First National Van Lines
reviews and complaints

These movers did an excellent job with all the packing. They work great with care with all our possessions and everything was well perfected. Our job foreman, understood what we needed and took great care in marking everything properly. All workers were careful and efficient.

It was a little pricey, but they were quick and took great care with all of our stuff. We were moving from a 2nd floor apartment into our first house, and even though a lot of our apartment was of the cheap Ikea variety, they were still very respectful and still got it all loaded and unloaded quickly, efficiently and without any dings! I'm hoping we won't be moving again any time soon, but if we do, I know who we'll call to help.

First National Van Lines and crew were amazing. Professional, efficient, friendly and courteous. We had a complicated move with some items moving locally and some items, including a piano, going to storage. We were very impressed with the way the wrapped and handled each piece. The guys worked together so well and it was obvious they care about their service and reputation. We give them our highest rating and would certainly recommend First National Van Lines to friends and family.

First National Van Lines is surely is one of the best moving companies for international moving services. I have moved many times in my life and used many movers. But during my most recent move, which was huge because I was moving to another country (USA - Poland) I used First National Van Lines and I was amazed with their excellent service and very reasonable price. These guys did everything necessary to fulfill my requirements. The customer service staff and the crew played their roles to the perfection. The way they managed to wrap, box and move all those crystal and glass ware and the very delicate antiques and the grand piano was something really special. I never expected a move without any delay, any damage, and any hidden cost but for the very first time in my life I got a picture perfect move. Thanks a lot guys.

WORST MOVING COMPANY EVER! Dishonest, Late A.F., keep switching movers that don't show up, My grandma jumped the gun and set everything up with them all by her own. Gave them $2,000 out of almost $6,000(first agreed price without any added fees) to move 30 small boxes from California to Arizona. They said they'd drop the price if we got a better quote but when we did they refused to honor that! But that's not the issue I am here for... They were supposed to show up between 12 to 2pm but didn't even show up. The movers to pick up have been changed without talking to me a few times already. Also they want a ridiculous amount of money for any extra little thing. I tried to get a refund and of course it's NonRefundable. But looking through the contract it says if they don't come on agreed date(time don't matter of course) then I can get a refund...so I just want a refund from these FAKE MONEY HUNGRY LIERS!

There isn't enough room here to vent about the worst moving experience of my life!So unprofessional! *** lied to me. My quote was $2900. and the final *** was close to $8000.00! First National Van Lines sent a 3rd party SMALL truck to pick up my large load.. I was promised a pick up date and they were 3 days late! I was also quoted on loading my golf cart and they could not. Furniture and items were damaged, broken and un savable! I was in tears and could not reach anyone at First National Van Lines! I tried calling *** and his voice mailbox was full! Go figure. The 3rd party mover held my things as hostage until I paid them in money orders! The movers even asked me to order them a pizza! This was so bad.. I was moving my 91 year old mother into assisted living 5 hours away! They were slow, confused and did not know what they were doing. I blame First National Van Lines! This is no way to do business! I will keep posting the true and worst reviews until I hear from them and can file a complaint.

I would not recommend using this company. Pitiful service. I scheduled my move from PA to GA almost 2 months in advance. Initially, the company was very responsive and answered all of my questions. Approximately one week prior to my scheduled pick-up date, I called several points of contact and left multiple messages on several occasions in regards to my move; I never received a call back. The day before my scheduled pick-up date I received a call from the customer service department confirming my order; at this time I was told I would be contacted later in the day by the moving crew to confirm a pick-up time. I never received a call. On the day of scheduled pick-up I received another call from customer service stating they would not be able to pick up my belongings for another 2-3 weeks (note: it would still take 2-3 weeks to receive my belongings, thus delaying the move by a potential 6 weeks). The representative offered to re-schedule my moving date or refund my money. I had to call several times to request my refund. I do not recommend using this company as their communication is poor and service even worse.

