Complaint Review: Fidelity Van Lines

We hired Fidelity Van Lines to handle our move from Monterey, CA to North Carolina. We checked several other companies and their quote was comparative and we also checked with the BBB to find no complaints. On June 13 when they arrived, they were 4.5 hours late! We were moving out of a rental and, of course, this delay, caused us extra charges with our landlord. The two movers who arrived spoke very little English and were extremely rude and even arrived in a Budget rental truck. We thought little of this having been assured by Mandy that there had been another move scheduled before ours that took longer and that they woudl credit us the charges our landlord charged us. Thinking all was behind us, we allowed them to load our items waited to see our furniture in North Carolina.

Fidelity had told us our items would be stored for up to 30 days. We contacted Fidelity once in North Carolina and gave them our official physical address on July 6. It then took until August 26 for our furniture to arrive. On July 6, we were told that our items would be placed on a dispatch list. The following Monday I called to find our status and was told the items would be on a truck that week. On Friday, I was told it would be the next week. This happened until August 3 when Jason told me my items were on a truck headed for Chicago??? That was the last we heard from our items until I finally spoke to Doron Maya (the owner) on August 15. He wanted to know why I had not requested a delivery date and why I had not asked to speak to someone in management. I told him not only had I done this NUMEROUS times, but that I had also spoken to both Anthem claims management, the California District Attorney's office, the Assistant DA for Camarillo, and the DOT because no one was giving me an answer at Fidelity and no one would return my calls!

Our furniture was finally delivered on August 26 by Mid-West Moving Company. Jaime assured us that these "contracted" drivers were good and that we would be reimbursed for our "inconvience" within 3 days of delivery but that our full amount was due the drivers up-front. We are still awaiting our reimbursement. Needless to say, we cannot get a return phone call. As if that was not bad enough, my children's beds were ruined, my mattress (of less than one month at time of pick-up) is MOLDED,well...ALL the furniture that DID arrive is SEVERLY water damaged and MOLDED. We have had estimates done for cleaning and have been told that is will be nearly IMPOSSIBLE to clean and repair all the damage done. Not to mention that we have boxes that had books and photos in them (family memories that cannot be replaced of my deceased grandfather, my children as infants, my wedding photos) and other priceless memories.

We are still missing over 17 boxes of items and lots of furniture. Our Bill of Lading was so difficult to read and almost written in an entirely different language that we cannot decipher some of the items on it. When the furniture was unloaded, the movers were so careless, they dropped several boxes and BROKE the items inside (the boxes were so water damaged they had to be handled with care, fell apart upon impact with the concrete floor and the items fell out and shattered). The movers could have cared less. Their response was "We will never handle another load for Fidelity again."

Our move has been a nightmare. We have spent more money than we should have sleeping in a hotel or buying needed items while waiting on Fidelity and now on replacing what was destroyed or damaged. We were assured by Mandy that we were fully covered and did not need additional insurance and the drivers even told us that we could not add insurance! I do not want what happened to us to happen to anyone else! Please help us find justice against Fidelity!

Christy
Clinton, North Carolina
U.S.A.