I called Josh ** from Nationwide on 8/19/09 to let him know we still haven't heard from the movers. He said he'd give them a call. He called me back and said that everything is set for the 20th and 21st, and not to worry. Sam called on 8/20/09 to let us know that his movers would be arriving on 8/21/09 between 11-2. I said that our move was supposed to start today. He said no, they can move us on the 21st which was still part of the contract date. Sam asked if someone had come out to estimate our belongings and weight. I said no.Sam said typically they send someone out to do an estimate. Sarah said she did it over the phone.
We waited for the movers all day on 8/21/09 and they didn't arrive by two. So I called Josh ** and let him know that the movers still had not arrived (leaving a message on his voice mail). I then called Sam prior to the company's arrival to find out what was going on. He said he would call them and find out because they should have been there. He called back and told Ethan that apparently their cell phones were out of service area because they were not answering, but he did know that they checked in at 10 a.m. when they hit Hwy 84 (which is Boise). Ethan said that it's at least a 4-hour drive, and they wouldn't be here until past two.
I then called Josh ** at Nationwide, and explained what was going on. I told him that this was not the service we paid for and he said that the movers should have been there on the 20th and 21st, not pushing the end of the 21st. As I was on the phone with him, my grandmother showed up with a Penske rental truck following her. I asked Josh to hold on for a minute. She explained that she found the truck parked in Greencreek, and asked them if they were here to move Ethan and Sarah **. They said yes, and she drove them to our home. I told Josh they had arrived, and I was not happy with the company they sent us. He instructed me to carry out the move as ordered, and not to confront the movers about the issues such as compensation until after the delivery date to ensure that they do a good job. He said he would pass this on to customer service. The first truck arrived at 4 p.m.
The movers were standing around, and couldn't do anything because they were waiting for the other truck. They didn't have any boxes because they were in the truck. One of the trucks came up from Utah and the other was coming from Washington. After listening to the mover tell me this, I received a call from Nationwide Relocation Customer Service. I explained what happened, that they were late, didn't have boxes, and this was not the service we paid for. She told me the same thing that Josh ** did, and that was to let the movers finish the move, and after the delivery date we could move forward with the claim. She said that it would cause more problems if we refused payment because our belongings would be taken to storage and then we would be incurring those fees as well. "Go through with the move," she said. She said she would be out of the office the following day (Saturday), but would be back in on Monday to follow up on this. I never heard from her again.
Sam (manager of MTL Transportation) called me immediately after Customer Service did, and explained that one of the tires had blown on the other truck and they are about six miles away. They needed to get the tire fixed and they would be here in a couple of hours. This is the truck that had all of the boxes. I told Sam that this was not the service we paid for and it was unacceptable. He told me that it is the service we paid for and they would have us out of there by midnight on Friday by end of contract date. I said that they needed to do a good job and not rush to pack our belongings. I explained that I hoped they would be able to offer some fair compensation for this. He said we would work something out after delivery date. He then asked if he could speak to one of the movers.
After an hour, Patty and I decided to go look for the other truck. We found them on Old Hwy 7 driving with the blown out tire. We led them to our home. When the truck arrived, they explained that their cell phones worked off and on in this area. Sam called back and asked if the truck had arrived. I said that we found them and brought them here. He asked to speak to one of the movers again. The main driver (Radvick **, I believe) continued the conversation (on my phone). The man handed me the phone after he talked to his mover, and he said that they would start packing the house now. I again told him this was not the service I paid for. He told me that Ethan and I should leave the house and move forward with leaving as they can pack the house without us there. I said that we weren't leaving, because of the maintenance issues with the truck and having people on our property without us there.
The movers needed our phones to continue contacting maintenance. They were difficult to understand. Our moving instructions said that we needed to be available on site during the packing and delivery. I asked him if he was going to make this right, and he said that he would. I told him again that I didn't want them rushing to get stuff done, because I wanted them to do a good job. He said they would, and that they would clean up the house when they finished packing. He then asked to speak to one of the drivers, and I handed the main driver my phone.
