Green Van Lines

The Green Van Lines Agent: «I’ll be with you every step of the way». What a crock! So, I forwarded the Inventory list that Atlas Moving and Storage had done on our Austin, Texas area home, because Green Van Lines doesn’t have estimators to send out. When the truck showed up the driver said we had «way more stuff than was on the inventory». They jacked us for an additional $ 1,720. Then, they were supposed to deliver on the 17^th of June in the Phoenix area. They were a «no call/​no show». When we tracked down the driver, he told us he was in California, with a broken down truck. I called my Agent and he didn’t know about it and after a few hours of waiting around, I called my Agent again (remember, the guy who would be with us «every step of the way»?) and he told me it would be Saturday, but more likely Sunday (June 22 — 5 days late). He said he worked on Sunday so I could call if necessary.
On Sunday morning, still having not heard from the Driver, I called my Agent… the guy who said… anyway, straight to voice mail. I sent him an email… I called an hour later and again left a voicemail. Never heard from him.
The driver called about 9:00 and said he was a few minutes away. The unload went fine… the driver is not an employee of Green Van Lines and I was never told of this. While this may be standard practice, it seems clear why I was jacked an additional $ 1,720. It had nothing to do with the inventory. It’s all about ripping off the customer. All our stuff appears to be here and nothing was mis-​handled (which only says good things about the contractor that was used — NOT Green Van Lines).
Oh, and my Agent? Still never heard from him.
8÷14÷2014 Follow-​up:
Well, one our our TV’s was broken and we are missing a moving dolly we had… but beyond that… my Agent has worked diligently to have me amend my Review. I sent him the paperwork from our move back in 2009 (Mayflower) with the hope that this would be more evidence of the enormous discrepancy between what he was charging me versus what both Atlas and Mayflower had written up and or charged. The fax machine had barely finished sending the bundle of pages when my Agent called in to refute the numbers. He would have been more credible had he waited at least several hours… to give the impression that he really studied the stuff. While I certainly respect my Agent’s energy and interest in having me change my review, I just can’t do that in good conscience. I am certainly not an expert in interpreting moving inventories & estimates, but my experience along with so many other similar reviews, prevents me from giving them a break. I know it is a tough business, but your fundamentals have to be sound in order to earn Stars. Green Van Lines is coming up short. Sorry.

It looks like I’m not the only one who had a terrible experience with Green Van Lines. I had a long distance move from Texas to Florida. I scheduled Green Van Lines to pick up the week before my friend and I made the drive so that my furniture and I would arrive within days of each other. The pickup was great with the exception of the foreman being a bit of a jerk, but that’s pretty customary. They were quick, efficient, and I was prepared for there to be an increase in cost as I knew that I had more than I had estimated, according to the foreman, $ 340 worth. They were in and out before noon and I was told to expect my stuff between 7 – 10 days (Wednesday-​Friday of next week), but the delivery driver would call later in the week to confirm.
Monday morning the driver calls and says it will for sure not be delivered on Wednesday– either Thursday or Friday depending on traffic. I called him again on Wednesday to see if we had a more specific time frame. This time I was told, «definitely not tomorrow». So Friday it was. Come Friday neither the driver or the owner are returning my calls. No furniture. I finally get a call around 5:00 saying the delivery will be there the next day. Typically not a huge faux pas, but in this case I was going to be driving 2 hours away to take my friend to the airport to return to Texas. I was told that even though it was the driver who was late I would be charged a storage fee, a shuttle fee, and a redelivery fee if I was not home and they made it clear they would not wait. Arthur also told me that 7 – 10 days is «just a guess» they can take up to 2 more weeks if they would like and can show without notice. So unless I were to take 2 weeks of paid vacation and wait for him, they could charge me for whatever they’d like. After paying to reschedule my friends flight, move it to a different airport and waking up at 5:00 AM to take her so I could be home for the afternoon delivery, the truck STILL doesn’t show up on Saturday. The driver’s excuse was traffic on the highway. The exact highway I was driving on. The highway that was completely void of any other cars. Management didn’t seem to care that he had taken his own personal vacation.
The driver shows up on Sunday, quickly unloads my stuff. Boxes labelled «fragile» are smushed and ripped apart, about a third of my dishes are shattered (yes, they were bubble wrapped), My TV stand is in pieces, the legs of my bed broken, the actual shelves of my bookshelves are gone, box of electronics missing, and to top it off, he says my couch will not fit in the door, so he leaves it in my front yard along with mounds and mounds of garbage he left. After cleaning up the trash he left in the yard, I had a friend come help me with the couch. It fits.
I would have been better off using another company, doing it myself. Heck even throwing the furniture out of my second story window into a dumpster would have been better. I can’t warn people enough. Never use Green Van.

