They'd be OK if they didn't lose a TON of my stuff...
Written: Jun 22 '00 (Updated Nov 27 '00)
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Pros: They picked up and delivered on time.
Cons: They lost a big chunk of my things!
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| dtobias's Full Review: Allied Van Lines |
I used Allied Van Lines for a move from northwestern Louisiana to southern Florida early in 2000.
The pickup went without much problem; they arrived on schedule in the morning. I told them originally I wanted to pack my own stuff, and had been working all weekend at it including staying up all night the night before the movers arrived, but as the day dawned I still had heaps of things to pack (I had way more books and other miscellaneous objects than I thought!), and I ended up having to use their packing services, as well as buy more boxes from them at the usual inflated price.
But it all got packed up and taken away, so I could go crash at a friend's house until the following day, when I began my drive down to Florida (which took 3 days, with overnight stays with relatives in Mobile and a motel in Jacksonville).
Since my new apartment wouldn't be ready to move in for another month, I had asked for my stuff to be put in storage until moving day. They gave me the address and phone number of a place in Boca Raton that supposedly had my things, but when I contacted them, they didn't know anything about it. After a few inquiries to their national headquarters, eventually I found out that my things were really at another place in West Palm Beach.
Anyway, with that straightened out, I arranged for delivery on the day I was ready to move in. They came right on time and started bringing in my stuff. My dad came in from Texas to help me move in, so we got the things into reasonable order as they arrived, including getting the stereo and TV wired up and the speakers mounted. But it was kind of hard to control them since the remotes hadn't turned up yet. We presumed they were in a box yet to be brought in.
The loads of things kept coming in... as with the pickup, there was a lot more stuff than I actually remembered having. Somewhere late in the move-in, they shoved a bunch of papers at me to sign, including inventory lists. I really should have been checking off the items by lot number as they came in, but this was my first move and I was rather inexperienced at it. So I ended up signing papers supposedly indicating that everything was correctly delivered, even though I didn't know if it really was.
Finally, the last of the stuff in their truck came off. At that point I started thinking something was funny... I knew of a few items of furniture, including a dining room table, that hadn't shown up. So I complained to the driver, who said that this was all they had, and I should call the national office and ask for a trace. Finally, they left after bringing everything in.
I did a quick overview of the items, and started checking them off against the inventory list, revealing a number of missing things. I called and asked them to begin a trace, then continued checking things in greater detail including looking at the numbers on all the boxes. As I unpacked the boxes over the succeeding days and weeks, I got a better idea of what was missing, and it was actually quite a lot (despite the remaining stuff still seeming like more than I actually thought I owned!).
There were several missing pieces of furniture, and dozens of missing boxes. The stereo and TV remote controls never did turn up (I'm still trying to get the Toshiba affiliated dealer to return my calls about buying a replacement for theirs). I was also missing big chunks of my comic book collection, most of my Libertarian periodicals collection, most of my personal photographs (negatives and prints), and lots of other stuff.
They spent weeks trying to trace the missing things, but got nowhere. I have filed a claim on their official form, but beyond a quick form letter response I haven't heard from them yet.
Update, Sept. 30, 2000: Well, on August 23, they finally sent a response to my claim. The response letter said that "A review of the Household Goods Descriptive Inventories does not indicate exceptions noted for the lost at the time of delivery. Without these exceptions, the carrier is not in a position to accept legal liability." (In other words, because I foolishly signed all the stuff they shoved at me, before I realized the extent of the losses, they're not going to take any responsibility for them.) Then, in an effort to show "good faith", they sent me a check for $246 ($200 for the lost items, $46 for some damage to other items that I indicated on the claim form). This is a rather small token amount compared to the large amount of things they lost, but as they state, I'd probably not have a very good case to contest them due to my not handling the move correctly. If I'd been on the ball, I should have taken careful notes of what was in each box as it was packed in the first place, taken photographs of the things as they were loaded, and then checked off everything as it arrived, not signing off on anything until I'm sure it arrived intact. Since I didn't do this, I'm at their mercy. I don't think it's worth my effort to try to contest this further, so I'll just go on with my life, knowing that next time I move I'm going to have to pay much better attention to what the movers are doing.
Recommended:
No
Punctuality: Showed up ON TIME
Lost Goods: Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dtobias
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Member: Daniel Tobias
Location: Boca Raton, FL
Reviews written: 167
Trusted by: 95 members
About Me:
A programmer and Internet developer who's been a "computer geek" for over 20 years now.
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