Ethan arrived home and dealt with the movers. Right away, they had us signing papers that said we agree to $.45/pound for weight we were over. They began packing. I noticed that they were just throwing stuff in boxes and not labeling anything. I asked if they would be labeling the boxes, and they said they would. The main driver told us that we needed to transfer the Nationwide Inventory sheet onto their inventory list. We have this documentation. They didn't check any of this.
Because they arrived late, I had no babysitter for the kids. Ethan's mom came and got them for the evening. My parents picked them up and brought them to my grandma's. I met them there. Ethan stayed the entire time with the moving company. Ethan spent all night dealing with the maintenance crew because they couldn't understand the movers. Penske, Bernard's Auto and Towing are the companies he dealt with until the next day (Saturday) at 4 p.m. They requested that Ethan keep calling and updating them because they couldn't understand the movers. All of this was being done through Ethan's cell phone.
During this time, Ethan packed our belongings. We had previously packed a majority of our belongings in plastic totes. After the movers finished at 4 p.m., we cleaned up the house and their garbage. My kids were playing in our lawn, and our oldest son, Jared, sat on a lit cigarette butt burning in the lawn. It burnt a hole through his shorts and burned him. They left cigarette butts all over the lawn and driveway. Sam claimed they would clean the house, and they didn't. Ethan took their garbage to the dump. When cleaning, we noticed the entry way was badly damaged and they broke our screen door. We have pictures of this.
The head guy explained to Ethan that Sam wanted them to load the truck with the flat tire so they were off our property by midnight, wanted them to drive the trucks off the property, so they didn't break the contract. The head guy said he was not going to do that. They had Ethan sign the top of the inventory sheet stating that they had permission to come back to my property on the 22nd to finish moving our belongings. They arrived at approximately 9:45 on the 22nd with a small box of black plastic bags; they asked Ethan if there was a holiday in the area or something because they could not find any open stores. They were going to use the black plastic bags to pack the remainder of our belongings. Ethan called me up and asked me to pick up as many boxes as I could from a local grocery store (Riener's grocery) because they had run out of boxes. I brought as many as I could from that store and Ethan packed those boxes as well to avoid them packing the rest of our belongings in plastic bags.
Upon delivery on 8/24/09 in Riverton, Wyoming:
Sam called Ethan and said they would deliver at 11:30 on 8/24/09. Nationwide called and said our balance was $8,419 because we went over our estimated weight. We are actually at 15,780 pounds. Our reference number is ** and phone number is **. We were told on Friday by Nationwide Customer Service to pay the balance so we could receive our possessions. It would cause more problems because of storing our belongings and the movers charging more to additionally load and unload. Nationwide said they would go through the claims process.
We paid the amount by credit card over the phone to Sam. He was going to charge us a fee of 3% to use it, and I told him that he wasn't going to do that after everything we had been through. He said okay. I'm not sure if we were charged this since Nationwide told MTL what to charge us. We never received a bill for the services we paid for. Sam told us we owed $7000. He ran the card and said there was an error. Ethan told him that was impossible to run it again. It worked. Sam then called back again, giving us the wrong total. He said we owed $483 more according to Nationwide's billing system. That charge went through on our card as well. We were 2000 lbs over weight, but they charged us $3300 extra. This does not match the numbers.
We were not given the 4th weight slip on delivery. We were forced to pay for services that we did not receive. We were not given any bills or documentation that showed us what we were paying for, yet we were forced to pay or have our belongings put in storage. They damaged several items upon delivery. They were rushed, which was obvious, because of how careless they were with our belongings (we have pictures of this). They did not assemble any of the items which we paid for in our contract (We have pictures of this), left a mess of garbage when they left (we have pictures of this). I also emailed Josh my inventory list before the final estimate. I had made this with another company, America's Best Moving Co. They had us quoted at 16,800 lbs. Josh ** said that this had to have been way off, and that this company was not reputable. I believed him.
