Sannah Van Lines

If you want your stuff picked up, stored in their warehouse in Anaheim for an undisclosed period of time, not be able to get a response from their customer service about the location of your items for days, and when you finally get a live person after business hours, to have that person tell you that if you would like your items, YOU MUST PAY AN EXPEDITE FEE, then this is the company for you. By the way, I did not contract with this company. They are an affiliate of the broker I did contract with. The broker has not returned a single call, email, voicemail, or email since my stuff was picked up on 8/12. It's 8/25. According to the airtag, instead of being in Pittsburgh where it was supposed to be on 8/23 as per my original contract, IT"S STILL IN ANAHEIM.

Clearly the most incompetent Organization I’ve ever seen. Wendy and Hannah combined of Sannah Van Lines don’t possess adequate intelligence to even lie well. I’ve been forced to go to the CA agency which regulates movers; California Bureau of Household Goods and Services. Do NOT any circumstances accept text messages as a method of originating, editing or acknowledgements. Perform business only over printable internet documents, better still don’t waste your time, unless you need to experience existence based performance with entertaining excuses.

Our moving experience from Wyoming to Ohio with Sannah Van Lines, contracted through Allegiance Moving and Storage, has been nothing but a nightmare. We strongly recommend customers stay away from these companies on the grounds of deceitfulness, pressuring a customer in a tight situation, failing to properly honor the contract, carelessness with our belongings, and a refusal to reimburse for damages, lost time, and hardship. We planned to move our family, two adults and four children under nine, from Wyoming to Ohio in March, 2022. In early February, we searched online for the highest rated moving companies, checking multiple recommendations and verifying the companies against Better Business Bureau. We eventually decided to reach out to Allegiance Moving and Storage, who had constantly been in the top three of recommendations, as well as two other competitors for bids. Ultimately, we selected Allegiance’s bid, as they provided the most competitive bid with a price of $4/cuft. At that time, Allegiance told us verbally that this rate of $4/cuft would not change, and provided an overall cost estimate that we found attractive. At this time, we talked through our entire belongings, spending several hours measuring, cataloging, and describing our belongings, to calculate a volume. They quoted us a volume, we paid the required down payment, and arranged the moving date. At this time, we were told that our quote was available online, and we would be able to access it at any time, so it was unnecessary for us to save a copy, unless we really wanted to. This seemed like a great idea at a time when we were trying to get rid of all papers in an attempt to relocate, but this would come to be a problem later. We were called about a week later by a scheduler, and told that there was a problem with the estimate, that for the quoted size of our house we must actually have a great deal more belongings to pack than originally cited, and so the cubic footage quoted was grossly underestimated. They regretted to inform us that we needed to pay more. Not only would we have to pay more for the additional volume they now estimated, but that our rate would be $4.50/cuft. When we protested, we were told that we had three options: accept the new price, gamble that the original estimate had been accurate but pay steep overage fees if we exceeded that estimate, or choose someone else and lose the downpayment. We asked if they could send someone to walk down the house to ensure a more accurate estimate, but they said they had no one in the vicinity that could do that. Then, in order to move forward, they required an additional downpayment of several more thousand. With already a week gone, we did not feel we could afford to lose any more time, much less the original deposit, with no guarantee that anyone else would be more affordable. Reluctantly we agreed. Now, our old quote was replaced online with the $4.50 quote, and, not having realized that we should have printed off the old paperwork, we were absolutely stuck with this as our “base quote”. We were, at this point, told that we should not need any additional coverage, as what the base coverage values was would cover anything we should need. We printed this quote out, which was fortunate later on. In arranging the timing of our move, we had been given a guarantee that the movers would be present on Monday or Tuesday, with our house empty in time for us to leave early Wednesday morning. We planned to travel to Ohio on Wednesday and Thursday, with checking into our rental Friday morning and setting up utilities. However, when Monday, arrived, we received a call from Sannah Van Lines (this was the first time we had heard of this company, as we thought that Allegiance was our moving company) saying that the movers would be unable to arrive before Tuesday. We responded that as long as everything was packed in time for us to reach our Wednesday night lodgings, that could work, but we really wanted them to arrive that day. Monday night, they called again and asked us to allow the movers to arrive early Wednesday morning, and that they would pack the house in a couple of hours and we’d still be on the road on time. We stated that was unacceptable and not what was guaranteed. Sannah Van Lines made an offer of refunding $100, but that would not have covered the cost of losing our Wednesday night lodging. In addition, the promise that the movers could pack our four-bedroom house in only 2-3 hours seemed patently absurd. We insisted that the movers arrive promptly. The movers did not show Monday, nor through most of Tuesday. Eventually, one