Complain about a product or service

Allied Van Lines

J of Farmington Hills, MI May 27, 2009

This move was from Austin Tx to Mi by Berger Allied van driver R. Gentry. I notified Allied via phone call and email on 4/24 of the rude and abuse behavior of this van driver. I paid over 9,000 and did not receive the caliber of service I was promised and expected. This man's comments during inventory in Austin on 4/16 were rude when I asked questions re my concern of handling the move of an antique dresser, leather sofas, and crated items by Berger. He made rude remarks about Richard, the estimator of my move & about items crated by Allied. Richard and I spoke by phone that day about this person's ugly behavior. On 4/17, he screamed at a neighbor who questioned why his van broke off a trim limb, and told her to "go call the cops" rather than deal with his error in a professional manner. On 4/23 upon delivery of goods in MI, he was beligerent, rude and obnoxious. He was agitated with no cause, and I had to ask him to calm down several times during the day. I provided free breakfast and lunch which he and his crew accepted. There was no purpose or reason for his rude and mean behavior. In addition his crew had to apologize to me several times that day for this driver's poor behavior. They also cited problems with their pay by this driver to me privately. The driver screamed at us several times during the day, and in one instance, he dropped a dresser inside the front door and proceeded to scream at us that it needed to be placed at once, even though it had been initially agreed that was the last item to be moved into the house, because it was the only item in a room where 2 cats were being kept. I paid extra for this item to be crated, and he told me I was "lucky" that his crew would even place the object inside the house at all. In addition, he proceeded to deny any damage to other items that were pointed out to him,and the numbers for those disputed items disappeared off the items. The driver did not carry a parts box and several parts were missing. His verbal abuse continued to be observed by others. I would have called the company on the spot, but my phone was not yet connected. I did not deserve the verbal tirade that this man put me through for 3 days, nor did my neighbor, my brother, or others. Here is only a portion of the letter that one observer sent as a complaint to Mike at Berger Allied ("There was plenty of food, the weather was nice, the three young men in the crew were nice. The only person yelling and stomping about was the van driver Mr. Gentry. His last name certainly does not describe his manners or attitude at all.

While I can imagine moving people's stuff and driving cross country is not an easy job, and that customers are sometimes ornery, that certainly was not the case here. It is a sad day when customers are repeatedly trying to calm the boss down and when the workers are apologizing for their boss and tiptoeing around trying to be helpful to the customer and not wanting the boss to find out. This man needs an anger management class. I don't see how those young men can stand working for him Still waiting for damages and answer from company.

Leah of Ocala, FL March 23, 2009

This company moved my furniture from Columbus Ohio to Jacksonville FL on 10/25/05. They are responsible for the loss or theft of my property which consisted of a metal box containing my birth certificate, thousands of dollars in silver coins, and other valuable in the box. Many letters were dispatched, requests for the recovery of these valuables. I know for a fact it was put on the truck because one of the workers pointed it out to me.

Other deliveries were on the truck and it is the responsibility of the crew to see that the right property is delivered to the right owner. They also lost two flokati rugs, but by some miracle, these were found and returned to me. I have demanded them to compensate me for this loss, to no avail. I think they should be included in a class action suit. Sirva, the parent company, may be totally out of business at this date.

Please These people have refused to take any responsibility for their carelessness. I have letters and correspondence to show how I tried to get this resolved. Please help me.

This is a huge loss of money and valuables. I have obtained another copy of my birth certificate, nothing else.

John of Stillwater, OK January 28, 2009

Security Storage and Van Co, an agent for Allied Van Lines, based in Norfolk Virginia, in my opinion is grossly unprofessional! A partial listing of our grievances with the staff: Three packers arrived and insisted that our house was a two day packing job and not a one day packing job as negotiated. A male packer was not packing at first and was presumed to be a supervisor and only when he began working was it clear that he was a packer. The packers demanded lunch from my wife and insinuated that the job would not be done that day unless she provided lunch. The packers left one object in every drawer, one item in every closet, and one item on every shelf in the house. This was obviously deliberate, highly unprofessional, and extremely rude.

