Altair Global Relocation

We moved to California from the midwest in summer 2014 and unfortunately my husband’s company used Altair. It started off promising, but the closer we got to our move date, the worse it got. If you like uncertainty when you’re moving long distances and poor communication about how much everything will cost from your budget, then Altair is for you.
Getting the plane tickets and car reservation was the easiest part. But everything else felt like agony. We didn’t find out what day the movers would be coming to pack and ship everything until a week before it happened. But even to get that appointment was hard, because they refused to set a date and then the first offer they gave us was actually after our flight to California. There must not be much communication across the company. We decided to ship our car. It was picked up a week after our flight. It then spent two weeks somewhere in Chicago before the company tried to deliver it… to the house in Chicago. Not California. So the car was late in arriving to CA, which meant using more moving budget on a rental car.
Our household goods went to a warehouse in San Jose, since we didn’t have an apartment yet in the Bay Area. When it came time to deliver the goods, getting just an estimate of a time window for delivery was like pulling teeth. Then they couldn’t get all of our crates here and they had to go back to the warehouse, during rush hour, to pick the rest up. Even with that delay, a moving crate was actually lost for another month or two.
There isn’t a feedback process for reviewing the move, so voice your complaints to your HR dept and the company as frequently as you need to make this work. I would never use this company again.

Altair moved us from Roanoke, VA to Redwood City, CA in June 2015. Altair is now over 2 months late on giving us reimbursement for household goods arriving about two weeks late (over $ 2000), because the agent that worked with us wasn’t aware the process of filing the claim had changed and she did it wrong. Our household goods arrived intact over two weeks later than guaranteed.
Altair also was unable to locate my car (Altair used a contractor that in turn used a subcontractor) after they shipped it, although we asked for two weeks about it. Turns out, the subcontractor wrecked my car somehow (I’ll never know the entire story) and was having it repaired, about 30 miles away from where I live. Altair thought it was in storage at that time, supposedly, as did we, but we were still not totally sure why we couldn’t go get it and why they wouldn’t tell us where our car was.

Finally received my reimbursement! Good luck to everyone and continue to be persistent!

Altair split up my moving reimbursement into two sections — one for moving the actual furniture, and the other for the remainder of the allowance given to me by my employer for incidental costs to the move. The one star is gained by the actual furniture scheduling/​moving people, who were great.
As for my overall «coordinator» for the remaining portion of my moving reimbursement, she could not be more of a disaster. Completely unresponsive, every step of the process delayed beyond reason, I could go on and on but will try to keep it brief. A month after initial submission of my (two, total!) receipts, they came back and asked for additional copies, then three weeks later, asked for a canceled check for one of them (which they did not indicate a need for originally), etc. Eventually, their piece by piece approach to requesting /​approving the documentation led to their system cancelling my reimbursement without any notice to me, so it wasn’t until I called back in a few weeks later that they told me I had to submit everything again and start a new reimbursement process. I did. A month ago. And it wasn’t until I called to complain again today, that I was told it should be reviewed this week. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Anyway, sorry for the rant. As I said, the actual movers, and the people at Altair scheduling the move were great. But if you have any extra expense budget approved by your company, just asked to cash it out immediately, as that part of this company is just awful. I moved in November, submitted two receipts for reimbursement, and it’s now almost March, with no definite sign I will be paid anytime soon.

I don’t understand how a company that is in the business of providing service doesn’t provide adequate service and continues to stay in business. These guys are just terrible!!! If you are moving, you are better of coordinating the move your self.

We were relocated from Winnemucca, Nevada, to St Louis, Missouri by Altair through my husband’s new employer. Reading over the other complaints, I have to say my experience has been the complete opposite. The first day the movers were almost late, but arrived within the time frame we were given. They were professional and courteous. We did buy them lunch and tried to be as helpful as possible… which isn’t much when they are instructed to pack every inch of your house.
There were two movers. They worked efficiently and quickly — they had our 1300 sq ft house and detached garage/​workspace completely packed in roughly 10 hours.
We were given a 10 day window for when they could deliver our belongings once in Missouri, which was narrowed down once we got there. We were put in temporary housing (a pretty nice apartment — which we got to choose from 3 properties) for a month to give us time to find a home.
Once everything was delivered, we only had 2 pieces of furniture that were damaged, and Altair just asked for pictures and prices to replace them. It was easy and we had a reimbursement check within 2 weeks.
I would use them again in a heartbeat! We didn’t have a choice — the company that hired my husband uses Altair, but we were quite happy with our experience.

