Avoid like the plague! You would be better off throwing your things out and buying them all again at your destination. I Can't think of a single positive experience that I had with Blue Star Van Lines during the course of our move.
Our shipment was picked up by two slow-moving and tired-looking men. While packing our things, the driver was phoned on several occasions by a woman who was "wondering where all of her things were". The driver kept telling her to phone Blue Star, and it sounded like she had before with little luck, and was calling him as she had nobody else to ask about her things. This made us nervous.
Upon loading our shipment (Calgary to Vancouver), the driver assured us that he would be in Vancouver to drop everything off at our new place within 3 days.
Upon getting to Vancouver, the shipment didn't arrive. My girlfriend and I called Blue Star roughly 5 or 6 times each over the next three weeks. During each call, we were passed from one secretary to the next, each with conflicting stories of what city our stuff was in (one even thought it was in Ontario). Most gave the impression that they had no records of who we were or where ANY shipment was. Each call ended with a secretary assuring us that everything would arrive "in 3 days". 3 is their magic number.
Eventually a family member living in Calgary got through to the Calgary branch and found out our stuff had been left in a storage space in Calgary, and Blue Star had planned to eventually bring it A MONTH AND A HALF after pick up as this was a time more convenient for them. They didn't even notify us to tell us this, and the head office wouldn't tell us that this was their intention upon our contacting them.
In the end, some members of my family ended up picking up the stuff themselves in a trailer and brought it all out to Vancouver themselves as well.
If I could give Blue Star Van Lines a "negative star out of five" rating, I would. It's amazing that companies like this manage to continue to operate.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $1,200.00