first call relocations

I've moved across the country six times and usually encountered serious /aggravating loss. For a move from TX to CA, I booked this move online since I had calculated numbers/sizes of boxes and furnishings to be shipped. I was nervous, but not disappointed. Three packers from FL came on Labor Day and were the best packers I've ever had. First Call offered free 30 day storage, and since I did not yet have an address, the sales agent Melissa suggested I take the storage up front. They offer a 10-21 day delivery time. Once I had an address, I ordered delivery. On the 21st day they delivered on 9/30, a Sunday, accommodating me because parking lot of condo complex was being paved on Oct 1. During this interval, Delilah of Customer Service kept me informed. Friends were surprised I booked online, but I'm a pleased customer, plus they gave me a senior discount.

Gone are the days when I could lift a couch by myself. Hiring First call relocations was a necessity for me but I am glad they didn’t rip me off while handling the move. They gave me a very fair estimate and it seemed only fair that I hire them. The crew of four men arrived right on the clock and they were all very friendly. They had years of moving experience and it showed in the way they worked. Their packing skills are amazing and they took great care in packing every little thing. Within almost no time, all the furniture and boxes were loaded onto 2 vans and we were off. The delivery was made the same day and nothing went missing. I don’t think moving has ever been this easy!

Our move was a very sudden move and First call relocations was the only available mover. It definitely was a challenging task. I have to say as complicated as our situation was, this company was so professional and understanding that I just can’t thank them enough. They were referred by a good friend and I could certainly see why they are so sorted after. These guys took amazing care of my valuables. I will definitely recommend them.

I hired First Call Relocation Company to move all of my belongings including my car and motorcycle from Los Angeles, California to Buffalo, New York. Upon arrival to my home in Buffalo, New York, both my car and motorcycle were damaged along with a majority of my large furniture. All of my furniture was purchased brand new in April, 2018 and was damaged during the move in July 2018. When my car was delivered it had 2 dents and paint scrapes on my hood. My motorcycle had countless areas of damage including broken mirrors, dented fender, scraped and dented fuel tank and more. Our furniture was dented, smashed, cracked, chipped and unsalvageable. 2 days prior to receiving our shipment, we were informed by a semi-truck driver who was driving our shipment from New Jersey to Buffalo, that the semi-truck had been involved in an accident. We have immediately contacted First Call Relocation and filled out an extensive claim form. First Call informed us that it can take up to 120 business days for the claim to be reviewed. The 120 day mark was January 9th, 2019 and we have since then contacted the company asking for an update on our claim. We have not received anything. Between the receipts of all of our brand new and purchased furniture, our car and motorcycle we are totaling roughly 10,000 in damages. We have photos and receipts of our furniture as well as photos of our car and motorcycle before the move. We were originally quoted $6,600 total to move our belongings and vehicles. The day of the move, we were told it would be an additional $2,400 after our belongings were already packed into the truck. This company advertises that they are apart of the Better Business Bureau on their website, however, if you go to BBB they are not listed. There are many similar complaints on this company and after doing some research, they also go by another name as well.

Do not hire this horrible company. They are a scam company that uses a lot of fake reviews.

We lost thousands of dollars and belongings through first call and I hope to save you from doing the same thing.

There are numerous hidden fees and charges. Expect to spend a lot more than quoted, even if they "lock you into a price". They subcontract all their pick ups and deliveries so the people you meet will conveniently have no idea what your talking about as far as agreements with first call. Communication with first call will disappear after they get your deposit.

Our furniture took 46 days to arrive. We were quoted 5-10 days. Many things were broken or missing when it arrived and we were told we had to pay more to get the furniture from the truck to the house ( about 30 feet). Anything missing or stollen will not be reimbursed because of the language in the contract (.60 cents / pound of item, but nothing is weighed. )
I sincerely hope this company doesn't get the chance to take advantage of your family too. I'm honestly surprised our stuff showed up at all.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!
If I could give no stars I would. This company is the worst. They moved my mother’s belongings across country, and lost several boxes. They didn’t crate the baby grand piano like they said. Holes were drilled into the top of the piano, and the music stand was missing.
I waited the ninety days that they required before making a claim. I never got a reply or a dime back. I would never recommend this company, I don’t know how they’re still in business.

Just another moving company that tells you what you want to hear until they have your belongings in the back of a truck. Upon scheduling, I was told I would have a personal direct contact for any questions... what happens when I call or email that contact, or any contact? Silence.