Contact with Nationwide/MTL transportation following delivery:
8/25/09 at 8:45: Ethan called and left a message with Josh ** about our complaint with the moving company and with Nationwide. Ethan called back because the claim department woman never called us back.
8/25/09 at 8:53: Ethan called Customer Service and talked to Brian (ext. **). He tried to tell Ethan that we must not have listed all of our furniture, and he apologized and that we had nine months to file a claim, and we could only do that once. Ext. 509 is the insurance and claims department and management met on every claim.
8/25/09 at 14:51: Toshiba (ext. **) called and said she would be our claim handler and she would call again in the next couple of days.
8/25/09: Josh ** returned our phone call. I talked to him first and explained that we did not get the service we paid for and that we were grossly overcharged for this move. I explained that this was not acceptable, and this was not what we agreed to. I then gave the phone to Ethan, as I had 4 children to take care of. Ethan talked to Josh and told him that one company told us we had 16,000 lbs and he said we had 13,000 lbs, but that according to him, it was not a reputable company. Ethan also told Josh that MTL didn't put our stuff together, and they damaged thousands of dollars worth of furniture. Josh said, "They didn't?" He was shocked by this. Ethan said that either you or MTL Transportation needs to make this right or we were going to get an attorney. Josh agreed that this wasn't right, and that MTL was responsible.
8/28/09: Sarah called and left a message with Josh Brock about the overcharge, that the amount we were charged did not match up with the $.45/lb agreement. Sarah called back again right away and left a message updating her email with him.
8/28/09: Sarah called the credit card company and filed a disputer claim on the charges by Nationwide and MTL transportation.
8/31/09: Toshiba called Ethan about the boxes dispute. He started explaining the situation and then asked if he could call her back because we were dealing with our insurance agent to change over car insurance. Sarah called back at 11:30 and left a message with both #s.
9/2/09: Toshiba left a message on Ethan's phone at 2:15 p.m. I called her back 15 minutes later and left a message. I called again at 4:00 and left another message.
9/3/09: Latoya called Sarah, because of the message I left on the general customer service voice mail. She gave me the breakdown of what we were charged for, that we were only charged a $1000 something for the extra weight, but $2274 was for the extra packing materials and labor to move that 2000 lbs. I explained the whole story from beginning to end. She said she'd bring it to the review board within 48 hours.
9/3/09: Sheryl called me shortly after my phone call with Latoya. She is the supervisor of customer service. She said she was told about our situation and that she would connect me with the claims department. Bertie called from the claims department, and explained that we can only file one claim and it had to be within 9 mos. She said I could email the form and pictures to Nationwide. I received the emailed form to fill out from Sheryl's email address. I sent a response wanting to know how to file a claim with Nationwide. I never received a reply.
9/3/09: I called the credit card company to get the total amounts that we paid to MTL and Nationwide. She said there was still a charge on there for Nationwide for $238.04 which was the added deposit needed when we bumped up our weight for the move. I asked her to mark that as a disputed claim as well.
9/3/09: I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau regarding this move.
9/4/09 at 8:05 a.m.: Sheryl from NW called about the inventory list. She wanted to know where the inventory list was that we filled out and the movers filled out. I explained that we were told to transfer the Nationwide list on to their sheets and they stated that would be good enough because they were in such a hurry to move us. She said she would continue to review the claim and call me back today.
She called me back within and few minutes and said that she had talked to MTL Transportation and they were not willing to refund us any money. She said your husband signed off on everything saying this was correct. I told her he didn't have a choice or we could not get our belongings back. We knew it was wrong but were forced into signing everything. I told her this was unethical, and that we would go through a lawyer if necessary. She told us that there was nothing a lawyer could do for us in this situation. I said that this contract was forced and the payment was forced. It was coerced.
