Zippy Shell Reviews 279

Every interaction, a hassle. I have never experienced such a miserable customer experience in my life. From signing the contract, which could not be downloaded, to pickup, delivery, and then the pick up of the empty container, this company and their employees were inefficient, incompetent, disrespectful, and apathetic. Not a single person was helpful.

On 7/6 I had a self loaded container picked up from my home in Utah and freighted to my new home in Washington. I assumed the container had arrived in Washington after receiving a billing notification. I was auto-billed for the remaining balance due as well as a fuel surcharge. When no delivery had been scheduled by 7/22, I called to ask when I would receive the service I had already paid for. I was placed on hold for more than an hour. Once someone picked up, I was told I would receive a call when the delivery was scheduled. THIS IS ALL THEY WILL TELL YOU: “you will receive a call when a delivery has been scheduled.” They will NOT: provide a timeline, a direct customer contact so that you do not have to wait 1 to 2 HOURS to speak to someone, and don’t even think about asking for a freight bill or a bill of lading (which they will call a bill of landing because they have no idea what they are doing). If you do so, they will disconnect your call. Also don't ask them who the CEO of their company is, because they won’t know the answer to that either.

A delivery was scheduled for 7/26. No one ever showed up. No one called. I tried to call and again, hold for hours, no one would answer the phone.

They lied, charging my account, stating that my delivery had reached Washington. It had not. I called the day following our scheduled delivery. When, after hours left on on hold, I was able to get a supervisor on the phone, which was a grand feat all on its own, I was told my things were in Oregon. Oregon? When I again asked for a Bill of Lading, I was told they didn’t have one. When I said it isn’t legal for them to freight containers without a bill of lading, the supervisor was confused. He then admitted they had the BOL but said that I couldn’t have a copy. He also denied me a copy of the freight bill. They will give you nothing to support their story because they lie. By the end of the call he finally admitted that my container had never left Utah, and was sitting in their yard in Salt Lake City. Their correspondence states that it takes 7-10 days to deliver a container, this was 17 BUSINESS DAYS later, and my container never left UTAH. When I asked how they determined a fuel surcharge, which I paid, he had no answer other than he could refund that. That isn’t the issue though, is it? It’s not the return of the funds, it’s the fact that the funds were fraudulently deducted from my account. There could not be a delivery fee or a fuel surcharge because my container never went anywhere. Which is not legal, friends.

The empty container is currently sitting in my driveway, three days past the scheduled pickup. How long is it going to sit there? Who knows. I’ve called twice this morning already and been disconnected.

If I had this to do over again, I would rather carry my belongings in a handcart than deal with this company.

The only resources that will likely be helpful: Federal Motor Carrier Safety: (888) 368-7238.This will only help if their movers physically put your belongings into the truck/container.

Consumer Protection in the state where your container will likely sit for a solid month before it goes anywhere. This is useful particularly if you have been billed for and paid for the service of delivery as well as a fuel surcharge when a delivery has not yet occurred.

Better Business Bureau: File Complaint with BBB.

Take a look at the comments of every single marketing post on their Facebook, you will feel less alone. Solidarity! Be sure to check both Zippy Shell and PackRat because our container displayed the contact info for PackRat and one of their supervisors called us from PackRat's number.

I often write positive reviews and call my dentist or other providers to thank them for their fine services.

I have never written a negative review before today.

We arranged over six weeks in advance to have 3 containers delivered by Zippy Shell. They delivered one of three containers. The other two never showed up. Day after day I have been waiting on hold for up to 90 minutes, trying to contact a supervisor or manager. After speaking with Noah, Alia, Nathan, Lori, Arleen, and Anaya on various days since Zippy Shell ghosted us, we still have no containers here.
Worse still, this house no longer belongs to us.
We pay $400/day to rent back, which should have ended upon Zippy Shell picking up our final container on 31July2021.

Today is 3August and after yet another day of long phone holds, the answer is the same: “I can’t transfer your call to the supervisor at this time, I’ll put in another request for a manager to call you.”
My previous requests were not granted.
I’m not sure whether to file in small claims court or just call the police?
Really I just want my money back so that I can try to find a pod or container or truck to move our family off this property.
Unfortunately I cannot book anything moving-related in the state of CA during the next 2weeks.
Any guesses whether Zippy Shell will pay my rent during all those days?
What’s to be done about the family that owns this house- they are already bringing THEIR things over here. I guess we’ll stack everything we own outside, maybe cart it to friends’ homes?

