Right with you, I only used them once - never again.

I'm also in PA and bought a machine in CA last year. I wasn't home to accept delivery so my Fiancée's Mother tipped both guys $20 each (I wouldn't have done that). The only mistake they made was that they left the pin here without getting a payment for it. I got a free machine out of the deal. Jk. I had to then make phone calls to sort it out. Sorry you are having issues like this.

Paragraphs are your friend.

Many people imagine that their game is loaded on a truck and then that truck is driven to the destination.

What really happens is that at every hub, your game is pulled off a truck and loaded on the next truck headed in the general direction of the destination.

So for a 700 mile journey, your game may travel on 5 different trucks.

In the shipping biz, "nothing costs more money than a half empty truck", so your game may sit at a hub until a truck is full enough to be driven to the next hub.

That is why "direct door to door" shipping is $2000 and "guaranteed date delivery" is $2000 - those kind of options are expensive to fulfill !

True story...I am in VA and game came from FL..price $408.10....Another game from W.VA to VA..(1 state over)..price $408.10. Do their prices start at $408.10?

It seems that $400 is the base price lately.

Just like Priority Mail is $5 even if it is in the same city.

To the OP, since you mentioned the machne is a 12-13 hour drive, why not just get it yourself? I've done the vacation day, minivan trip from Detroit to Boston to pick up pins in the past. York and Shamokin Pennsylvania too.Heck, I've brought slot machines from California in a car. Twice now.

Minivan rentals are not too expensive if you have a discount plan from a large corporate rental client.

Hell with NAVL. I had enough from them after one experience this year. I make the drive now - no exceptions. I want it badly enough; I will just drive for it. Too much hassle and WAY too many damaged games jumping on here lately with NAVL.

Navl is much like trying to suck a bowling ball thru a garden hose. Never again, I'd rather make a long drive then deal with wasting days for no delivery and crappy, rude service.~SpOoKy

I had the same exact experience you described.

They told me they would call to set up a time, I took a vacation day, waited the entire day, and they never came.

I called them back, they asked to ship it the next day. I told them to forget it, and I'd come pick it up now (the depot was 20 minutes from my house).

They said no and would rather scramble to have someone out to deliver it. So they showed up at sunset, opened the door, and one game was on it's side on the bed of the truck, the other was about to fall off the pallet. They had unpalletized and tried to put both on one pallet without strapping them down or re-wrapping or even putting the nice shipping blankets back on that the shipper wrapped them with.

Then they hassled me for months about trying to get my insurance money that I had paid for! I paid extra for insurance, didn't even claim the full amount, but made a 9 page itemized list of materials that were damaged, including before and after pictures, due solely to their negligence.

How they are still in business is beyond me. I'm sorry for your frustration, but you're not alone.

They are in business because they are the largest moving company in the USA.

They don't stay in business moving 4 pinball machines each week for Pinsiders, they move thousands of people's belongings to new homes across the country.

I'm sure they will drop pinball from their roster soon enough.

I use Pilot Freight, 30-50 % cheaper but it's terminal to terminal. I booked a machine to be delivered from Kansas and had it in Allentown PA airport in three days.
http://www.pilotdelivers.com/

This is exactly it, I had an FS last year took over 2 months to show up....sitting in a warehouse at the border until they had a full load....other option is to palletize and find carrier that does LTL shipping. Having said that never had any damage with them, did have an F14 show up on pallet that has a nice hole where power switch used to be

I am a customer many times over with STI and have good service. It's not cheap and it's not quick, but it's consistent.

I've had 3 very positive shipping experiences with them - all 3 were without incident and the games arrived in perfect condition. Just get the tracking number and follow along online while you wait. .

One of my pins coming to Houston from the east coast wound up in Midland (through Dallas) and then back to Dallas before making it to Houston.

OMG!

I've shipped three times with STI and have had no issues with damage. Being on time is a whole different story. As a rule of thumb, add on at least a week to whatever estimated delivery date they give you.

