Complaint Review: All American Moving And Storage - All American Movers

Dear Sirs: July 25, 2005
I would like to report a customer service disaster, and possible illegal behavior by my movers: All American Movers based in New York but with affiliates around the country.

This was not a personal move but a shipment of my Grandmother's goods and antiques from her home in California to my home in New Jersey. The goods were loaded in Saratoga, CA on May 19th, with a promised shipment of 2 weeks. My father, the person in charge of shipping the goods, was told the 22 items would be loaded into a store house that day, then put on the next truck which was leaving the following Friday, May 27th, 8 days later.

Eleven days, later, Monday. May 30th, he received a call stating that the goods have been put on a truck and were headed for New Jersey. He was told that they should be arriving by that Friday, June 3rd. They did not arrive for another 24 days, 3 weeks after the promised date. And in fact, we learned that they had not been put on a truck at that time.

When I began calling on June 3rd, I was passed from person to person who supposedly check the status of the delivery. The first guy told me, It's due in tonight. Call in the morning. In the morning, I talked to another person, I don't know why he told you that, but it should be in by Wed. I called Wed, June 8th, and was told that it would be in by the beginning of the following week, June 13th.

The items would not be delivered for another 2 weeks. I called and called and was told lies about it's transit status. When I finally threatened to contact the authorities, they promised to track down the load, and revealed that it had not yet left California. For each of these phone calls, I referred to a load number and they acted like they were checking something.

In one of the few times that they actually returned my phone calls as promised, they left a message with my teenager that stated that they had found the load, but thought it had been part of a warehouse fire but it wasn't. I never received a single apology for any delay, and wonder why they were clearly lying to me repeatedly about the whereabouts of my shipment. There is something very suspicious about this behavior.

When the load arrived it was missing two boxes out of a total of 22 items. That's almost 10% of the entire shipment. The unloaders, Vince and Thomas explained that they had just loaded up their truck from another trailer which was on it's way to Florida and they couldn't catch the driver, and besides my 2 boxes would be on the front of the truck, and impossible to get to. Vince told me to call and report the boxes as missing to the company in the morning. (Each of my boxes had an 8 x 11 label with my name and address. This was an easy mistake to avoid if not for their blatant incompetence.)

This is where it gets comical if it weren't tragic. When I called and explained to the receptionist that 2 of my boxes were missing, and that my drivers instructed me to report them to the company, the receptionist paused, then asked me: So who would you like to speak to. I was dumbfounded.

I replied very slowly, I guess that would be the person who takes the reports on boxes missing from shipments. ( I know that they don't have geniuses working these jobs, but their motivation to be service-oriented appears to be zilch.

She told me that would be Rafaela and proceeded to give me an incorrect number. I called her back, and got another number. But then when I called, I got a woman who wanted to know my name, and then asked what I was calling about, then finally said,
Well this is Rafaela. After she knew my reason for calling. This was very suspicious to me like she was hiding from certain calls, and would only reveal her identity after she knew the purpose of my call.

Afterwards she promised to call me back, and never did. Days later I called back and then her phone would ring for 30 consecutive rings, and then I called the main number. They told me that they were in the process of a move, and someone new offered to take my call: Rosie. When I explained my on going frustration and inability to get anyone to return my calls or deal with my missing boxes, she chided me for not being understanding and not having compassion because they'd had a tragedy. It was unbelievable. She sent an email to another worker: Trisha who called me and promised to call me back, that was a week ago and nothing.

I am going to file suit against these people. I frustrated and angry. I had researched movers including (link deleted - see below). I told my father and brother exactly whom they should hire, and they hired someone on the Blacklist. I was so upset, and told my brother to put a large 8 x 11 paper on each box with my name and address. So my two missing boxes have my name and address prominently displayed, as did each of the ones that arrived safely.

All American Movers is more than incompetent: they lied; they obfuscated, they misdirected, and took our money and failed to deliver. I want to see them investigated because, I figure that I am usually able to coax cooperation out of the most antagonistic service people, and yet this entire organization defied my best attempts at collaboration and encouragement to be forthcoming and honest. If this has happened to me, this is happening to other people, and it's tragic. There are family antiques in those boxes that I may never see again. This shouldn't happen to other people. All American Movers will be held accountable.

Susan
Tabernacle, New Jersey
U.S.A.

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