Moving itself is stressful.
Zippy Shell has made it exponentially more stressful than I could ever imagine.

Do not ever use this company, even if it is free.

We read some favorable reviews of ZippyShell back in June, so we booked them to provide two containers for our packout the last week in July. With our California house sold, we are supposed to be out by 1 August.
The plan we all agreed to was for one container to be delivered on 27 July, we would self-load and then it would be picked up and a second container would be delivered on 29 July. The second container would be picked up on 31 July.

On 27 July, Zippy provided the first container...shoved into the back of a rented Ryder truck. The truck was so tall it could barely get through the trees to our house, but we managed, only to find that they had no way to unload the container from the truck, and the driver said the Shell had to be filled THAT DAY. After the typical 90-minute wait to get through to somebody from Zippy, the best Zippy could say was if I didn't take this container the next one would be weeks away. So my wife and I frantically scrambled to prepare enough stuff to fill the container. Thankfully, the driver had a team that actually loaded the container for us. They put a flimsy lock on the container, gave us the key, and drove away. No paperwork. No zippyshell cage ID#. Nothing.

I called Zippy Wed morning to confirm that the second container would be delivered in a manner that gave us three days to load it. They promised me someone would call me with the plan that afternoon. No call back. I called late in the day and never got through before they closed for the day.

I called Thursday morning, and after a 90-minute wait was rewarded with a double-promise from Aleah(?) that someone would call with details that afternoon.
No one called back.

I called Thursday after lunch, and after a 70-minute wait, Nathan said someone would call me before they closed (8pm EDT). No one called back.

I called again Friday morning, and after a 90-minute wait, someone said there were no containers available and they had "elevated" the issue to the special logistics team. I told them we need to be out of the house by Sunday because the new owners are moving in. He said he marked the case as urgent and someone would call me back later in the day. No one called back.
I called Friday afternoon, and was on hold for over 90 minutes and no one ever answered. It was over 15 minutes beyond their closing time, so I hung up.

So it's now Saturday afternoon. Our house is full of boxes ready to be loaded into a container. We're legally obligated to be out of the house by tomorrow, and we have no container and no plan from Zippy. I have no idea what we're going to do.

WHAT A MESS!!!

*Updated*
My issues with zippy shell have moved from "bad service" to "fraudulent." Below is the long list of all of the problems I've had. But I’ll put the summary up front: they get your money and then straight up lie from beginning to end, charge you extra fees, and in the end, you *will* end up, at your own expense, spend weeks if not months trying to get your belongings back on your own. You’ll be lucky if they’re not damaged in the process. Now for the long story. I paid for a long distance move from Nashville TN to Seattle WA. I paid extra for load/unload labor at both ends. And here is how that went:

Lie #1. They give you a delivery window for the storage container of 8 am to noon. And say they’ll call if they’re running late. No to any of that. They'll show up whenever they feel like. And they will not call.

Lie #2. It’s not a storage container. It’s a wire crate. Yeah—they say they’ll wrap it in the warehouse in plastic. But when its not wrapped (loading and unloading) your belongings are completely exposed to the elements. Hope its not raining when you move. (And don’t buy their lie about “temperature controlled” storage facility.

Lie #3. The website, the person who took the money, and the contract I signed, clearly states you can provide your own lock *or they will bring one for you.* Dear Reader: Guess who did not bring a lock when they came to pick up my things? And they didn’t “forget it.” The 2 guys that showed up said “its your responsibility to have a lock, not ours.”

Delivery problem #1. When my stuff arrived in Seattle (so I thought…see below), they said they didn’t have the labor to deliver it. Gave me the choice of 1 date in 2 weeks and another date in 3 weeks. I really wanted my things. So I asked if I could change from delivery to the option of bringing my own labor and unloading from the warehouse. However, the person on the phone said, “let me call the warehouse and get back to you.” Ten days passed. I emailed. Called. Went to FB and twitter. And no one got back to me. I then searched through my emails, and found a different number and talked to a human being, who said he could see my account. He told me “the forklift was broken.” That was the reason, he said, why no one got back to me, but also why I couldn’t come get my things. (Does it really sound plausible to you that a *warehouse* had a broken forklift for days on end? I found out later that this was a bald faced lie—see below.)