BEWARE!!! We bought a house that was acquired by this company and we discovered after closing that they grossly failed to disclose several extremely serious disclosures to us. This resulting in over $ 40K of damage. Do your homework and protect yourself.
There is a word for what they did… it starts with an ‘F’.

i am a real estate broker in Austin who had a client referred to me by a past client. I knew they were a relocation, but I was told that the relocation was an in-​firm transaction. I was finally contacted by these people a couple of days before this client came to town. I was sent a «relocation referral package» from one of their Relocation Specialists and found that they wanted 35% of my commission as a «referral fee» when they didn’t even send me the client.
I tried to negotiate with them — mind you the client was coming to town on Mother’s Day to house hunt and tour the Austin market. I offered to pay them 15% and she pretty much hung up the phone on me. In this market, where there are multiple buyers for every home, a 35% fee is an antiquated business model. She basically yelled at me «THIS IS HOW WE GET PAID»…meaning her, who sits at a desk, while I would do all the actual work finding this family a home – and then have to do their copious amounts of paperwork. I don’t think these people cared at ALL about their client – just about getting paid.
They ended up taking the client to another firm, even though the client had wanted to work with me. Guess I know who was first and foremost in their mind — THEM.
I could tell this was a sloppy, greedy firm from the get-​go. Companies who send their relocations to this company should think again.

Having been relocated several times for work, I have to say much about Altair is the worst. If at all possible try to use another company. This company is unprofessional al and dishonest.

Can you give a lower score than 1 star?
I too was forced to use Altair through the company I was going to work for. Every possible and necessary event that I had to go through during relocating was almost unbearable simple due to this company.
The whole point of a relocation company is to make the moving process as easy as possible for the person moving. However Altair made me jump through hoops every step of the way. The micromanaged my expense reports, couldn’t move on the dates that I needed to move, provided substandard packers and unpackers. Wouldn’t cover damages during the process, and were altogether rude, unaccommodating, and impossibly frustrating throughout the entire process.
Communication was lousy, and despite the fact they claim to be rated as one of the best relocation companies, when they knew I was unhappy with my relo, do you think they sent me a survey or asked for my opinion on how they could do better?
Of course not. Needless to say, as soon as I can bend the ear of the right person, our company will no longer be using Altair.

Altair was the relocation company that was assigned to me for my move from Michigan to Seattle. Being just out of college, I had no knowledge of he moving process. I expected Altair to be helpful, but they were the complete opposite.
When it came to y household goods being moved, I originally received a phone call from my contact, who asked what day I wanted everything picked up. I told him I had no idea but I needed my stuff there by July 3^rd. No pick up date was scheduled during that phone call. A week later, I received an email asking for my Seattle address and what date I wanted my stuff picked up. I waited a few days because I was closing on an apartment and I wanted to be sure I was giving him the right address. When I called back, I told him I had an address and that I got into my apartment July 1^st and could my goods get there by then. He just said sure when do you want them picked up. Again, I had no knowledge of how long it takes things to be shipped across the country, so I was pretty much counting on him to give me an idea of when they should be picked up based on my move-​in date.
My original contact at Altair (I was given at least three different people) had suggested the last week of June, so after my household goods contact absolutely refused to pick a day for me, I chose June 24^th (Monday of the last week). A few days later, I get an email that says my stuff will be packed the 24 – 25 and loaded the 26^th. Delivery spread was July 1 – 15. Now this is not what I wanted at all. I told him from the beginning July 3^rd. Today is July 1^st, and my goods haven’t even been picked up from the wharehouse in Michigan that they have been sitting in for the last week.
And I haven’t even included what happened with shipping my car. To put a long story short, they sent two different carriers to my house because they were so unorganized.
This company has no right to be called the best relocation company in the country, and I would highly suggest no business use them.