Brokered Move to a Mover with Horrible Reputation
P Turner
Submitted this review about
Americas-Moving
Review made Live: 7/9/2011 9:39:00 AM
As with other reviewers on this site, I hired America's Moving Services because of the good reviews and their stellar rating with BBB. Unfortunately, because AMS also acts as a broker, under the contract they can place your move with any mover they want to, and in my case, my biggest nightmare came true--they hired a mover who did not have a good reputation in the industry (based on reviews that I found online). I was to be picked up on either 6/23 or 6/24. On 6/23 I contacted AMS because I still had not been notified of a date and time for pickup. I suggested that perhaps it would be better to wait until Monday so that would give them a longer time to get a truck to me--I absolutely did NOT want them to hire a company I'd never approve of hiring. Unfortunately late in the day on 6/24, I got a call from somebody named Jim Mack,(I was never contacted by AMS to tell me they had brokered my move to this company) who said he would be handling my move the next morning (Saturday) between 8-10 am. Well, 2 men and a truck showed up at 3 PM to load over 8000 lbs of my belongings, which took 6 hours to load--I had done all of the packing. When it was all loaded the men were finding it hard to get their dollys on the truck because it was so packed full. As it turned out, AMS underestimated the weight by 800 lbs.
Later that same day, I discovered that the company they brokered the move to, Mack Relocation Services, had a horrible reputation, which caused me much distress because this is exactly what I didn't want to happen. Why hire a mover with a good reputation only to be picked up by one who doesn't? I began to panic about the move because of what I had read about this company and other customer comments. I tried to call them but only got a recorded message "this company cannot take calls at this time." Obviously, they screen the caller ID because Jim Mack called back later that day and I asked when they would be delivering my stuff. He asked me when i wanted it, and I told him on Tuesday (the driver said he would be driving back to Atlanta (where they're based) that night so there wasn't any reason it couldn't be delivered on Tuesday. We sat around all day Tuesday waiting to hear from someone. Finally, I attempted to call Mack (always a recording on the phone) and then wrote an angry email to AMS to get their attention. Of course, the response was "We are shocked --why are you complaining when the contract gives us a 7 day window to deliver your goods". I had no problem with the length of time for the delivery--I had a BIG problem with having someone promise a delivery date and then not even call to say they couldn't make it--that's all they had to do. Fortunately, they showed up at 5 PM on Wed., again with 2 men, and were here until 10 PM getting the shipment unloaded.
Everything that I had packed myself arrived undamaged. However, they broke, in two pieces, a very expensive dining chair which I will now have to find someone to repair (if that's possible). This was not some cheap piece of furniture--this was a well made Henredon chair that obviously was not packed correctly by the mover.
The owner of Mack was not trustworthy in my opinion and even blamed his driver on the "promised delivery date" which was untrue--Jim mack is the one who promised a Tuesday delivery. He's his own worst enemy because all he had to do was say he was unsure of when the delivery would take place and leave it at that. I was well aware of the contract terms and didn't have a problem with it. And of course AMS had no further contact with me after they turned the move over to Mack Relocation. I was really very surprised and disappointed with the services of AMS. I have a real problem with a company who wants to advertise that they will be careful with your things but then turns it over to a company with a less than stellar reputation. Never again with this company.
