from kansas to california
I was very happy for the first few months after I had first contacted American Van Lines. However, once I put down my deposit it seemed that I was no longer a very important customer. Some of the incentives the company offered also seemed to have never existed, for example, I was told from the original estimate that if my costs were to go up I was not responsible to pay more than that original estimate. This reason alone was a very large part of why I had chosen this particular moving company for my long distance move. That alone was not too terrible -- some extra saving covered any risk on that so I looked past it. Once the day of the move arrived the
movers came four hours after they estimated, after dark and in the rain they moved my stuff. Straight out the front door and into the wet grass. Then i was told by the head mover himself that i was to pay him in cash 40 percent of the move before he could drive off with my stuff. I called the company to verify this and the man who answered said No do not give them any cash. He put me on hold for a few minutes while he called the mover who was in my house. The mover got back on the phone with me and informed me that I was to pay 40% in cash right then. Up until this point the only thing I was to pay for was my deposit and the final payment was to be when I received my items at the end of the move. I was not given an option to pay with credit card only cash. My bank only allows $500 to be withdrawn in cash on any given day. I still owed almost $2,000. As you may tell this was a problem. Until the mover told me I could pay with card with a fee of up to 20% of the total charge. So I had a lovely fee of almost $100 tacked onto everything else. I have moved several times with the military however this was one of the worst moves I have ever encountered. I hope that this information will be used and help the staff of American Van Lines inform their customers of certain risks on using outsourced moving companies.
J Difatta