I moved on January 27th. Almost a year later, I am still not done dealing with Atrans Moving and Storage!
I did my research before the move, but there was nothing negative at the time. Only after they picked up my stuff did I discover that Atrans was a new name for a bad company (ATraf moving and storage). ATraf had lost its BBB accreditation, so I think they changed the name so they could still get new customers. I now know they are the same company because the top of my receipt had ATraf on it rather than ATrans. At the time of the move, ATrans was part of the BBB, but it has since lost its accreditation too.
When I scheduled the move, I was told that the items would be delivered directly from my apartment to Las Vegas and they would arrive in 5-7 days.instead, movers arrived with a rented van, loaded my goods onto that, and returned to New Jersey where they would transfer the goods onto another truck.
When I called to find out the status of my move, I was told several different stories. First I was told that the items didn't leave New Jersey until 3 days after the original pickup. Then I was told the truck broke down and had to return to New Jersey after starting the trip. I was given several different days to expect the delivery, and my items finally arrived over a week late.
When the movers finally started unloading my items, they brought in another person's mirror. They weren't even sure if they had my goods on the truck until they moved all of the other person's goods to the back of the truck. The driver said that only a few of my boxes were tagged correctly by ATrans, so we had to guess which boxes were mine.
I had to open each one to verify that I didn't have someone else's goods and they brought in another person's items at least three times. Fortunately, everything made it here except for a bookshelf. Several of my dishes were cracked and a picture frame broke. If they hadn't had to unload and reload my goods, I doubt as many items would have been broken.
We were also charged $75.00 for a long carry charge. We were never told that there would be an additional charge for being too far from the parking lot. The email and quote said the move would be door to door, with no fine print attached.
I worked directly with the driver for a week to try to determine if the bookshelf had been dropped off with someone else. He was unable to track down the bookshelf and said I should deal directly with ATrans. The first time I called them, they said they would make all of the necessary calls to try to find the bookshelf. I called again a few days later and the person I spoke to said that I would have to work with the dispatcher to find the bookshelf and they wouldn't do anything to help.
I spoke to the dispatcher and he claimed the driver had found the bookshelf. I called the driver and he said the dispatcher was mistaken. He said that the dispatcher needed to look in the storage area and see if they took it off the truck in New Jersey and never put it back on. I called the dispatcher again and he said it wasn't in storage. At this point, there had been over a month of calls back and forth.
When I signed up for the move, I was told that I would get five dish boxes and two wardrobe boxes for free. I even asked the movers for my free boxes and they never mentioned a charge. I signed the goods bill of lading and freight bill, but I wasn't given a copy of that until my items arrived in Las Vegas. When I finally received a copy of that bill, I noticed a $150.00 charge for the free boxes.
It is my belief that they added in the charge after I signed the piece of paper. I certainly didn't notice that charge when I looked over the sheet, or I would never have signed it. I had to pay it and get reimbursed later or the movers wouldn't leave my stuff. According to Guy, one of the managers at ATrans, that was a mistake and he said I could get a refund. It took me until June and many phone calls to finally get that money back.
On June 25 the claim company notified A-Trans that I was owed 213.00 for the bookshelf. It is now December and I still haven't received that money. I have called repeatedly and they keep giving me the run around. Last week, they stopped taking my calls altogether. I have called several times at different times of day and they never pick up. As a test, I called with my phone and got no response. I called with my boyfriend's phone 30 seconds later and they picked right up. So, they are definitely screening calls.
Avoid this company at all costs! If only people had posted to usacomplaints.com sooner and shown the connection between A-Traf and A-Trans, I would have saved myself almost a year of trouble.
Mtyler
Las Vegas, Nevada
U.S.A.
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