1- First National Van Lines is not a moving company in the *** but rather a broker for moving companies in the state. This is very misleading when compared to what the website states and what I was told by the Moving Consultant. In fact, I was not aware that First National was acting as a Moving Coordinator until the company sent the binding estimate contract. The company should make it *** clear on its websites and through its Moving Consultants that it does not perform long-distant moves in the *** on its own.2- When the moving company that First National contracted with to perform the move missed the delivery window, the company assigned a resolution specialist to me. This person was virtually ineffective regarding communicating with ***. I was the one who initiated contact with *** and *** provided zero representation on my behalf.3- As a result of the late pickup, I incurred hotel and leasing expenses. The resolution specialist specified that once the move was completed, to provide him with receipts so that First National can reimburse me. I provided the receipts to him but he never responded. I emailed him and called numerous times but no response. When I contacted First National customer service, I was told that the specialist was no longer with the company and that the company would not be responsible for reimbursing me for the expenses incurred.

FNVL is an absolute nightmare to work with. Everyone should please be aware. We moved from Topsfield, MA to Sarasota, FL. Brian *** was the sales associate, and promised me the moon and stars and was absolutely misleading with how things worked. I was rushed into signing a contract. Once I signed, we found out they were just a broker (but when confronted, he said "we own our own fleet, it is a lie"). They sold our contract elsewhere and washed their hands. Quality assurance had a man call me just 5 days before the move to get an accurate estimate of how much stuff we had, and once I said "please, we need to know exactly the day you are coming" he said "no problem, my computer froze, but I will call you right back to give you the date and time." We had people waiting to hear the date they would come, to do their job in our MA house. This QA man (his name was Christian Morgan) disappeared, and when I kept calling no one would pick up. Finally he responded to an email, and when I said "I would have appreciated the courtesy of a call or an email as you promised" he said "I didn't have service and sorry I did not memorize your email" in the most sarcastic tone. The had their deposit and now they were jerks (forgive my language but there are no other words) to describe the people who work for this company. They made moving 1000% more stressful than it already is. Our things arrived at the very last minute, 1 month after pick up, and gorgeous furniture was broken. They hired a third party to mediate, Dave Lee, and he "tried" to help us. It was just a sham to keep us quiet from suing. They said they are not at fault, and stated a bunch of BS. So I simply said that it was an opportunity for the company to do the right thing and at the very least apologize for the levels of anxiety they brought to our family, but I would at least share our experience and BEG others to not hire them. Go directly with a moving company and not a broker, or you will regret it. Read your contracts before you sign, and don't believe the selling agents hired to just get as much as they can, but they don't care about you. You are a number.

Horrendous experience, wish i could award them zero stars. Our move day was a nightmare. In general I tend to believe they purposely underestimate the quantity of your belongings in order to secure your business. Once they have you under contact, you're locked in and you ultimately just keep paying them more. First, The local team (from a different company, FN is a broker) that was sent to us had a completely different contract and that contract had contradictory contract language. We were being told one thing by our FN rep, but presented with paperwork that said something entirely different from the local team (i.e. pay for only the space you use vs. pay for it ALL, even if truck is partially empty) Second, we were surprised on move day that our move day payment needed to be substantially more than what was agreed upon with FN- thousands of dollars in addition. WE had to facilitate the negotiation of these contract discrepancies between the FN and the local moving company on the morning of move day. Our move was delayed over an hour while this had to be tensely hashed out with FN, the local team and us. 3rd -The job foreman was over the top unprofessional, disrespectful in my face yelling and rude to both me and my husband. We were told we were bad customers, that we shouldn't have been watching them do their work and he specifically told me I should not have been "sitting on my *** eating and watching them work". 4th- At the end of the day they nearly walked out on the job with a huge portion of our belongings unpacked- told us it was "not their problem", they were done. This was karma for our insistence the contract details at the outset of the day were in order. 5th -They broke my treadmill in their haste and rush by totally snapping the wires off and completely distorted/ bent the prongs on the electrical plug. 6th- They put a hole in a door at our move out residence. 7th- This was a full pack move -but they left all these valuable belongings just sitting out or on the wall that I'm now having to rush and arrange alternate transit for (a heavy large floating shelf, a decorative star, a bin of homeschool materials, a white board, shelving for my daughters' bookshelf. All these items are heavy and costly to ship. Our representative from First National has been largely absent from this whole mess and still has not even called us back. FN hired the team sent to us. I emphatically DO NOT recommend First National Van Lines.