Updated review – based on the long and misleading response from the owner of Green Van Lines to my previous review, I want to update the status of that review with quoted letter sent to Green Van Lines from the Department of Transportation on 9÷23÷2013 after my case was sent to them for review:
«After reviewing the paperwork submitted I find some serious issues. Below is a synopsis of the problems found:
Combined order for service/​bill of lading — Fails to contain a delivery date or spread of dates for delivery. Having a 1^st date available for delivery is not the same thing. It also fails to reflect the maximum amount required for the shipper to obtain possession of her goods. And if fails to contain signatures of both parties as required for an order for service. The regulations on this can be found in 49 CFR 375.501 & 375.505
The revised estimate increasing the charges is invalid. Under 49 CFR 375.403(a)(6)(ii), the revised estimate is to accurately list in detail the additional items or service. What you have provided does not. The only valid additional cost look to be the $ 1300 for shuttle, $ 350 Bulky items, & $ 1000 for origin flatbed & tractor handling. As a result, the company should work with the shipper to result this overcharge situation.
Be aware these are all serious violations which in the event of an investigation could result in civil penalties of not less than $ 1000.00 for each.
Lawrence Hawthorne III
Transportation Specialist
Household Goods Enforcement and Compliance
Commercial Enforcement and Investigations Division, MC-​ECC
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
U. S. Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Ave, SE
Washington, DC 20 590»
The case has gone forward. Clearly, the response the owner made to my previous review lacks credibility given this communication from the Dept of Transportation after they reviewed all of the facts of the case. I would add, as well, that while Green Van Lines put the use of a shuttle at $ 1300 on their invoice, they didn’t actually use one – and I have pictures to prove it.

Green Van Lines was horrific. They were to move me from Savage, MN to Cornelius, NC. The entire experience was bad. They tried to take advantage of me, a single female. When the movers arrived they gave me a price to move that was based on «cubes». This was NOT what my quote was based on. The amount they wanted was substantially more than what was quoted originally. I told the movers to stop what they were doing while we discussed with the owner of the company. I had my father help me as I felt completely helpless and taken advantage of. He spent over an hour in heated discussions with Guy, the supposed owner of the company. In the mean time, the movers had not listened to me and had continued to start packing my items. Pathetically, none of the inidividuals Green had hired to help move my belongings had tools. Therefore, I had to go across the street to my neighbor three times in order to obtain items to take my beds and table apart. Pretty sad if you ask me. I mean, who hires movers without tools??? Long story short, my belongings were stored in their facility in Illinois for a few weeks in my move transition. We fought to get my belongings to North Carolina in the time frame agreed upon and when my items arrived we realized we had multiple boxes of items missing. The best part is that Green Van Lines has my ladder and is using it in their warehouse!!! Yet they are fighting tooth and nail and are refusing to compensate without receipts. Let’s get real, folks. Who keeps receipts when they purchase things? I work hard for what I have and I kept good care of my belongings. It’s disgusting that this company could get away with all they have. I know I’m not the first and I also realize that if I don’t say anything I won’t be the last. Whatever you do, do NOT use Green Van Lines for anything. They are a horrible company with no ethics.