Delivery problem #2. I then, accepted the later date. AND THEY CHARGED ME 250.00 IN STORAGE FEES because they would have had my things for over 30 days.

Delivery problem #3: The day of my supposed delivery, they called me after I had been waiting at my new place for 3 hours, to tell me that my things were not, in fact, in Seattle, BUT STILL IN NASHVILLE.

Lie #4: Literally the next day, I got another email saying my things were in Seattle. So…did they travel 3000 miles in 24 hours? I called to figure out which of these statements were true. Not a single person could explain the contradiction. They did assure me that my things were in Seattle. But…they’ll have get back to me about delivery. I waited another week. All that time, apparently, they were “still working” on getting a delivery date.

Lie #5. So, after being tired of sleeping and sitting on the floor, I finally called and said I’d come get them myself. Because they had already lied once about where my things were, I did this twice—once to see my things before I paid movers. And second to go get them. So I did finally get my things…no thanks to zippy shell. I had to arrange to pick them up at the warehouse 30 miles away at my own expense. The kicker? The bill of lading attached to the crate *clearly* states that my things arrived in Seattle on July 21. Which means they *completely lied* when they emailed me on July 12 to say my things had arrived. Lied again when they said the reason I couldn’t come get my things was because of a broken forklift. It was, in fact, *because my things weren’t in Seattle yet.* And then lied the third time when they said, on July 26th, that my things were still in Nashville. You can’t make this stuff up.

Bad Service #2: When I went to go get my things, the office at the warehouse was closed, so I wandered around the building to find the warehouse entrance. There was ONE employee working. Which meant that we ended up *having to help him.* Me and another customer were *literally wandering around the warehouse* looking for our own crates. And he totally let us, even though this is against every liability practice. To top it all off, he *didn’t know how to use the forklift.* I literally watched him DROP someone’s crate. He spent 2 hours getting it wrong. Finally, one of the truck drivers not employed by zippy shell HELPED HIM FIGURE OUT HOW TO USE THE FORKLIFT so we could all move on with our lives. Unbelievable. But all true. Avoid zippy scam!

Let me start by saying- do not believe what your sales rep tells you. I was told the only payment I need to make was in full upon delivery at my destination address. FALSE. The company charged me half ($3500) 4 days before my first container was even scheduled for delivery.

I reserved two containers a month in advance to be delivered two days apart. The first delivery date comes…. nothing. So I call and am on hold for HOURS. I finally get a human who tells me “I see that you are scheduled for delivery sometime between 11am and 3am. But I don’t think that is right.” She then confirms my fears- the Portland Zippy Shell is permanently closed. But reassured me the sister company “Pack Rat” will be delivering my containers. I get off the phone with her and contact Pack Rat to see if they have an ETA on delivery time. She tells me she will contact the local warehouse and have them call me.

An hour goes by and I get a phone call from Nathan, who tells me the truck has broken down and they aren’t sure when it will be fixed. Possibly a week. I tell Nathan, my house is sold and I need to be gone, I don’t have a week. At this point I have already been charged almost $3,500. Nathan promises a full refund within 2-3 business days and a confirmation email.

This morning has been the 3rd business day; still no refund and still no confirmation email. That money needs to go towards finding another moving solution as I have to be out of my in less than a week.

I type this as I sit on hold with Zippy Shell for again over an hour.

Someone finally picked up. Aleah, I think. Her accent is strong and she won’t spell her name for me. All she can tell me is “I see your account is closed, but I’m not sure why Nathan told you 2-3 business days. It actually takes 4-5 business days AFTER billing department receives his email.” Aleah states she is going to send another email to billing asking them to process “urgently.”

10/10 do NOT recommend Zippy Shell. This long ass review is the condensed version of my experience with their terrible company. The lack of communication is horrendous.

If I could leave zero stars I would. I tried to reserve a shell for a specific date a month in advance. The company could not accommodate that date and took it upon themselves to reserve a shell for me for a different date that did not work for me. I canceled immediately after receiving the email. They sent me a confirmation email saying it was canceled. On the date they scheduled delivery (that I had cancelled 3 weeks in advance) they charged me full price. I have been trying to get in touch with the company for over a month trying to get my money back. DO NOT USE THEM!!!!!!!!!! Customer service is an absolute joke!!!!!

