A full service moving company that has set high standards in the household moving industry is exactly what Bekins Van Lines is known for. Being in the moving business for more than 129 years, they have helped people with an array of moving services. With their headquarters located in Indianapolis, Bekins have covered almost 95% of the U.S with their moving services. Not just that, they have as many as 400 agents that help you have a quality moving experience.
Doesn’t matter if your move is just across the town or across the country, Bekins Van Lines have got it all covered up for you. Want to know more about their prices and what other services they have for you? Well, that’s what we’ve covered in this review. So let’s get started and know what different kinds of services you can get from Bekins Van Lines.
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What Services Are Offered By Bekins Van Lines?
From packing and shipping to storing your items, you can turn to Bekins Van Lines for any kind of moving service you’re looking for. Along with different moves such as residential or international moves, they also specialize in various other services. Here are some of the details of the main services offered by Bekins Van Lines:
Moving Services:
Whether your move is just across the street or town or a big one crossing borders, Bekins Van Lines will help you with all kinds of moves. Along with assisting you with your move, they assure you a smooth, simple and quality moving experience. As mentioned on their website, the different kinds of move Bekins Van Lines cater to are as follows:
1. Household Moves: If you’re in need of a moving company for your local, regional or intrastate moving, then you should definitely consider Bekins Van Lines. As a full service moving company, they have over 400 local agents that will help you with household moving services throughout the U.S
2. International Moves: In order to make your international move successful, Bekins Van Lines has partnered with Crown Relocations. You probably might know, they are renowned for their international moving services throughout the world. With the help of their expertise, Bekins Van Lines assure you a secure move overseas.
3. Corporate Relocations: You can definitely trust Bekins Van Lines for your corporate relocation as they have connections with the many human resource departments and other administrators to make the move simple and easy. Also, you can customize your office relocation according to your needs.
4. Specialized Moves: Bekins acknowledges that every move is different and that every customer has different needs and expectations. Taking that into consideration, they will provide you with a customized moving based on your requirements. Be it moving your things, packing or shipping them, or just any one or two of the wide range of services Bekins offers, they will take care of all of it.
5. Military and Government Moves: Whether yours is a local move or an international one, Bekins take pride in helping not just military personnel but also government agencies and federal employees. With an experience of decades in military and government moving services, you can surely trust these experts with your move.
Also See: Affordable Cross Country Moving Companies in the US
Packing Supplies:
To protect your belongings and move them safely to your new home, Bekins also provide you with their high quality packing supplies. Right from moving boxes for your fragile items like dishes and glasses to bubble wrap and professional tape, they will pack your items safely if you ask for their packing services. The best thing is that if you help them in packing your items, they will even reduce your price for packing supplies.
1. Secure Storage Services: Depending on the date and time of your move, you may need to store your belongings in a safe place while you’re busy selling your old home. You don’t have to worry about where you’ll store all your belongings as Bekins assure you a safe and secure storage. With their warehouses located across the country, you can contact them for storing your precious items regardless of where you reside. Not just that, they also offer you their packing services to keep them safe till you retrieve them. Here’s how you can ask for their storage services according to your needs:
2. Long Term Storage Units and Services: You can contact them for storing your items for a long time. But if you want to retrieve your items, you’ll have to give them a 24 hour notice to return.
3. Short Term Storage Units and Services: You can also approach Bekins for short term storage services. Just make sure that when you want to retrieve your items, you give them a 24 hour notice to return your items.
4. Storage-in-Transit for up to 180 days: Bekins is not limited to traditional storage services. You can keep your items stored for more than 180 days in their reliable units. All you have to do is get in touch with your Bekins moving agent.
5. Furniture and Specialty Items Moving: All of your belongings cannot be packed and moved in the same way. For example your huge furniture, piano, pool table automobiles and delicate artwork need special attention while moving. Don’t worry about that as Bekins will take care of such huge moves with their ELS and FF&E (Furniture Fixtures & Equipment) Project Management Teams. Just so you know, they are one of the nation’s leading companies that assure the safety of your large items. Apart from that, they also provide professional warehouses and distribution services.
