Transtar Moving Systems

I have used this company for a few smaller moves in the past so they were my only choice when it came to a complex move involving four different properties. It went off without a hitch and came in under budget both time and money. The guys were very helpful and hard workers. I read some of the not so pleasant reviews and I can only surmise the more you participate in the move the better off it will go. Thanks Transtar!

I just moved from New Jersey to Miami, and it was my first big move so I was a little nervous about it. I’m so glad I went with Transtar to help me, because they took a lot of the stress out of moving. The team who came in and packed up my items were careful, professional, and experienced. My furniture arrived perfectly on time and in the same condition I had left it in. I will definitely be using them in the future.

Horrible company, I would not spend one dime with them. The movers that packed up our house were fast, polite and efficient, however lacked organization which led to us not having pieces of our furniture for almost a month, which the company did nothing about. The movers that moved us in simply made my blood boil. They stood around on the truck cracking jokes, playing with our possessions, throwing things to one another. In the first 2 hours they were at our house, they maybe moved in 2 big items and 10 boxes and there were 4 of them. It took them an hour to even open up the truck. When I tried to help them by unloading, they refused to let me on the truck with my own stuff! All my furniture has dings in it now, it took longer than expected for both days, and the owner of the company called to give me a song and dance about how transparent he was and wanted to rectify the situation, but when I asked for money back because of the terrible service, he just kept giving me the same speech. If I ever move again, I would not even consider this company. Everything about moving is stressful, movers shouldn’t be. I could have moved myself better than these fools.

I hired Transtar to do a local move. First let me say that the movers themselves (sub-​contractors) were both good, (with one being exceptional), as the move was from an upstairs apartment to another upstairs apartment and he really worked hard getting all of my boxes up and down those stairs and all of my items survived intact.
My complaint with this company was with the way the moving costs were estimated, which left me feeling as though I had been purposely mislead.
When I initially moved into my apartment I had received a flat rate estimate for the moving job from the company I used at that time, so I made the assumption that the estimate I was receiving from Transtar was the same, and the estimator never explained that it was not.
The estimate actually turned out to be a «ball park» hourly rate figure, which was, according to the person I spoke with at the company, dependent upon many factors including the strength, skill and stamina of the movers; traffic, weather or any other conditions that as a client I have no control over, which I was not made aware of until the cost of the job went up because it took an hour longer than the original numbers of hours estimated and I was hit with an additional $ 115 in fees.
My issue with this as a customer who up until a month ago was low-​income, has a strict budget and hates surprises, is that the original estimate was fairly priced, so I did not get any other estimates from other moving companies making the decision to go with Transtar on the spot.
Had the estimator told me that the real price of the job could be anywhere between 4 – 6 hours depending on conditions, or estimated the job at the highest possible number of hours instead of the lowest, I would have called other moving companies to get other quotes.
After an unpleasant discussion with customer service I paid the bill, (feeling fortunate that I actually could without having to sacrifice a payment on another bill) but I am left feeling that either the estimator either does not know his job, was so sure of his estimate that it never occurred to him the job would run over or deliberately came in low so as to look more competitive. Either way I was the one that paid the price.
I am not saying that I would not have ultimately chosen to use Transtar depending on the other quotes, but the way they handled the situation has made certain that I will never use them again.
UPDATE: Thank you Bill for so thoughtfully pointing out your policies to me again but here is the problem; the move took a total of 5 hours including travel time.
The movers arrived at 9:30 AM and left at 2:30 PM. They worked for 4 hours with a total of 1 hour travel between apartments. Yet I keep being told by your company that somehow it was a 6 hour job which is why I owed you extra money, because rather than look into what went wrong, you keep quoting me policy to explain why you are are right.
The paperwork was filled out incorrectly, with the mover putting down the total time without realizing that the travel time slot already had a number in it, but no one on your end is willing to listen or truly look into the matter because you are so certain that the mistake could not possibly be yours, and that I am just a whiny client who begrudges hardworking folks a «water break». The truth is that I was overcharged for the job.