It became clear that they needed to be constantly supervised. My mother there to take care of our 1 year old baby would then have to pull double duty and supervise the packers and take care of our child. While the driver was professional (thankfully) the movers in Williamsburg spent much of the time arguing with the driver about how to load objects on the truck. The packers had to return a second day to finish packing and caused a substantial delay in loading the truck. The loading process then stretched late into the evening instead of ending in the middle of the afternoon.

Due to this delay I had to rebook my wife on a new flight to Oklahoma and leave our established ticket unused. The mover who arrived with our shipment of belongings that did not fit on the first truck (another story) came alone and had no workers with him. Due to the packers carelessness, items were broken including shadow boxes, one of which was carelessly placed in a box of bathroom articles, not a picture box. Another was placed by packers in a box marked Magazine Holders.

If you care about your belongings and you want to work with professionals, don't ever work with these folks. 600 in destroyed items, hundreds more in out of pocket expenses, untold woe.

Kevin of Pittsburgh, PA December 11, 2008

MOVE FROM PITTSBURGH, PA TO ORLANDO, FL My partner and I reserved a truck from Allied Van Lines for December 5, 2008. Less than 24 hours before they were to arrive to load our belongings, the dispatcher called to tell us that the truck had broken down and that we were bumped to a later date. They had NO other trucks in service that could be called in AND they would not bump later shipments so that we could fill that spot.

We then rescheduled for the following Friday, December 12, 2008. Once again, the dispatcher called. This time, we were told that they didn't know IF they would have enough of a crew to load the truck on our scheduled day. We were told that if that was the case, that they MAY be able to find another crew to finish loading the truck ANOTHER DAY! During this entire time, the agent for Allied here in Pittsburgh failed on many occasions to answer our repeated phone calls and emails.

The agent also became quite snippy and short with us during the rescheduling process. Furthermore, when we scheduled the first time, we were told that we would basically have our pick of trucks and dates, since we were told that very few people move this late in the year. When we had to reschedule the second time, the agent told us that there had been a sudden influx of people moving to the central Florida area. All within one week???? I think not!!

Needless to say we decided to NOT use their services and we STRONGLY advise anyone else to consider this before thinking about using Allied.

Although there was no physical damage as a result of Allied's negligence, there has been a great financial loss for us in that we were not able to re-locate to establish our business as planned.

Marynell of Springfield, VA October 20, 2008

I had Allied move my household goods across country this past spring (2008). I purchased the extra insurance to protect against damage done during the move. I packed most of the boxes; the movers packed the lamps. The items were delivered to a storage unit, because I did not yet have a house at my new location. Once I did have a house (September 2008), my husband and I moved the items from the storage unit to the house.

When we unpacked, we discovered that three stoneware bread baskets and two table lamps had been broken. There was also some minor damage to a couple of pieces of furniture, but nothing that I considered worth claiming. I did file a claim for the bread baskets and the lamps. A week or so later, I received a call from Cassandra of Allied and had what can only be described as the worst, most insulting customer service encounter of my entire life!

From the moment she picked-up the phone, she was rude, argumentative, and dismissive. She flat out denied my claim but failed to clearly explain why. She said that since we hadn't signed anything saying the items were broken at the time they were delivered to the storage unit, that Allied has no liability. When I pointed out that we couldn't have known they were broken at that time since they were boxed up, she then said that Allied had no liability because the items could have been broken when my husband and I moved them to the house. I said I wanted to dispute the decision and she said a letter would be sent telling me how to do that. I asked -again and loudly- for a clear explanation of why we were being denied. She became defensive and even ruder. Ultimately, she hung up on me.

My experience with Allied was positive up until that point. However, I will NEVER use Allied again.

