Hansen Bros. Moving & Storage- Allied Van Lines

After unloading, the crew advised me that a lamp/table (antique) had been broken beyond repair. They gave me the necessary contact information for reporting it. I did so promptly. Several weeks later, I received a letter of compensation for $35. This was for an item that cost $1400. I contested the settlement claim and have been waiting for several weeks for something to happen. When I contacted them, the answer I received is essentially : We're busy, and we'll get to it when we can. Hansen Bros says that it's Allied, and they can't to anything about it. Allied won't do anything. My advice is, if you don't care about follow-up, this company is fine. If you want complete end to end service, look elsewhere.

Working with Hansen for our move from Seattle to Buffalo was a mistake. Our stuff has finally arrived, over 3 weeks past the end of the promised window. After having a wonderful experience moving with them across town in Seattle in 2019, we figured they were worth the additional cost quoted in comparison to directly working with their transcontinental partner, Allied. The first warning should have been that the quote was made on Allied printed materials. Salesperson was ok, although we were never warned about the upcoming situation of which they were obviously aware. Move was picked up on time by a fairly unprofessional crew that took breaks every 15 minutes and didn't bring the mattress bags we requested (they promised us this would be remedied as soon as they got to the holding facility- that never happened). Still no warning from the Hansen team of what was to come. The next day, we received a call saying that our transcontinental driver had backed out and they were going to store our stuff and find another driver. The following 5 weeks until the move was packed onto a different van line (we were never informed that our move had been sold to someone else to complete it) consisted of numerous calls to several different customer service reps. When we were fortunate enough to catch them at a time when they weren't "in meetings all day" (having repeatedly failed to follow through on promises to call us back), they offered a laundry list of excuses that I don't care to waste your time detailing, dear reader. Suffice it to say that they weren't able to do much because they had to wait on Allied (direct calls to Allied were also basically a waste of time- I will leave a separate review for them). It was clear that they weren't losing any sleep over our family's dilemma, including needing to push a work start date back a few times. No complaints about the line to which our move was sold (North American). Once they had our stuff they came quickly and exactly when they said it would. A few items broken and a layer of dust (probably not their fault).

It was a mixed bag. On the plus side, the company is one of the most professional from start to finish. This was our sixth major move and with respect to their employees and the way they present themselves and treat you, they are topnotch. They are pretty fast and do treat your items with care, listening to any concerns. That said, we did have a few issues that will cause us to evaluate whether we will give them a fourth try. I will get to those after a bit of a backstory. Our first move with them 25 years ago was such a great experience, we used them for our next move. The second move was just okay and we took issue with the crew taking it upon themselves prune an ornamental shrub along our walkway with consulting us first. As a result we tried another mover for our next (larger) move and had several items stolen from us. We tried another local company for the next move. The crew was friendly, but a bit rough with some items and they did break one item which was replaceable. While the price was good the company didn't have near the professionalism of Hansen. As for Hansen's cons, they did arrive late, the crew did not follow instructions not to drive up driveway (park at base of drive), they did not use floor protector in the house we were moving from and we had to ask them to use it in our new home even though it was included in our contract for both homes, they were not prepared with proper specialty boxes for several items, and they were supposedly unaware we were moving some items to our storage rooms. Unfortunately, one item wound up damaged and one luckily just avoided being damaged when one of the crew did not take time to assess the situation prior to working with a couple of items. Unfortunately, we did not pay attention as well as we should have when quickly moving through the contract. Since we have not experienced not being reimbursed in full for damaged or stolen itemsItems in the past, we didn't catch that if something was damaged, we'd only be reimbursed .60/lb.. Probably not a big deal if your item is heavy and inexpensive, but you're pretty much hosed if it's light and expensive like a piece of audio equipment. We were given 1/7 of the cost to replace with the exact same item. This was greatly disappointing. This method of valuation is almost as bad as using a bell curve when grading. At least the two other companies gave us replacement value for the items stolen and broken. With future moves, we will be certain to really pay attention to the contract and be prepared to manage the crew ourselves.

Excellent!! They came a pack our house.

