I recently relocated from Nashville to Santa Barbara. I initially asked for a quote from Allied Van Lines, and found itbeyond my financial means. Looking for other options, I applied for a moving quote online. Once I put in a request for aquote, I was inundated with literally dozens of phone calls and emails beggingme for my business. (Once I put down my deposit, it was hard to get in touchwith anyone, but that's for later.) When I first spoke to my moving consultant, StevenVandal, he gave me a long and well-rehearsed spiel on what a great and reliablecompany it was, on what great customer service it had, and told me that hewould be in touch with me throughout the process. Unfortunately it appears thathis idea of good customer serviceand the mission of the entire companyis toavoid phone calls, leave voicemails unreturned, and give no useful informationwhatsoever. Not knowing this in advance, I fell for it and put down a deposit. (Five minutes of Internet research on USVL, which is overwhelminglynegative, would have saved me the trouble. Hopefully other customers will be smarter than I was.) Once my two-day moving window had come and gone, I got acall from Alexander, telling me they had "no information available" onwhen or if a carrier would be available for me. He left his extension, in caseI had any questions. I did have questions (duh!), so I called back. I spent 45 minutes on hold, until their phone lines simply cut off. This takes avoidance to a new heightit's a tactic I should try using on myexes. (I now pretty much have it memorized: "Thank you for holding. Yourcall and your business are very important to us." Ha! If only.) Two days after the end of the window, when I spoke toanother customer service representative, she said absolutely nothing. Shemerely repeated, over and over and over, "I have no information. I cannotgive you any information. I cannot give you any information. There is noinformation." Fromstart to finish, all I got from the customer service representatives wasmeaningless, empty blather like "we do not have any information at thistime." There was one guy, Alvin, who seemed relatively competent and sympathetic, but other than that none of them seemed the least bit informed. Here's a tip: if you can't track down information, don'trun a moving company. After grappling one or two more times with the "dispatch representatives" and cancellation department, I proceededto head to the nearest Budget Van Lines and move the stuff myself. I got thejob done more smoothly, more cheaply, and (judging from what I've read) probably more professionally than USVL's "carriers" would have done. They say they're refunding my deposit within a week or so. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt (probably dumb of me) and assume they're telling me the truth. If this changes, of course I'll be back here with updates.
For the moment, it appears that paying my deposit and getting my deposit back werethe only parts of the process USVL was equipped to handle. Relocation is a fact of life for my line of work, and I would gladly have been a loyal customer—I would also have recommended them to my colleagues. They've probably just cost themselves tens of thousands of dollars. Professionalism and competence aren't just for show; they're how money getsmade. It seems USVL has earned its rightfully lousy reputation.
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