North American Van Lines

 
Warning, warning, warning.  Beware of the dirty practice the mover uses.  It nauseates and disgusts me deeply every time I think of our experience with this mover – North American Van line.  They badly scratched our like-new condition Ethan Allen fine dresser and an end table and we could not do anything about it because they put “scratches top, side, edge, left, leg…” damage codes when there were none.  On the loading day, the mover/driver scribbled down lots of codes for every piece of furniture.   At the time, I did wonder what was he writing so quickly but didn’t want to “waste” his time interrupting.  Never did it occur to us that he was blindly writing the damage codes for every piece of furniture even when there were no damages because he never ever took a glance at any piece of our entire load.  He put down every possible damage code specific to each type of furniture for every item in our entire shipment to cover their [EDIT].  At that time, trying to be as accommodating as possible, I hastened and misread the column label of “CONDITION AT ORIGIN” as “CONTENT AT ORIGIN” so I did not question what those codes meant.  To make the matter worse, we could not be present to receive our shipment so my younger son did for us.  When he pointed out about the damages at the receiving time, they told him that it was indicated on the Inventory as damaged so my son could not dispute it because he didn’t know which was true.  Granted it’s my fault not taking time to carefully read the papers before putting John Hancock on the dotted line, yet it’s despicable for them to practice business like that.  I regret I paid them good tips against my son’s objection.   Though I did research a lot about hiring a mover but never read any consumer mentioned about the way they practice the damage codes system.  I had put off writing this review because I was so sickened by that.  Now I have calmed down enough to put this out, I only hope this review will keep many prospective customers from falling into this trap.  My loss will serve as your gain. Better luck for your moving.
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Service cost: $7410

We hired North American moving company for our relocation from San Antonio TX to Phoenix AZ. We would like to warn everyone not to hire this company for their house move or relocation. We had a horrible experience. Lots of our stuff was damaged in the transit, staff was very rude and mostly clueless. They did not even bother to notify us when they could not deliver on the promised date. We had to keep calling them to figure out where our stuff was.

We now feel that we should have looked at all of their negative reviews before hiring the incompetent North American Moving company. So do your homework and due diligence hiring any movers. They were very expensive, and we thought it would be smooth and professional move as promised, but it was the opposite. We have moved many times before but never had such a bad experience and poor customer service (previous moves were through employers). Packing was horrible and done by inexperienced staff. They did not protect the heavy furniture. They reimbursed us after several months for small broken items but not for the dining table. They are saying they are not liable for the crack as it is weather related, even though it cracked during the move. They even sold us insurance and still will not reimburse us. People who came to deliver the stuff were shocked to see how the stuff was packed and handled. All the boxes were damaged and torn. We have photos to show their packing and how they handled our stuff. If you see North American Moving company, run in the opposite direction as fast as you can.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $22000

North American Van Lines delivered my items cross country from California to Mississippi. Upon delivery, I was missing many items to include two antique couches and an oversized antique chaise lounge chair. Not once did they tell me that there were no couches in the truck. My items were delivered in an 18-wheeler, so I definitely assumed all of my items fit and were present. As the workers were bringing in boxes, they kept asking me where various boxes were to be taken. I kept telling them that this box and that item and that vase and so on were going to go by the gold antique couch.. I made reference to my couches several times. Not once did they even mention that they did not have or even see my three couches. They were the largest pieces of furniture. At the very end as they were preparing to leave, I asked about my antique couches. They said they were not on the truck and they had no idea where they were and that they only picked up the items from the storage facility. They said I had to file a complaint with the storage company and that they were not responsible. I had an antique early 1900s curio cabinet that arrived. The entire bottom leg is missing. I cannot even repair it. The curio is broken which I could have dealt with but the entire leg is missing and I have to keep it standing upside down until they can acquire the missing leg. I have an invaluable 1800s murphy bed that was delivered missing the entire top portion and my interior bedsprings are cracked and broken as if someone opened it and ripped them. They were not noted as broken on my delivery paper. One of my antique chairs that were delivered is missing the back and two other antique couches are broken and cracked.. My 5 foot tall wall painting has a crack in the glass. My antique buffet has been scratched in several places. Many of my antique glassware was delivered broken in the boxes. Several of my collector bottles of wine were delivered broken and spilled overt the other contents of the boxes. I am very displeased with this move. I am a 100% disabled Army veteran that was unable to lift or move on my own. I retired in California and returned to my hometown of Mississippi and hired what I thought was a reputable company to deliver my valuables to me. I just had my new house built and moved in a few weeks ago. I was finally ready for my antiques. I am so hurt and disappointed beyond belief. I paid approximately $15,000.00 for my storage unit over the course of the last 9 years or so. Only a portion of my items were delivered and many of them broken, scratched, dinged, or otherwise damaged. I paid an additional $4807.78 to have my items delivered by the moving company.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4807

