We initiated an Order for Service with Wilson Van Lines and were sold the service by Nicole.in the process, Nicole told us that Wilson Van Lines is not a broker or subcontractor, but is instead its own company, and it would be Wilson employees handling our goods the entire way from DC to Honolulu, Hawaii. We learned later that Wilson is owned by Power Point Movers, and it most certainly was not only Wilson employees that handled our goods.
On 7/5/07, our goods were picked up by two men in truck that said "Golden Hands Movers" on it, with DOT# 1171518 and MC471547. The two men who did the pickup had very limited English skills, and were therefore unable to explain to us the insurance options, even though Nicole told us that we would be able to decide about additional coverage at pickup. We weren't given a copy of the Bill of Lading, or any other paperwork, on the day of the pickup.
We had been told that it would take 20 to 40 days for our goods to be delivered to us. It ended up taking almost 70 days.in that time, we were told by Eugene, a West Point employee, about 2 weeks after the pickup that our goods had arrived in California and would be placed on a boat in a day or two. We were then told by Nicole two weeks later that our goods were actually in New York City. Nicole then told us the very next day that our goods were still in the DC area and would arrive in Hawaii in 2 weeks. It actually took another month, and several phone calls to Nicole, Eugene, Pedro, and Chris, for our goods to be delivered.
On the day of delivery, our goods were delivered in a Penske rental truck by three men employed by West Point Relocation. The foreman of this three-man crew had me sign a different Bill of Lading than the one I signed and wasn't given a copy of on the pickup date. Our Temper-pedic mattress was delivered to us folded in half, although it was not folded at all when it was picked-up and loaded. Because it was folded by the moving company, our mattress now has a large gash in it, and the two layers that make up the mattress are not aligned. The mattress must be replaced now. Also, an entire box of goods was not delivered to us and is still missing. This box contained about $3,500 worth of goods, including about 300 music CD's.
Interestingly, on the day of delivery we were given a tall candle holder that is not ours. We told the delivery men that it wasn't our candle holder, and they told us just to keep it. We have told several employees from the moving company that we had delivered to us a candle holder that is not ours, but the company has made no efforts to get this candle holder from us and get it to where it belongs. It makes me wonder if our box of missing goods was just mis-delivered and the company just doesn't care enough to do anything about it, or if someone from the moving company stole our goods. Either way, we're pretty sure the company was negligent in handling our goods, and we therefore feel that the 60 cents per pound per article limit, which we were coerced in to accepting, does not apply. Our mattress was repacked by the company and destroyed as a result, and our missing box perhaps wouldn't have gone missing had the company handled our move properly (e.G. Not leaving our goods in the same city where they picked up for a whole month).
Since accepting delivery, we have filed a claim for the loss/damage with the company. We began dealing with Maria Camberos, who told us that she works for West Point Relocation but also handles claims for other companies, including Power Point. We were told that we had to submit our claim to Anthem Claims Management, a 3rd party adjuster, and we did so. Anthem recommended that the company compensate us with about $200, which we rejected; Anthem's response also indicated that Anthem would not conduct any further review our claim. We then went back to dealing with Maria, who made us an offer of $600, which we rejected. Unexpectedly, we then received a call from David at Anthem, who offered us $700 and insulted one of us; we rejected this offer. Maria then offered us $1000, which we also rejected.
After rejecting the $1000 offer, we were told that we told by Maria that we could speak with Diana, whom Maria identified as the President of the company, but Maria wouldn't tell us Diana's last name. After waiting for Diana to call us, as Maria indicated she would, I called Maria back and was again told that Diana would call us. Diana never called us.
When I called last week and asked to speak with Diana, Maria came on the phone and told me that any questions about our claim had to be directed the Anthem Claim Management. Maria told me that, even though Anthem said they wouldn't review the claim any more and even though Maria had told me that we didn't have to deal with Anthem anymore, the moving company wouldn't talk to me about the claim any more and we had to contact Josh at Anthem. We have made two calls to Josh at Anthem and he has not called back. Similarly, Diana has not responded to request for her to call us.
Research that we've done seems to indicate that Power Point Movers is not authorized to perform interstate moves of household goods. I have confirmed this with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), and I filed a complaint with FMCSA earlier today. Not only did the company (or companies) engage in several violations of federal law and regulation (e.G. Failure to provide copy of Bill of Lading or DOT's moving brochure; failure to inform about other companies that would handle our goods; failure to notify of delay in delivery; failure to provide written statement of claims or dispute resolution process [we've acually been told by the company and by Anthem that they use different arbitration companies]; failure to have Bill of Lading with delivery, but the company seems to not even be registered or licensed with the proper authorities. If Power Point was registered or licensed, it no longer seems to be authorized to do what it's doing.
We STRONGLY recommend avoiding Power Point Movers, Wilson Van Lines, and any of the companies they are associated with [note: All Points Movers has very similar address and same fax number as Power Point; a fax we received from Maria has an All Points Movers header on it; the two companies are closely related, if not the same, despite Maria's claim that the fax only says "All Points" because she happened to use a fax machine for that company.) We were lied to throughout the process by employees of these companies, and we have now reached the point where the employees won't even talk to us. We also strongly recommend that any person with a grievance against these companies file a complaint with the FMCSA (http://nccdb. Fmcsa. Dot. Gov/HomePage.Asp), as there seems to be good reason for enforcement action to be taken against them and it can't hurt to give the FMCSA more ammunition.
Adkate
Honolulu, Hawaii
U.S.A.
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