17 Jan 2023 · MoveAdvisor
1.0 out of 51.0
I accepted a job in Cordova, Tennessee in September and moved from Atlanta to Cordova in the 1st week of Oct. I contracted with a national moving company, First National Van Lines, and paid them $2,960 as an advance via credit card. At no time during our conversations did FNVL representatives reveal to me that they were also brokers and would NOT be the carrier to move me to Memphis.
A carrier called Family Van Lines (FVL) arrived at my house and informed me that FNVL had sent them and the $2,960 already paid to FNVL had no bearing on what FVL would charge me for the move. FNVL would not answer any of my phone calls. Since I had to start work in Cordova on Oct 10, I had to agree to FVL's terms of $8,000+.
When I arrived in Cordova 24 hours later (Monday 3rd), I discovered that the rental property that I had leased was uninhabitable from a health and safety perspective (mold etc). The FVL truck had not yet arrived but arrived on Wed, 5th. I was only able to lease a new property after 48 hours, so I asked FVL to wait. There was no response.
When I finally got the keys to a rental in Cordova on the morning of Thursday, Oct 6th, FVL informed me that they had already offloaded my belongings. For a period of 7 weeks after that, they lied to me saying that the cargo was in a storage unit that was 3 miles from my address in Cordova.
We discovered that FVL is legally registered in NJ, owned by Eastern European nationals, but the customer service reps(DesmondHarris) are based in California.
I hired a mediator to resolve this matter with FVL. She was finally told in the last week of November that the cargo was actually in a storage unit in Nashville, which is 200 miles and 3 hours from my address in Cordova.
Over the last 4 weeks, 3 versions of the agreement (minor changes were made to verbiage by them) were agreed to. Shayne immediately signed every version. FVL has always refused to sign at the last minute on some pretext or the other but never objecting to the amount of $3,750.
There was never an unwillingness to pay FVL on our part. We would have paid them the estimated $8,000 if they had delivered to our home in Cordova and we are ready to pay them $3,750 today if we can get possession of our belongings from the storage unit in Nashville.
Our passports, family photo albums and other personal effects are also in the storage unit in Nashville.
We believe that FVL has no intention of returning our possessions, regardless of our willingness to pay.
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