The most unprofessional company I’ve ever had to deal with. They contracted our move out to a moving company filing for bankruptcy (didn’t tell us found out online while wondering if they sold our stuff) which this company then laid off all their drivers. Because they had no drivers , they could not get us our stuff for almost 4wks!! North American van lines would tell us one thing and the other company (republic movers) would tell us another. They gave us 4 different dates that they promised we’d have our stuff and never called the day before or showed up. So finally after 22days of waiting (having thanksgiving on the floor) and right before Xmas we finally got our stuff. The movers broke the legs off our tv console, several dishes, they wrote on items, etc!! After filing a claim North American van lines won’t reimburse us for all the winter clothes I had to get my kids for school (since they couldn’t manage to deliver ours on time) the only reimbursement we get is a insulting $50 a day. That doesn’t fix our damaged furniture, That doesn’t cover anything we had to get to live on for a month without dishes, cookware, mattresses, bedding, and the list goes on and on. This has been beyond a mistake. We should have moved our stuff ourselves. Don’t take a chance at North American van lines. This was a expensive mistake. It costed us everything to use them. The few nice pieces of stuff we had they broke. It’s not right.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5300

We moved from Indio, California to Prescott, Arizona with North American Van Lines. Our move was coordinated by their agents, Burgess Relocation, Palm Springs in two stages. Furniture was packed and loaded in November, 2018 and stored until April, 2019 before moving to our ultimate destination, Prescott, Arizona. Beware of dealing with this company. After the furniture was loaded into crates on a flatbed truck I was asked to sign "Household Goods Descriptive Inventory", "Statement of Additional Services", "Bill of Lading & Freight Bill", and "Bill of Lading - Customer Declaration of Value" sheets. I was not given advance information regarding the last document. It contains "Option 2 - Waiver of Full Replacement Value Protection" which was completed for my initial and signature. As requested I signed this along with 8 other documents. Unfortunately, under this option the movers liability for items lost, damaged or destroyed is limited to $.60 per pound regardless of the value..Ethan Allen furniture is settled the same as Big Lots! Again this was presented as the truck is leaving my residence in Indio. Now I am living with a real life problem. The legs from an Ethan Allen dining table were lost. I have the table top and leaf. North American Van Lines settlement is $66.00! The dining table is not functional anymore. I don't believe Ethan Allen is selling dining room tables for $66.00! Another example, a Brown Jordan teak patio chair belonging to a set was essentially destroyed. North American Van Lines settlement $24.00.

Our claim was submitted online as requested by the carrier along with appropriate pictures. It was never appraised or reviewed by a third party. A settlement is offered based on the weight of each item times 60 cents. I will never use this company again and I recommend others to do the same. There are many other alternatives. Request full documentation before your furniture is loaded..not in the flurry of activity of moving day.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5389

My concern is regarding an unacceptable amount of damage to my belonging while receiving professional moving services through North American VanLines / AirVan / Sirva and a denied claim.

I spoke with Sirva - North American Van Lines regarding a move from California to New Jersey for work. I had two full discussions with the Professional Move Coordinator regarding my belongings being in packed in storage and needing to be moved across the country. I inquired about the various ranges of insurance listed on the contract and what they covered. Although we discussed percentages of coverage, it was never mentioned that customer packed boxes would not be covered. Therefore, I purchased 100% insurance. Please note that I have moved several times in the past and utilize quality wrapping, peanuts, bubble wrap, heavy duty boxes etc. and all my delicate items were marked fragile all around the box.

My belongings arrived in the timeframe as described, and while the movers were moving, I noticed particular one of the movers was very rough in how he was handing the items. Examples include dropping a lazy boy chair on the ground once inside and the chair making cracking sounds. I abruptly looked at the mover and he replied "It's heavy". Or him flippantly bouncing his dolly down the stairs without picking it up, causing a loud banging noise at each step and shaking of the stairwell. Items had also been left on another truck which involved a second trip, and paperwork was forgotten which involved a third trip.