Holly of Urbandale, IA October 16, 2008

There is nothing we won't do for your move. We pride ourselves as a moving company with the best customer service reputation, and each of our valued customers receive a personalized moving experience. There may be other moving companies, but none retain the outstanding customer appreciation we do. WHAT A JOKE!!!! We had Allied pack our house for a move from San Antonio, to Iowa. Once we unpacked all 80 boxes, we noticed items missing. In 1 box the inventory listed a Boise Radio, DVD player and a home security camera. The only thing in the box was the Boise Radio. My husband's military dog tags, with his SS# on them were stolen, and many more items.

The claims department did pay me 125.00 (which I won't cash) for 1 box that was missing. Big deal. Deloris says, I should have listed the missing items on the checkoff list. The only way to do that would be unpack each box and time of delivery. Give me a break. She says they will not pay for the missing items. Well, we will see how they will pay. I have contacted the BBB, the president of Sirva (Allied), and my insurance company.

I am scared whoever stole our stuff will try to use my husband's SS#.

Tjalda of The Villages, FL October 2, 2008

Blocker Transfer and Storage of Ocala, a contractor for Allied Van Lines, was to deliver a shipment valued at 5000 to my daughter Katherine Noyes in Conway Arkansas. The delivery window was August 1-11. The company was aware that my daughter would be out of town August 12-15 and guaranteed delivery would be before the 12th. On August 13 the Allied Van Lines driver called me to inform me no one was there to accept delivery and he would have to take the shipment to A-1 Daniel Moving and Storage in North Little Rock.

The shipment remained at A-1 Daniel while Blocker and Allied Van Lines argued about who was responsible for the costs of the storage at A-1 Daniel. On September 25 Vickie from Allied Van Lines Customer Service called me to inform me that Allied considered that the cost of storage (at that point 625) was the responsibility of the customer, i.e. me. The next day I called A-1 Daniel to inform them that under protest I would be paying the full amount due (625) and would they please arrange delivery date with my daughter. On August 1 the delivery was made and my credit card was charged for that amount.

I contacted my credit card company (Chase) and put under dispute the amount of the charge by Allied Van Lines (1460.77). I consider that the 625 I paid to A-1 Daniel is the responsibility of Allied.

I have had to pay 625 more for this transaction than was agreed to by Blocker/ Allied Van Lines.

Judith of Branson, MO September 22, 2008

I filed a claim for two items, one was my washer lid was cracked on the inside and it was has a bend in the back of the lid which I did not see until I opened the lid and it was hard to open only then did I notice the damage. Second claim was a home safe which I packed in bubble wrap and peanuts in that box, after I took it out of the box and tried to open the safe I noticed the door was jammed in because something was dropped on top of it during the loading of my items. I am not asking for the world from them just to replace the safe and get me a new lid to my washer.

I spoke to Cassandra from Allied in the Claims department and she had an attitude as soon as I tried to explain to her what happened. She claims that since I let my driver hook up my washer the driver wasn't responsible. I don't know why she even brought that up because I am not filing a claim because my washer was not hooked up right I filed a claim for my cracked washer lid and that's it. Then she responded back to me about who packed all my belongings and I said I did but that has nothing to do with my packing it's the guy who loaded my truck he did it. I dealt with his rudeness because I just went thru a divorce and I didn't want to cause any waves with my move....a 200 claim that I filed.

When they arrived at my apartment in Missouri I went out and got them Gatorade and then I bought them lunch and before they left even though the one guy was a jerk I gave all three guys a tip. I thougth Allied would be alot nicer about filing a claim I couldn't unpack all my boxes while the movers were there because it would have taken another whole day to unpack and see what was damaged. I filed this claim within a week after I saw what was damaged. As I read all the other complaints I guess my complaint is nothing compared to the others but it is just the point. I will never have Allied move me again and I will file a complaint with the BBB in Houston, Texas.