single mover arrived in a medium-size U-haul Tuesday evening, and while he started work immediately, he was not the team of four movers we had been promised. Even when a second mover showed up in a Penske truck, the packing team was still half of what was promised. This second mover then informed us of additional errors in our quote, that we had to pay something even higher than before, and recalculated our cubic footage and gave us a new rate. They claimed, originally, that we were quoted for $5.75 per cubic foot, and sure enough, the online document seemed to say that. Our printed document stating $4.50 helped us renegotiate to a rate of $4.75. We were told that we could either accept that amount, or lose out on the $7300 that we had already paid. In addition, we had no more time. It was impossible to contact someone else at this hour, so grudgingly we agreed to pay just to make the move happen. This required us to hand over thousands in cash to meet the 75% mark of the new total. We also brought back up the possibility of the moving company providing coverage for our valuables, but they told us that wasn’t even an option to consider and that we would have to just agree to have partial coverage. Only much later did we learn this was not the truth. While our two-man team worked hard, they came woefully unprepared. They had hardly brought any boxes and were shocked there was no Home Depot where they could purchase more. My husband packed with them, went out and bought them boxes (that we were charged again for in our overall payment), and generally kept the whole process moving. At nearly midnight on Tuesday, we sent them off to bed as they assured us that they were too tired to keep packing. The house was nowhere near packed, though we had been assured that we would be packed up by early the next day. Even the latest estimate we were given was Wednesday at 10 AM. The movers were supposed to show up the next morning at 8. They didn’t show up until nearly 9 AM, so obviously the house was not complete by 10 AM. The day went on with it becoming increasingly clear that the packing would not finish until late. The movers offered to let us forgo oversight of the rest of the job so we could get on the road, offering to call and give us a virtual walkdown of the house when they were done. Frustrated and frantic, we eventually agreed. We left the movers at after 5 PM and drove until almost midnight. We did not make our hotel, costing us cancellation charges, plus the additional cost of another hotel. The movers continued working past that point, only sending us a video of the walkdown (instead of calling us, no matter the hour), which was so dark as to be nearly indecipherable. Still, in the small hours of Thursday morning, they did finally drive off with all our belongings. Where to, we had no idea. The storage of our belongings became a new issue. Sannah Van Lines offered one free month of storage, and then charged for each month thereafter. We never disagreed with these charges, other than the originally quoted storage fee was $450 a month and the new one was $1450 a month, due to the change in estimated cubic footage. However, towards the end of April, when we were approaching triggering storage fees, we ran into issues making sure Sannah Van Lines received and could verify reception of payment. Over the course of discussion with various different people at Sannah Van Lines, we were told that we would pay the storage fees at the time our belongings were delivered, and by a different agent that Sannah could not even schedule delivery until the storage fees were paid. We were told we could pay by Venmo or Zelle, and we were told by a different agent they only accepted cash or postal money orders. We were directed to look at payment information on their website, only their website had no portal for payments. All these contradictory instructions required hours of calling back and fighting with the Sannah employees to get anything remotely close to a straight answer. We were told multiple times they were sorry that someone had given us the wrong impression, but we could not escalate the call to someone who could reconcile what we had been told. Finally, we arranged for a payment via postal money order, refusing to send cash through the mail. In theory that month’s storage had been handled. At the end of May, after we had found a house and notified Sannah Van Lines of our expected closing date, we received an email stating that we owed Sannah for two months of storage, that they had not received the money we had already sent, and that they would not deliver until they received the overdue and the new monthly charge. We spoke with them again, and when we challenged them that we had indeed paid the first month’s storage amount, and that we had proof from the Post Office that the money order had been delivered, they stealth-edited our bill to say that they had received the first payment. We kept printouts of the same bill, only several hours apart, the first showing no payment received, the second showing payment received, and with no notification from Sannah that anything had changed. The receipt of the second month’s storage fee proved another fight, with conflicting information. Because the fee was for late May through early June, we weren’t delinquent in our payment, but one person at Sannah said they could not schedule delivery until May’s payment was received, and another person said there were no holds on our account, so we should be able to schedule delivery. We had received assurance from Sannah that our first available day of June 4th should be met, since we notified them a month in advance, but as we continued to work to get confirmation of a delivery date, Sannah continued to stonewall us regarding the May payment. We did send the second payment by postal money order immediately when it became clear that we risked missing our hoped-for delivery date, but even over