Most importantly, while the movers were present, I noticed a number of boxes appeared a bit smashed, and I therefore starting opening them to find that approximately 18 pieces, $659.67 in damage, in over 7 different boxes were broken. In addition, a very large vase that was to be boxed and transported by the company was missing, and when asked about it, the mover responded "It probably got broken and was thrown away." Subsequently, I filed a claim with the company regarding the broken items and was informed by a Senior Claims Adjuster that "While reviewing your signed delivery documents, I find that all cartons are listed as PBO-Packed by Owner. I am sorry to advise that since we had no control over the packing of such cartons, we are unable to accept responsibility as claimed. Therefore no settlement check will be forthcoming."

My dispute is that firstly, the incredible amount of carelessness demonstrated and damage to my boxes reflects a lack of concern, professionalism, and handling by the movers and not a customer packing issue. Therefore, I would like to dispute that the cause of the damage was customer error.

Secondly, the large vase was not packed by the customer and was to be packed by the movers and never made it to the destination.

Lastly, in two full inquiry conversations regarding insurance with the booking agent, never did he advise that the packed boxes I had described to him would not be covered yet upsold me on the most expensive insurance amount.

NOTE THAT I COULD ONLY UPLOAD TWO PICTURES YET HAVE 18 PICTURES TO SHOW.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4390

I honestly don’t know where to start. My rating is a zero, so the 1 star is for the movers from the house we moved from. We had a delivery date of 10/27/20 and the furniture actually came on 11/9/20. My 80yr old mom slept on a air mattress as did myself and my daughter who made the 13hr drive to help us.I She and her boyfriend were staying 1 week before they had to go back home. I needed to help my mom up from her mattress every time she had to get up. When they started unloading everything… we were informed that they lost one of the beds! Who loses a bed? Of coarse we couldn’t go through all the boxes that day and thankfully you have 90 days to do so. Well we had the happy surprise of finding heirlooms that have been in the family for generations that were broken. Some of the items were originals or so old, you couldn’t find a replacement for it. You tell me how you can put a value on items like that? I made my list, took my photos of everything and did my googling to try and find replacements from antique auction houses or specialty stores. One was not replaceable, I couldn’t find one anywhere, so I looked for the same artist/designer and within the same century. I took 3 photos and took the average of the 3 for the replacement. Nope… they want to glue it back together. This bowl is in 2 pieces, and not a straight break in the middle. We have a one of a kind game table with a color matching small removable cabinet that sits there for when you play checkers, chess or dominos. The top of this game table flips over to a gorgeous mahogany finish. The dominos part is done on a felted green area. You could play a dice game I guess also. It has matching chairs also. Anyways this gorgeous, handmade table is worth thousands of dollars. It was my great grandparents, so again it’s been passed down. The movers broke the legs off from it. They tried gluing it back together but it didn’t work and it left, white glue all over this antique table. Should a family member decide to sell it for a down payment on a house or something important, it won’t hold its original value because it will be listed as repaired. I’ve seen the site that sells antique tables and they’re magnificent. Some go for over $200,000. This table is worth $7,000+ and I wanted them to pay $1,200 for the loss it’s going to take for being repaired. I got a whopping $250 for the damage. Baccarat, Waterford crystal glasses that were packed inside their original boxes and they’re nice boxes. 3 of them got broken. A Bleek cottage that was my grandmothers, broken. There’re so many more items. I had my total at over $6,800 and I received $2,200 and they didn’t cover the bed! There was no way of proving it. The copy of the item list they give you when you leave your house, well you get the 3rd copy and you can barely see anything. The movers up here commented on it but when it came it reimbursing, nobody remembers anything about it.

IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING VALUABLE OR BREAKABLE, DO NOT USE THEM. IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING PRECIOUS TO YOU… TAKE WITH YOU, IF YOU CAN!!!

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6500

They leave a lot of information out. They will sub-contract your move out. My stuff was shoved into small box vans, taken another 10 hours away, unloaded into a storage unit, then reloaded, again shoved, into part of another sub-contracted out semi with other peoples stuff. Driven to several states before delivering to my new house almost 3 weeks later. And by the way being asked by the truck driver if I knew anybody that could unload my stuff! At the cost of almost 6 grand more and our stuff was treated like garbage. Boxes shoved so much that they become half their size resulting in everything in the middle of the boxes being broken. Old wood with slate top desk, broken. Trunks, dishes, a large air compressor, you name it, broken and unrepairable.

If you value your stuff please GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!! We have never hired anyone before and thought this being the top movers in the country we would be safe....think again. Lesson learned, unfortunately at the cost of 30 years of our hard work being treated like trash and that's were a lot of it has to go now.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $18000