To be honest, they were the only ones that we found who would bring a storage container to where we lived. We were selling our house and wanted to get most of our belongings out, so this seemed like the best plan. We had the initial call and listed off everything in our house that we needed to move and they assured us that it would all fit in one pod. So we set everything up we rushed to pack up most of our belongings and then the day of arrival, they kept saying they were on their way, it kept getting later and later. Darker and darker out. Finally they showed up super late, moved everything out and I'm looking at the truck that's already filled up and thinking, I dont think the rest will fit in there. But we figured they were unloading it into a different storage crate or something. They know what they are doing. Anyway, skip forward a few months of having our stuff in storage and they are scheduled to come pick up the rest. Then two days before, we get a call saying, hey the rest of your stuff isn't going to fit in here. You are going to need get another pod. So we call and they say, 3k more for that one. Which we hadn't budgeted or planned for because they said it would all fit. But we need the rest of our stuff, so what are we going to do? We book the second one, of course. They come and load it up, on time. They even securely wrapped all our appliances up. We were actually really impressed with that part (and the storage aspect was super great) but otherwise they are severely lacking. Now we have moved and they said it could be 3 weeks before the pods get to the facility and then the place will call us to arrange delivery. There's a tracking option on the website but you need an order number which we didn't have, so we had to call in every time to check where our belongings are. The first time we called, they said the estimated arrival was early last week, which was clearly incorrect. Then we received a text saying our belongings were in transit to the destination warehouse. Which sounded like it just left and was incredibly scary. We called and they said it was almost here. Then today when we called they said they couldn't get ahold of dispatch, which sounds scary. Then all the sudden, they tried charging us 5,144.83 out of our account. Which of course didn't work because we were told we had 4,500 left to pay. So we had that moved from savings and our limit on our bank account raised to that amount. But now they want over 600 more than that amount for some reason. My husband sat on hold for 2 hours today. TWO HOURS on hold just to get them to not charge us EXTRA money over the amount THEY told us. And then said they would look into it and call us back tomorrow. I just want my stuff. I miss my bed, my fridge, my table. It should not be this much work and extra money to get it here. So here's hoping it comes between Wednesday and Friday like they said it would. Guess I maybe should have waited to review until it actually made it here, but I'm just so frustrated to keep having more and more charges added to our original quote. Plus waiting and not having our belongings is really frustrating. Eating out everyday (no dishes, pans, fridge, etc) is really expensive. I just kind of wish we had rented a truck and drove it. It's less convenient, but at least we wouldn't be camping out on air mattresses in our new house and eating take out for 3 weeks straight. Oh and we would have at least 6k more dollars.

Update: Now they cannot tell us when all our belongings will be delivered. They sure took our money quickly though, even the 600 extra. They said they would look into it but instead just tried to charge us again the next morning. So we've now paid the full amount and are just waiting, hoping to see our stuff sometime in the near future. We have called and called and called, each time waiting on hold for 45 minutes to 2 hours. Just to see when we could get OUR stuff. We were told they can't contact the team directly, but they would make a note in our ticket. Which they have done several times to no avail. Still no call about when they are coming. We were told 24 hours for one team to pass it on. Then we called again and it was 48 hours to go to another team. Now we are way past all that time and still nothing. We were also told in the beginning it would be Wednesday to Friday at the LATEST. Well guess what tomorrow is. Friday and still no word. I highly doubt it's coming. We've probably just lost all our belongings and paid over 6k for them to just take it. Who even knows at this point.

Also, reading through all these other reviews, we've realized they do the bait and switch. They bait you with a super low price and promise all your stuff will fit, but then switch it on you and charge you for more when it doesn't fit. They may seem cheaper than their competitors, but it's only an illusion.

Update: And now three weeks later are trying to charge us for storage!!

Are you planning to spend $2,500+ to make your move easier and reduce your stress? Find another company immediately. Don't look back.

We tried to make our move easier by scheduling with Zippy 6 months in advance, with the pod slated for arrival 72 hours before our move. It did not arrive the first day, nor the second; it arrived in the evening on the third day, giving us twelve overnight hours to pack our entire apartment.

