Complaint Review: Stevens Worldwide Van Lines - Nationwide

Our experience with Stevens is an ongoing practical and legal nightmare, now in its third month, with delivery of our goods still not completed, some goods lost altogether, others horribly damaged, even as Stevens keeps running up more and more charges against our credit card accounts without our authorization.  And now Stevens is sending us forged and altered documents in order to try to bill us even more.  Think I’m exaggerating?  Not hardly.

Here is the short version of our Stevens American Horror Story.

My husband and I are 60ish and were moving from Los Angeles to our dream home near Seattle.  We contacted our favorite LA area mover — “Chris’ Moving Men” — who had moved each of us before on several occasions over the last 20 years.  In May of this year, Chris — the owner — sent his chief bidder out to assess our load, and then Chris came out personally to assess again.  Chris gave us packing instructions and he then gave us a bid quote for our move.

Chris explained that, unlike a local move, an interstate move is billed by the actual weight of the load, not the hours of labor by the movers.  Based on his decades of expertise, Chris gave us a bid which presumed our load would be 28,000 pounds.  The price for that load, including all taxes and surcharges and anticipated add-ons, would be about $18,000. 

The good news was that this total would come out less if the actual weight of the load turned out to be less than 28,000 pounds.  Alternatively, the total cost could be higher if the weight proved higher, but Chris felt he was bidding high so that any surprise later would be a cost savings rather than an overage.  In our many moves with Chris, actual cost had always turned out less than the bid — he's good about protecting his customers that way.  Regardless, Chris explained that the rate was locked — meaning you take the final actual weight and multiply it by a locked rate number to determine the cost, so there was no risk we would have to pay a premium rate if the weight went higher, and we could calculate cost reduction ourselves if we were considering not moving something heavy after all. 

The obvious key to this whole deal was that the moving company was contractually bound to weigh the truck empty just before loading, and then re-weigh it immediately after loading.  The weights would have to come from official scales, documented by official, signed certificates.  This is something that transport trucks have to do all the time.  

Chris also advised us that the LA loading pick-up dates and the Washington delivery dates which my husband and I requested were confirmed, and the only additional consideration was that there would be a “spread’ of a couple of days in case the truck was delayed coming or going for reasons out of Chris’ control.

Accordingly, Chris sent us a written bid/contract which stated that the loading would begin on June 1 and would last no longer than June 2, and the delivery would be made on June 4, but could be as late as June 8 if the movers encountered any problems en route.

The contract also reaffirmed what Chris had told us about billing and payment: that the truck would be weighed empty before loading, would then be weighed after loading; and the billing would be COD — that is, after delivery was completed, we would be presented with official documented proof of the weight and a bill computed on that weight; and we would then be asked how we wanted to pay — that is, by cash or money order or cashier’s cheque, or credit card.

Chris also explained to us that, for an interstate move, although we would be personally dealing with him and it would be his crew doing the loading in LA and the bid was written in the name of his company, the move across the state line was somehow being “umbrella-ed” by a company called Stevens, and Stevens would hire the driver for the move, which might or might not be one of Chris’ drivers, but he promised do his best to arrange for the driver to be one of his folks or at least to be someone he had personally checked out and could vouch for.

My husband and I agreed to book this move through Chris, and a few days later he phoned my husband to say that Stevens needed credit card numbers in order to hold the booking.  But Chris explicitly stated and referenced the contract that the credit card accounts were not to be charged until delivery was completed, until final weight and final billing documents were then presented, and until my husband would then advise whether we wanted to pay by credit card or some other way.

Well, on June 1 the movers showed up, on schedule.  The driver — Gary — announced that he was certain he would finish loading that day, and that his massive truck had plenty of room for all our stuff.  But, that night, he suddenly announced that his truck was full, even though our most important items — our bed, bedding, bedroom furniture, bathroom and medical stuff, our shoes and clothing, office equipment and work files, our washing machine, and other vital day-to-day stuff — had not yet been loaded.  We were now told that a second truck would come the next day, would finish loading, and would hurry along after Gary’s truck.  We were still being told that all our delivery would be made and completed in Washington on June 4, as planned.

So my husband and I and five dogs piled into one car, and our friend drove our other car, and we hurried up the I-5 to beat Gary and the moving trucks to our new home.