First, I’m told I will get 48 hours notice on pickup. You have to give a two day pickup window; I gave them the only one that worked, and asked three times for them to come on Tuesday, not Monday. I get a call Sunday evening (6pm) that they will be at my place at 8am the next day. They showed up an hour and a half late. Once loaded I was told I had underestimated my shipment by half, which confused me as I may have missed a table lamp, and five boxes, but I told them 15 boxes and the rest perfectly. New cost, up $1200 from the original estimate. The guy loading the truck said he would wave a bunch of fees (stairs, elevator, wrapping materials) to get the price down to $800 more than the original. I found this funny because I was told the quoted price would be the price, no extra fees (stairs, elevator, wrapping would all be free), only an increase if I had more belongings than I estimated. Making matters worse, they are all cash or money order, no credit, so you have no protection.

When I booked I was told a maximum of two weeks. When the driver picked up he said two weeks. I type this at 12:12 the morning of day 16 and have heard NOTHING about my belongings after multiple calls, messages, and emails.

Take my advice, rent a U-Haul and drive it yourself; you won’t know it but you will be saving yourself a lot of dishonest fast talk and concern.

Worst movers ever!!! Items damaged and many things lost or unaccounted for. I filed an insurance claim and was told that I did not have the coverage that I paid for. Do not use this company. Do not make the same mistake I made. They are supposed to tag and inventory each box, item etc. upon delivery the items were supposed to checked against the inventory list, what a joke. In one of our kitchen boxes they had put a heavy metal juice machine on top of our good China, who does this? Horrible movers and rude customer service!

This company has provided the worst experience. 1.5 weeks later than the quoted pickup. Zero communication from this company, I have had to do ALL communication with drivers myself. The truck arrived with 40% of our belongings. Serioisly, 40% exactly. Nobody knowns where the rest of my stuff is at. I am considering small claims court. For your sake, please NEVER use this company regardless of how attractive their quote is. You will regret every waking moment of your experience with this company's services. Tyler, if you see this please note you have done a pathetic job and I have had my company blacklist yours from ever supplying moving services to any of our employees.

11/9 Update: It's been 20 business days. I have not heard a single piece of correspondence out of this company. I have the personal cell phone number of the driver who PICKED UP my belongings. I have no way to communicate with who is supposed to deliver the rest of my belongings.

11/26 Update: No communication from First Call. I still have no idea where my stuff is.

DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THESE GUYS! Doubled the original quote price. Requested a delivery date and backed the pick up date from that accordingly with their sales guy. Failed to deliver on time or rescheduled time. Missed loading items on truck. Left a mess in my house and yard of tape, tape rolls and cardboard. Worst customer service trying to rectify. Claimed sales guy was placed on leave but he answered the phone.

*Update* Most of my belongings showed up 30days after the originally agreed upon delivery date. Many missing and even more damaged and destroyed. Also doing business as progressive relocation.

BEWARE! This is the biggest scam of a company. They are not accredited with BBB. They will tell you that you have 3 times more than you actually do and charge accordingly. The reason I know this is because a reputable moving company at my destination took a look at my inventory copies and told me so. They charge by "space reservation" and most moving companies do not unless you request it. They do not charge by weight but by cubic feet. I am filing a formal complaint with the Attorney Generals office of Indiana and with the DOT. I haven't even looked into the smashed boxes yet. They were supposed to take my things directly from Indiana to NC but they did not, they put them in a warehouse and someone else had to reload it again increasing damages even further. I was told it would take 3-7 days for me to get my things but it took 32 days.DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! If you do, you will regret it!

Worst movers of all time. If I could give them a negative rating, I would. They are scammers who show up and say that they weren't expecting so much stuff so they will have to charge you 4 times what you were quoted. After you refuse to pay and you try calling customer service, they will regularly hang up on you. When you report them to the Better Business Bureau, they will keep saying to call customer service. They then continue to hang up on you. Its all a scam. I think its a little suspicious that they have all of these 5 star reviews all from a month ago. Sounds a little like people are catching on to their scam so they created fake accounts.

If I could give this company a below zero, I would! Beware. Stay away.
Quote given was actually doubled on the day of the move and after a million calls we finally got our items delivered this evening. Furniture is damaged, torn up,scratched, dented and all glassware is shattered. 90% of our stuff can pretty much be trashed now. Not to mention this move cost $8000+.
I plan to bring a claim against them ASAP.