It’s actually insane that this company is still in business. I’m regretting every day that I read the reviews on other sites but didn’t click over here, and I’m guessing that the positive reviews I see in other places are either just extremely lucky customers or are paid ads placed by GVL.* The details on my experience:
— In the original phone call with Arthur, I was told moves usually average 5 – 10 business days. In conversations with the movers, they told me it was likely to be within a week. Ultimately, my move took a month. Four weeks without bed, furniture, clothing, and other basic necessities, all while Arthur told me that «it’s just a busy season,» as though it’s not his company’s responsibility to ensure that when business is busy, they allot more employees and resources to ensure moves still take place efficiently. (Or to notify customers in advance that the usual 5 – 10 business day average doesn’t apply, so we can take that into consideration when booking our move.) I clung to the idea that the company guarantees delivery within 14 business days, but when we went over the 14 business days, I was told that the only recompense for it being so late was a $ 35/​day refund. Not exactly proportional repayment for weeks upon weeks sleeping on a floor.
— My pick-​up took place 32 hours late. You read that right: they told me between 12−4pm one day, and they didn’t show up until 8pm the next day – without apologies or refunds. They didn’t even call me to tell me it would be late: I called after a few hours to see what was going on, they told me the driver wouldn’t be there until the next morning; I called the next morning and they told me it would be an hour late; I called that afternoon and they said they lost track of the driver and I should look out my window («He’ll be there any minute now!»), and so on throughout the day and night.
— The delivery movers were beyond unprofessional. They showed up four hours after the delivery window, at 9pm at night, explaining that getting pulled over by the police (!?) was to blame. Furniture was banged on its way up the stairs, which I later learned led to a broken lamp. I’m missing pieces of furniture, even as the movers insisted that everything had been delivered. And so on.
— My experience with Arthur left me feeling like he was a competent and responsive customer service representative – albeit one representing an inefficient and unprofessional company – but interactions with other GVL employees left a bad taste in my mouth. Conversations with Taylor, an Administrative Coordinator for Operations who I was told would become my primary contact at the company, included her repeatedly calling me by a different customer’s name (which didn’t really give me faith that she was closely managing my order), treating me like a nuisance for inquiring after potential move dates after three weeks of no word, and consistently coming across as a very young employee who doesn’t particularly care about her customers or know a lot about the ins and outs of the company. That doesn’t leave you feeling like your move is in good hands.
All in all, it was a hellish experience. Can’t express enough how much I wish I had saved myself the money and headache and gone with a different company. This company needs to be overhauled to provide consistent, quality service to its customers – or it needs to be shut down. In the meantime, avoid it!
*As an example, this review (
) is posted by Taylor Davis, the GVL administrative coordinator I interacted with, posing as a GVL customer. If she does that one in her own name, I can imagine that there are many other reviews posted anonymously or under assumed names on different sites.
(Note: I’ll update my review with a follow-​up if GVL provides any refunds or apologies for the poor service I received.)

Horrible service. They will pick up the item and will never call you back for 2 months or so. They keep transferring you to one person to another. They don’t deserve one star either. They made sure to damage all the boxes. I am pretty sure some items are «MISSING». Please do not make the mistake of picking these movers. Never had such an inefficient service from anyone else in the past.

Misty just called from a different number (twice in 3 minutes) to apologize, at which point she actually had the nerve to ask me to remove the post, further proving their lack of integrity. I told her flat out «no.»

I did not receive a discount on my transportation on the day of — I actually paid extra for a long carry on the day of transportation (this was on my contract so I can’t argue with that). I also did not agree to remove my Unilocal review when I received my settlement as my review was placed after the settlement and the 2 were not affiliated. There are multiple other inaccuracies in the owner’s comments which I do not wish to discuss further and just want to move on from this bad experience. I understand he has a business to run and I hope for the sake of your customers that the issues have been fixed. I have not presented any inaccuracies in my review and I have no qualms with what I wrote.

Bottom Line: DO NOT USE GREEN VAN LINES!!!
During the quote phase, they said they used their own trucks and all of the movers were Green Line Employees. This was a bold faced lie. The people who delivered my furniture were contracted by Green Van Lines and not employees. Furthermore, they did not put my furniture back together upon delivery. The packers failed to wrap up items such as art paintings and picture frames which obviously got scratched in the move. Also, they delivered one box that did not belong to me and failed to deliver one box that did. After 2 months of emails and phone calls, all they offered was a $ 25 check to cover the loss. Finally, they charged $ 1000 more than they quoted at the end! And we only moved 10 miles within the DFW metroplex. This company and its employees should be ashamed of themselves. They may get away with this type of conduct initially, but it is sure to catch up to them. They should be out of business for such clear and blatant misrepresentations.