First National Van Lines is a scam moving company. They are a company that primarily brokers out moving services to local moving companies. They do not tell you this upfront. I contracted with them on April 28th after we did an extensive review of the room by room inventory in my house. My move was scheduled for May 26th with a back-up date of May 27th. My closing was scheduled for May 28th. I was told that an inventory planner would call me 3 to 5 days prior to the move to review the inventory for any changes. I did not receive a call from First National and 2 days prior to the move, I finally got through to the inventory planner and made adjustments (some additions and some subtractions). He believed my cubic feet increased by 400. I disagreed, but went with his number and paid them an additional deposit. On May 26th, the truck did not show up and I did not receive a call. On May 27th, the truck did not show up and I did not receive a call. I was in a panic as no one in customer service would not pick up my call. I finally called the only number they would pick up, Sales! One of their sales reps then contacted someone in customer services and I exchanged calls with someone in dispatch. I was then informed that my load was too large for the truck they had scheduled for me. (no communication prior to this). As this was the Memorial Day Holiday, they gave me 2 options: 1) I could cancel the contract and get a refund and go find another moving company or 2) They would send the original size truck on May 30th (Sunday - 2 days after my closing). I took option 2 and ending up paying $600 out of my pocket to the new owners of my house for their hotel bills! As it turned out, everything but my workbench fit on the truck! My household belongings then went into storage with the contracted moving company per the original agreement. From day one, I gave First National and the designated moving company my desired delivery date of July 7th. First National told me up front that cannot guarantee a delivery date and their delivery policy was a 10 day window from the desired date. The moving truck showed up on July 30th! First National takes no responsibility for this as this was brokered out to a third party. Customer Service is non existent with this company. My sales contact assured me that if I had any problems throughout the move, I could contact him and he would take care it. I left him repeated messages with no response. I won't go into the hassle I had to go through to get my additional deposit refunded (reverted back to the original contract). All payments for services after the initial deposit(s) were paid to the third party moving company. I would not wish my moving experience with this company on my worst enemy. I have no idea how they remain in business. Kevin Q

TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE! READ THE DETAILED REVEIWS!

As you will see in other negative reviews, the sales team, ours was Jon Allen, will be very attentive and communicative and tell you what you want to hear...until you sign the contract. Our negative experience started right after we signed the contract. (note, they also tried to under-estimate the weight/size of our items as you'll notice in many other reviews, but we had them adjust based on other quotes...if only we would have gone with one of those other quotes...). We were told we'd receive quotes for a car and additional insurance the next day. It took about a week because there was always a system down or someone else was supposed to call or they were waiting for someone else to get back to them. Not a big deal, but a sign of what was to come.

We were told by Jon *** to expect to receive our items for a CA to FL move approximately 10-14 days after pick-up. I pointed out that the contract states up to 21 days and his response was that was only in the worst-case scenario. Read the fine print - it's 21 business days. That's also something the salesperson failed to relay to us on the phone. Our things were picked up on 10/31. The company they hired to do the packing was EZ Cube. No existing reviews, potentially a company that changed their name to get away from bad reviews. It did not turn out well and we'll have a separate review on them.

