Reading many of the stories here, I must say, I wish I had found this site before our move.
We used Progressive Van Lines who then contracted AY Transport for our move from Pennsylvania to Oregon. As with many, I went on the net and found a site that gave free moving quotes. I had received 4 or 5 responses and took down some notes and numbers and made some phone calls (little did I know several of these places were the same company).
We settled on Progressive Van Lines for several reasons, first, the free month of storage looked great, because we were not sure of the area we were moving into, never having been there, and we did end up moving to another home shortly after we arrived. Second, they picked up from a storage unit. Third, their price was comparable with what several of the others gave as estimates. I will admit, I thought we did good, the estimate price was $2275 fuel charge of $137= $2412. At an estimated weight of 3500 pounds, which I agreed was above what I believed we had, weight wise.
One thing I will say here, not to take a stab at others, but I do believe most people do not have a clue as to what their items weigh and become very upset when the weight is more then what was estimated. I took an educated guess at our weight when we put the items in storage and came up with 2720 pounds, however I did not let them know, this was my info only. Actual weight was 2980 and a balance of $2074 with $1774 due at delivery.
First things first, United and the other "big name movers" quoted several thousand dollars more to move us. As money was tight (as with most people) we did what we did. Even U haul gave us a quote of around $3500 just to rent the truck??? And that price was given to us from several U-haul business and not including fuel costs. We sold most of what we owned before our move and mailed out several insured, trackable boxes, everything else hit the storage unit and we hit the road for Oregon. Arrangements were made for pickup on 10/15/04 and quickly changed to 10/16 sometime.
My father handled the Pennsylvania end for us. He received a call from the driver that the truck was on it's way and to meet them at the storage unit at 3pm, the 16th, once there he received a cell call stating they could not make it and they would be there in the morning on 10/17/04. Sunday came around and they arrived in the morning. They loaded our items in the front of the trailer, putting blankets over a few pieces of our furniture. Everything else I had packed up.
Working in the ceramic tile industry I know how to pack items not to break in transit and felt comfortable with the packing job of our items. My father told me over the phone the men were very hard to understand and spoke very poor English, but he had no real trouble with them.
I had to call Progressive to find out our items are on there way and that it should take a week or so and be here the following Tuesday or Wednesday. I had to also call Progressive several times the first week for a weight, so I could round up the money for delivery. I finally got the weight of 2980 and a balance due of $1774.
I talked to the driver at the end of the first week and he pushed the delivery back from Tuesday or so to Thursday or Friday of the second week, saying they were behind. I tried to call the driver on Wednesday of the second week about our delivery day and never did get in touch with him, just left messages, none of which were ever returned.
I finally got in contact with Progressive and was told delivery was now going to be Monday or Tuesday of the third week. We then received a call from a "new driver" on Friday of the second week stating he will be here Sunday or Monday and we owe him $2112 (our original estimate minus our $300 deposit) I told him no, that was wrong and all he kept saying was he has the paperwork and he would not deliver our stuff unless he got paid $2112. I asked for a weight and he never gave me one, just telling me I have to call dispatch.
What a joke, dispatch also had only the original estimate and no weight or new balance numbers. They tried to tell me the original estimate was the weight (ya right, they hit the estimate right on the money), no pun intended. I said I wanted to see a weight from Pennsylvania after they picked up my load. I drove truck and grew up there, I know where the weight stations are, simply show me the ticket when he arrives here and I will be satisfied. The next day I got a call from the driver saying the balance is $1774.
He calls Sunday afternoon saying they are just leaving California and are on there way up and may be here by evening. He calls an hour or so out, and say's he should be here by 6pm. Just when it's getting dark. They call about 7pm and are all but here, and hour or so later they arrive. 2 weeks to the day. It's dark and raining.
