I utilized the services of A-1 Van Lines and I am a very disgruntled customer. As far as the quote that I received, I had no problems in that area. I should have been alarmed when I asked about anticipated arrival times, that I wasn't given an approximate time. I was simply told theyll arrive when they arrive. Given that I was moving 1200 miles away, I was trying to guesstimate my approximate arrival time at my destination and ensure that I would not loose my hotel reservation. When the drivers arrived, I too was expecting an 18-wheeler displaying the company's logo, as a competitor that was used by one of my neighbor's days earlier - not a Penske rental truck. I asked the driver about the truck, he responded by saying that the company was not that large. The delivery staff was nice, although I felt that they should have utilized someone who was able to lift (the driver stated he was recovering from a recent back injury) instead of my children having to helping them load the truck. The other area of concern was the amount of time that it took them too load everything. It took them 5 to load all of my belongings that were already packed and ready to go. The only items that had to be secured were my glass top tables and couches, which only took 20 minutes to wrap. All of my beds had already been taken apart and the mattresses placed in mattress bags prior to their arrival. Based upon passed experiences with local moving companies, it should have only taken them two hours at the longest to load the truck, due to the number of boxes and amount of furniture I had.
My major problems began when I was ready accept delivery. My belongings were stored in a storage facility for several months, of which I was led to believe was owned by A-1 Van Lines. First of all, they would not commit to a delivery date upon initial contact. The first date I asked for they refused to honor because they wanted the remaining balance of my storage fees paid before my delivery would even be scheduled. Once I took care of my balance, I suggested a second date. I was told at time, they would have to check the schedule and get back with me. Given that I like having a paper trail, I followed up all of my conversations with an email; needless to say, it took me a week to be told that they could not meet that delivery date due to other deliveries being scheduled on that date. I then suggested another date and was told they would have to once again check the schedule. That took another week to be declined; then they (A-1 Van Lines) suggested another date because they had a load headed to Columbus, OH and would be able to deliver my belongings to me on their way back. Why did I have to be inconvenienced so they could "kill two birds with one stone"? I had paid them all that I owed them and should not have had to wait three weeks for my belongings to be delivered at time that was convenient to them. Furthermore, I was told that the drivers should arrive around noon on Sunday, Feb. 24th; contingent upon how much time it would take them to unload the OH delivery. After they did not arrive at noon, I received a call from one of the drivers stating that they were running late and was estimating their arrival time around 6 pm. I was understanding of the delays and continued to patiently wait, after they did not arrive at 6, I was growing concerned. I received another call from the driver stating that they had encountered some traffic delays and was estimating the arrival time to be around 8 pm. Once again a no show; this time I called them to see what the delay was. At this time I was told they had encountered snow and ice, but was approximately 50 miles away. I told them that I was not snowing in my area, but I would continue to wait. At this point, it's going on 10 pm. The driver asked me repeatedly would I be willing to accept delivery at 6 am the next morning, which I readily refused because I had been inconvenienced enough and would not be willing to take a day off of work due to their screw up. The driver claimed he was only trying to be considerate of me and did not want to awaken me if the delivery was late. Needless to say, they did not arrive until 1:30 am that Monday, which led me to believe that they were further away than what was previously communicated.
My second problem was as they unloaded the truck (which was a white truck that had the company name on the door in very small lettering); I noticed that some of my furniture was missing. The driver, which happened to have been the same person who initially picked up my belongings, remembered most of my items because my furniture was extremely heavy, stated that A-1 Van Lines had transferred their storage facility from Chattanooga (which I found out after the fact - I was not told the location of the storage facility) to Atlanta encountered a significant amount of theft during the transfer. He stated that Carmen was aware that I may be missing some items because he helped load the truck and noticed some items were missing and for me to contact her as soon as possible to file a claim and he would also let her know that I would be calling once he checked in later that morning. I contacted "Carmen" as soon as I arrived to work to inform her of my missing items. She instructed me to send her an email listing all of the items I was missing and to give her a couple of days to locate them (which I already knew she would not be able to locate them as a result of my conversation with the driver). I immediately sent my initial email listing all of the items that I readily noticed were missing and I would send an additional email with any other items that I discovered as I began to unpack, along with pictures of the damage that had been afflicted upon my bedroom furniture. Apparently, they used some kind of packing tape to secure the blankets on my bedroom furniture, which resulted in chunks of paint being stripped off of my furniture. Over the course of a week, I discovered in addition to my two month old Broyhill sofa and loveseat, two Yamaha tower speakers that were missing, I was missing my HP computer, computer desk chair, and approximately 200 books. I am an avid book collector and have had some of these books in my collection for over 10 years, many of which I cannot replace, because I don't readily remember what I had. My entire book inventory is on my missing computer, which also contains a lot of personal information that cannot be replaced.
To date, I have sent numerous emails to Carmen and have called the office to no avail; because every time I call, she's never in. Mind you, my complaints began on Feb. 25. Since that time, I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and finally received an email last week from Carmen stating that they were still investigating and would have an offer ready by the end of the week. Needless, to say, I have yet to be contacted regarding an offer. This entire ordeal has made me extremely leery of interstate movers. The next time, I have to move, if it can't fit in my truck and U-haul trailer, it will be donated to charity and I will just start all over again.
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