When I moved from California to Florida two years ago, I used NorthAmerican Van Lines.
Big mistake.
The first problem was that the movers ran out of paper on their inventory clipboard when they were bringing stuff out of my apartment to the truck. So they just stopped inventorying stuff. As a result, NorthAmerican had no idea how many boxes and other items I was supposed to have, or how much of my stuff was sitting in their warehouse waiting to be carted across the country.
The movers also didn't speak English, but I didn't realize this. So when I pointed to a pile of stuff in a corner (two old chairs and an exercise bike) and said 'Don't touch that stuff' and they nodded, I was very surprised to later realize it had been loaded into the truck, and it was too late to get it out, so I was charged for the extra weight. (Which I disputed and was refunded, fortunately.)
Second problem: they couldn't find a driver to bring my stuff cross-country, so my stuff sat in storage for a few days. They didn't bother to tell me this. So I was expecting to move into my apartment in Florida on a certain day. I called a day or two beforehand to confirm that everything was in order, and they said, 'uh, no, you're not going to get your stuff for another four or five days.' Meaning that I had to stay in a hotel while I was waiting for it. Again, I made them reimburse me.
Third problem: the truck finally arrived, the guy met me at my apartment and asked, 'Where's the help?' He had arranged to have two guys meet him there to help unload the truck. They never showed up. So he frantically called a work-today-get-paid-today company, and four hours later two surly young punks showed up and helped him unload... and damaged my apartment walls as they kept bumping into 'em with stuff. They pushed a cart loaded with boxes marked 'Fragile' but the cart was unbalanced and one of the boxes on top fell off, and the kid said 'whups.' They carried boxes marked 'This End Up' on their side.
Then as they were finally finishing up, one of the kids was looking closely at my computer equipment and my A/V equipment, and he said in a low voice, 'You got a lotta nice stuff here.' Whoa. I made sure I set the burglar alarm every time I went out for the next several weeks. ;-)
Several items never showed up at the destination, including a dresser mirror and an armchair. When I called NorthAmerican to complain, they told me, 'That stuff's not on the manifest.' Well, duh, the guy never wrote it down!
When all was said and done, I think the cross-country move cost me $4000, and I got them to reimburse me $1200 of that for loss and damage.
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2002-10-29 05:32 (UTC)Big mistake.
The first problem was that the movers ran out of paper on their inventory clipboard when they were bringing stuff out of my apartment to the truck. So they just stopped inventorying stuff. As a result, NorthAmerican had no idea how many boxes and other items I was supposed to have, or how much of my stuff was sitting in their warehouse waiting to be carted across the country.
The movers also didn't speak English, but I didn't realize this. So when I pointed to a pile of stuff in a corner (two old chairs and an exercise bike) and said 'Don't touch that stuff' and they nodded, I was very surprised to later realize it had been loaded into the truck, and it was too late to get it out, so I was charged for the extra weight. (Which I disputed and was refunded, fortunately.)
Second problem: they couldn't find a driver to bring my stuff cross-country, so my stuff sat in storage for a few days. They didn't bother to tell me this. So I was expecting to move into my apartment in Florida on a certain day. I called a day or two beforehand to confirm that everything was in order, and they said, 'uh, no, you're not going to get your stuff for another four or five days.' Meaning that I had to stay in a hotel while I was waiting for it. Again, I made them reimburse me.
Third problem: the truck finally arrived, the guy met me at my apartment and asked, 'Where's the help?' He had arranged to have two guys meet him there to help unload the truck. They never showed up. So he frantically called a work-today-get-paid-today company, and four hours later two surly young punks showed up and helped him unload... and damaged my apartment walls as they kept bumping into 'em with stuff. They pushed a cart loaded with boxes marked 'Fragile' but the cart was unbalanced and one of the boxes on top fell off, and the kid said 'whups.' They carried boxes marked 'This End Up' on their side.
Then as they were finally finishing up, one of the kids was looking closely at my computer equipment and my A/V equipment, and he said in a low voice, 'You got a lotta nice stuff here.' Whoa. I made sure I set the burglar alarm every time I went out for the next several weeks. ;-)
Several items never showed up at the destination, including a dresser mirror and an armchair. When I called NorthAmerican to complain, they told me, 'That stuff's not on the manifest.' Well, duh, the guy never wrote it down!
When all was said and done, I think the cross-country move cost me $4000, and I got them to reimburse me $1200 of that for loss and damage.
Avoid NorthAmerican.