Nationwide was the one to tell us to do that and that we could go through the claims process later. I asked for the MTL Transportation number and I would call them myself. She said I needed to talk to Sonny (the mover who moved us, according to Sheryl). I told her I talked to Sam throughout the entire moving process, and she said, no, you need to talk to Sonny. The number she gave me was 602-326-0912. She said that Nationwide would credit us $200 as a resolution to this inconvenience. I told her that this was not a resolution for us. She said that's what they would give us, and she said that she would send out the email confirming the resolution. I told her again that this was not a resolution for a $3300 overcharge and horrible, unethical service. She mumbled something and hung up on me.
9/4/09 at 8:30 a.m.: I left a message at MTL Transportation for Sonny to call me back in regards to a move that his company made for us. He did not call me back.
9/4/09 at 8:36 a.m.: I called Sheryl back, and left a message explaining that I didn't understand what she said before she hung up the phone, and if it was important information to please call me back.
9/4/09: Called Customer Service again, and gave my job #. Julia answered. I asked for copies of all of the documentation sent by MTL Transportation and computed by Nationwide. She said that she would put in the request and within an hour she should have it mailed out.
9/8/09: We received some documentation from Nationwide. Just the inventory lists (which we had) and the weight slips, and at the end of the inventory list were the supposed number of boxes they packed. No bill or breakdown of what we paid for.
9/18/09 12:19 1-888-219-7171 Nationwide called / missed call on Sarah's phone with no message left.
9/19/09 Received the BBB letter with Nationwide's response to our claim.
9/20/09 We faxed BBB our response to Nationwide.
9/23/09 1:29 p.m. Bertie from Nationwide Claims Department called to see if we received the claims form they sent off. I told her I did. She said, "Thank you for your time."
Here is our response to the company through the BBB of Southeast Florida:
Nationwide's response to this complaint is unsatisfactory, as many of the facts to this issue were left out. Our complaint is a combination of being overcharged, bad service, and poor treatment of the customer by both Nationwide and the company they hired for us, MTL Transportation. We understand that Nationwide is not responsible for the actions of the carrier or its employees. We were told by Nationwide that they hire out reputable, professional moving companies. We were not provided with such service, as noted in our attached document. This is the only reason we went through Nationwide. We trusted them to hire a company that would treat us and our belongings with respect.
Also, we went through the binding estimate process with Nationwide, including the type and number of boxes to be used for our move. Our deposit was based on this. The movers did not follow the binding estimate for packing us, and Nationwide allowed them to charge us a ridiculous amount over the binding estimate. Nationwide did not provide us with paperwork with a revised estimate. Any paperwork that we signed, we were forced to do so in order to have our belongings returned to our possession. Without being provided a new binding estimate during the move by Nationwide or MTL Transportation, we should not have had to pay this amount as stated in the Federal Guidelines given to us prior to our move.
Cheryl, supervisor of customer services of Nationwide, did offer $200, but I explained that this issue remains unresolved, as we were charged $3300 over the binding estimate. We still have not received any documentation for what exactly we were charged for. Cheryl proceeded to mumble something into the phone and then hung up on me. With customer service treating me this way, why would I contact their office again?
At the very least, we ask that Nationwide work with MTL Transportation to get us back to our original contract as stated in four (4) Moving Cost, will act on the behalf of the customer in resolving any claims or delay issues with the carrier, then deduct for not following the contract (such as reassembly of furniture) as we paid for according to eight (8) The price includes basic disassembly and reassembly of standard furniture items, and not using the boxes we paid for, and then we can file our damage complaint.
Nationwide should know that MTL Transportation is not a reputable, professional moving company and should no longer hire them out for people who go through Nationwide, as to avoid this happening to another family. I find it disheartening, unprofessional, and unethical that Nationwide does not or will not recognize that they are responsible for hiring this unprofessional company for us. We trusted Nationwide with this decision, and paid them to do so. The decision was not a good one, and we should not have to pay for this.
Please note: We have consulted a lawyer, and will be pursuing this further if a resolution cannot be made between Nationwide and us or with Nationwide's help, between MTL Transportation and us.