We called First National on approximately November 9th to get an update on our things since we were approaching the 10-14 day window. We were quite surprised to hear that our things had not yet left CA and likely wouldn't until the week after. Our things didn't leave CA until November 16th. Or at least that's what we were told in a text that stated "Gm your move left yesterday and will be delivered one day next week. When the driver gets closer to Florida, 24 hours, he will call you reg. delivery details,,, thx, Dianne." So our things would be here between the 23rd and 27th. No call by Monday the 23rd but we receive a text from Dianne that our things would be here "next weekend." Now we're pushed out to the 28th or 29th. We wanted further explanation and confirmation on a delivery date and we eventually got a hold of Cristian (sp?) on the 23rd and let her know that we were not told to prepare for up to 29 days without our things and that we were disappointed and that this would result in a negative review. She told us that she was very disappointed in the communication we've received but that the timing is normal. Meanwhile, we also got ahold of Jon *** who was texting during this call that this "never happens" and that there must be extraordinary circumstances that led to the delay. So sales says one thing, customer service says another. Cristian told us she was sorry and would definitely get back to us the next day with an update on our move. I told her given the previous lack of follow-thru that I was doubtful she would call but she promised saying that she takes customer service very seriously.

She did not call back on the 24th. I called and left a voicemail on the 24th, but did not receive a call back. HOWEVER, we did receive a "Breach of Contract" warning from "Lee" in their legal department. You'll also notice this in other reviews. They try to scare you into not leaving a negative review when in fact, FYI, Congress passed a bill in 2016 called the Consumer Review Fairness Act that protects consumers ability to write honest opinions regarding service. We did get a hold of Cristian on the 25th. She said she was surprised that no one reached out and asked if Lee had contacted us. So, their customer service response was to send us to legal. Great.

We were then told there was a further delay and that we could now expect our items sometime between December 1st and December 3rd. Our things were finally delivered, with several heavily damaged items (e.g. they apparently didn't bring enough blankets to wrap delicate items) and missing tv on December 4th. 24 business days. So they threatened us with a bogus breach of contract claim, while actually breaching the contract themselves. Read the reviews and go with a reputable company. Of course the damages are not covered by insurance so our first recourse is to go EZ Cube who promises resolution in 60 days. Shocker, it's now March 26th and we still don't have resolution. Nor will First National respond to emails. Trust the reviews, pay a little more and thank yourself for the misery you avoid.

I reserved a move for 9 AM on May ***. I made the reservation on May ***. On the phone I was assured that the moving truck and crew will arrive at 9AM. The second day May *** in the morning I was contacted by Wes on a phone call with the logistics team who was itemizing my belongings. He informed me that They will not arrive at 9AM and there will be a window. In addition I was informed that my belongings will be placed in the same truck with other people's belongings. I could not assume the risk of contamination with COVID -19 and possible bedbugs from the other belongings. I just could not accept the risk of possible infestations or contamination. I called back to cancel, they cancelled the reservation but they will not want to issue a refund.

On July *, I called and made arrangements for a move from New Orleans, LA. to Kenyon, Minnesota. I was given a quote and a contract for a move on August . On August , there was no show, we called to see what was the problem and was given an explanation that they were unable to come through Texas and Lake Charles because of the recent hurricane but they rescheduled and never did. I gave them a deposit of $700.00, which at this time still has not been returned to me. I have spoken with John A, who assured me that I would be compensated for the money and something for having to readjust my whole move and had to make another payment with U-Haul to get my things moved to Minnesota. It was a terrible and exhausting experience during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This company has been the worse we have ever dealt with in all our years of travel. First of all, the intimidation and argumentative behavior of some of the movers was unacceptable. Secondly, we were told there would be no problem and to expect our belongs and furniture to be delivered on a certain date which was on a Saturday. Then it changed to a '3 day window' which we were never informed about until the 'date of delivery never happened'. Now we've been told they do not work on weekends. Although, we were first told there would be no problem to deliver our belongings on a Saturday. We have now been told they still do not know when we should expect the delivery to take place. We were sold false information. We are having to live in a hotel because we do not have our furniture.