During this time, our car was unusable because it was reserving a spot for the pod on the street. We couldn't use the car to run errands, and we couldn't pack half our apartment because we had nowhere to put the first half. Throughout this ordeal Zippy was basically unreachable,, and when we were able to speak to someone they told us it would arrive "later today" (which wasn't true).

When the pod finally arrived 12 hours before we had to leave our apartment, it was broken.The inner cage locked, but the door to the outer pod would not close. The driver told us not to worry about it, but literally the pod door would swing open in a stiff breeze and that's how it stayed until they picked it up 2 days later.

Zippy's customer service was abysmal, simply repeating that the best they could do for a "misdelivery" was $150 rebate. This wasn't a misdelivery, it was a breach of service. We very nearly couldn't move, and would have been forced to pay exorbitant fees to our apartment building, and we only avoided that outcome because we packed the pod until 4am before driving across country the next morning.

Turn around, find someone else. You'll be glad you did.

Liars and cheats

PLEASE heed the warnings of others on here. Bait and switch tactics.

Will leave you HIGH AND DRY when you need them most. Will not return calls or emails but will charge you a LOT OF MONEY, much more than quoted.

Lie to you on shipment days and pick updates.

If you're looking for reliability and honesty RUN FAR AWAY from here.

This company does not deserve a SINGLE star. As someone who works in retail, I know how important it is for businesses to acknowledge when they have made an error, and both make it right and show empathy to customers. Zippy Shell is a fraudulent, unethical business model. Your initial sales consult will be comfortingly easy, and you'll leave the conversation feeling reassured. Then, the moving begins, and you'll realize that you've been WOEFULLY misled.

If you want to read more, I've detailed our experience with Zippy Shell below. Otherwise, here's my advice:

I hate running. I literally never run unless I am chased. So here I am CHASING YOU. RUN RUN RUN AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY. You'd be better off hiring a pack of carrier pigeons to move your stuff, they'll be more enjoyable to deal with and more reliable.

DETAILS:
- After our consult and a lengthy conversation about our belongings, we were ensured that one container would accommodate our belongings. Our Moving Agreement specified a container delivery date, container loading date, and a container pick up date.

- The containers were not delivered on the planned date (even though it was confirmed in an email from ZippyShell). Rather, two movers and an empty truck arrived a full business day earlier (5/24) than the date scheduled and aligned on in our moving agreement (5/25/2021). No notice was provided of the change in moving date, nor the fact that the expected pod/container was not being delivered. Upon calling ZippyShell customer service on 5/24, we were told that we had no choice but to move that day, and that they could not accommodate our scheduled moving date (5/25). Little effort was made by ZippyShell customer service to right the experience. They offered us $100 off, a wholly unsatisfying attempt to remedy the error, as both myself and my partner had to take an unexpected and unplanned day off from work. I have seen no invoice showing that the $100 off was even applied to our bill.

- Halfway into our unplanned moving day, the movers alerted us that our belongings would NOT be able to fit into the planned single container, as the associate ensured us would be the case. Not only did ZippyShell neglect to take responsibility for misleading us, they could not ensure a second container. In extensive conversations with ZippyShell, they told us that they could not get a second container to us until 5/26 or 5/27, days after our scheduled move out. We were closing on the house the morning of 5/26, and could NOT be in the home past 9 AM on 5/26.
- With NO help at all from ZippyShell, the gentlemen moving us personally decided to help us and retuned to our home with the second container, as ZippyShell refused to work with us, even though the situation was entirely due to ZippyShell’s own errors. Further, we were made to pay incrementally for the second container – AND we were charged updated freight/transportation costs.

Think it ends here? I wish. The move-in process has been even more infuriating. We were supposed to move into our new home on 7/15, and so far are on day 5 in an empty apartment despite multiple verbal scheduling conversations with the ZippyShell team to confirm the move in date. They decided to book our move in on 7/23 without consulting us, or considering that we have JOBS and need notice to be able to take off work. This leaves us in an empty apartment having to eat out and sleep on an air mattress (that alone costs $100) for over a week -- nevermind the actual medical damage they are causing me, as I have a fractured back that requires specific care. OUR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL BODIES HAVE SUFFERED AS A RESULT OF THIS COMPANY.

They've offered me $150 for the inconvenience, despite the fact that I've spent nearly $6K with them when I was originally quoted $2,400.
WHAT. A. JOKE.

