kid. The men presented themselves, seemed very nice, but seemed completely clueless as to how to proceed. We spend an awkward few minutes with "So....do you want to look around? Or where do you want to start?" They didn't seem sure and finally went to look around. They seemed utterly surprised by what we had in the house, and asked questions that the site surveyor Scot D. should have relayed to them. They were utterly surprised that we had a treadmill, and also annoyed that our dressers had clothes in them (something that Scot D. specifically told was we should do "leave the clothes in the drawers, but take out any toys or books." 
So the team was already frustrated by 8...
THe younger kid seemed like a trainee. The two other guys were giving him tips on how to lift, and explaining things as if this were his first day as a mover. They would often brush him aside to lift things and they also didn't put any kind of protection on the floor and it had rained overnight so their shoes were leaving marks everywhere on the hardwood floors.
When they started moving the couch, they were treading on a white rug with their boots, and I finally asked them if they'd mind laying something down to protect the floor. (which they did happily - but that should have been step one, no?)
I should insist on the fact that the guys were really nice. But they certainly were in no hurry, often taking breaks (which I get, it's a hard job). We provided them with drinks and lunch and four hours in they were only about half way done with the house (our previous move took 4 hours total).  I n the meantime, we noticed that there were no wardrobe boxes, which Scot D. had said they'd bring over on the day of. My wife, who had never met Scot, called him and introduced herself, asking if there was a way to get some boxes. Scot was INCREDIBLY rude to her. When she told me this, I was very surprised. He'd seemed so nice during the site visit. Nonetheless, the boxes arrived about two hours later. 
At about 3:30pm! the house was pretty much packed up except for the treadmill. This was a major issue. Because it wasn't on the paperwork, the guys didn't want to move it. There was a hand written note from Scot. saying that I would be breaking it down. I'd never said that as 1) I don't know the first thing about how to break it down, and 2) Scot had said it was no problem. They were used to it. 
Well the guys had never moved a treadmill, and didn't want to break it so they were pretty much about to leave. But we had to be out of the house. So they said I should call Scot. Which I did. Well Scot wasn't the friendly Scot. Strangely enough, once he'd sold us on the service, he turned into this completely different version of himself. Arrogant, flippant, downright rude and pushy. By that time I was exhausted and time was running out. He just said "well...what do you want ME to do about it?" At that point I told him he'd said they would move it, so I wanted it moved. PEriod. He said he'd try to get someone out to our house if he could find someone. In the meantime, I even tried calling the place that sold us the treadmill to see if they could just walk us through how to break it down.
In the end, the guys and I basically took it apart ourselves, which took about an hour. None of us knew what we were doing, but at least we were being proactive. 
Oh, I should mention that the younger kid announced as we were breaking the treadmill down that he would have to leave around 4pm. Wait, what kind of movers sends three guys, with one that has to leave in the middle of the move, with no plan on replacing him? 
Well guess what? Scot had sent someone over who had tools. He didn't know how to break down the treadmill, but maybe some of his tools could help (because the movers don't carry tools with them. They rely on you, the client's tools...which are...of course....BOXED UP because you're MOVING!). 
So since he was there, and the kid had to leave, the other two told the tool guy he had to stay and help because they weren't doing the job by themselves. 
So we finally loaded up the truck around 4:30 pm. (they also loaded our piano in near the end, and stacked stuff on TOP of it!) 
On the other side, the guys were incredibly slow. They started taking more and more breaks, sitting on the back of the truck and chatting. They had a bit of a hard time figuring out how to get furniture up the stairs, and I ended up helping them, doing rather simple things like removing feet from a chair, etc. 
When they were finally done, they called their boss to clock out and get the final price (apparently the owner of the company). The price had gone from $950 to about $1550, because, as he claimed, they'd been there for 11hours and there was also a travel time charge (we went under a mile). 
I told him that we'd wasted an inordinate amount of time with the treadmill, and waiting for boxes, and on a very slow pace, and swapping out one of their guys. The gentleman on the phone (apparently the OWNER OF THE COMPANY, was brusque and rude. When I relayed everything that'd happened and explained there was no way I was paying for their mistakes, it took a while before he'd relent to anything and that point, I wanted his poor movers to leave as they'd had a long day too). He finally relented to taking $100 off, which still put us around 1400 instead of the quoted 950. 
On the way out, one of the workers grumbled that the company always does this. They do a poor survey, then underquote and stick you later. 
So, all in all, our things were moved from point A to point B. Was it moved quickly or efficiently? Not really? Were the workers professionals? Fifty-fifty...Was the company professional? No. Not al all, except for the back-office which got the paperwork to us. 
So to the movers, I'd give a C+, to the surveyor an F, and to the owner a D. 
I am sure we'll hear from them next as a response to this post. and I'm curious to hear what they have to say for themselves (the owner turned nice again once I relented into giving him my credit card for payment, and told me, icing on the cake: "I want you to know that your satisfaction is key to us."