a week later, Sannah continued to state they had not seen our payment. After calling multiple times, we again got confirmation that Sannah would not delay our delivery for the money, but again they never scheduled delivery. We monitored the tracking information on the postal money orders, and while the orders reached California, for weeks the money order was never redeemed. The day of our move-in, June 4th, approached, and we called Sannah daily to see if we would see our belongings when we moved in (especially since we had family visiting who hoped to help us set up the house). Sannah continued to stonewall, since they claimed they hadn’t received the second money order. We told them we sent it and had tracking information. That was not sufficient to schedule delivery, and besides, contractually Sannah was only obligated to deliver our belongings with 20 business days of our first available date. That meant they had until July 5th to deliver. We asked if this would incur another month’s storage fee, but were reassured that would not be the case (and in this instance, that was correct). After our first available date passed and our help returned home without any hint of our belongings, we continued to inquire daily about whether Sannah had seen the postal money order and if they had a date for when our belongings would be delivered. We still received only apologies, but nothing concrete. At this time, we called up Allegiance Moving and Storage, in the hopes that they could help. Allegiance told us that Sannah had not been paid the storage fees, and so could not deliver. I provided proof of payment of the fees, at which time, Allegiance said that Sannah would deliver by the 20 business days after our first-available day. After stating that, Allegiance Moving and Storage never answered or returned any of our calls. The contractual date of July 5th approached, and Sannah continued to state alternatingly that we had not paid and they could not deliver, and that there was no hold on our account, so the delivery should happen any day. At this time, we were now told that our stuff was being stored 5 days away from us, but that we could not be informed where it was, just that it was in their hands and not lost. This was absurd, because our contract stated that our belongings would be stored within 1-3 business days away. When we signed the contract with Sannah, we were originally told that our stuff would be stored in the general Cleveland-Akron area, which is not even a full day’s travel away. Still, Sannah continued to assure us that they would deliver by July 5th. As our protests about the second money order became more pointed, and we gave several people at Sannah Van Lines the tracking information regarding the money order, they finally redeemed the money order. Once again, they did not notify us, and again they stealth-edited our bill. It should be noted that, after the stealth edit, the document still claimed that we owed them another payment, and should that payment not be made, that our stuff would not be delivered. When we asked about that, another stealth edit was made and we were told the paperwork never said that, though we have print outs to prove it. Despite payment received, the contract date passed, with our having lived in our new house without our belongings for over a month. We were forced to buy some furniture to get by, as a young family of six cannot sleep, eat, and do homework on bare floors, and still Sannah would not commit to any delivery date. They did assure us that we would receive $30/day for each business day they were tardy in delivery. At this point, we began discussing options with lawyers we knew, and we discovered that Sannah covered itself by claiming any lawsuits against it must be pressed in the state of California. Anything conducted from Ohio might impact Sannah’s ability to do business in Ohio, but that was the extent of what the Ohio Attorney General’s office could accomplish. If we wanted to sue or press charges, we would have to find a lawyer in California who would handle the case. So we started inquiring California lawyers for advice, and notified Sannah that we believed they had absconded with our belongings and we were looking to file a lawsuit against them. Miraculously, within a day of the threat of legal action, we had a scheduled date and time for delivery, and while the team making the delivery was still over six hours late arriving, we did finally receive our belongings on July 18th. Still, we encountered issues. We had printed in our contract that the movers who delivered our belongings would also reassemble some of the furniture that had been dismantled during packing, but this crew stated flat out they would not do that, and we could take the matter up with Sannah. They were in a hurry because they still had another two deliveries to make, and would not spend a minute more than absolutely necessary unloading our belongings. They would not attempt any difficult furniture moves, claiming getting some pieces downstairs around a tight corner were impossible (some of them were not, and we handled those ourselves the next day). They finished in a few hours, but because of the very late start, they left just short of midnight. My husband had to take the next day off of work to help assemble furniture. We started to discover damage to our belongings and set aside all items showing damage that was directly attributable to the move. We noticed heat and moisture damage on a number of items, which informed us that wherever Sannah had kept our belongings, it was not sufficiently climate controlled as they had promised in the contract. Also, our mattresses were not kept in special protection like our contract stated and had been dirtied and stained. Fortunately, this staining was fixable with several days of my labor. Once we had sorted through our belongings, we compiled a list of our complaints and contacted Sannah. They directed