John hired North American Van Lines last month for his move from Massachusetts to California. He and his family have made it safely to California, but all of their stuff is still on the wrong coast. And no one can tell them why.

He writes:

I recently contracted with North American Van Lines to relocate to California from Boston with my wife, 2.5 year old daughter and dog. I agreed to work with NAVL because I believed, at the time, that it was a reputable and reliable service provider. Unfortunately, I now know this is not the case.

On July 12, 2011, I provided them with the date (August 2) and location (Redwood City, CA) for my items to be delivered. As of today, August 10, my things remain in Massachusetts; there is no driver to move them; and no one will give me a firm date for delivery because they just don’t know.

I am now paying rent for a house that I can’t live in because I have no things. After multiple unreturned emails and phone calls, I finally spoke with a customer service representative. While professional, she was of no help. She had no answers and no way to get those answers. The only thing I was offered was either $100 a night for a “mid-range hotel” and 50 percent reimbursement on reasonable meals, or some air mattresses and linens for us to sleep on why they figure things out.

It’s amazing to me that a company whose sole job is to coordinate moves and make sure they provide a moving and relocation service, can’t do that one job. And, they take no responsibility for it. Their excuse for not reducing the price is: “it’s tariffed.” They want me to pay full price for a service they didn’t fulfill.

At least they’re willing to provide either accommodations or air mattresses, which is more than some readers with mover problems can say. The steps in our Ultimate Guide to Fighting Back may prove useful for finding someone with actual knowledge of what the holdup might be. Customer service ninja methods for contacting executives would be a good start for John in this case.

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