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We had a great experience with them. They were very professional, courteous, the guys were great, great mannered, and handled our household goods very well. They were extremely great.

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They were great! The movers they sent were the nicest guys, very polite, and they went above and beyond.

Overall the move went okay.  Scott the main guy that came out was very patient, very knowledgeable, and very experienced (over 10 years of experience,) He was very friendly, very professional with the issues we had.

Overall It went well. We were moving a one bedroom apartment. He gave me an estimate, and one of the things I appreciated was that he told me that at the end, even if the cost was more, we would not have pay more. The move was actually less than the estimate. He estimated approximately $3000, I ended up paying 2700.

At first I thought a couple things were missing, but it seemed to be a repackaging issues. Some of my wooden furniture was broken but nothing too major. The other driver forgot some of our items. But they met us half way to make sure we got our stuff.

They told it me would take 3 days up to 2 weeks to get my stuff moved . As of day 10, when I called, they had not shipped my stuff yet. They did ship it before the deadline, but I would have appreciated telling me that it was not shipped initially. I wonder if I did not call, if they would not have shipped my stuff in time. I would definitely recommend following up with them or any movers, really.

I selected no to recommending, because I want to try other movers too. Nothing against them personally.

Scheduled the official moving date and I was fully prepared when they arrived. Since I had followed their packing manual instructions to the letter, I was complimented on how well everything was packed :) The team that arrived was highly polite and professional, set right to work and I was just amazed that they knew exactly how to dismantle things for shipping. Every item was inventoried, every screw, knob or connector was placed and labeled in a special parts box. Then every furniture item whether my white upholstery or wooden furniture (including a massive antique mahogany armoire) was padded and wrapped like it was a precious gift. I was impressed!! The head driver supervised and inventoried everything also pointing out any existing scratches, cracks, dings or damage on several of my pieces (most of which I was aware of anyway). Of course we were anxious to know exactly when they would arrive with our belongings on the other end so the driver called to let me know their exact ETA. Fortunately they arrived they day after we had arrived in AZ. Now my ONLY disappointment was the unloading and set up team on the other end. They needed much more supervision and seemed a bit "ham handed" with many items. All in all it went very well and I think our load weighed a tiny bit less than estimated so the cost might've been about $70 less than quoted (as it's based on weight and distance). So far (as I have some unpacked boxes yet) I have only found one small glass item broken but it was of little consequence. My china, crystal and the big pieces were all pristine shape. I would highly recommend them as they are high quality and very reputable.

My move went very smoothly.  These guys were great, and went above and beyond for me.  I have a lot of old pieces of furniture which had to be taken apart and reassembled for the move.  They were very patient.  I highly recommend.

Both moves, they were on time, professional and respected our homes. The first move, they picked up my daughters' furniture at her old apartment, then picked up my sons things at our home and moved them into their new apartment. They were friendly, respected our things and home and on time. No moving problems. There was a small additional charge for time as they went slightly over the estimated time. Not a big deal. On our second move we moved our main residence from Stratford to Villas, NJ. There was a mixup and they sent 5 men instead of 4. Just got the loading done faster. They held our things for 2 days until we made settlement at our request. Delivery came on time with 3 men. They worked very hard to get the job done. Again, friendly, respectful of our property. I have had nightmare movers in the past, and Transtar shines above the rest.I would use them again in a heartbeat. The second move ran 30 minutes over the estimated time for a small additional charge. No complaints as it was a BIG move.  we were pleased with both moves. A pleasant change from the h*** that was a move by Bekins.

They came out to the house to give us an estimate of how much it would cost. The people who loaded our belongings were professional giving great care in the handling of our household goods. They were the same people who drove the truck to our new home and unloaded everything, placing things where we indicated. The estimate was the exact cost in the end. I would highly recommend Transfer/Arpin Movers.

Moving crew was excellent, showed up on time, worked hard, very polite and neat.
The back office aspect seemed a little disorganized, as there were several mis-communications involved in the planning process but overall, they did right by us.  I would use them again.

They moved and unloaded my home.  It was a pleasant experience.

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A couple of things were misplaced and I had to search long and hard for them. The moving time took much longer than I expected.