Better knock on wood after that statement!

Sooner or later, they will get you! And this is coming from a person who has shipped over 50 machines (vids and pins).

Good luck.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/mb-for-sale-need-to-make-some-room-8750

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ouchnavl-quoted-me-525-to-ship-pinany-other-company-to-use/page/2#post-1919167

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/shipping-damage-what-to-do#post-1749928

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/navl-messed-up-a-whitewater-w-the-legs-on

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/more-problems-with-navlsti

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sti-delivers-no-they-dont

I have used them 5-6 times without incident. They generally promise 1 week for the pickup and another week for the delivery and every time they have delivered within that timeframe. They have always called me 1-2 days prior to delivery.
They are not cheap. I also recently had the same $408.10 for 2 separate shipments, 1 being several hundred miles further then the other.
I will continue to use them. I use a bunch of other freight companies for equipment other then pinball machines, and not one other company sale person or driver seems to want to have any part of this business.

Other companies out there that can handle arcade games. I have used CEVA many times and have never had it cost more then $200-300 even going to California. Always there in a week or less, wonderful customer service, great drivers. NAVL/STI have never given me a quote under $400 for the same shipments.

No fight here but I would not recommend them unless last resort.

I've had nothing but stellar service from them.
Sorry to hear about your problems

I've shipped 3 pins over the last 18 months with STI with no problems - but the cost just keeps going up. Started at around $400 and now it is $500. I've moved around a lot for work and moving companies in general are completely hit-or-miss. All depends on the operator that contracts for your load. Pinball is no exception. Doubt I will ship again - mainly due to the rising cost and learning the lesson a couple times that condition is in the eye of the beholder.

Well the thing is, based on my experience I wouldn't trust them, or recommend them, to move any more of my belongings, be them useless wooden toy or otherwise.

Here's a short list of things I wouldn't hire NAVL to move:

- Pinball machines
- Furniture
- Family heirlooms
- Art
- Electronics
- Chemicals (Raw materials or final products)
- Livestock
- Anything time sensitive
- Anything flammable
- Anything explosive

Here's a short list of things I would hire NAVL to move:

- Garbage*

*Garbage is actually only a maybe. If I want to pay a company to take my garbage I still need to count on them to take it on time before it piles up and my dogs get into it and then end up puking it up in their kennels when I'm at work. Nothing like coming home from work to a 70 pound lab splash dancing in their own bodily fluids.

NAVL may have a great logistics coordinator, the largest number of shipping hubs, the best business strategy, etc., but they failed to do the one job I paid them an obscene amount to do, and they were complete dish-pits when it came to resolving the situation.

NAVL is like the Comcast of shipping companies.

Ha

I will be using this line in the future. Well done!

Yes every quote I've gotten theses days are all $500 +
If I'm shipping now I ship two games because the second game is usually only an extra $50.

Dozens of in and out transactions on my end and my worst problem was a bent leg on a Paragon, and they comped me to get 4 new ones. So you can only buy local, spend a couple days driving, or have a little patience and use these guys. I suspect the different areas have different levels of quality with the local moving companies. Ours in the Northern Pittsburgh area is George Moving and they've been great imo.

Used NAVL or STI several times. Last time was almost 500 bucks and took a month and game obviously endured some rough handling. I'll have to think long and hard before using them again.

I've used them a lot, never had and trouble. Even east coast to west coast was never more than 10 days out. Arcades and pins, nothing damaged or tweeked. Everything was wraped good with
Edge cardboard in place. Pilot air is cheaper and I've used it once. I think you don't get any insurance with them though. I have also build crates and shipped with local carriers, this way it just
Goes by size and weight, usualy cheaper, about $200 about anywhere. Plus cost of building the crate.
I've shipped a lot of Pins to and from Alaska from lower 48, local carriers, barge freight, all has been good. Had a forklift go through the side of a crate but it didn't hit the pin.
NAVL/sti has always called me the day before and been here when they say. It helps that i work
From home and am usualy here