From looking at the people that posted their reviews; it looks like they take advantage of Women!
It took 6 weeks for me to get my things from TX to MA and that is only after they
received my complaint filed with the Better Business Bureau.
what you see on their website is untrue, only green is they take your «greens» and
don’t deliver.
also, they use unmarked vans.

Stay far, far away. If you’re moving, you may have heard about scam companies out there. This is one of them. I didn’t do my due diligence before hiring, and I paid for it.
They were a whole day late picking up my things. You read that right. Not an hour: A DAY. It took three men over five hours to pack up my small one-​bedroom apartment. They didn’t actually «pack» so much as «throw things into boxes.» One of the movers had the nerve to suggest I tip them in cash and liquor after they were done.
Finally, my items weren’t delivered to my new place on the promised date. Whenever I tried to contact someone to get an estimated delivery time, I got a big runaround or the phone mysteriously disconnected.
When I finally got my things, they tried to charge me another fee – no reason given – before unloading the truck. I argued and eventually, harried, the driver relented. Check them out on BBB: lots of complaints, and they’ve lost their BBB accreditation.
Check out
to find reliable companies for your move.

This review is long overdue. Green Van Lines helped move me from my apartment in Dallas to a Townhome in Plano and everything went smoothly and without a hitch. The staff is extremely friendly and knowledgable and they treat you with care and respect. They have everything you need to make moving EASY. down to the plastic crates, which is an excellent way to GO GREEN! I’d recommend GVL to anyone!

Wish I would of seen these reviews before I used them. The packing guys were really nice and they seemed to do a pretty good job. The did not protect our wood floors and actually damaged them when rocking a refrigerator back and forth across them. Something always gets damaged during a move and the 60 cents per pound allotment for damage is INSANE! Get whatever extra insurance you can. The owner Sold me on the fact that they covered more than that but in the end that’s all I got. A whopping $ 290 for over $ 2,000 in damage. We had lots of damage.

I will make this short and sweet — DO NOT USE GREEN VAN LINES!!! Arthur is a modern day pirate and so is the whole business!!! I almost didn’t even get to make my move because of these people!!! DO NOT USE THEM!!!

Initially in my search, I was very impressed with the sales pitch. Showed me the federal website, fewer complaints than others, good price, and I liked the people. I awarded a big move to them.
When the packers showed up, it was chaos. There must have been 12 — 15 people there at once. My wife found packers dumping entire contents of drawers into boxes, no wrapping, etc. We couldn’t keep track of the activity and couldn’t ensure quality control on the packing. We moved into storage and didn’t unpack for several months while waiting on a house. When we unpacked, we found a lot of damage. The moving contract basically limits the companys liability in the amount they are required to pay and the time in which to file a claim. More than anything else, we found lots of highly fragile goods, poorly wrapped and secured. With some of the boxes, it was a miracle that anything wasn’t damaged.
Since we were moving into storage, we had an issue with the blankets. I was given the option at the last minute of either having all the furniture unwrapped and put into storage, buying the blankets or «renting them» with an obligation to have them returned from Arizona to Dallas. Why would I buy over 200 blankets? So i agreed to «rent them». The rental price was excessive. I checked online and I basically paid for new blankets for what the rental price for 3 or 4 months turned out to be. I’m not sure what a better option would have been, but in retrospect, with the lower price, plus the high cost of the blanket rental, the cost of the move came out pretty close to what the big name competition would have charged.
The load out went OK. Took a long time and the transport went ok as well.
We have experienced better. Don’t believe for a minute that you can’t have a bad experience with a big name franchise company, because we have. Green is pitching the enviromental thing. They are a small moving company. Lot’s of repurposed equipment (nothing wrong with that). Biggest issue we had was the packing. It was poorly done and pretty well unsupervised. Moving into storage caused problems with assessing any liability for damage to the company.
I didn’t like the whole «renting the blankets» piece. I felt I got ripped off on that piece.

