Western Van Lines

I contracted Western Van Lines to effectuate my interstate move from Los Angeles, CA to Boise, ID.

The sales representative who managed my contract misrepresented 100% of WVL services. Below are examples:

1) Guaranteed by sales rep that WVL does not subcontract and/or outsource to moving / trucking providers outside the WVL business. One of his biggest selling points was that everyone involved in the moving process from the WVL side is employed by and works directly with WVL. This was not true. 100% of the process was outsourced from the movers in Los Angeles to the trucking company used to haul the items to the warehouse where my items were stored mid-shipment to the movers in Boise, ID.

2) He guaranteed me that there would be no "hidden fees" or up-charges associated with my agreement and contracted total spend level. I was quoted roughly $2400 for this move. $150 was to be removed for wardrobe boxed I did not use. This charge was not removed. In addition, when the movers arrived at my location in Los Angeles, they added a "long haul" upcharge to my bill of $300. This was, at no time, discussed between the sales rep and I. He GUARANTEED ME that there would be no charges above what I was quoted and that the bill would in fact likely be approx $2200 total (provided I did not exceed the itemized shipment list upon which the quote was generated).

3) He GUARANTEED me that my items would be delivered by Monday, June 15 (Tuesday, June 16 LATEST). He also guaranteed me that my items would ship directly between LA and Boise, with no stops. In fact, my items sat in a warehouse in California for several calendar weeks as WVL waited to optimize a load with an outsourced trucking provider to bring the items to Boise. They did not arrive until Wednesday, June 24. This caused a massive issue, as I packed all of my clothing and items into the shipment, under the expectation that they would be delivered on the guaranteed dates.

4) Price gouging and manipulation. The sales rep told me he was applying a "COVID 19" discount to my quote. Upon researching, WVL inflated their top-line quote levels and backed in the COVID reduction, making my total quote amount equal to or even higher than what has been charged to customers without any type of COVID 19 discount pricing included. I called within my window of cancellation to cancel the contract and work with far less expensive companies, but he talked me out of it under the pretense of NO OUTSOURCED PROVIDERS BEING USED, NO UPCHARGES, AND A GUARANTEE OF DELIVERY DATE. All of these were untrue.

5) Lost / damaged items. All of my flat screen tv stands were lost, as well as the power cords to all TVs lost. I have no way to use any of them. In addition, one of my flat screens has massive scratches on the screen which were done by the movers and/or at some stage of the moving process.

6) Communication. After the sales rep sold me this deal, he was 100% unreachable. I called him the day my movers were in LA to ask about the "long haul" upcharge, but the call was not returned. I then called him 9 times, leaving voicemails, to follow up on his false promises w/respect to my delivery dates. No calls were returned. I emailed him 8 times, to one of which he replied and told me to "be patient." I asked the dispatch about his lack of correspondence, noting that was strange given he was so responsive while selling me on the business. They told me not to expect any feedback or engagement from him. I then asked to speak to the owner of the business. Dispatch told me they could under no circumstance release the name of the owner of Western Van Lines and that he does not speak with customers under any circumstances