This is company #2 that was "brokered" by Trans Atlantic Van Lines aka Trans National Van Lines without our knowledge. We did not know we were dealing with them until the day of the move. They claimed that they were working for Trans Atlantic. A call to Trans Atlantic tells us that they often use others companies to move people in this region.
Honestly, I think that the brokerage moving business is crooked, they take your money and hire someone else at a huge discount, then they don't care what happens to your move because they have their money. And they word it "just so" in the contract to protect themselves.
So basically I hire company A, they hired company B who hires company C. Pony Express was this company C. I would never have hired them.
We were moving form Oklahoma to Washington, why would I hire a company from Chicago? I suppose we hired a company from Florida, but my husband thought that Trans Atlantic was a big company. LOOK aat their web site. BIG trucks, all their claims of service and attention to detail. (but that's another report).
Pony Xpress charged us $500 extra for wrapping, padding and tape. They arrived 23 days after the pickup day and not ONCE during the nightmare of a month we had did we ever know where our stuff was. They arrived 3 hours late on moving day and with a truck too small. They didn't realize this of course until it was full and we still had stuff in the house and on the driveway. They called for a bigger truck which they said they would unload and reload into bigger truck.
We didn't know that they had not done this for 2 days, when family friend went to the address for us. The driver of the truck also got the truck stuck in the front yard during bad weather and broke shovels, put boards under the tires and eventually had to call a wrecker to get out. They caused severe damage to the front yard spinning the tires deep into the grass and mud. Not only that, but they never came with the second truck.
Our stuff sat outside (and some in the house) for a full FIVE days before another truck came. I never did get a clear answer on where our stuff was for almost a month, but basically the first truck went to denver in storage (or so they say), the second truck went to chicago. When it was time to deliver, the truck rom chicago met with the other in Denver and then came to us.
When it cam to us, it was a rented "Penske" truck. They had two of our cabinets roped to the bak of the truck and tey were both covered with mud. It was a good sign that it was probably our stuf inside, but a bad sign or what conditino it would be in.
They would not unload our stuff until we paid. We wanted to see our stuf before we paid. This argument went on for about an hour. (I had dreams that I would just shoot our their tires like in the movies and just get our stuff). They tried to inflate the price from the estimated $3,055 to almost $6700. We aregued and yelled the price down to $3600 which once the doors opened we knew was also too much.
First of all, NOTHING was inventoried, marked, tagged or stickered in any way. So how the hell am I to know if all my stuff is there? No inventory would be okay I suppose if tey had used a table of measure for the goods instead, but they didn't. So how do we know if we have all of our stuf? Good question.
The $500 extra we paid for wrapping and packing was a rip-off as very little of our things were wrapped and taped.in fact, boxes we knew were taped were opened. I would say that 80% of our boxes were opened and rummaged through. The file cabinet also arrived unwrapped which means it is highly likely that they people (most of which are Spanish speaking and who KNOWS if the are even legal) now have compies of social security numbers and burth certificates of each member of my family (which is my biggest concern in this "move" because this nightmare is likely to get much worse for us).
The stuff that WAS wrapped he charged $10 per blanket (nasty old blanket). Furniture was dingged and broken. The antique piano had a busted wheel o which the driver "Estabon" said that he could put a few screws into and fix. (thank, but nothanks) They also unloaded something that was not ours, and when we questioned it, he tried to convince us that it was. I just wonder who is looking at something of ours in Chicago and wondering who it belongs to.
In the end, besides having only two guys to unload (taking 6 hours in the freezing cold), we think these guys are thieves. Afte reading the othe two reports on them, I think they need to be investigated by FMCSA and have their DOT license taken away. I think INS should also check into their legal status.
I cannot talk this company anymore because they hardly speak legible English. But I know that Estabon claims that there was no damage.
I am writing a more detailed account of all three companies and I plan to send it to everyone on God's green earth who wants to and needs to know about this. Maybe DateLine would be interested in doing another "Moving Industry" investigation. I think it is a PRIME target for illegals to gain the information they need to distribute and sell personal information for those seeking to appear to have legal status (destroying lives in the process. And what's worse, WE ARE PAYING THEM TO DO IT!!!
Darla
claremore, Oklahoma
U.S.A.
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