Jacked up price on Moving Day
Jessica
Submitted this review about
LIGHTNING VANLINES
Review made Live: 3/7/2012 1:32:00 PM
We were making a move from Irvine, CA to Minneapolis, MN. They came out to our apartment and gave us a binding written estimate of $2600 with a not to exceed maximum of of $2900. The driver called in the morning and asked if I had had any extra stuff that had not been in the estimate. I said I had one extra tricycle, but had gotten rid of five boxes worth of kid toys. He said he'd come take a look and see how much extra it was going to be. A few hours late, they came to assess what I had. They counted the boxes - there were way more than the estimater had estimated. They started saying the lamps weren't on the list and the trash can wasn't on the list and they are going to have to adjust the estimate. They hiked the price to an estimate of $3900 with a maximum of $4400. An increase of $1400!! I said absolutely not. After two hours of them making phone calls and not budging on the price, they decided to leave. The foreman said on the way out, "Wow, you are holding up much better than most women. They usually cry." That sums up the fact that they pull this crap often!
I would not go with this company. From the first phone call on moving day, they obviously intended to jack up my price. This destroys the whole point of a written guaranteed maximum. It was Saturday afternoon when we had to figure out a new moving company and of course, every company's sales divisions are closed Saturday and Sunday. Lightning Van Lines tried to rip us off at our most difficult time on moving day on a weekend when they know we have no other options. They did offer us a sorry check of $150 to prevent us from suing, etc.
