At the start of February I went online searching for long distance residential movers and came across MOVERS.com. I filled out the contact information form and submitted it. Movers.com must have sent my information to NORTHERN VAN LINES because on 2/18 I received my 1st voicemail from JOSHUA WILEY. I had many calls from other movers that same week and because I have never used a residential mover before, I was skeptical and cautious about the whole moving process. 2/19 is when I returned Joshs call back for a quote of $1400 for 2,000lbs after I gave him my inventory of items.
After many quotes from actual movers (I also received quotes from brokers from which I was advised to stay away from) I concluded NORTHERN VAN LINES was reasonable for me. So on 4/3, I called Josh back; I asked 3 QUESTIONS:
1-are you a broker or an actual mover? He answered we are an actual mover not a broker.
2-what are your cancellation policies? Josh replied, now why would you want to cancel with us and do business with another mover, i said, if another mover offers me the same services for less than your price, i would like to go with them. So then josh answered, as long as you notify us 5 days prior to your pick up, your deposit will be refundable.
3-do i need to pay for insurance as a precaution? He answered your belongings will be professionally handled and we offer protection at no additional cost.
I then told Josh about my the fact that I will need to call Northern Van Lines back with a delivery address because I was still apartment searching in New Haven, CT. Josh guaranteed me two things:
1-Northern Van Lines climate controlled 30 days free of charge storage
2-He said the fact that I was in no rush for delivery played in my favor.
Hence, based on the questions answered above, I was comfortable to start business with Northern Van Lines. So Josh specifically asked for my biggest items, which I provided and then gave him my debit card information to take a $525 deposit for my reservation on 4/3 based on $1400/2,000lbs. (Everything up to this point was being done verbally over the phone.)
The week of April 15th I get a call from Julian claiming to be the quality assurance guy. He states in order for my move
to go smoothly, he needs to go over my inventory with me one more time. So I gave him the list of my itemsonly this time, there were at least 18 boxes that were initially left out of my inventory with Josh because he only asked me for
my biggest things and it did not occur to me that my boxes were bigger than my beds and sofas to list. Julian then says he has to re-reserve my pick with dispatch to include the correct inventory and he would need an additional $300-$400 to do so. I told Julian I did not have that money to give instantly and thats when he threatened to inform his drivers at pick to leave my boxes because they were not on the inventory. I told him Josh never made me understand that I had to list everything in my apartment, he only asked for my biggest things. I started panicking and called Josh right after I hung up with
Julian. I told Josh that I did not feel 100% sure of doing business with them anymore because of my conversation with Julian, so I asked him to refund my $525 deposit and cancel my reservation. (Note that I asked for a refund on April 17th, a week prior to my pick up date.) To my big surprise, Josh tells me the contract he sent me stated my deposit is non-refundableJosh falsified information over the phone to lock me into doing business with him by stating 5 days notice prior to delivery guaranteed ones refund. Mind you that I made my deposit on the 3rd of April over the phone with him prior
to me signing that contract he sent and I signed on the 13th of April. How was I, a first time mover, supposed to know he was boldly lying to me about the cancellation policy prior to giving him my debit card information?
(Lesson learned for future reference.) At that point I was forced to do business with him because I did not have the extra funds to forfeit $525 and go with a different mover. Little did I know then that he had also falsified information about the free 30 days storage.
Josh went on to reassure me that my belongings would all be picked up including the 18 boxes he failed to inquire about originally. He told me to ignore what Julian had said about leaving items at pick up. Josh proceeded to tell me that I should get a call the weekend prior to pick up to give me the time and details needed. I never received that call that weekend.
So after millions of calls for confirmation, Preston calls me from Colorado stating pick will be Tuesday whereas Josh told me it was going to be Monday.
Pick up of my goods occurred Tuesday, April 24th after dispatch got tired of receiving my calls since they could not give me a straight answer as to the time frame for me or my friend to be available for them at my apartment. The nightmare was about to begin. Bobby, the driver, arrives at my apartment and asks for of the balance prior to loading my goods. Now that is where I finally started putting the pieces together because communication between the employees within Northern Van Lines (claiming to be an actual mover not a broker) was beyond poor. I had already cleared my balance prior to
Bobby arriving but he was not informed of that. Bobby goes on to say he was not picking up the boxes because the inventory list did not have them (mind you Josh guaranteed on April 17th everything in my apartment will be picked up, now how is it that Bobby is not aware of this information and still threatening to leave some of my items?) I called Josh right away to have him confirm everything with Bobby but Josh avoided my call because when Bobby himself called him, he picked up. Bobby then proceeds to add additional charges to my bill:
-$75 for stairs (my apartment had 2 entrances, one was considered the 1st floor and the other a 2nd floor.) I told them they should enter through the 1st floor entrance but he hesitated at first because he truly wanted to add the extra $75.