Don’t use this company! According to the BBB, they have received a pattern of complaints (me being one of them) for the following: “consumers allege that they are originally quoted a comparatively low price and that price is subsequently and considerably increased on the date of their move”, “the company has failed to keep delivery promises, and issue refunds“ and “ This business has a history of violating BBB’s name and logo policy and has falsely stated BBB accreditation (or membership) or referenced BBB’s name in an unauthorized manner.” This is directly from the BBB site where they are appropriately rated as an F. Please do more research before booking with them, as they shouldn’t even be in business. They contract out the actual movers to whom have no idea what your agreement was with the company, red handedly lied about where my stuff was and when it would be delivered, took a month and a half to get our stuff and on top of that when rogue as soon as they picked our stuff up. Steer clear!!!!! The good reviews may be fake, as indicated by the BBB.

Company is a scam! Per the Indiana Secretary of State they have NOT authorized to do business in Indiana since 2012.
Their DOT # 3088995 is based out of Florida. Per the Attorney General in Florida they have multiple complaints there as well.
Since they only do nationwide moves all complaints must go through the US DOT offices and there are several there as well.
Personally, I filed with both Attorney Generals in FL and IN. As well as the local police department in South Florida to retrieve my stolen property by this company.
They will try to say that they didn't do business with you because they do not give you the proper paperwork or copies of all of the paperwork that you sign. Use your smartphone to take pics like I did. This will protect is you ignore this message and use these thieves.

Do not use this company at any cost!!! They will rip you off as they did me. PLEASE WARN OTHERS!!!! PLEASE BEWARE of First Call Relocations! THEY ARE A COMPLETE SCAM!!!! This company is totally unethical and employ liars and crooks!!! I booked an out-of-state move with them in December and was asked to submit an initial deposit of 33 % via ACH bank transfer to reserve my move. That should have been my first clue! 24 hours later I submitted a cancellation to them via email, which is according to their stipulations in their cancellation/refund policy, which I did. They cancelled the movers but never sent my refund back!!!! Ever since then, I have called them over 30 times and have the phone records to prove it and have not been able to get anyone on the phone that has the "power" to get me my refund back! They just keep passing me around to the accounting department which is never in the office, or is in a "meeting". They have also hung up on me numerous times! The "agent" who booked my reservation was Aaron Brightman, which was probably a fake name too! He is the biggest scammer and liar of them all!!! One of the times that someone did answer my call, they we're not helpful and the lady was rude and screamed at me saying that I was NEVER going to get my money back and hung up!!! No one has any intention of acknowledging me nor has anyone addressed refunding me my money. They are TOTALLY fraudulent, unethical and are crooks!!! They are thieves posing as a reputable business that will hopefully shortly be shut down!!!! STAY AWAY!!!!! Beyond that, they are very disrespectful and seem to have no sensitivity toward my situation or have any intention of resolving it. I am glad that I have filed a fraud claim and involved the Consumer Fraud Protection department of the Attorney General of Indiana and have also involved a private Attorney and have filed a fraud claim with the Chase Bank Consumer Fraud Division and they are all on it!!! PLEASE DO NOT GIVE THESE SCAMMERS YOUR MONEY!!!!! I don't understand how TERRIBLE PEOPLE like this can own a business and be crooks with no heart or ethics!!! I HOPE THIS NEVER HAPPENS TO THEM PERSONALLY. BUT, WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND!!! BE WARNED!!!! Please STAY AWAY from this company. They will lie to you & they do not live up to the terms they promise. I wish I knew better. This company needs to be banned, We are still waiting for our $846.30. Please look for another moving company & read the past reviews before using the company.

Never ever hire these people to move you. We had damaged items..missing boxes. .filled out insurance paperwork. Nothing at all from the. Called emailed no response at all. They tell you it could take 120 days to get back to you. Well it's been 5 months.

DO NOT USE First Call Relocations for any move, local or across country. This company quotes low and then gouges you on overages. They hold your belongings hostage till you pay the amount they think you owe. When you call them, they ignore you, hang up on you or yell at you.

Hands down worst experience. Broken glass, scratched furniture, dropped TV, unorganized packing, and horrible customer service. Quoted one price charged almost triple that. HORRIBLE. DO. NOT. CHOOSE. THIS. COMPANY.

This company quotes one price increases the price by 110% and damages your property and doesn't honor the claim forms. PLEASE DO NOT USE!!!!