This whole ordeal started back in December when I wanted to move from Chicago to Lincoln Nebraska.
I got phone calls from 8 companies. U.S. A Transport Van Lines offered me the lowest price so I gave them my business. 3 days before the move they told me that due to a weather delay their truck would be stuck behind schedule and that they would try to pull some strings to get me picked up on time. The day before the move I got nervous and called them again and they insisted they had it all fixed and would get me a truck for the next day. I asked what time I should be expecting my truck to arrive. They told me I would recieve a call about that in an hour. About a half hour later I got a call from a company called Chicago Moving Systems. They told me they would be arriving at my house the next morning at 10AM barring any weather delays. I was a little confused and told them that I booked with U.S.A. Transport Van Lines and they told me that they were acting on behalf of U.S.A. Transport Van Lines and that they would be showing up at 10 and asked me if I wanted to move or not. I told them I would let them know in 10 minutes. I called U.S.A. Transport Van lines back and inquired as to what was going on. They said that a truck broke down and that they were sending their sister company to my house the next morning to meet my pickup situation requirements for the date I booked.
So I called this Chicago Moving Systems back and told them it was okay for them to come. They showed up on time the next morning. They started loading my truck and this is where things started going wrong. They started telling me it would cost me an additional $125 to pack up my TV and that I was to be charged for every roll of tape that was used. When I booked this job the U.S.A. Transport Van lines sales rep.insisted my price was a flat price with no increases.
They told me that I could either pay the prices or pay them to unload my stuff and that either way it would cost the same. I had no choice so I told them to pack it.
I told the guys I was going to go buy them Burger King for lunch since I know loading a truck with furniture is hard work. Upon my return to my house I walk in with the lunch and one of the guys says "just in time we were getting hungry" and they started to laugh. I thought it was kind of rude and then I noticed that my kitchen and the hall around it smelled like marijuana.
I was too scared to say anything though because these guys had lots of bad tattoos like they just got out of jail. I didnt need them purposely damaging my belongings. So I kept my mouth shut.
After that 5 hour fiasco ended I asked them when they thought it would be delivered. They said they didn't know and to call the office number on my copy of the contract.
I called the next day and a man answered the phone. It sounded like he was talking loudly with a lot of food in his mouth cause I could barely understand what he was saying. I had to ask him to repeat things multiple times to which he only got louder and angrier with me.
I called for the next 13 days straight and each time I got into the same argument with this exact same man! I couldn't believe this! It was an outrage at this point!
I called the Chicago Police at this point because I feel the items were stolen from me since they refused to deliver them. The police told me there was nothing they could or would do.
I contacted a lawyer after I found this out.
Literally 2 hours after I called the police in Chicago and the lawyer I got a phone call from an Olympic Movers. They told me that they had my freight and that they would be in my area in the next 4 days to drop it off with me. They also told me that I would be owing them an extra $1323.44. I asked them how they had my shipment and why I owed this money. They then said that Chicago Moving Systems had packed up a bunch of my stuff and that I was over the maximum allowed cubic foot space for my shipment.
I hung up on them. Although after thinking about it they had my stuff and I just wanted this whole thing to be over. So I called back a little while later and spoke to a woman named Joan. She told me I needed to have cash or postal money order only and that I needed to hand it to the driver first or else my shipment would not be unloaded. This sounded very shady but I had no choice.
The truck actually arrived 6 days later. At this point I was at my breaking point. It was all I could take. The worst part was that I paid the driver as Joan had instructed me to but first he didn't want to take my postal money order and was complaining that I didn't give him cash. After he made a phone call he took my money order and then opened the truck. I could have cried. EVERYTHING was broken.
I asked him how this could be and he told me that Chicago Moving Systems employees loaded my shipment in his truck and that they were responsible for poor packing. He told me to call their office and file a claim with them.
Well I am now finding out that my stuff is only covered to 60 cents on the pound and that Chicago Moving Systems has no responsibility to replace anything or compensate me beyond 60 cents on the pound.
This whole thing was terrible and I will never use a mover again. All of the companies involved in my move were liars going all the way back to U.S.A. Transport Van Lines.
If these people ever show up at your door to move your items please do yourself a favor and send them home. It's not worth the frustration.
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