Sterling Van Lines

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. 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 companies. WANT TO ALSO ADD THAT THEY ADVERTISE MILITARY DISCOUNTS BUT WE DIDN'T GET THAT EITHER EVEN THOUGH WE QUALIFY.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2529

Finding movers that you can trust is HARD. You have to deal with requesting a quote and hoping that since you are using a movers search engine that you don’t somehow sign up for them to release your phone number, and email to a bunch of moving companies! I searched up top cross country movers and requested information for two that I thought received very good reviews and that I can trust. One of them was Sterling Van Lines. The initial contact was on July 20, 2018. They send me an email to respond to my inquiry and asked what I was moving and if my date was flexible. I had to be out of my apartment by September 1, 2018 so I said I anytime between August 13, 2018 until August 31, 2018 would work. He replied on July 31, 2018. The email came from Tyler Heath’s email address but later on after speaking with them on the phone the person said his name is Lucas and that he is here while Tyler is on vacation. He told me they can do the move for $1110. The email also stated that “This would include wrapping, loading, transport, unloading and in-home delivery. And yes, we can do the pick-up between August 15th to August 31st. The delivery would take about 4 to 6 weeks after the pick-up.”

So we did a few email exchanges and then on August 2, 2018 we did a phone call to confirm what exactly I was moving since I decided to leave behind my kitchen table and instead bring a computer chair instead. Apparently getting rid of the kitchen table only took it down by $30 and adding the computer chair brought it back up. We finally settled on about $1195. I took the weekend to think about whether I wanted to continue and go through with the quote and on August 5, 2018 I said to move forward and my contract came in a DocuSign link which I didn’t think was a safe way to send as my credit card number was blatantly written on a document that was not password protected so anyone that intercepts it would have gotten my credit card information plus my address and full name… Sterling should invest in some type of protocol to not show the full credit card numbers on documents (each page of the contract showed up as an attachment on the email). Lucas also told me over the phone that his dates were incorrect and it would be a open date of August 15-September 15. Great, so I did what I had to do, I rent out a storage unit and moved all my stuff there since I would not have my apartment if they showed up on September 15!

Each flight of stairs is a $25 charge by the way, and even if there’s an elevator they will charge you $25 anyways. On my contract where it’s highlight it said it was fully binding contract. I told Lucas that I didn’t want any surprise charges and he agreed. He told me if for example they show up and I had 10 extra boxes then the price would change, but the driver would call Sterling and have them confirm with me before moving anything so that I agreed to the price.

And so it begins… I thought everything was all set, but then there were some more items I couldn’t part with and couldn’t fit in the SUV so I decided to add another 4 large boxes, a night stand, a baby gate and a big photo frame. I called in and asked for Lucas on August 20, 2018 and was met with a hesitant tone from the lady that picked up. She said he wasn’t there and asked if someone else can help me. Sure! I forgot who this man was but I told him what I was adding and he said “okay, it will be $2800”. WHOA. That’s quite a hike!! I voiced my concern and he agreed that it was quite a hike. He looked over the numbers but wasn’t sure why I was given a different total when I worked with Lucas. He said “He must have been training. He gave you the wrong initial quote” Excuse me?! Training? At no time during my conversation with him did he tell me he was training and that he might not do everything correctly? The worst part of it was if I hadn’t called to add a few more things I would have not known and been waiting for the movers to show up only to be hit by a bill that doubled?! If your employee is training, DO YOU NOT HAVE SOMEONE LOOK OVER THEIR WORK?? Why are they even allowed to quote? This put tremendous stress on me as almost 2 weeks had passed and I did not know I would be left in this moving HORROR. My move is suppose to be the beginning of September and only cause I called you on August 20 did you decide that there was an error. Absolutely unacceptable.

The man asked me if I had any other quotes from other companies, I said that I was choosing between theirs and this other one and felt their price was better so went with them. I had 2 weeks until I was trying to depart and this happens?! I told him that I’m shocked and this is a very stressful situation as it was all set and signed and ready to go. He said he was going to have someone look over the numbers so I asked if someone would be calling me back? He said something along the lines of yeah..probably..

It’s his day time job and I guess once he clocks out he doesn’t care. Two days go by..no word… At this point I am very worried, I already spent almost $200 to accommodate the wide pickup schedule they had and now they might not even do the move at the rate I was signed for? Patience is not my virtue so I called them on August 23, 2018, asked for Lucas- found out he was just a temp replacement while Tyler was out on his vacation so he doesn’t even work there!! So I said to connect me to Tyler and explained what had happened. He told me my contract was not binding though it clearly states that it is. He explained that they would have to do an in life inventory then it’s binding when I prodded on how I would get a binding contract just so I know for the future and not get screwed by moving companies. I would recommend that you check with a different agent once you have everything settled because no one there seems to check their work and it could be like my case and you get screwed over!!

Move size: Studio Service cost: $1194

I tried booking a simple, 1-item move from NJ to CA and everything started out well enough but I wanted more information regarding the insurance coverage which they never provided and canceled on me soooo close to my move date because they claimed they could not get the coverage I wanted! What? It was supposed to be the same coverage just increased for an additional fee. Clearly they do not insure people's items for any moves! The rep was beyond rude and incredibly slow to respond to my countless emails asking to book!

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $1400