Vanguard Moving Services

Vanguard Moving Services is a Hyannis outfit Cape Cod homeowners call for everything from a ten-mile local move to a cross-country relocation, and the reviews keep circling back to one thing: how carefully the crew handles the pieces that actually worry people. A baby grand piano moved into a church, a seven-foot solid cherry armoire threaded through a tight turn, a 19-foot kayak and a wall of framed artwork all show up in reviews as delivered without a scratch. Several customers come back years apart -- one rehired the crew eight years after a first move, another used them twice within the same year -- and both name the same people running the job: Julie in the office, Tom on site, and a rotating crew that includes Alex, Neil, and Melinda. On Google, Vanguard sits at 4.3 stars from 92 ratings, and BBB has kept it accredited at an A+. The written reviews back that up for most jobs -- piano moves, POD-based partial packs, and long-distance runs to New York, Maryland, and Connecticut all draw detailed, specific praise for care and communication. The reviews worth reading before booking are the pricing ones. A run of 1-star reviews from 2022 and 2023 describe a quoted price roughly doubling by delivery -- one customer says an estimate for a small apartment became more than $7,000, another says they were told one total and then charged $1,000+ more with no notice. A June 2026 review raises the same worry more recently, calling a $400-an-hour rate a "scam" on a $4,500 bill for a 15-mile move. One 2023 review goes further, warning about unspecified "sketchy companies" the mover works with, on top of a broken TV and no real response. A pair of 2022 reviews also describe scheduling breakdowns -- a no-show with no call, and a pickup that arrived hours late at the wrong address -- and a 2024 review says items lost or damaged in a move went unaddressed by ownership. None of that erases the volume of specific, name-checked praise this crew has built up over four years of reviews, but three separate complaints about the final bill not matching the quote is a real enough pattern that it's worth getting pricing in writing before the truck shows up, and asking directly whether Vanguard's own crew handles the job or a subcontractor does.