If you want all the gory details of what happened next over the ensuing days and weeks and months, we will be posting it, but here are the bottom lines, and the reasons you want to run screaming from any mention of Stevens Worldwide Moving:

Without our permission and without telling us, Stevens rang up more than $18,000 on our credit card accounts on or about June 3, before any delivery was made or any billing given us.

The first truck arrived a day late, on June 5, and delivered broken furniture and damaged art.  Other items were totally missing.  Our recently purchased high-end refrigerator had been completely beaten up by the Stevens crew, and all its handles were gone and nowhere to be found.  If a carefully packaged crate had an arrow and sign that said “TOP” and “THIS SIDE UP” and “FRAGILE!”, the Stevens unloading crew would fling it upside-down into our garage and then pile other stuff on top of it.  The Stevens crew stood our high-gloss enamaled furniture on end on our gravel and concrete driveway and moved it by literally kicking it along, with paint chips flying.  The crew broke the base of a rosewood cabinet, breaking both the structure and knocking off a big hunk of the wood.  All the corners of my husband’s desk were broken off.  The Stevens crew bashed our furniture against the freshly painted walls and freshly refinished wood floors and stair railings of our new house.  And, whenever my husband or I our our friend would complain, we would be cursed at.  And the driver would randomly but constantly berate the military and rant about how much he hated them as customers because they were too critical of his treatment of their goods.  It was a surreal experience.

The second truck, the one that contained our bed and clothes and medicines and office files and most vital stuff, did not arrive until a month later.  Let me repeat that and be totally specific: the truck left our home in LA on June 2 and did not arrive to our new home in Washington until June 30 (which was 26 days later than contractually promised and 22 days later than the drop dead deadline to which Stevens was contractually bound). 

Throughout all those weeks, Stevens kept up a constant bait-and-switch to Chris about when the truck would be coming.  So, for month, my husband and I and our friend and five dogs slept variously on the floor or a sofa, using cargo blankets as itchy bedding, hand washing them and our three days’ worth of clothes and underwear in the kitchen sink.  As our advocate during this time, Chris contacted Stevens daily and wrote detailed letters to them exhorting them to deliver the rest of our goods to us and otherwise aid us in the interim, but Stevens was indefinite and inconsistent in their responses even to their agent, Chris.

Do recall this: under “the spread” of dates in the contract, Stevens was officially in breach when delivery was not completed by June 8.  Nonetheless, they did nothing to help us, and did everything to keep us hanging when, had we known how long it would really be, we would have gone out and bought or rented the things we needed.  And, by the way, it would later turn out that the only reason Stevens did not deliver on time was because they intentionally held up the shipment in LA, waiting to add other customers to the load in order to maximize Stevens’ profit.  The delivery delay and breach of contract were both profit-based business decisions by Stevens.

The June 30 delivery was incomplete because many of our things were still missing, and are still missing as of today.  More damage was done by the June 30 movers to more of our goods, as well as to our home.  The nightmare just kept growing.

Stevens never followed the COD provision of the contract, because they secretly charged our credit cards days before the first truck arrived.  But, immediately after we disputed these charges to the credit card companies, Stevens suddenly sent us a bill in late July, not just for what they had already rung up on our credit cards (which was up to $20,000 at that point), but a claim for another $3,600!  The bill contradictorily says it is based on Stevens having done lots of packing and unpacking (which they never did), but then specifically says the extra charge is solely based on 6,520 pounds of extra weight in transport and delivery.  (That is, 34,520 total, which is 6,520 more than the 28,000 that Chris and estimated and bid.) 

To prove up the weight of the first truck in their billing Stevens provided a scanned copy of a weight scale receipt which is unsigned AND which has hand-written alterations of the truck’s ID numbers AND which has a pre-printed legend that it CANNOT be used for legal trade in California!  This is supposedly for the truck prior to loading on the morning of June 1.  The weight scale company — CATScale — told my husband that this is an invalid receipt, period, the end.  Next, Stevens provided us a scanned copy of another CATScale receipt, supposedly for the fully laden truck the night of June 1.  This receipt is signed, but it also states it is not for legal trade, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, the truck’s ID numbers have been altered in handwriting.  The same uninitialed handwriting is on each receipt, yet supposedly from two different scales a hundred miles and 15 hours apart? 

