Totally unsatisfied with recent cross-country move performed by North American Van Lines! The movers assigned to our move should not be in the business of moving people across the street! We packed everything ourselves in boxes in preparation for our recent move. Movers were hired to move the heavier furniture and all of our packed boxes across country. Movers were scheduled to arrive on a Monday morning, but would call at least 24 hours in advance to give us the window of when they would be arriving - No call until the morning of saying "They're on the way". Movers arrived looking very uninterested, unmotivated and frankly not as "professional" as I was expecting... Only one of the three movers was wearing a North American Van Line shirt. I was already wondering if I had made a mistake in my choice of movers.
The loading of the equipment commenced. There was no organization to the loading of our goods; furniture was brought outside and left in the driveway and on the front lawn to be wrapped before being loaded into the van. Leather chair and sofa were "stuffed" through doorways, unwrapped, scuffing and scratching both pieces of furniture! Other furniture was sloppily brought from upstairs rooms down to the first floor, scratching and gauging walls. Doors and door frames leading to the garage and outdoor walkway received scratches, nicks and gauges as well.in a nutshell - these movers did not treat our furniture as if it was there own. They simply wanted to complete the "job" at hand, but couldn't have cared less in what shape the furniture (or surroundings) was in while loading the van.
When the movers drove off that afternoon, we spent 1.5 hours repatching several nicks in walls, gauges in door frames and repainting scratched walls due to the sloppy move... But wait... It gets better upon the delivery...
A week later, I personally contact the driver to check his progress and approximate delivery of our items. He needs directions to our place from the delivery point before us. "I'm expected to give you detailed directions from point A to Point B?" I asked if the driver had a GPS. His response was, "It's not hooked up... I don't know how to use it." What? Maybe it's just me, but I would think that someone in his profession would certainly find a GPS useful. On the morning of the 9th day, after I spend 30 minutes on the phone leading the driver to our address using the best directions I can give him, the van arrives...
Two guys climb out of the moving van, again looking uninterested and unmotivated. Wait! Just two of you? Hmmmm - three guys to load the truck but only two to unload? And as our luck would have it, rain showers are expected off and on throughout the day... The unloading begins... The driver, realizing that he doesn't have enough help actually asks one of the residents in our new building, who just happened to be walking by, if he could give a hand with unloading the van.in return for his help, the driver would pay him cash. What?!?!! I did not hire North American Van Lines to "source out" onsite help just because the driver didn't employ enough resources to unload our belongings.in any event, the kid helped for 2 hours and received $40 - again this "hired help" is one of the residents in our building who we did not know. Realizing there was still not enough help and the unloading was going very slowly, we (the paying customer) decided to jump in and play "movers" when we should have been checking off boxes/furniture as they came in the door and started unpacking.
Several pieces of furniture arrived damaged: two dining room chairs with scratches and nicks in the legs, a television stand badly scratched, a dining room table with a small gauge in one of the legs, end tables with scratched/scuffed legs and remember that leather sofa and chair mentioned earlier? Both were delivered with obvious scratches and scuff marks. Also, one bookshelf arrived damaged beyond repair. Two mountain bikes were also packed for the move. For some reason the tires and the seats were removed before they were loaded on the truck. When unloaded, one of the tires on my bike was reattached backwards... The ironic thing is that aside from one pilsner glass, everything that we personally packed in boxes ourselves, arrived safely.
That evening, after the van pulled away and we had played movers for 6 hours, we were just happy that every box and piece of furniture was accounted for, despite any damage. The next day, I contacted our North American Van Lines contact, who did call periodically throughout the move to check in with us (She was the ONLY positive in this whole experience)... She gave us the # to contact in order to start the claims process. Customer Service reps for the claims department were unhelpful as we wanted to talk about some kind of compensation, beyond physical damage, that we felt was owed to us for the entire experience we had been through. We got directed in 10 different directions. I finally ended up speaking to the "assistant to the President" of North American Van Lines. I calmly explained our situation and highlighted several incidences that I felt deemed some type of compensation, due to the unprofessionalism of the movers (some of these incidences were not mentioned here). She directed me to the online claims form in order to file a claim for equipment damaged in the move. When I wanted to discuss other compensation, she flat out said, "We won't compensate you for anything else." I asked if I could speak with her manager or supervisor and she rudely responded, "NO". I said, "NO? You are telling a customer who is asking to speak to a manager, NO?"."He won't speak with you - there is nothing he can do for you". I asked for her name and title - she is Sandy Marlowe, the assistant to the President, Michael Wolf.
If the assistant to the President of my company ever spoke to a customer the way Ms. Marlowe spoke to me, he/she would be unemployed. I didn't give Ms. Marlowe any more of my time - I had wasted enough. I have since begun the claims process and I have contacted my credit card company to dispute a portion of the charges that I feel we are entitled to beyond the damaged furniture... My advice to anyone out there looking to do a move - "do NOT hire North American Van Lines!" And if Michael Wolf, President of North American Van Lines happens to read this, you should get yourself a new assistant who can deal professionally with customers who feel they have been wronged by his company! I chose North American Van Lines because they provided us the lowest quote of the larger, well known moving companies in the country. After this experience, I definitely know this saying, all too well: "You get what you pay for". I am definitely not recommending this company to anyone...
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