Carol of Henderson, NV September 15, 2008

We were being moved from Sacramento, CA to Henderson, NV at the expense of my husbands employer. Reebie Moving and Storage out of Chicago is the mover on contract with the employer. Krystle is the customer service rep I dealt with. She contracted with Colonial Van & Storage in Sacramento to pack our belongings and along with a classic Cadillac deliver them to us in Henderson, Nevada. Being highly aware of what ID theft can do to a person, I was careful to pack our personal documents in my vehicle. E

verything seemed to be going as planned, the packers showed up on August 20 and did their job, the movers came on August 21, 2008 and were slow but got everything loaded onto the truck. The truck was a few hours late arriving on the 23rd of August but the driver had called to say they would be. Our belongings, including the car were off loaded. Many boxes were left in the garage. It took nearly a week to get everything unpacked.

During this time I discovered that I was missing several pieces of gold jewelry and over 200 in rolled coin. I was so concerned about protecting our credit that it never occured to me someone would take the time to scour several trinket boxes and my piggy bank for valuables. I was asked by Krystle at Reebie to file a formal Police Report with the City of Elk Grove, CA (where we moved from), and to submit the report number with a claim to Allied Corp. I spoke with Victor at Elk Grove PD who wanted me to put a claim in on my homeowners insurance (no!), and asked that I put everything in writing and fax it to him.

I not only faxed a detailed written itemization but I sent drawings of the stolen rings because they are very distinct. I even attached these documents and e-mailed them to Jessica, Victor's supervisor at Elk Grove PD. I still do not have a police report.

Meanwhile; I have tried to file a claim with Allied using their online claim form. It does not accept the information I input and shuts down deleting everything I have entered. After multiple tries each day, three days in a row I got very angry and frustrated. This must be how Allied gets around paying claims resulting from their thieving employees.

I am out 200 cash in rolled coin and 2,015.00 in gold and gemstone jewelry.

Mary of Chagrin Falls, OH September 9, 2008

Allied movers sold us an expensive rider to protect us up to 8,000 over and above the usual amount, and when I sent in the claim I had nothing but problems with a woman named Joanne, from an insurance company in Illinois, who said we are denying liability as you did not make a claim on lost items on the DATE OF DELIVERY. Allied put over 250 carboard cartons in the house and garages, and there was no way in the world anyone could make a claim that night. We could barely get through the 7 foot high piles of cartons, let alone open them that night in the pouring rain. That statement was ludicrous.

Then, some of the paintings had been banged with nails to crate them, and as a result they were sitting in puddles of gold leaf and pieces of the frames. There were other things damaged and broken, but Pierce said their inspector did not think it was from moving. This inspector came, took photographs and said that some of the things had their value destroyed, even if he repaired them, and Pierce said he did not say that. Who is lying? The inspector is evidently a local and he even saw the marks on the white carpeted steps caused by the glued down plastic the movers used. He said to to get someone in to clean them, but since Pierce denies any of this, I have no inclination to do anything. She offered 1,000 as a good will offering, saying that they deny any liability. That would not even pay to have the gold leaf repaired on two of the pictures, let along pay for the broken items.

I actually saw the women knock an antique student lampshade against another, and broke pieces out of it, but they did not send the pieces for me to glue. That is true of other things also, like a Waterford marmalade jar that was intact on the dining room table, plus an antique pipe box that had a piece of wood missing from the bottom (the inspector told me that he could fix it but the value would be lost, and Pierce said he did not say that, and it goes on and one.

Needless to say, Allied is not a good word in this house, and all of my friends and family are shocked. It was suggested that I go to a gallery to get quotes for repairs, which I did, but Pierce just ignored that, and cut the cost of fixing the items in half. That is adjusting? To me it is robbery. She totally ignored the other things. The Bayshore Movers, who sold us the policy, have been very nice and tried to be helpful, but it seem that Pierce is the person denying everything. She also said that they spoke with their moving people who had no knowledge of any missing things. That, too, is ridiculous. I also DID send in a claim before the time was up, and Bayshore ( the people who sold us the policy)knows it.

I figure that the breakage and damage, plus the damage to the wall to wall white carpeting on the steps, would be easily 5,000.

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