Complaint Review: First National Van Lines - New York NY

First National Van Lines (heretofore FNVL) employed a bait-and-switch-style tactic to gain my business: FNVL associate Joshua Wiley reeled me in with a surprisingly low estimate, only to have that number nearly double after associate Christian Morgan aggressively pushed for me to reserve more truck space as the days drew closer to the load date.

 

On 12/24/19 I spoke with Mr. Wiley; when asked how FNVL calculates estimates he claimed weight/miles. I cannot stress enough how vital this piece of information was for me: Every online article I have read about moving tips/advice highly advise against doing business with ANY moving company that calculates their estimates on cubic feet. Movers that charge by weight go to a weigh station before they get to your house, and then back again once your furniture has been loaded. Since the DOT does the weighing, you have a trustworthy 3rd party to verify this information.

 

However, cubic feet is much harder to verify: There is no way to know exactly how much unused air space—nor empty pockets throughout—deliberate or otherwise, there actually is in a truck. As such cubic feet is not considered reliable when calculating estimates. If any moving company claims that they calculate their estimates on cubic feet it is advised that you say goodbye and move on to the next call.

 

Since Mr. Wiley verbally confirmed to me that moment FNVL uses weight/miles I felt okay to proceed. While FNVL also does not provide an in-person estimator Mr. Wiley persuaded me that he could produce a reliable estimate over the phone based on room-by-room walk through, that he's be doing this sort of thing for several years now. He sent over an estimate hours later that seemed surprisingly low considering it was a cross-country move of a 3-bedroom house. Compared to a competing estimate (from a reputable company that provided the more preferable method of an in-person estimator), FNVL was about 40% lower.

 

A little over a week later I provided FNVL the weight from the competitor for an apples-to-apples comparison. Mr. Wiley revised FNVL's estimate which rose but still much less than the competitor.

 

I decided to roll with FNVL on 1/17/20. That day Mr. Wiley stated FNVL required a deposit of $1500, payable by credit card, for which I used my Visa. To be clear, he claimed the deposit be made BEFORE he sent an updated contract for me to sign via e-signature. Mr. Wiley charged my card while I was on the phone with him and said an updated contract that included the deposit would arrive shortly afterwards. No emails from him of any sort were received that day. It would take almost 48 hours to send me a revised contract to sign.

 

Everything took a turn on 1/23/20 when FNVL associate Mr. Morgan introduced himself via a very lengthy text message that urged me to reserve more space in the truck in case of overflow. I did not understand why Mr. Morgan—whom I’d never heard of—emphasized cubic feet when Mr. Wiley claimed from the start that it was all about weight/miles. In a bit of panic and effort to provide an accurate inventory list, I emailed Mr. Morgan inventory lists from both competitors I was considering.

 

Over the next week, Mr. Morgan would continue with his pressure campaign and then sent another revised estimate based on additional reserved space; the original 12/24/19 estimate had now effectively doubled and was comparable to the competitor's estimate. Furthermore, I realized Mr. Wiley had been dishonest about weight/miles: Although both values are included on the estimate for me to witness there's a line below which showed that they actually use cubic feet for estimates.

 

I felt betrayed, my trust completely eroded. I could not in good conscience reward FNVL with more money and possession of my belongings in their trucks. I had no choice but to cancel the order on 1/30/20 on a call with Mr. Wiley. The following day I spoke with FNVL customer service supervisor Adam Davidson who did not confirm nor deny Mr. Wiley's conduct. Instead, Mr. Davidson was more focused on informing me that the $1500 deposit was non-refundable according to the contract I signed.

 

Corporate contracts like FNVL’s always assume that any breach of contract is on the customer’s behalf. These contracts have no interest in holding the company and their agents accountable for their deceptive conduct. From a contract perspective, the customer is never right.

 

Canceling this job so close to the move date was not an easy decision. I did not cancel the job because I wanted to but because FNVL left me no choice despite the added stress it would incur. A betrayal of trust in this matter is not easy to recover from. Companies like FNVL that look the other way when their agents employ bait-and-switch-style tactics should not be rewarded with my business nor my deposit. My $1500 deposit was made in good faith but unfortunately in the end FNVL did not conduct themselves in a manner worthy of that faith.

 

My deposit should not be FNVL's consolation prize for the cancellation considering Mr. Wiley and Mr. Morgan's dishonorable tactics that led to it.