Alliance Van Lines inc.

37 Reviews: Add Review

1. Moving across provinces.

   We used this company to move from Manitoba to British Columbia in October/November 2017 and it was the worst experience of our lives. They wouldn’t commit to a pick up day until right before. They took almost 4 weeks to move our things and never could tell me where our belongings were. We tried several times and got nothing. When our things finally arrived the amount of damage was rediculous. They damaged our bed frame, a table, dresser
   , broke a dining room chair, our exercise bike, crystal figures were broken. They put our electric reclining sofa on end in the truck and now one side doesn’t recline at all and the other side is damaged as well. They lost stuff. It was extensive. Our claim was $4000.00. They also upped the weight a lot from the original estimate. All they offered was $55.00. Where’s the justice in that. That is a complete insult.
   I will never recommend these people and if you value your things do not use them. They are so unprofessional and uncaring they should not be in business.

2. Lack of transparency.

   We used Alliance's services to move household items from Toronto to Florida. I will first start with the positives - the shipment arrived on schedule, no contents were damaged, the movers were polite and efficient. Now the negatives:
   1. Lack of transparency. The quote is based on weight which is hard to estimate. The quoted price per pound is higher than the industry average. Our quote increased from $4.8K to $8K as the moving day approached. No scale ticket was provided.
   2. Impression of price gouging. Movers used bubble wrap for a few items at their discretion without informing us. Once Alliance had our items in possession, they charged us $800 (!!) for bubble wrap. We had no choice. Also, they charged us a high credit card fee, although we had no other ways to pay.
   3. Movers dropped the barbeque on our living room floor and damaged it. The company refused to reimburse our claim - after sitting on it for 6 weeks.
   
   We will not use Alliance Van Lines (not sure about "Allied" Van Lines, which seems to be a different company).

3. Avoid at All Costs.

   We have moved a lot and this was by far the worst experience we have ever had.
   Alliance drastically underquoted us for the move. We paid up front for the whole move, and our stuff went to the storage unit. They would not tell us where the storage unit was and would not give us an address when asked. They claimed they had "several sites" and weren't sure which one they were using. They would not allow us to visit the facility. TOTAL red flag but it was too late.
   We ended up not moving our stuff as far as we had initially paid for, and we NOT reimbursed for a much shorter move distance, despite asking several times.
   We were not given proper invoices for costs incurred, and additional charges appeared out of nowhere when the final storage bill was paid. They had no explanation for this when we asked about it.
   It took between 7-10 calls/emails to get any sort of receipt of payment. Finally we were told it was "fist come, first served to get a receipt".
   What does that even mean?? It took over 6 weeks to finally get any sort of receipt.
   We dealt with "Jane" most of the time (who claimed to be a manager when I asked to speak with someone in charge) and she was unprofessional, rude, defensive and was of no help whatsoever. Then all of a sudden, someone else started replying from her email address. No one knew what was going on.
   Most of our stuff had minor damage and some had to be thrown out. We basically just wanted to get our stuff and be done with this company as fast as we could.
   DO NOT use this company. Nothing seemed legit and we are actually surprised they are still in business.
   Go with the bigger more well known companies who are well known for a reason. NEVER AGAIN.

4. Damaged Goods and Zero Customer Service.

   I have moved across the country 3 times and this is the first time I have had a bad experience. This company damaged and lost many of my belongings and were not even slightly apologetic. I understand that things happen, but when they do, I expect the company to rectify the issue. They advertise professional service and great customer care, and that is not what they provide. I would never even consider using this company again.

5. Alliance Move.

   I posted another review on another site, but was happy to write a few good words here too. Had a long distance move with this company and packing service. Everything went pretty good aside for a 2-3 day delay. I did not understand that departure date meant that's when the truck only leaves so there was some miscommunication. I was otherwise happy with the service and Michael who was very accommodating and expedited an exclusive truck for my delivery. Kudos for him.

6. Bad customer service.

   After several days of emails, replies that took hours, having to negotiate a lower weight estimate (they wanted me to pay for 2500 pounds when I knew I had more likely 2100 pounds which would cost significantly less and they finally said I could pay for 2300 pounds. The whole system makes no sense since if it weighed more than I would be obligated to pay more, but they want you to pay a minimum of the highest weight *scammers!*) I finally got a moving date.
   
   I had taken the day off work to let the movers in. I had also made sure to put pylons up and to block the street so that they had direct access. They never showed up. I called when they were 2 hours late to find out that they were delayed and couldn't come until about 730pm to do just the packing and then come the next day for the move. No one had bothered to let me know that they were not planning on coming and were only offering the 730 packing since I called and asked what happened.. I had an important day at work so I couldn't sit and wait for them to come at 730 to only do half the job. Then they came the next day (half hour late) and did the packing and the moving. I just received my stuff and still can't find certain items so we will see how that goes. Once my items were shipped I tried several times to track the shipment on the online "tracker" which never updated and said someone would contact me in 24 hours. No one did. I had to again email several times to find out where my stuff was..
   
   On the day of delivery, I had a cleaning woman who just finished cleaning the floors..she ended up arguing with the movers because they were damaging the floors with their trolly and snow/salt boots all over the newly done floors. When asked if they had booties to put over their boots or if they could take off their boots once in the house, the answer was no. They finally went and got a runner (just one) which did nothing. My floors are disgusting after they delivered. I have also had movers who at least put together the bed frame or take off the plastic to the sofas, they literally dumped the boxes everywhere, dirtied up everything and left.
   
   Horrible service and horrible customer service. Save yourself the pain and go with someone else! I know I will!!

7. Contracted move.

   I had contracted with and paid my non-refundable deposit on a partial move from Winnipeg to Parkland County Alberta. When the contract came back I noticed an extra $75.00 charge on it which I enquirer about. I was told that because I was not moving to the exact city I had submitted the request for a quote with there was an extra charge. I had once I had received the original quote sent back to them a list of the goods being picked up and a more exact address, and asked that they update their quote. It came came back a little more money which is what I expected. So in the ensuing discussion by email I pointed out I had given them an more exact address along with the list of goods and requested (since I'm paying for it anyway) the before load and after load scale tickets (I do have the right to see them), I was told that their truck had all of a sudden developed mechanical problems ( they were supposed to be picking up some time between Aug 25 and the 31st) and did not know when the truck would be repaired and did not feel "comfortable" booking me a pick-up date. They did however refund my non-refundable deposit on the move. So I am lead to believe that they did not like the fact that I asked about the extra charges, pointed out that I did supply them, and asked for scale tickets.