They are not what they appear
Nancy Morgan
Submitted this review about
worldwide van lines
Review made Live: 10/11/2011 3:02:00 PM
1. We were given a quote of $1225 and paid $225 deposit. We asked for a pick up date of 9/14 and were told that our things would be picked up within that 48 hour period - 9/15 at the latest. As we had tenants moving in and the carpet needing to be cleaned, it was vitally important that this deadline be met.
2. The driver called on 9/14 and said he'd be there mid day. At noon he called and said he was broken down several states away and would pick us up Friday or Saturday. We told him that was unacceptable. I called and spoke to Wendy (who seems to have a problem telling the truth) and she told me that they had found another truck and it would pick us up on Thursday at 4:00. When no truck ever arrived, I called and was told that THAT truck had also broken down. Another lie. There never was another truck. In the meantime, the stress of dealing with this company - leaving voicemails and never getting called back, having to somehow re-arrange our tenants move in plus the carpet cleaning which cost more because I had to have it done on Saturday - all that was causing me to have chest pains, so I was not sure if I needed to go to Urgent Care in the midst of it all.
3. The original driver (who was never taken off our move) called Thursday and told me he'd be at our house at 10:00 a.m. - that he had to make a delivery in Ohio first. Friday he called and said he wouldn't be there until 4:00. When they finally arrived - in a much smaller truck than we were led to believe by the website - he started hauling our stuff into the truck. When it was mostly done, he informed me that it weighed much more than our quote and he wanted to be paid half the fees on the spot. Once again I called the company - only getting through to someone by calling the salesman and insisting that he get someone on the phone - they talked to the driver and told him we would pay on delivery. He said the quotes are always wrong because the computer doesn't know how much the couch weighs and how much the boxes weigh. So he said if he weighed it would be way more money. He said he would do it for DOUBLE what the quote was, less our deposit. At that point, we needed to leave, so we agreed to it, grudgingly. We also agreed to a drop off date of 9/21.
4. During this time, NO ONE from the company EVER returned my calls. I left numerous voicemails and NO ONE ever called me back.
5. Two days into our drive, we called the driver to check on his progress and when he thought he would arrive in Arizona. He informed me that he had another job to do and they were behind schedule so they were going to drop our stuff off at a warehouse in California and "someone" would delivery it when they were coming our way within the 21 days they are "allowed." I called the company and again, no one answered their phones or called me back. NO ONE. The driver gave me the cell phone of the guy who apparently owns the truck and he gave me a non-answer about what I had been told. He said he didn't want my things in his warehouse. After numerous calls to him, he said that he thought we were in Phoenix, but since we were on the border with California, we would be the first delivery AFTER THE TRUCK WAS REPAIRED IN ST. LOUIS. Once again, the truck was broken down.
6. In the meantime, I called and talked to Wendy and told her I wanted a discount for the trouble we had. She claimed to have gone into Kevin's office and that he told her we could have $100 off and that they had informed the driver of this. (Several days later when I talked to her, she claimed that Kevin wasn't there and she talked to him on the phone. But she left me on hold so long, I had called again on our other phone and the guy I talked to said Kevin's door was closed and someone was in there with him and when he could go in, Kevin told him that Wendy was handling it) So Wendy just says whatever she needs to say to get you off the phone.
7. The driver called and told us we needed to have cash or a money order for $2075 (by our original quote from your company, it was supposed to be $1000 balance). I told him we were supposed to have $100 off - and he knew NOTHING about it. But he said ok, he would collect $1975. Before he came on Saturday, he said he'd made a mistake and shouldn't have subtracted our $225 deposit so we still owed that. We told him we'd call the police if he tried to collect a penny more without delivering our things.
8. The driver arrived on Saturday afternoon. He had called because he was having trouble finding our address in the GPS. When he finally found it, I said to be sure it was SOUTH Cisco, not NORTH Cisco. He called and said he was here. I said, no he was not because I was in my driveway and he wasn't there. I told him he must be on North Cisco. He actually argued with me about whether he was at my house. After I told him to keep driving up the block past the stop sign, he finally got here.
9. He gave me the paperwork and we paid him. There was NO weight in any of the paperwork. We have NEVER found out what it weighed.
10. They started unloading very quickly. When one of the boxes seemed wet, he said that they had to switch trucks in St. Louis and that it was raining. He said if they hadn't broken down for so long and had to cancel the next job, our stuff still would have gone to the warehouse in California and we would have had to wait weeks to get it. He wanted me to just count boxes but I wanted to see and check off all the stickers because they tried to leave us a couple of items that weren't even ours. I noted a couple of damaged items, but it wasn't until they left that we saw the real situation. Our stuff wasn't just loaded in the rain - it obviously was THROWN off the truck (don't know how else my husband's large tool chest would be so badly dented that the drawers don't work properly) and then left sitting in the rain. The insides of the boxes were wet and some of the boxes fell apart when we tried to move them. There was a lot of breakage and an antique clock that was wrapped in a towel was soaking wet and the wood was damaged.
11. Once again, I left three messages with the "Customer Care" department, and several with other extensions. NO ONE CALLED. I finally got ahold of Wendy by going through another department and she sent me a claim form. I sent it back with a list but no signature because in my cover letter I clearly state that filing that form does NOT release World Wide Van Lines from their obligations to me. I have no idea who the people are who own the trucks that delivered my stuff - I relied on World Wide Van Lines to take care of my belongings and have them delivered in a timely manner and I hold them entirely responsible for the total fiasco.
We have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau as well as the Federal agency that oversees the trucking industry. We asked for a refund of the difference between what we paid and what we were quoted and NOT ONE person from that company has taken it seriously enough to respond.
Moving is a stressful time anyway but to have a company bungle it so badly and then not once follow up or call the customer is untenable.
