North American Van Lines

My general rule of thumb is to ignore 1 star reviews since it is usually someone who is just angry about something, but my experience with American Van Lines was absolutely horrible. My family recently moved across country from AZ to TN (July, 2024) and chose AVL for the move. I did a ton of research before booking and had many quotes that were much less but were with brokers.

I initially spoke with Christian Allen (who is a great salesman!) who informed me 'we will never sell your job, everyone who is involved in your move will be a drug tested AVL employee, your belongings will go from one house to the other' and so on. I specifically went with AVL because it is a large company that 'never sells jobs' and has a very large fleet of vehicles (hopefully less issues with lack of available rigs). After weeks of preparation and going over the move with multiple AVL staff, the price continued to increase starting at $12K up to $17K.

One day before AVL was scheduled to come to our home to start loading I received a call from Rett with Whistling Dixie moving company saying he was given the job and will be to our house in the morning. I followed up with AVL the next morning and was told that they did in fact sell the job to Rett but he had been an employee with AVL for 15 years 'so it was pretty much the same as having AVL do the job'.

Rett showed up with two Uhaul trucks and brought all of our belongings to a non-airconditioned warehouse in Central PHX (Christian Allen initially told me it would be picked up and brought straight to our home in TN, likely a 5-8 day turn around).

This is when everything really got bad. Ultimately, our belongings stayed in that warehouse in central PHX (July temps 110-118 degrees) for 40 days!!

I called AVL continuously trying to get an honest answer as to where our belongings were and when they were going to be delivered in TN. I was promised repeatedly by different managers including Melissa, Rita, and Theresa that I would get a follow up call but very rarely ever heard back from them. I documented every phone call I made to AVL and after being told essentially every time I called 'I would get a call back before end of day' I ultimately hired an attorney a month an a half into the move process. It wasn't until I made a police report and reported all of our belongings as stolen that I got a legit response from AVL and Rett.

4 days after making a police report and getting my attorney involved I received a text from Rett saying he was going to be at our house in TN in two days with all of our belongings. He apparently drove through the night to get our things to us.

I can say overall our belongings were in decent condition and there are not a ton of things broken. More issues with things melting from sitting in a warehouse in PHX in July.

I was initially offered $200 in compensation and this was a slap in the face after having to pay nearly $17,000 to move our 3,300sq ft house belongings. I was ultimately given $1,800 in compensation after going back and forth with AVL management and getting my attorney involved.

Overall, my experience was horrible. We slept on the floor for a total of 48 days, had only the things we brought with us across the country in our personal vehicle and ended up spending just shy of $4,000 buying things that we needed but already owned just stuck in AZ.

I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else and sincerely recommend no one use American Van Lines for their move.

Neale S.
8/26/2024

I recently used North American Van Lines for a cross-country move, and they did an outstanding job. The driver was incredibly polite and friendly, ensuring that all our furniture and belongings were wrapped and packed carefully. Everything arrived without any damage, which was a huge relief. I highly recommend their services for a smooth and stress-free move!

If i could give it a negative zero I would! The worst company ever! No one answers the phones, ever! Sub contracted to a 3rd party mover who had outdated trucks. No english communication whatsoever! Do not hire this company ever!

Cross country move went really well. Great communication with their office and timely updates. All movers involved were nice and professional! Everything made it and only one piece was damaged upon moving in. Overall really good experience.

Worse mess I’ve ever hired for $5500.. I hired Captain Van Lines but they subbed it out to a company calle Citas Van Lines in Kansas City Missouri! They threw all things in wardrobe boxes and made me pay extra for the wardrobe boxes they put two electric fire places in on top my kids and grand kids pics ruining my precious memories of canvas art of my children and grand children. 5
They broke several things including the leg completely off my brand new dining room table and the two antique pieces o had in my house were both destroyed. The man who was the main guy moving me called me yelling and screaming at me about wanting payment by Zelle and my bank would not release funds because it came up as a SCAM. Anyway it took me way longer to get my things and most had been damaged . I put a claim in to no avail yet. I wouldn’t recommend captain van lines or the other company they subbed it to or the guy named BEN from captain van lines he is a liar and dropped off the map during and after my move!! Worst thing I’ve ever been through with moving !