Do not use this company
Katie
Submitted this review about
American moving systems
Review made Live: 5/12/2015 12:28:00 PM
I am writing to express my extreme dissatisfaction with moving job #6515221. I left two messages yesterday requesting to have customer service contact me so I could file a complaint and I have not received any response so far.
After the American Moving Services sales agent received my credit card number for the deposit, the company ceased all communication in regards to my estimated move date on 5/6. No one called a week before my move date to collect my final inventory list. After calling the customer service line multiple times, I was finally transferred to an employee who took my list, with no apology for their lack of contact. No one called 24 hours in advance to confirm if I would be moving on 5/6 or 5/7. Again, after calling multiple times, someone told me that the driver was responsible for confirming my moving window and would call after 8pm that evening. Again, I received no such call.
On the morning of 5/6, I spent over two hours continuously calling the company trying to find out why the driver did not call the night before and to hopefully confirm that I would be moving that day. Any time an employee did answer the phone, they either transferred me to another department or told me that someone named Frank was supposed to call me back with the update. I finally received a call at 10:30am from a woman who told me that the driver would arrive between 2-5pm but they could show up as early as 1pm, so I should not leave my house after 12:30pm. She also said that the driver would call an hour before he would arrive to provide another update. Starting at 4:45pm, I again began to frantically call the company because the driver had never called and it was close to the end of my moving window. After having employees again transfer me to random departments or tell me that someone would call me back, I began to seriously worry that the company had scammed me out of my deposit and I would never have a driver arrive. The driver did call at 5:30pm and finally arrived at 6:30pm.
After the three movers took my move inventory and put everything into the truck, one of the movers went over the forms with me. My total increased from the original amount of $1,574.65 to $1,921.77, without a full explanation why. My bill lists a $50 labor fee, a 10% fuel surcharge, and a $249 booking fee. I was told to have $576 in cash for the movers and instead needed to have $776. I did not have that much cash on me so I was told I could write a check. However, the mover also told me that I owed $96.25 in separate fees and I had to pay that in cash. After they left, I realized that this second charge was not listed on my bill so I can only assume that this was a unrecorded tip for the movers.
I had asked movers when I could expect delivery and they said it would be any time between 5-10 days. However, they said that the company would call me with 24 hour notice before delivery. Again, I received no such call! A driver called me at 7am on 5/11 to say that he was in town and would be arriving shortly. I was in the process of getting ready for a job interview and told him I would not be home until noon. He did wait for when I could get back home but said multiple times that the company was supposed to call in advance to make sure I was available for delivery. The second moving crew is my main source of complaint. After everything was moved into my house, I was dismayed to have to realize that no one was tracking the inventory list to confirm that the sticker numbers matched. After they left and I began unpacking, I had to learn that both of my stand lamps were broken. One of the lamps was completely bent in half and had been bent back into shape. The other lamp's base is completely missing, leaving only the metal rod and lamp portion. Rather than telling me that the lamps were clearly broken, the movers had propped them up in the back corner and put boxes around them to hold them up. I also had to learn that three of the boxes appeared to have been sitting in a pool of water for multiple days and were completely soaked to the point that the cardboard disintegrated when I picked them up. The boxes contained books, office files and office supplies that were completely ruined. And, finally, a section of the wooden shelving unit that was built by my late grandfather was completely missing. Again, if someone had been actually tracking the inventory stickers that were placed on every item, it would have been possible to see if the shelf was left in the truck or could be located somehow.
I have used five different moving companies throughout my life and I have never experienced such a shoddy operation. Again, once my deposit was received, American Moving Services failed to contact me at any of the previously agreed-upon dates and left me completely stressed out during both the pickup and delivery process. To find my items, not only damaged, but purposefully hidden in the back corner or at the bottom of the box pile was just insulting. I would never use their company again and will do everything possible to alert future customers to my issues.
