Green Van Lines- An unethical moving service
Sable
Submitted this review about
Green Van Lines
Review made Live: 4/20/2009 5:26:00 PM
We signed a contract with Green Van Lines for interstate moving (from Maryland to California) under their false promises. The way they operated was, at minimum, unethical, and we aren’t sure whether it was illegal. We are filing the complaint for the record so other people can be alerted.
There are three major issues. First, they lied about their business practices. Second, there was questionable weighing of the vehicle. Third, the actual delivery was a nightmare.
1. Green Van Lines lied about their business practice: We chose Green Van Lines because they said that they never sub-contract. Initially I was considering another moving company, Guy (the owner) directed me to a website and showed me that it registered only one truck for this other company. Guy told me it would be impossible for them to move us without subcontracting, having only one registered truck. Green Van Lines on the other hand, owns all their own trucks (15 total), and employs all their own moving staff with intensive training (Julie told me that there were at least 3 months training for all their moving staff), therefore would be a much better choice. In our case, it was not true. On the day of pick-up, they arrived in a Budget Rental truck (they originally promised that our belongings would not be loaded, transferred and reloaded to other trucks—that was one of my choosing criteria.) Later we found out that our belongings were transferred to a truck owned by “North American”, and the movers were not trained or employed by Green Van Lines.
2. Green Van Lines conducted a very questionable weighing process: After they loaded the truck, we found out that they had weighted the truck the day before in New Jersey. (We were in Baltimore Maryland and the scheduled pick up was at noon. The weight station in Baltimore was right next to the highway.) The first ticket from New Jersey is very minimal with no specifics. In fact, the two tickets had nothing in common and there was no way we could verify it was even the same truck. (We scanned the two tickets and could send you the PDF files for reference.) The original estimated shipment weight was 3,416 lbs based on a detailed inventory list (we had almost no furniture except for two antique chairs, four bar stools and two antique coffee tables.) The final calculated weight was 7,500 lbs. We had our doubts. We contacted Green Van Lines and Guy told us that each weight scale is different and can result in a 5-10% difference; however, it was completely legitimate to weight the truck in another state at a totally different weight station on a different day. I would very much like to find out whether it is true.
3. Green Van Lines subcontracted our moving and actual delivery was unprofessional and reckless. Our belongings arrived on a truck owned by “North American”, not Green Van Lines. There were two movers with the truck, none of them was employed by Green Van Lines, and they had a local “daily for-hire” person to help out. When the truck arrived, we saw how they had so crammed in our belongings that they couldn’t even get the boxes out. The truck was repositioned several times and all three doors were attempted before unloading was possible. No walk ramp was present and a ladder was needed to reach the trailer door. When they turned the truck around, it hit and damaged a nearby building. When my husband expressed concern about this damage, one of the movers (we were told that he was the brother-in-law of the owner of the truck company) threatened my husband's life.
Similar to many people’s experiences, the movers wanted more cash or they would not unload our belongings. In addition to the original agreement, which including $550 “guaranteed delivery charge”, $515 for furniture wrapped-up, and 10% fuel surcharge, they asked for $300 in cash. They threatened to just leave our belongings on the side of the road if we did not pay. After negotiation, we paid $225 in cash. We received a hand written receipt on my notepad without any company logo. While they unloaded our belongings, we saw that boxes that we marked “fragile” and “this side up” were crushed and up-side-down. Several items were broken, including one item, which was broken right in front of us during its forceful unwrapping. When I tried to support and protect our fragile antique furniture during its unwrapping, I was accidentally slashed with a box cutter. After only partially unwrapping our furniture, they left all the torn cardboard and bubble wrap piled up in our new home. It was the for-hire guy who helped us to clean this mess. The movers did not follow their inventory list. Even when we mentioned that there were more items wrapped in Green Van Lines’ blankets, they just stormed out in a hurry with their new cash.
After our delivery, we told Guy what had happened. He seemed genuinely concerned and said that he would get back to us regarding our unfortunate delivery experience. We never heard back from him, even after our follow-up email. We want to make other people aware of their false promises so no one will fall for it again.