6. Valuation Protection: Not always will all your items be intact and perfect after reaching your new home. There are chances of things breaking or getting damaged. To save you from that, you can get a protection plan that ensures the safety and compensation for your items. Once you get the Limited Liability Protection from Bekins, you will get a valuation of 60 cents per pound/item depending on the weight of your items. An important thing you need to note about your claim settlement is that regardless of what the item is, the compensation will be the same for items weighing the same. You need to note the following things concerning the valuation policy:
7. Valuation Policy and Application: The valuation policy is applicable to you if at all the company’s boxes are damaged during transit. Do keep in mind that the liability won’t be the same for the boxes you pack as compared to the carrier-packed boxes. So don’t expect the company to compensate for anything if you pack the boxes yourself.
8. Full Replacement Value Protection (FRVP): If at all you’re worried about the safety of your items and need extra protection, you can choose the Full Replacement Value Protection policy (FRVP) for your items. The best thing about the FRVP policy is that you get to set the declared value along with the deductible level for your items. It’s based on a release value of $6 per pound. You can check the company’s website for further details on the FRVP policy.
9. Application of FRVP Policy: An important thing you need to note is that you will have to set the declared value and deductible level for your items before you load them in the truck. All you have to do is get a quote stating the valuation level you set before the shipment of your items. Once you do that, it will be included in the overall cost of the shipment. But you’ll have to pay for your shipment before the delivery.
10. Items of Extraordinary Value: There will be certain important items you possess like your jewelry, antiques, rare documents, etc that have a greater value of more than $100 compared to your other items. With Bekins, you can set a value for these extraordinary items and get a calculated rate for protection. Apart from that, the company will assess your items in case they need to be repaired or replaced after which you can get a deductible amount. You can approach them or get in touch with your Bekins agent to get further details on this.
These are the services provided by Bekins Van Lines as mentioned on their website. To get further details on the services available for you, you can get in touch with a Bekins agent.
See Also: 5 Best Self-Storage Companies
Bekins Van Lines Cost and Pricing
Not all kinds of moves will need the same kinds of services and so the costs may vary. Although their website does not give any details on the moving prices, you can get moving estimates from Bekins Van Lines through several ways. The best thing about hiring Bekins Van Lines is that they are very open when it comes to moving discounts and prices.
Ballpark Estimate: When you choose the Ballpark Estimate, you can actually choose the different services you want from the options the company offers. These services include partial packing, appliance handling and special handling. You can get your Ballpark Estimate online by entering your phone number, email id and other basic details. After you get your Ballpark quote, you need to:
- Contact your Bekins agent to get a free moving quote after evaluation of your home.
- Choose whether you want full value protection that comes with a price or limited protection for your items.
- Once you choose your valuation and protection coverage you can get started with your packing or avail their packing services.
Special Moving Discounts: Very few moving companies are as transparent as Bekins Van Lines when it comes to moving discounts. Along with a reliable and hassle free moving experience, Bekins also offers you various moving discounts. So if you don’t want to spend too much on your move, you can get in touch with them to see when and how you can get moving discounts.
Off Season Moves: If at all you move in the time period between September 1 and April 30, you can avail the following benefits. Do keep in mind that this is only for interstate moves.
● The company offers you a discount of $150 for your moving price.
● You get a delivery guarantee in which the company will pay you $150 per day if at all they don’t meet the delivery on the agreed time.
● You get $15 off on your Full Replacement Value Protection (FRVP)
● If at all you don’t get a claim resolution letter within 30 days, the company gives you a claim guarantee of $25 per day.
Discounts for members of partner organizations: If you’re fortunate enough to be a member of any of the partner organizations of Bekins Van Lines, then you’re sure to be greeted with some amazing discounts. There are two criterias for you to be eligible for these discounts:
- Your move has to be an interstate move.
- You have to be a member of any of these partner organizations: National Association of Senior Move Managers (NASMM), National Active and Retired Federal Employees, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, Floor and Decor PRO Premier Records Members, APBPA Members, The Fraternal Order of the Eagles.