-In addition, $100 was added for long carry, again my apartment had two entrances but they wanted to take the one that would cost me money. At the end, they decided to go through the 1st floor entrance and eliminated the 2 extra charges.
-$96 for packing materials (although my contract included disassembling things, everything was done by me prior to them loading. I am yet to know what the $96 was for.)
After everything was loaded and done, I requested a weigh and was told I had an extra 500lbs because of the 18 boxes. I agreed to be fully responsible for that although Josh failed to do his job initially by not having those accounted for on the inventory. Finally, they left with my belongings for their warehouse. After everything that had happened, I tried calling Josh to get some questions answered but he would not pick my call up. I called Preston and spoke with him in regards to the additional extra charges, I also asked him to provide me with the number of the owner of Northern Van Lines. He promised
to call me back with that information but never did. Days after not hearing anything back about where my goods were, I called customer service and spoke with Wes who was surprised that there were no notes associated with my job ID. So
Wes asked to start the whole story from scratch so he can correctly enter it into their system for future reference. Wes was kind enough to listen to the whole situation. Wes then informed me that my goods were still in Kansas due to a
truck delay, he also told me prior to loading my goods from their warehouse for the New Haven direction, dispatch was going to call me and inform me my goods were loaded and I should be getting ready for delivery. That never happened.
Nor did I get a call or an email giving me details about my updated moving bill. After millions of calls, they finally told me my goods were in New Haven, CT (at this point because I did not receive that promised call prior to driving my goods to new haven, I was not ready for them to deliver.) So I called them back and told them to either bring my stuff back to Kansas or hold them in storage for the 30 days free as originally promised. At my big surprise, the Kansas dispatch says if I want my stuff in storage, they will charge me $400. That is where my issue lies: not only josh originally guaranteed the 30 days free
storage but also Preston and Wes confirmed the same thing. So why is dispatch trying to charge $400??? So I went on to contact Amy who was also unable to resolve the $400 extra charge. Amy started avoiding my calls as well. So on May
19th, I filled a Better Business Bureau complaint and told Northern Van Lines I will be filling a small claims suit. May 21st, I finally got a hold of Josh after I blocked my number. We talked over the phone and he admitted to his mistakes. At the end of our call, I sent Josh an email right away resuming my conversation with him. This was the content:
Josh
No need to reply to this message because I am just summarizing our conversation over the phone today in regards to my
belongings.
1-I provided you with my address for delivery (49 Admiral Street, 06511)
2-You confirmed the "no storage fee" charge because we both agreed on delivery for the 24th (you also confirmed I
shall not be responsible financially if you guys are unable to make delivery on the 24th.)
3-You guaranteed the safe rendering of my items (no damages on any of my items.)
4-You promised the driver would call me prior to delivery.
(Just making sure we are on the same page because I have learned my lessons well and I wanted to send you this email as
confirmation of your statements.) Unless you reply to this message otherwise, I will assume you are in accordance!
(Sandra Mbaissouroum)
I then spoke with Carlos on the 22nd and May 23rd (dispatch for a delivery time but he was not able to confirm
because word was given by Amy that all her workers should direct me to her.)
Amy calls me after I left a message with Wes saying dispatch called me at 5:04pm to deliver in New Haven (that is a lie, I never received a call or a voicemail about that). Amy is now saying everything will cost me $2500, and she is not releasing my goods (held in a New Jersey warehouse) until I pay with a credit card. I told her a money order will be ready at delivery time but she won't release my goods. I have no guarantees at this point to pay over the phone with my card because up to this day, not only Josh, Preston, and Amy have lied but I also realized they contracted at least two other companies I was never aware of. I told Amy I had the right to pay at the time of deliver. All of the sudden, Josh and Gabi started hanging up on me when I tried locating my goods. I called and even left a voicemail for Robert Michaels. Never heard back from him. I also learnt that Northern Van Lines is falsifying information into luring customers to think they are actual movers instead of
brokers (Carlos told me this himself when I asked which company he worked for.)
In Addition, Moving Connections Inc. Is somehow involved in this process although I never entered any contract with them to touch my belongings. I suspect the drivers were also contracted. There is a reason why I initially asked Josh if his company is a broker or an actual moving company. Let's take the whole thing back to the beginning of the contract: April 3. Ask them to provide every single call recording, voice mails I left, and emails I sent. Let them let the proof speak for itself.
Note, when Amy replied to BBB, she lied in her response in regards to leaving me a voicemail, and contacting me the next day. I have proof beyond words (phone records, and emails to confirm everything.) If you need to confirm the truth, please do ask them to provide records of them contacting me. My BBB case number is 22342147. I contacted the Attorney General of Oregon and spoke with Joann who stated that they have been having issues with Northern Van Lines as well. Joann warned me to seek legal help immediately because my belongings could be in danger of being get ride of by Northern Van Lines. MoveRescue, AMSA, DOT and others are trying to help me resolve the hostage of my goods but Northern Van Lines should be put in line with the law so that future consumers are not victimized by them.
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