Great experience moving with ZippyShell. Truly professional and an outstanding crew! The crew chief Nyles and members Jon and Seth were quality movers and very respectful. They moved everything carefully and with thought and still moved swiftly. If I move again, Zippy will be my 1st choice and I hope to get this same crew. The boys were extremely nice to our children and my parents. No damages and excellent work. No concern and supreme service

Zippy Shell/PackRat has been the absolute worst experience. If you can use literally anyone else to move you, please do it! They missed their initial delivery date of our crate, and we had to call to ask where it was. The manager could find no reason why it was not delivered, but couldn’t get another one delivered until 5 days later. We were leaving the literal next day of the new delivery. Pickup was great, but then, to neither my husband’s nor my surprise, delivery to our new address did not happen on time. We were told the crate would be delivered 8-10 business days from pickup. On the 8th day, they charged our card. Here we are, on the 10th day, and no delivery. We call, and apparently once they charged our card we were supposed to get an email for us to call to request days for delivery. This did not happen. So, here we are, in our new place, waiting for all our belongings to be delivered, and no guarantee of when this will happen

Oh, and compensation for their mess-up? Minimal. A joke, and honestly a bit of an insult. $2500 +/- for this service, and they give us a $125 credit for missing delivery of the empty crate by 5 days.

The best part about all of this? We were assigned an agent to be our “personal contact”. This guy never once responded to any of our communications. Emails went unanswered, and phone calls went to the customer service desk instead.

This company is as transparent about their services as mud. Their customer service is a joke, and as helpful as parasites. Go elsewhere.

Zippy Shell is the worst in my opinion. We are moving from Arizona to Montana and had our shell delivered on a Friday. When it arrived it was a pack rat pod which I thought was strange. After about four hours of loading, in 110 degree heat, I received a call saying their logistics team messed up and a Zippy shell should have been delivered. They have me two options: have the zippy shell delivered Tuesday, the earliest they could and unpack all I have packed or have their company transfer our belongings from the Pack Rat to the Zippy Shell. Well obviously I would take the second option because the first choice wasn’t an option for us since we had to have our belongings out of our home by Tuesday, delivery day. Two weeks have passed and we are now out of AZ, I receive a call saying I will need to pay for an additional zippy shell because our belongings do not fit when they transferred or I can come get my things. Customer service manager was very, very unapologetic and kept repeating the same thing. Told me is supervisor would not speak with me. Asked what our options were, pay the price of a shell or come get your things, he didn’t even know which belongings didn’t fit. I would love a call from someone who will take responsibility for your mistake and have a discussion about real options as what he states are not realistic.

My experience with Zippy Shell has been horrendous. Their customer service in my opinion is the worst when and if you can reach them. Erin Smith the sales person was in my opinion deceptive at best when explaining their contract. Wouldn’t recommend them to my enemy. Stay away!!

TERRIBLE SERVICE. CUSTOMER SERVICE WILL NOT RETURN MY REQUEST TO DELIVER MY BELONGINGS. CROOKS! BUT THEY TOOK MY MONEY!

DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!! When I talked with a representative about what I needed to move my things she told me that one “shell”would work for a three bedroom home. So I set things up to work with this company. On the day of the move, they were two hours late. And, worse than that, the “shell” ( a mesh cage) was not big enough!!! And, the picture you see if a Zippyshell truck? Nope. The mesh cage came inside a regular, unmarked truck! I called Zippyshell and talked with a manager, Phillip. He was not helpful at all by saying that they had no idea how many pieces/boxes I needed to move. Well then, why didn’t the representative ask me those questions in the first place? Basically, he said I’d need to pay $1600 more for another cage and THEY DIDN’T KNOW WHEN ONE WOULD BE AVAILABLE!!! (So, I had to rent a big trailer from UHaul to move the rest of my things by myself and I’m a 71 year old woman). Zippyshell is one of the WORST experiences I’ve had with a moving company or any company for that matter. Completely inept people and a total lack of good, honest upfront service.

Zippy Shell is one of the worst companies I have ever worked with.

My initial drop-off for the empty container went fine, even though it was about 3 hours late and, instead of a Zippy Shell, what was dropped off was a more typical type of moving container from their sister company, 1-800 Pack Rat. While I was not told this would be the case, I didn't bat an eye because I knew they are sister companies.

