Complaint Review: Weststar Relocation - Internet

Little did we know that our contract with Budget Van Lines would include working with Weststar Relocation moving comp. Had I been able to review customer service on this company, I would have NEVER contracted with Budget or had Budget use someone else to pack us up and move us.

Our move consisted of a 10x20 storage unit moving from Calif. to the Midwest. The items in our storage unit had been shipped from Europe as part of a military move so we knew they were packed and ready to be loaded without repacking them. Weststar showed up at 2 pm to load our stuff and left at 1 am!!! They said that the items were not suitably packed. Granted, we did have several items not boxed that we added, in addition to our already sealed shipment. (When shipment arrived in midwest, there were 5 boxes that Weststar loaded). Since we live in the midwest, a family member was on site watching these guys pack and load and giving us a visual over the phone. He had little experience in what movers do but was sure that taking 15 minute smoke breaks and using 80, yes 80, rolls of tape to "repack" our items was ridiculous.

When all said and done, movers left WITHOUT GIVING OUR CONTACT ANY PAPERWORK. They drove off with our stuff without leaving an inventory list, a revised estimate and/or an contractual paperwork. I immediately called the DOT and they said that was a clear cut of THEFT! The Budget customer service folks were notified and via email, told me that they could no locate the company by phone FOR 2 DAYS! 

We were sick!

When someone did contact the driver, he said he went to get the truck weighed (at 1 am.) and that he would send paperwork to Budget then to us. The paperwork got to us 5 days later. My questions: How did I know if all of my stuff made it on the truck and didn't disappear somewhere in those 5 days. How do we know that just my stuff was loaded on that truck? I forgot to mention that the driver asked our contact to sign the inventory list BEFORE he even started to fill it out. Shady!

We did get the paperwork and a bill for $1000 in wrapping materials!! We flat out told Budget and the company that we were advised by DOT to file a formal complaint since they neither gave us any paperwork nor a new estimate. Weststar dropped the charges by $400 but only after a heated argument in which the Weststar staff member asked me where she could advise the driver to drop all my stuff on someone's front yard because she was tired of hearing about them not following DOT rules.

The driver showed up 2 days later than agreed. He had a partial inventory list which I checked off as he was bringing things into the house. When a box didn't have a number on it, his response was, "the roll of item numbers only went up to 200. You will have to TRUST me that all of your things are here". We were so blown away. There is no way they could have used 80 rolls of tape on our items nor the amount of boxes that they said they charged us for. We were guaranteed that all items were wrapped nicely by the driver. Our antique furniture was scratched and broken as they were not wrapped at all. We took pictures of them as they brought them into the house and the driver just shrugged his shoulders.

Please please DO NOT USE this company unless you want a huge headache. Oh yes, it took them 8 hours to unload, not assembly, just unload AND WE HELPED THEM! I thought my husband was going to lose his mind going through this ordeal. BEWARE!