us to a side company that handled all complaints and reimbursements, and we began the tedious process of documenting every issue, every damaged item, every extra expenditure we had made because of Sannah’s poor performance. Ultimately, given the difficulty of documenting a number of items (such as things being too old to have a web link to document value and/or weight, or things that were handmade and, as such, not ever found on a website), and the fact we could not get Allegiance to send us the documentation of the original $4/cuft quote, we settled on a $2000 claim. Then we waited, since the claims group said they only had to respond within 120 days. When the claims group finally did respond, they rejected almost everything we submitted. They said we had no standing to contest the change from $4.50 to $4.75/cuft, as we had signed an agreement with the $4.75 rate. They disputed most of our issues as not covered by the claims, even when they were, especially failing to protect our mattresses or refusing to fulfill their contracted obligations to rebuild our furniture. Other errors, like a transposition mistake in a line item, adding $153 to our cost, was considered our error, not theirs though they were the ones who wrote the number incorrectly. Any of the losses incurred because of the late arrival of the movers was also none of their concern. Overall, they were willing to reimburse a mere $186. We discussed the issue with some lawyers, and they informed us that signing the contract with Sannah at the $4.75/cuft rate and later signing the bill of lading so that the movers would even begin to unload the truck was not legally binding because of duress. So we returned our complaint, explaining that we found the offer unacceptable, and we insisted we receive the reimbursement we requested. After another 30 business-day wait, the claims group offered a $400 reimbursement with a request that we do not continue to post negative reviews about Sannah Van Lines. Overall, this has been a miserable experience. In hindsight, everything about Sannah Van Lines suggested an incompetent, if not shady, operation. The refusal to inspect our home, or to defer our contract to another company that would; the continual shifting of dates; the insistence of paying by cash or postal money order instead of an electronic method that could be tracked; the requirement that any lawsuit be handled in California; the refusal to disclose the location of our belongings: every one of these are documented red flags. Even allowing that it is difficult to keep a competent staff of movers willing to engage in back-breaking work, and even allowing for the long distances involved, the incompetence Sannah Van Lines showed in communicating across departments, in arranging and tracking payments, in scheduling people to pack and unload, and the utter failure to initiate any communications with us reveals an organization that is either inept or fraudulent. Customers should avoid Sannah Van Lines at all cost. While Allegiance was merely the broker arranging for Sannah to handle our move, the lack of help and gross underbidding on our move is a black eye against them. They have lost us as customers, and we strongly recommend that customers do not deal with Allegiance, either.

Sannah Van Lines is the worst company I have ever contracted with. They are very good at selling their listing, but our nightmare began the first day they picked up our items last March. Yes… my husband was promised a quote but we ended up paying another price. In addition to having been delivered on the wrong day, the boxes that were brought to us that day were not ours. When we finally got our boxes the next day, our items were in very poor shape, dirty and smelly (they moved the items to different warehouses) all the clothes were in the U-Haul, the driver was very rude to us and the tactics of this company and the worst thing is that we were missing boxes. We called about the missing boxes (my husband's military equipment and personal belongings) and they said we had to make the claim. This is the Sannah Van Lines solution… go and make a claim. How can you put a price on 10 years of service? Do you think we have license plate receipts from the different countries he visited? your gifts and military outfits? Well, no. We called, left messages and even made claims and to our surprise (we knew of course) this Company didn't even follow up or send a message or call. But of course, they called my husband several times to sign the contract. This company should not be giving any kind of service. SANNAH VAN LINES ARE SCAMMERS, LIARS AND THIEVES.

This company seem unprofessional and possibly a scam. Stay clear if you do not want to be ripped off. They will give you a low quote, then on moving day they will double the price, and if you do not go with the double price they will keep your deposit for a service they have not fulfilled. I was moving across the country and needed a moving company. Sannah Van Lines' quote of $4K looked good and the representative on the phone was very professional and nice. I paid the deposit $827 two months in advance and followed up several times with the company as we got closer to the move date. On the day of the move the movers showed up at 6pm at night. They looked unprofessional and not ready to move. The “crew” did not seem to have any packaging materials with them like they knew that there would be no move today. When they examined our packed belongings they said we have twice as much as in our quote hence we need to pay $8K. The thing is that we had exactly the amount of items we listed for the quote so we did not have any extra stuff as they claimed. When we told them that we would not pay double they said they won't move our stuff. So we asked for our deposit back. Then they said that they would not give our deposit back because we did not show up on moving day. Really? The entire neighborhood saw them!