My container was picked up on time after 3 business days (the longest length of time this company will let you have), and we were ready to move a week later, with the expectation our container would arrive in 6-8 business days, per the contract.

Well, my family and I moved to our new house without furniture, fully expecting that to be fixed in a few days. However, the 8th business day comes and goes with 0 correspondence from Zippy Shell - no updates and certainly no delivery.

I called the company, and they have two options when you call. Either wait on the line, or schedule a callback. Waiting on the line yields, on average, a 20-30 minute wait time. If you do decide to schedule a callback, don’t expect a call within the hour.

After a lengthy wait, I was finally given the opportunity to talk to someone at the company. At this point, I explained how long I had been waiting on my things with zero updates. Following this, I was told by their customer service representative that, because my things were loaded into a 1-800 Pack Rat container rather than a Zippy Shell, they would have to wait to get a Zippy Shell in which they could transport the Pack Rat container or else they wouldn't be allowed to transport it to their storage facility in my destination. With that in mind, after 9 business days, my container remained at the origin location, unbeknownst to me. This was NEVER disclosed to me, so I was certainly unhappy at this news.

After another couple of days with no update, I called once again. This time, I'm told that the parts of the company who deal with customer service don't have any way to get live updates from their logistics department. I'm put on a brief hold, at which time I was told my container is still at the origin location and they had no update on when it would be picked up.

I told them that the lack of transparency was unacceptable, and that this delay should be sufficient enough for a refund or some sort of compensation to remedy the delay that extends beyond any reasonably expectable delay, as laid out in their contract. The customer service team told me that they do not discuss finances on the phone, and that I would need to pay in full before any discussion could be had on the fiscal side of things. They will refuse the conversation with you until they get their money entirely, giving them all of the leverage.

I called a couple more times to get status updates, and their customer service team again told me they have no updates, but would have someone from the management team give me a call. I was told 3 times I would get calls from management, yet I never received a call from a management team member. I, instead, forced the issue and had a team member transfer me. After a 20 minute wait, I finally had the honor and privilege of talking to a Zippy Shell customer service manager.

Their manager told me several things in order to completely deny any wrongdoing or mishandling of the situation, including:
1. There is a driver shortage, and specifically in my origin area, they cannot find someone to pick up and deliver my container. Rather than telling me this is what happened, I had to pull teeth to have someone relay this information. Also, there was no indication that there was a driver shortage causing this delay until I asked and spoke to at least 5 different team members.
2. Zippy Shell will not reach out to customers with any correspondence other than pickup and delivery notifications. All else you just have to pray you call in time to find out before any issues arise that you can't get in front of.

As of writing this, it has been 3 calendar weeks since my container was picked up, which also translates to 15 business days. I had an initial 6-8 business day window sold to me and written in my agreement. Zippy Shell loves to say that this is "just an estimate" and that they have no guarantees, citing their hidden rules that are in an addendum to the agreement that can only be read by clicking a website url embedded in your PDF agreement.

However, an additional 7+ business days is not a reasonable delay which can be justified, and the fact that my container is STILL at the origin location is unacceptable.

Do not, under any circumstances, use Zippy Shell for your moving or storage needs. They will skirt every question, provide no clarity, and hold your things hostage without any estimated date as to when it will be returned to you.

7/20/2021 update - my things still have not arrived!

We do not recommend this company under any circumstances. We booked a pod to move from Detroit to Winter Park a month in advance. On the evening of the date the pod was to arrive for loading we were informed - after calling about its whereabouts - that the pod was not coming due to no pods being available. We were additionally informed that the earliest date a pod MIGHT be available for loading was the day AFTER we had to move.
What moving business doesn't know how many pods they have available compared to the number of customers who want them? This one, apparently.
Yes, they'll issue a refund (we'll see) but it will hit a week after we have to move. And there was absolutely no apology or effort to help.
Bad business, bad customer care, just bad.

Terrible customer service, and uncaring management. I was scammed by a friend at the place I moved to in Colorado, so I called them 5 days after my things had been picked up in Chicago (3 hours late), asking if I could switch my shipment to New Jersey instead, and how much it would cost to do so. The woman told me they could do that since it hadn't been shipped yet, and that it would only cost an additional $20. Perfect! I received an email saying my belongings were now being delivered to New Jersey, so I booked my flight.

