Northern American Van Lines quoted me $1,023 for a 2,100 lbs move from TX to DC. At first, Taylor was very helpful, always answering my emails and calling me. When I finally booked my move with them, I could not even get her supervisor to answer my emails. Taylor would answer her emails half the time. She was courteous and helpful but not knowledgable. She put me on hold several times to ask her supervisor about my questions. When I asked about stair and long carry charges, I was told the fee was only one-time. As you will read below, it's not.
The dispatcher did not contact me until 6pm the day before my pick up date to confirm the time and date of the pick up. And this was after two emails and two phone calls.
The movers came during the time they specified. There were three - a driver and two helpers. They were very friendly. However, I found the driver to be a bit of a scammer. He was surprised that my inventory list was exact. He then said he'll have to charge me extra for shrink wrapping my bed and my couch. I told him I specifically asked Taylor how my bed was going to be wrapped. Taylor said that my bed was going to be covered in plastic, not mentioning I will be charged for it. I could have packaged my own bed in plastic cover from UHaul for less than $10. This guy was going to charge me $30 each for my bed and couch. Later on, he said, "I won't charge you but just take care of my guys. They were expecting to work long hours today but you don't have much stuff. It's an easy job."
Other than the price being low, the reason I chose Northern American was that they give a 48 hour notice of delivery. Did that happen? Of course not. Although they delivered three days later, I only got a call from the driver 20 hours prior. By law, they were supposed to give a 24-hour notice.
The driver gets here on time but his first order of business was to get paid. I was also charged an extra $200 for Long Carry. The binding estimate Taylor sent me was $75 for each additional 75 feet. The form I signed at pick up was changed to $100 for each additional 75 feet. I did not even notice that until the driver pointed it out. I asked Taylor about it and of course, no response.
Some of my furniture are scratched. They were even delivering stuff that were not mine.
To sum up, my move cost me $260 more than the binding estimate. It still came in cheaper than Mayflower by $500. Would I use Northern American again? Most probably not. I learned from this experience to deal with a moving company with an excellent reputation - Mayflower. I used them before and it was paid for by my company so the price was not a concern. But definitely, now I know the difference.
