11 Feb 2022 · MoveAdvisor
1.0 out of 51.0
I found National Express Moving (NEM) in google as moving company and I was contacted by Sales Rep Alex who took an overall inventory of my items and initially gave a quote for $3000. When I told him that other moving companies had quoted me for $1800 he lowered my quote to $1800 too. He indicated that the 1st payment would be $695 and that in a few days I was going to contacted by an inventory specialist who would determine the final costs. I told him that I needed the delivery to reach my destination on Sat 14th or Sun 15th Jan at the latest and he promised and reaffirmed that yes, that they would accommodate to make sure my things would be delivered on that time window. He never provided any preparation instructions in relation to packing at all so I started packing all my things in plastic bags. A few days later, I called to follow up on the service and that was when the customer support rep, Susan, told me that plastic bags where not allowed so I had to spent $400 in boxes and bubbled wraps + 1 day of unpacking and repacking. Then I received a call from Gene, the "inventory specialist" who wanted to confirm total number of boxes and when I included 1 extra box, he charged me an additional $142 while he apparently was recalculating on everything I told him my inventory was composed of, of which I had already sent pictures and measurements of days ago. During the phone call he checked the images and measurements and that was when he confirmed that the extra $142 on top of the total of $1800 would be the final price of the service. NEM told me that the time window was between Wed 13th and Thu 14th Jan 5.00 p.m and the driver arrived on Thurs at 7.00 p.m. when NEM office was already closed. The driver called me on Thurs at 3.00p.m. and that's when I found out that NEM was a broker, not the actual moving company. I have also come to realize that they arrive as late as possible and on the last day of the window when the customer is desperate and has very little changes of denying the extra charges that these companies usually charge due to incorrect quoting. The driver, Carlos, from S&M relo arrived at 7.00p.m, made a video and sent it to s&m relo who called me to confirm that the total cubic feet of my things was over 550, almost double of what NEM had apparently quoted, and that the extra cost was going to be another $2000, of course I denied the price so they said that they could put in the truck whatever they could fit inside. They also confirmed that NEM never sent them an inventory list of the things that they had quoted as 325 cubic feet. ON top of this, the driver did not have enough room in the truck and told me he was only able to put my boxes and my bike inside the truck but nothing else, leaving all my furniture in my apartment. I believe that the space he had in the truck was under 325 cubic feet. The driver also lied telling me that he was departing from my house immediately northbound to drop things in S. Carolina and that he would be moving up north then to drop my things by Saturday. I later found out that he dropped my things in a warehouse in Georgia, which stayed there for a week. The inventory calculation must have been made more close to reality and that quote was far from reality. Had I known the true cost I would have made other arrangements like renting a truck myself to drive it. Crazy enough, the carrier S&M relo only took half of the items listed in the inventory, so I was charged an additional commission fee of $142 on top of the previous $695, but the carrier only took half of my items so I had to buy furniture here in my new location in Wilmington, Delaware. The truck delivered my things 10 days later so I had to incur in additional expenses like cleaning products and personal care. The information was deceiving and I feel very mistreated for this.
Now, on the other side the moving company S&M relo has lost two of my boxes and damaged a third one so now I also have to initiate a side process to claim for this so this is additional expenses and time lost due to improper handle of things.
I reported these issues with Susan at NEM and she was aggressive, rude and very offensive. She was no longer the nice lady who initially assisted when after I paid the initial $695 which i later found out was their commission. When i told her that Alex's quote and information was deceiving the only thing she answered was that yes, he had provided improper calculation of space in the inventory and they would speak to him to prevent these situations in the future and that's it. I called several times asking for my money back and Susan's rudeness made me cry several times. She would not let me speak, cut me off abruptly and would always tell me that she needed to hang up because me calling everyday was preventing her from being productive because calls like me were very disruptive.
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