I hear nothing for 3 days, then on the 4th day, while I'm at the airport on my way to New Jersey, I get a text message saying my belongings are now in transit. Awesome! However a little while later, I get a call as I'm boarding my plane, saying that the change was never communicated, and that my things were being sent to the original destination in Colorado! I say this won't work for me, as I'm not living in Colorado anymore, and that I was told my things would be sent to New Jersey 4 days ago. The person told me he could redirect me to sales and that's it.

I call their sales department and they quote me an ADDITIONAL $3,200, all because of their lack of communication. I called back several times saying that I cannot and will not pay this, and that I need my things in New Jersey, but the supervisor keeps referring me to sales, and sales keeps referring me to a supervisor. Nobody has any idea what they're doing, and they seem completely unwilling to help solve this problem. My items are now in some warehouse in Colorado, being held hostage while I'm being charged $240 per month for storage and "protection"! It has been WEEKS and nobody has been helpful, and I have no idea how to get my things back, every possession I own is there.

I wish I read these reviews before using this company, STAY AWAY from this company!

Edit: The reply below is false, they OFFERED a discount, which I will not be accepting, as they're still asking for over $2,000 despite me having written confirmation of the change of address. I guess we'll be settling this in court instead.

I rarely write reviews but my experience with Zippy Shell made me feel obligated to warn other movers. I hired Zippy Shell for a long distance move and also had them book me movers to load the moving container. On the day of my move, I waited for the movers during the designated arrival time but had not heard from them so I called and was told there was a forklift problem in the warehouse and that I could expect them in the next hour. Two and a half hours later, they had still not arrived nor had they called so once again I called the movers and while on the phone with them someone from Zippy Shell called to tell me the movers truck "broke down" (I've now seen this excuse in other bad reviews) and they would not be coming.

I was told that I would not be able to have movers come again until 5 days later and 3 days after I needed to be out of my apartment and that the most Zippy Shell could do was provide a $200 discount due to the "short notice." After speaking with multiple people at Zippy Shell, no one was able to find a suitable solution for me to be out of my apartment by the end of the month and as a result I had to take the rest of the afternoon off of work to frantically call movers around the city in hopes someone could move me on extremely short notice. I spoke with over 15 moving companies and found one who took pity on my situation and said the only availability they could provide was for that night.

As a result, I moved forward with the new moving company knowing I needed to be out of my apartment. Due to Zippy Shell company policy, I was told that my movers would not be able to drop my belongings at their facility that night due a 48 hour notice policy at their warehouse (mind you their movers cancelled on me and they were still not able to make an exception). Since this was my absolute only option to get movers to me, I had no other option but to have the new movers take all my things to my parent's garage where everything is now haphazardly stacked. By the time the entire ordeal was over it was after 1am and I had to pay a large amount of money for last minute movers.

Zippy Shell customer service was incredibly unhelpful, had no back-up plans in place (they kept telling me that the truck breaking down was an "unforeseen circumstance" but as a moving company you need to have contingency plans in place) and the $200 discount was a slap in the face for the chaos that ensued and the amount of money I had to pay to get new movers. I had just lost close to $1,000 finding last minute movers and felt it was fair that Zippy Shell at least meet me in the middle and provide an additional credit and they wouldn't even entertain the idea of providing more money. It was very clear that they didn't care about the customer experience (especially after asking to speak with multiple supervisors and being told that a supervisor wouldn't be able to help). The irony is when I was shopping around for movers, I decided not to go to PODS because they were more expensive and now I've cancelled my order with Zippy Shell and will be moving forward with PODS. After telling PODS the story, they seemed completely unsurprised and basically said they tried to warn me this would happen. Lesson learned: spend the extra money and go with PODS! I could not recommend Zippy Shell any less.

UPDATE: Zippy Shell responded back to my post and asked for my order number and said they would have a customer service representative investigate (even after I've talked to close to 10 representatives this week who could do next to nothing to help my situation) and that someone would reach out to me. After providing additional information, they changed the post to say that they were sorry and they would use the feedback to provide better customer experiences in the future. No attempt to rectify the situation and a generic response that seems to be the go-to for the other bad reviews on here. I would have gladly provided a more positive update to this post if someone had reached out saying they were willing to provide some sort of credit or even provide a sliver of customer experience besides "we're sorry" but instead they changed their response and made it clear no one else would be reaching out to smooth things over. Steer clear!