One concern I had was they would not be able to get the truck back our street (coldasac) and was told they will indeed use a smaller truck to deliver our goods. Another joke, the truck just fit into our development, let alone down our street. We used our Minivan and Explorer to move our stuff back the street to our home (no way to go get a U-haul, their closed), but first the money. Very hard to understand the driver and his partner was all but impossible. They were nice and helped us, I will admit that. The first thing we noticed was our stuff was right on the back of the truck and some of the boxes were wet. So I know for a fact, it had been moved at least once. Our bed was wrapped in plastic and removed along with everything else and taken to our garage by us.
Because it was raining a little (just a light drizzle) we moved everything quickly from the truck to garage. He hands me the papers and shows me were to sign, I did a quick look over and seen no real damage, so I signed the papers. The only note I made was in the balance due, the paperwork still had the original figure. I asked for the weight slip and was told he did not have it, dispatch keeps it. I quess I look that stupid. Knowing I was close with my weight, I let it go.
Damage control. After they left, I went through several boxes that were wet and removed the contents. Our dressers and furniture looked fine and I did a quickie wipe on the plastic on our bed and removed the plastic. My wife and I noticed our bed was wet, they had it right at the back of the truck and it got completely soaked in all the rain they had on their way to our house, even being wrapped up in plastic. We dried it the best we could over the next few days but it had a mildew smell to it and took several cleaning 's to remove the smell.
To this day, If you smell it up close you can still tell it was wet at one time. This is a $1200 bed. The next damage I noticed was our TV stand, I had taken it apart and packed it up. The box was fine but it had been dropped on a corner somewhere along the line. I called Bush furniture and they sent me the replacement part I needed for free. I am very grateful to Bush for their costomer support.
Next thing we noticed was several things were missing, some tools and a scroll saw, kids toys (and we all know "toys" are not cheap), kitchen dishes and various cooking utensils, a new boxed cookie jar, and some personal files.in all I believe we are missing 4 or 5 boxes. Even now, I go to get something I know we had and realize it is not here. I do not understand why they move items around, with no "wall" or way to separate the correct owners of the goods on the truck, how can they keep the items from different family's straight? Our stuff was mixed in with other items that were not our's.
We found several of our things in with the other family's stuff at the back of the truck. After we thought we had it all. I looked at what was left on the truck and did not see anything that was ours. I can only assume our missing boxes were lost when AY Transport moved the items from truck to truck, which occurred at least once, that I know of. I do not understand why our missing items have not shown up as of yet.
Every box of ours had our business card in it (a current 800 number and e-mail, though our address would have been our old one) I am beginning to believe the stuff was stolen, or perhaps just sitting in someone's garage. We did receive a boxed hose and a strap set of some kind that was with our stuff that I know is not ours. They do not seem at all interested in finding the owner.
I will update this post if we ever hear from them as to our lost items claim. Though I may be holding my breath and turning blue for a long time:) Overall, I think we did fare better then many others on here. The consensus of many of the post here is that Progressive Van Lines and National Movers along with AY Transport and the other names they operate under are unfair and "shady" in their moving practices, in my experience this is correct. The drivers are very hard to understand and speak bad English. I have experience with people who's English is difficult to understand and it was not that big a deal for me.
The company is very unorganized and that shows quickly once they have your down payment and the shafting begins. They have your life's belongings in their hands, a phone call to their customers would go a long way, yet they seem to avoid it (and we all know why). I really did not mind that they could not give us an exact date of arrival, however to prepare for a given time of arrival, only to have it changed several times is at least annoying, and at most, it's taking advantage of their customers. People have jobs and things to do, especially with a move. I have already written our items off in my mind and we'll see what happens with Progressive Van Lines if they come through with our claim.
To those who say we took the cheap way, that we deserve to be ripped off. I say, not true, we made a decision based on the information that Progressive Van Lines gave us. Knowing what we know now is the old 20/20 hindsight saying. To those of you who still use Progressive Van Lines or National Movers and AY Transport after reading the reports here, well you have my sympathy:) Tell your story here, also do a Goggle newsgroup search and post it to several of the newsgroups. Create a homepage with your ISP and do the same. Get the word out. I am sure our experience is not isolated and that there are many others who will never speak up and be heard.
Rick
Sisters, Oregon
U.S.A.
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