Moving is one of life’s most stressful events. It’s expensive, there are time constraints on both ends of the move, parking issues on both ends, fear of damage/​loss and after all that you are trusting all of your worldly possessions to laborers who are in all likelihood getting paid under the table for a day of work. You will never know their real names and will not be able to seek restitution from the actual movers. So choose a moving company wisely.
That being said, DO NOT CHOOSE Green Van Lines.
Very expensive. The full service packing job was marginal at best, lot’s of damage to furniture and to boxed up stuff. The boxes they use are flimsy and show up on the other end of the move completely beat up. I have no idea how many times my stuff was transferred from truck to storage unit back to truck. It took 25 days to deliver from NYC to Scottsdale, AZ.
Missing furniture, damage to other pieces, missing boxes (including a box of wine and other alcohol… very suspicious).
The moving truck that showed up to deliver my goods was a United Semi. The dispatch office answers the phone and says «Relocation Services of America.» Ultimately, not sure who the hell I was doing business with, but regardless not happy with the experience.
Will be seeking restitution, so I may post an update.

DO NOT USE GREEN VAN LINES. I READ THAT SOME VERY POSITIVE REVIEWS ARE FALSE. GOOGLE Unilocal GREEN VAN LINES AND FAKE.
ARTHUR from Green Van Lines completely lied to me about their services. He told me that they are not a broker and you do all their own moving; however, individuals that delivered my goods did not work for Green Van Lines. The people who delivered my goods were haphazard with everything. My goods were tossed all over their truck. They had not packed them correctly at all — instead, they threw everything in there. What kind of professional movers work this way? And, what professional mover puts a glass coffee table flat on the bed of the truck? s
In addition to my expensive coffee table being shattered, my art work has a hole in the back, my bicycle is not working properly, my TV cabinet broken, my dining room table corners are damaged, and several things are shattered. I paid an extra $ 300 for them to pack these things.

If I could have chosen less than one star I would…
On Feburary 22^nd, 2011, I did my due diligence and shopped moving companies based off of both reviews and pricing (pricing to out weigh ratings due to budget if necessary). When I called Green Van Lines I specifically asked for 2 quotes. One for the FULL moving deal to include EVERYTHING (ie-​packing, loading and hauling). The second to include only loading and hauling. The sales rep that I worked with, Rocky T., told me at least 5 times that the two quotes that I received were exactly what I asked for. I had no reason to doubt because what else would the two quote have been for since there aren’t many options. I knew that I would be moving around May or June so I had left myself plenty of time (3 months) to do my homework. After shopping several companies, Green Van Lines came out with competitive quotes and good customer service. So it seemed. On May 15^th, I finally received word from my realtor that my place was going to officially be available to move into on June 1^st. I had talked with Rocky several times in between now and then to ensure that my move date would still be available. As we went to put the official move date in stone (2 weeks out), he suddenly changed his tone of voice and hesitated to say, «some things had changed that may impact our deal.» He then went on to admit that he had made a mistake on the hourly rate and was off by $ 50/​hr which results in a $ 1,100 dollar difference in the quote. I was upset but being in business, I understand that mistakes happen. In this case, even though it sounded like an honest mistake I asked for his supervisor for resolution and compromise. In comes Guy Cohen x116, «supervisor.» This is the most unprofessional person that I have EVER spoken with. He immediately raised his voice and constantly stated that he saw nothing wrong. He then openly accused me of «trickery» and «lying.» I am an honest person and have NEVER reported ANYBODY to BBB or anything similar, but this deserves it 110%. After repeatedly interrupting me when I simply asked for a compromise, after his employee had openly admitted to making the mistake, he continuously raised his voice and told me that he «had lawyers to fight such accusations.» He then pointed out some small print on the contract that states specifically, «Unless otherwise stated this estimate does not include packing materials and/​or services (i.e. materials such as boxes, mattress covers, bubble wrap and crating.) Should you require any packing materials and/​or services you will be charged only per items and/​or services used.» He then told me, «don’t trust anything that our salespeople say, only trust the contract because the salesperson doesn’t represent the company. The contract does.» WHAT?! How convenient that at the top of the same contract in bold letters it states, «GUARANTEED RATE.» After unremittingly interrupting, he then proceeded to tell me how this was a «normal packing quote» and now I was asking for a «full packing quote.» This is simply absurd. What would have been the point of me asking for 2 quotes in the first place if one hadn’t been «full» and the other «normal.» To the common layman, who would know to ask specifically for the difference anyway when the representative of Green Van Lines, Rocky T. had assured me that the 2 quotes I had in hand were in deed what he said they were. When you are told that this quote includes EVERYTHING, why would there be reason to doubt that this quote does not include EVERYTHING? The fact that the «supervisor» told me not to trust his salesman should tell you something about this company and the way it is run. If I hadn’t have done my homework, I probably wouldn’t have seen my personal property ever again when I refused to pay their ridiculous re-​manufactured rates. I am moving on a tight budget and an extremely tight timeline. I have a company, family and realtors invested in this move and I am now losing credibility due to this unprofessional business. Again, I understand that mistakes happen. But, when an obvious mistake (this detrimental) is made and admitted to, management should be willing to compromise. Guy Cohen x116, is absolutely in the wrong position and this company should be reprimanded for their business behavior. They have put me in an extremely precarious position and have caused inordinate amounts of stress as a result.

