Hidden Costs and Poor Service
Alison
Submitted this review about
AmeriCarrier Van Lines
Review made Live: 7/26/2012 7:30:00 PM
I hired Americarrier to do my long distance move of my three bedroom condo from Los Angeles, California, to Portland, Oregon in early June. I signed up with them based on good reviews, and was appalled by the magnitude of hidden costs, poor treatment of my property, and horrendous customer services.
Signing up with the company went fine. I originally was given an estimate based on a detailed inventory of items in my home (which was relatively similar to other estimates I received), and I agreed that I would have everything boxed and ready to go.
Things started going wrong the day of the move. The movers showed up an hour after the two hour time frame I was told to expect. Despite having everything boxed and ready to go, the movers took over 8 hours to get my items moved into their van. When I had previously done a local move with a different moving company (which was a positive experience), not only did the movers pack up in less than 8 hours, but they packed up, and unpacked in that time.
During the course of the move, there were several red flags as to the treatment of my property. For example, I had a table that the movers couldn’t figure out how to disassemble, and I was told that “I could always buy a new one.†They also said they didn’t have equipment to move my piano, despite the fact that a piano was clearly listed in the inventory. They later asked if it was alright to tip the piano on its side.
At the end of this draining ordeal, I was told that the actual cost to move would be over twice the amount of the estimate. This is particularly upsetting for two reasons. First, I was told I was being charged almost $700 in packing supplies. I had packed and supplied all of my own boxes, except for a few picture boxes and two or three moving blankets. There was no itemization of what these packing supplies were, and I made little headway in arguing the justification for these expenses. Second, despite the fact that I had done a detailed inventory with the salesman, there was no effort to match this inventory list with the items picked up. I was told I was being charged based on cubic footage, despite the detailed process of conducting an inventory. While I admit that I had a greater number of boxes, and I knew the actual cost would exceed the estimate, I could not begin to fathom the magnitude. Even if my inventory was right, I would be forced to pay an excess amount because of unidentifiable and unmeasurable space estimates conducted by your self interested moving employee. Moving is a vulnerable experience, and there is little leverage when everything you own is in the back of a truck.
When the time came to unpack in Portland, there was little improvement in the experience. The movers called at 7:00 pm to say they were going to be there in 30 minutes, and they didn’t show up until about 8:00 pm. Based on the lengthy experience of packing, this time was a concern to me, but I was told they had to do it that night because they had another pick up in the morning. At sometime around 11:00 pm, I was shocked when they told me they were leaving, since much of my furniture was still disassembled. I was told that they can only take my furniture apart, and they had no obligation to put it back together. They could just leave it in the disassembled shambles they created, and it became my problem to figure out how to piece it back together.
At the end of the unpacking, I noted for them that a file cabinet had been badly damaged (I later noticed that my desks had also been badly damaged by the disassembling process), and that I was missing the legs to the table (mentioned above). I was told that the legs were probably left at the warehouse, and I would receive a call on the next business day. The head mover said I could reach him on his cell phone.
On the next business day, I heard nothing, and when I called the cell phone, it had been disconnected. I called the main office number and heard nothing. I called dispatch, and was told, “they didn’t have room in the truck,†but the table legs were in the warehouse, and they would be delivered in a subsequent delivery in late June (about 3 weeks after my original move). In late June, I had not heard anything, so I called dispatch, which told me they still didn’t have room, but perhaps they would be delivered in the first week in July. In the first week in July I called back again, and heard nothing. I have since called dispatch again, called the main number again, and emailed the salesman three times. I have never heard back from anyone.
I am sharing the above because I wouldn’t wish this experience on anyone engaging in a long distance move. Better luck to all the other movers out there!
