North American Van Lines

We utilized North American Van Lines and Humboldt Moving and Storage for a move from Eureka CA to British Columbia Canada. I highly recommend you find another moving company.

The estimation process went smoothly enough, however, I did voice my concern that the inventory list was impossible to read. It appeared to be the 4th or 5th in a bundle of carbon copies.

Shortly before the move we were told that their driver, Barry, could not arrive on time and they would need to store our belongs at their warehouse while waiting for him. I expressed my concern about an unnecessary unload and second load of our belongings, noting that every time goods are touched there is an increased risk of breakage. I was assured utmost care would be taken.

I was informed when the driver was approximately 2 hours from the border and we went to meet him at 5pm. There were no issues at the border except that he told us he wanted to unload that night. After the drive, that would leave about 1.5 hours of daylight and we had, in no way, planned for this. We did not yet own our house and were unloading into the garage thanks to the kindness of the sellers. Disturbing them at 6pm was not our goal. We told the driver to pull into the alley and we’d meet him there. Instead, he went to the front door and requested the garage door be opened from the inside. He then proceeded to slam our belongs into the space for about an hour with no hired help. He was beyond irritated that we were going to stop him at dusk. The next morning, he continued his rage behavior slamming boxes, purposefully leaving items where they could fall on the next movers and blocking the inner backyard door so that the eventual final movers would have to carry all goods from the alley to the backyard and house.

I did not even keep track of the number of items brokens as we unpacked. We have moved many times and our packing methods have not changed. We have never had one-twentieth of the breakage that occurred. Of all the breakage, there were only two items for which we requested reimbursement: a 2-wheel dolly and 6 crystal glasses that were in a box that had been smashed on one end. I was told there would be no reimbursement because the driver was not notified at the time of unload that there was problem. 1) I think I mentioned the unreadable carbon copy, meaning we’d need to someone magically remember and see the dolly. 2) I think I also mention his rushed state and that checking anything as he unloaded would have been impossible even if I could read the inventory list.

Other than the woman who came to do the estimate, this entire move was a disaster resulting in significant loss to our possessions. However, North American Van Lines and Humboldt Moving and Storage don’t care one iota.

I highly recommend you use any other firm.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $15000

We moved from LA to Austin. Every single aspect of this move was horrible. The pack job was bad..they didn't pack everything..I had to move boxes..they forgot items..our sales rep cussed me out..the main office we worked with out of Oxnard was completely unhelpful..they broke many items upon shipping..they took 2 days to unload..they forgot, lost, or stole my son's video games..lost many personal items..and damaged our floors.

Now..to compound this we filled a claim for the games, missing dish..and floors, the true nightmare began. The insurance company claimed that due to the fact that we signed the shipment doc (the day they unload the truck) ..we agreed that the items IN the boxes were delivered in full. This is a sneaky way for them to get around reimbursing missing items. We had 230 boxes..and inside those 230 boxes were our items. it is IMPOSSIBLE to know what is missing until you dig in.

After 4 months of back and forth..we are still fighting, and this is their way out of fixing any damage or missing items.

Before choosing North American Van Lines consider the following-

1. Unless you unpack every box, your claims are useless
2. Unless you have receipts for any missing items, your claims are useless
3. They will take 45 days per "submission" to respond- the goal being to wear you down to the point you don't miss these items anymore
4. The service was horrible with each group blaming the other for problems. Truck team blamed the packers, packers blamed the truck team. Corporate blames Truck and Packing team.
5. Unless you want to pack some of your own items or have to manage the movers because they are "tired" at the end of the day, do not use this company
6. Everything you sign..which you have to sign..exempts them from any liability

No one is accountable. I have read Yelp reviews before in my past that you look at ..and think "it can't be that bad" If you look at my personal profile, you will see I rarely write a bad review for anything. I may have 1 or 2.

Avoid this company at all costs..or 3-4 months from now..be ready to write your sorry story online as well.

Zero accountability..bad service through out the process..horrible customer support..and a constant goal of trying to get out of fixing any problems with loop holes.

Service cost: $12000

At first these people gave us a quote we could live with-we got delayed moving and 5 months later they doubled the quote,saying their drivers and trucks hadn't had a break-should have been a "red flag"warning,but hubby insisted to .not worry about it as he didn't want to deal with another company...the driver had us believing in what he said-"oh i put a lock on this trailer and it doesn't get unlocked until we get to your new state",and he was SUPPOSED to take it and drop the trailer until we could close on the house in new state....NOPE he FLAT OUT LIED....he took another load to Dallas while our stuff went right along for the ride,because when he got here someone else's stuff was in with ours!-had to tell him "THAT ISN'T OURS!",and the way stuff was packed was shifted into different places,which if he left that lock on,then WHY was stuff in different places in that trailer?????....then if that wasn't bad enough he hired horrible help to unload and they got tired and disgusted and started cramming things in the out buildings-dropped box of my records that was thrown on my husband's tool cart....complained the whole time they were unloading because driver had to leave the premises and go to a ATM,and wasn't here to witness the chaos....upon loading at old house he allowed a propane grill bottle and 3 bags of charcoal from my husband's outdoor kitchen to be loaded....months later we find out that they "mysteriously disappeared"....i understand if they wasn't allowed upon loading,but to load them and make us think we were allowed to keep them,especially since he said"no problem" and allowed them to be loaded at old house and us NOT to have them all of a sudden is THEFT!....i would have GIVEN them to people back at old house if they weren't allowed to be on board,but to down right steal them is THEFT!....also when we had our furniture wrapped the way we wanted it ,he came along and redid our wrapping stating the way we had it would ruin the furniture....i had left things in my buffet,and the way it was when it arrived i couldn't even open the drawers because the contents had shifted....the lady told us we could leave stuff in drawers....now you have a $500 deductable to where if any small stuff gets broken or lost you are out of luck!-SO if we call or make a claim,they would tell us "the propane bottle and charcoal shouldn't have been on the truck"....OK HOWEVER it was YOUR driver that ALLOWED it!.....we even asked him "we thought that was illegal or haz mat"....he SAID "i haven't ever heard that"....go figure-a corrupt company making thousands off of situations like ours....i hope my review and other negative reviews here at least get enough people to not use them-that would be so NICE if they lost customers if the truth comes out enough times!

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $26000