I chose this company based on 5 star reviews on line and got screwed big time upon delivery. It is so important for me to tell my story in detail for all to read so that future customers don’t have to experience what I did. Misty was my customer service rep. She was helpful and told me to get boxes from craig’s list. Levi was also my customer rep and he was helpful waiving my pick up shuttle truck fee. I moved from Boston MA to Oakland CA on Oct 30^th 2009.
I received a confirmation call from a woman named «LEE» to confirm the pick up date. When the movers arrived, they were not in a Green Van Lines truck, and were not wearing GVL shirts, rather they were from another company called «State wide relocation,» in a budget rent a truck. I was confused and called Misty who said they were legit and that they were from an associate company that they work hand in hand with. I chose GVL because they said that they don’t broker the job out but do all their own moving. I was dissapointed that Misty didn’t tell me in advance to expect these guys from State wide, I would have felt more comfortable. The movers did a very good job wrapping up my stuff which I packed meticulously but there was was no evidence of «green» wrapping or moving supplies as advertised. I was nervous after the movers left that something would go wrong since they were not GVL movers, but again I thought 5 star company, good packing job, whats to worry?
LEE was from State wide relocation and she told me that she would let me know where my driver was as he drove across country so that I would know in advance when he was arriving. She didn’t call me. I had to contact LEE several times and leave messages over several days until she finally called me back. The driver called me ONE day before drop off and said he would be there from 9am-​12pm tomorrow.(weekday) At 11:30 the driver called me and said he was running late and it would be from 2:00 — 3:00pm. At 3:00 he called me again and said it would be 4 – 4:30 when he met me. He called me at 4 and said he couldn’t get his truck up the hill to the storage space, and that the street wires were too low, that he would have to transfer my items into a shuttle truck and return tomorrow and and that would cost me an additional $ 500 dollars. The next morning I was on the phone with both LEVI from GVL and the driver back and forth. The driver wanted $ 500 for putting my stuff in a $ 20 dollar uhaul and after talking with LEVI several times, LEVI was able to get the price down to $ 350. The driver wanted me to rent my own Uhaul and move the items myself so he could get back to LA. The driver said to me on the phone, «hurry up and decide what you are gonna do cuz I dont have all day,» after making me wait all day the day before! This was super stressful and I couldn’t figure out why GVL was working with this other company, GVL should have had complete control over this situation, but they were at the mercy of the driver.
My items were delivered in California on November 18^th. The driver showed up at the storage space with two daily workers that he picked up on the corner. He proceded to throw my items off the truck right in front of my eyes! I could see that many of my items in boxes were crushed and no care was made to make sure that «fragile glass» boxes were not under large book boxes. I knew then that I was in big trouble when I saw how damaged my boxes and other items were, but I was completely at the mercy of the driver with the huge scar on his face.
I opened several of my boxes that day and opened several a month later after I got them out of storage, and so many of my items were broken or damaged including my great grandfather’s globe and my antique dining table from the 1800s. Sadly I did not pay extra for the insurance because I was paying 3,800 dollars for the move and I couldn’t afford the extra insurance.
Overall my experience with Green was awful because my items were not cared for and so many of my items were broken or damaged. LEVI was very nice to deal with on the phone and a very kind and patient person but at the end of the day, my items were ruined and GVL chose the movers to represent their company so ultimately they are responsible. If I were to do it again, I would have rented a Uhaul and drove it across country because I would have saved money and my Items would not have been damaged. If you do go with this company (i dont recommend it) make sure you get the maximum insurance because you are gonna need it.