If at all you meet the above criteria, you get the following benefits from the company (as mentioned on their website):
- Free Full Replacement Value Protection (FRVP) of up to $100,000.
- On-time, pick-up and delivery guaranteed pricing.
- Competitive discounts with guaranteed price.
- Stewardship from start to finish.
Reasons To Choose Bekins Van Lines
Alternative Surveys: Not all moving companies like Bekins offer online moving estimates. In addition to that, they also consider your safety, comfort and convenience and so they also offer alternative surveys that include the following:
1. Telephone Survey: You can connect Bekins over a call and tell them the details about your move like the size and number of your items, length of your move and location. That way their agent can help you with an estimate for your move.
2. Video Survey: If you are opting for a video survey, make sure that you have a smartphone, flashlight, tape measure and internet. This video survey will take around one hour of your time. With the guidance of your Bekins agent, you can confidently cover everything in your video survey to get an accurate moving estimate.
3. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Survey: You can do the AI survey using the company’s AI software. It’s somewhat similar to the video survey, so if you think you are more comfortable using technology, you can definitely go for it. But since there will be no agent to guide you, you’ll have to cover all your items in every corner of your house in your AI survey.
4. Quality Assurance: Whether it’s the packing, shipping or unloading of your items, Bekins assure you a quality moving experience. This is seen in the way they quantify all the data right from claims, safety points to weight estimate accuracy in order to satisfy your needs. All of this earned Bekins a spot as the finalist for Temkin Group’s 2015 Customer Experience (CX) Excellence Awards.
5. Packing and Shipping Services: In order to make your move stress free, Bekins offer a full service packing service which includes packing, crating and unpacking services. They also offer their best packing materials for your fragile items like dishes and glasses, appliances, etc. The best thing about hiring them is that they customize your move based on your needs. You can either choose their comprehensive packing services along with an added protection plan or just seek their help for packing your items.
6. Moving Discounts: Although Bekins is a full service moving company, they still help you to plan your move according to your budget. They have various special discounts for members of partner organizations and for people who travel off season. Apart from that, they will even provide you moving supplies at discounted rates if you help them in packing.
Things To Consider Before Hiring Bekins Van Lines
1. Various Types of Estimates: Bekins offer various kinds of estimates to their customers. If you go through their website and check the kinds of estimates and alternative surveys, you can get confused. Many of these types overlap with one another. For example, the video survey and the Artificial Intelligence Survey are almost similar. All of this might make you all the more confused to actually choose which option best suits you.
2. Inconsistent Reviews: Before you hire any moving company, we advise you to check their reviews and ratings online on different sites like Google and Yelp. Bekins has very inconsistent reviews from their customers. While some customers are highly satisfied with their services, there are others who have complained about them. Many people have complained about their furniture being broken, rude truck drivers and the theft of their items. That said, every person has a different moving experience and so customer reviews are bound to vary.
Bekins Van Lines Contact Details
Phone: 1-866-799-9468
Email: bekinscustomercare@wvlcorp.com
Website: https://www.bekins.com/
FAQs about Bekins Van Lines
Is Bekins expensive?
A move generally costs between $200 and $5,000. This range is dependent on the distance to be moved and the number of items being transported.
Is Bekins Van Lines a broker?
Bekins is a moving company that employs independent contractors to move customers’ belongings. Bekins agents are authorized to act on behalf of the company and have met rigorous standards set by them.
How long has Bekins been in business?
Bekins has been in business for a long time, the largest household moving company back in 1969. They are one of the biggest players on North America’s market today – with over 300 locations and 2,100 vehicles!
Conclusion:
If you’re looking for specialized services for an interstate move, then you should definitely consider Bekins. Just a caveat though, Bekins Van Lines is not really a good option for those moving on a tight budget. Another thing you have to be mindful about is being careful with your furniture and huge items, as the company has customer feedback complaining about damaged goods. So go ahead and contact a Bekins agent and see whether their services and prices suit your needs and budget.
Read Also: First National Van Lines Review | American Van Lines Review