I am writing this review on here, after speaking with the company reps, and I can tell you this is categorically one of the worst moving companies, on par with a local guy with a truck. Some issues we had:
1) They sent the wrong size truck. So at 10pm at night on the 3^rd day of packing, they had to unload everything b/​c it did not all fit. Driver/​foreman told his boss at the beginning of the job, but was told he was wrong.
2) They «wrote down the wrong day» for the delivery on the other side. This was a large interstate move, our very small, toddler and preschooler were sent to my mom’s house to manage the move and the whole thing turned into a logistical nightmare.
3) no pads or cardboard put down until we made a fuss. I’ve never seen that before. and the crew dinged our doorways. most of the guys they sent were not professional movers, just box lifters
4) Left our things in the rain. Enough said.
5) Personalities were really strong and combative/​unprofessional; stressful to have people like that in your house.
6) we were a corporate move/​which was a whole new level of crazy because there were multiple managers and coordinators involved and they did not all speak to each other. Case in point: We were «homeless» for a week because the coordinator told us that is how long it would take to get our stuff from Philly suburbs to Baltimore suburbs. Afterwards, it turns out that was incorrect and we could have had our things right away.
Not a Fan.
EDITED 9÷4÷15: Mmmm. No. I pretty much stayed on the phone with our move coordinator and yet another supervisor in NJ the entire time and they admitted that all the above were inappropriate, but that doesn’t change the facts. This company is a disaster, and the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, as response below shows. Pretty important requirement for a company in THE LOGISTICS BUSINESS. Hire at your own risk.

Worst moving company in existence. No leadership or management exists and it is quite obvious nobody knows how to run the company. They can’t make timelines and they constantly delay with no reason.
0 stars. Do not use.

Very disappointed! We used Transtar for several moves. The movers seemed experienced. The insurance was not completely explained and they ended up wrecking an expensive modern chair. The chair was stored in their warehouse for several days before delivery.
Then, they said because I didn’t opt for additional insurance, they only had to pay 60 cents per pound or computed by them —$ 60! The chair was worth $ 3500. Part of this move was paid for by the US government, thus more fully insured!
Please ask lots of questions!
Customer service had some excuse about government regulations on paying for damaged goods!
Mr. Arkin who owns Transtar was unavailable and didn’t return my call.

Highly, highly recommend this company. Just this past Thursday I had a very hectic move. They had stop offs. They were wonderful. They did things way beyond what they had to do. Such as setting up my bed and setting up my apartment before I got there, I would use then again. No doubt about it.

I relocated my business with Transtar and couldn’t have been happier.
I had your typical office stuff to move, but quite a bit of heavy equipment as well. From the initial quote process with Patrick through the moving day with a punctual, capable, friendly and patient team (6 chaps, 2 trucks, 2 trips), right on through follow up, I couldn’t have been happier with Transtar.
Moving is stressful and hard, but Transtar helps alleviate many of the headaches, without creating any new ones. If you’re a business, you need these guys on your RELO Team.
Great work, great service, great price. Five stars.

Just finished moving with these guys, and they did an amazing job! They moved us out of a townhouse with a LOT of stuff in just over 2 hours and moved us into our new house in just under 2 hours. They were quick, professional, and overall excellent.

We used Arpin Van Lines (dba Transtar) to move across country. The price tag was hefty, but less expensive than the big boys. The local rep was very kind, offering up used boxes free of charge, even brought them over. The problem arose with putting in a claim. All movers will damage your goods, its just how they handle the claim that sets the company apart from others. I submitted my claim, and a week or so later received the «ruling» on what they were going to cover and what they were not. Along with the «ruling» was a brochure on how you can arbritrate their decision. The part that angered me was a few things didn’t arrive. And it was my «responsibility» to ensure everything was unloaded from a 3000 sq ft home, full basement and 3 car garage with 5 packers/​unloaders. Yet they took no ownership that their inventory list was incorrect. Humm, that was my responsibility too!!! So for a lousy $ 70 clay pot, I will trash their name on more than several websites… Buyer beware, or at least know what is required during a move of this magnitude!

Moving is stressful. Transtar somehow managed to make my last minute, unexpected move pain free! Transtar was able to accommodate my move out of Philadelphia in just 48 hours. When other companies wouldn’t return my calls or if they did, gave me an outrageous price… Transtar delivered! The price was more than reasonable for the incredible service they provided. The two men who were in charge of my move were punctual, professional, and took great care with all of my belongings. They ran up and down my 3^rd floor walk up apartment in Philadelphia hundreds of times and didn’t rest until the truck was loaded. These gentlemen went above and beyond. Transtar far exceeded my expectations. For a pleasurable, stress free move… use Transtar!