The point is that the hand-written alterations attempt to match up the ID numbers even though the CATScale-printed numbers UNQUESTIONABLY show different numbers for the trucks on each receipt, respectively.  (All you have to do is look at the two receipts.)  Also, the time stamp on the first receipt cannot be accurate in light of the truck’s actual arrival time at our home in LA that June 1 morning.  To me and my husband and our lawyer, all this is Stevens attempting to falsify the weight of this load.  Why?  Do we assume it is just to collect more money, to make up for what Stevens will have to eventually pay us for the damaged and lost goods and other claims?  Or could it be the driver never bothered to weigh the truck at all?

To add even more fuel to this fire, in their billing, Stevens sent us copies of various documents signed by my husband during the move.  Only these copies have been altered by Stevens AFTER my husband signed them.  Thankfully we have the originals, so it is easy to spot the hand-written cross-outs and interlineations.  Indeed, someone at Stevens has even now unchecked the COD box from the original bid/contract and the bill of lading!

Naming names: Rosa and Pat.  When Chris finally got frustrated with his inability to get Stevens to be responsive to him, he put us in direct touch with them.  This was in late June, and the load from there second truck was still sitting in LA.  My husband spoke with someone named Rosa who said she would send us claim forms.  He also spoke with someone named Pat who first insisted that all our goods were to be delivered in a couple of days, but relented when my husband informed her that he knew darn well that our goods were still in LA and not headed anywhere.  Pat then specifically okayed us renting a washing machine until Stevens would deliver ours, as she said famously “Send me the receipt and I will pay it immediately.”  Well, it’s now 50 days since we paid for that rental — all of $36 — and Stevens has yet to pay us back!

Naming names: Judy Butler.  In mid-July, Chris put us in touch with a bigwig at Stevens named Judy Butler.  He vouched for her good nature and her ability to be a customer-oriented problem solver.  My husband and I spoke with her by phone.  She said that Chris had made her aware of all the continuing horrors that Stevens was putting us through and that she would take over and resolve everything.  She apologized profusely and listened to us tell her about everything for an hour (in far more ugly detail than this posting).  Judy told us to write everything out, to fill out Stevens claim forms for damage and inconvenience, to send photos and get repair estimates, and that she would shepherd everything along in all haste.  My husband and I finally felt we had someone who cared and was in a position to help.  It so turned out we were wrong about Judy Butler’s “caring”.  As previous posts by other unhappy Stevens’ customers have stated, Judy Butler pays lip service and then does nothing.  That’s what happened to us.  We spent several days and night putting together a detailed file of claims and photos and videos and documentation for her, and here we are weeks later without being able to get ahold of her again even to confirm that all our claims have been filed.  The only two things Judy did were (1) to tell us that we owed no more money, only to then send us that $3,600 bill soon after, and (2) to send out an appraiser who did not arrive until weeks later, whereupon he told us he could not unpack and appraise high value items after all, as he leveled with us that what Stevens does is find ways not to repair or replace things (for example, he told us there’s no way they will fix our fridge or buy us the missing handles removed and lost by Stevens — instead they will wind up offering us a reduced price for our fridge, not enough to buy a new one or to repair the old one, and they will demand that they take away the old one if we take the money.  In other words, we are totally screwed!  We would have been better off donating the refrigerator to charity in LA and buying a new one in Washington.  Stevens is charging us in full to move a refrigerator they broke, then reimbursing us less than we’ve paid them and taking away our refrigerator.  Remember I said all this was surreal?  It’s worse!) 

Naming names: Bob.  By coincidence, while the appraiser was at our house and unable to do a complete job thanks to Stevens giving him an incomplete assignment, one of my credit card companies called with someone conferenced in from Stevens.  That latter person: “Bob, in finance”.  My husband got on the line as Bob told the credit card company that our delivery was complete as of June 29 and that all was well.  When my husband said that nothing Bob said was true, that the delivery was not yet complete, that the credit card charges were unauthorized, and he brought up the 26 page narrative and 4 claim forms and reams of supporting documents that we’d sent to Judy Butler, as well as the letter we’d sent to Stevens HQ requesting the unaltered weight receipts and documents in Stevens’ possession upon which they were basing their billing and credit card charge authority, Bob suddenly went dumb, said he had no idea what my husband was talking about.  When the rep from the credit card company questioned Bob further, Bob said he really knew none of this and was just reading from a computer entry and that he’d have to ring off and get back to the credit card company later.

This is the present state of our Stevens Saga.  It is a cautionary tale.  As I said at the beginning of this post, caveat emptor, Buyer Beware!  And I will keep you all updated as the saga continues.  Stevens Worldwide Moving — steer clear, my friends.