The move was fraught with problems from the beginning. Day one was crating some valuable and heavy items. The craters arrived 2 hours late, never informing us- we only found out after sitting around for an hour when we called Hansen Bros. to find out what was wrong. Then they measured wrong for two of the crates and had to return with new crating materials the next day. Moving day was supposed to start between 8 and 10 AM. However the truck didn't come until approximately 11:30. Again we sat around waiting- because no one called us to say they would be late. We had to call to find out what was wrong. We expected to be able to leave for the desert around 3-4 PM but had to stay overnight because they didn't finish until late in the afternoon. Cost us extra because we had to stay in a motel one extra day! The next disappointment was that we were told the window of delivery would be 4-8 days and the driver assured us when he left that it would be closer to 8 days because he had to go to Phoenix first. Well much to our dismay we received a phone call after 3 days that the truck would arrive on day 4 between 10 and 12Noon. On day 4 we were up very early preparing the house for arrival of the truck but received a call at 11:30 A.M. that the driver wasn't coming that day after all! This was an hour and a half after he was supposed to be at our house! Why did he not call us earlier? Why didn't Hansbros. cvall us to tell us of the delay?? We find this lack of customer service appalling. The goods were delivered on day 5. The main problem was that we had to argue to get the crates unpacked. We were never told the movers would not unpack the crates or reassemble the items that were crated! The final straw was when we realized the next day that the movers had not delivered one of our packages and left a box that was not ours! When we realized the truckers mistake we had to make at least three calls to arrange for him to drop off our item and pickup the box that wasn't ours. First he told us he would swing by on the way back from Arizona as he had to go by the house anyway. It would be around 8PM. Then at 10PM- two hours after he was supposed to be at our house he called to say his truck was having problems and he was still in Arizona and would leave it during the night. We stayed up most of the night waiting for him. We would definitely not recommend Hansen Bros. or Allied Moving Lines to anyone who values good customer service, reliable scheduling and empathy for customer problems.

Overall, it went well. However, there were a few concerns I had with the moving crew and the way they packed certain items. For example, a few of my expensive lamps were not properly packed in a way to prevent damage during their transport. The biggest concern I had was the movers had brought out a very large cardboard box and kind of dumped everything into it with no packing materials. One of my small tiffany lamps was inside that particular box. I would hire again, but I would have been a little more diligent with my supervision when the movers placed the items in boxes.

Both times they were really quick, nice and courteous. We moved out of our condo into an apartment while we were looking for house. Then we got our house 6 months later and moved into the house. That was the first time and they were great. That was in one city and the other was busier. They helped put everything in, quickly.

They were awesome. We really appreciated them. No I can't think of anything they broke. We used them twice over the year actually. Both times they were really quick, nice and courteous. We moved out of our condo into an apartment while we were looking for house. Then we got our house 6 months later and moved into the house. That was the first time and they were great. That was in one city and the other was busier. They helped put everything in, quickly.

The boys did a great job and one even installed the bars on my bed since he brought his tools with him. I will recommend them and use them, again.

They were great. For us it cost $1500 but we were very specific as we were downsizing. You can't use that as a figure for a whole household of things. We were moved a lot of things ourselves as we were downsizing. They moved our major furniture. What they did they were awesome. They were great.

Hansen is the local folks that did the Allied piece. I would maybe use them again.

We liked them; especially the crew that they sent. They did a really good job for us. And like I said particularly the crew of workers they had. We worked with them very well. The driver understood that we wanted to delay as long as possible the delivery because we were trying to avoid going into storage. This was one of those things where we sold the house one day and we needed to buy the house here the next day and then we would get access to it. Anyway they were very good. They seemed to be competitive with everyone else on price. One of the things this fella did was he advised us very nicely about how to handle storage here. He advised us to just go into a storage facility, which we had arranged to do and it turns out we didn't need it and it worked out very well. It was his advice that sent us in that direction. On quality, there's dealing with the sales people in a moving company and then they assign this to a crew. So the crew we had was very good. On punctuality they did everything they said they would do in the time frame and they accommodated our time frame very nicely. I would recommend them to people.

They're interstate for Allied.  They were good.  For price, I don't really have anything to compare it to, but I'm gonna say that compared to what I looked at before we hired them, I can say that they are good.  Yes, I would use them again, but I'm not moving again.  I picked them because I read about their reputation and I think Angie's List is where I found them.  There were four on the moving crew with loaders and packers, and including the drivers; there were four altogether.  It think it was about two days to complete the job because they packed on one day and then they loaded on the second day.  So in total I guess maybe ten hours altogether, but that's for two days. They left the area very clean when they were done.  We haven't unpacked anything, but just in general they seemed well organized in the actual loading process and then also in the packing; they seemed very careful.  The packers were a different crew than the loaders themselves, but both crews really seemed professional and they were clean, they didn't come in with dirty clothes and all that, and they were careful about your stuff.  Horror stories are all you read about moving, so we were prepared to not have a good experience.  I told them I was gonna give them a good review. 

Poorly handled. Required multiple follow up calls to complete the delivery.

Well done. Would recommend using blue painters tape to put around doors to secure them. If they are finished with something other than paint, the finish came off in places.

Quite well.

The moving crew and crater from Hansen were courteous, professional and efficient. The estimator was excellent during the planning and estimate phase. There were some troublesome gaps in communication prior to moving day and about the specialized plan for crating a fragile antique by a third party contractor. We give the company full marks for making the alternative plan work and we were very happy with the final result.

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Without a hitch. The guys were great at keeping everything professional and efficient.

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Went well, on time, efficient, informative, describe process as they went along.  Provided contact information for in transit and at storage.  Did cost as much as the estimate, so we received a credit that we are using to pay for storage.