North American Moving & Storage, Inc. Advantage Moving & Storage, Inc. Destroyed my goods and extorted more money after picking up my items!! Hallandale Florida

North American Moving transported some furniture and boxes from Florida to New York for me. Although I originally contracted with them on 12/30/15, the day of the move the movers demanded a different contract, with added costs. In addition to the basic transportation costs I paid an extra fee for them to wrap the furniture in blankets to protect them and paid for three table lamps to be wrapped and boxed.  I also paid extra for several pieces of art work to be professionally wrapped. In fact, they did not even ask me to sign the new contract until everything was loaded they were leaving.  I was forced to sign then, even though I didn't want to!  What could I do, they had my things inside their truck.  After they left a “manager” from the company called and said if I didn’t pay him $300 more immediately, because he claimed he took longer than expect to move the items, that my things would be on the  loading dock in Miami and I could go get them myself!

In addition to the pricing issues the pick-up and delivery were both problematic.   The day of the pick-up the movers arrived late and were beyond lazy, two of the three men that came left for hours for lunch.  It was so bad the third mover told my wife and I that we needed to help load the truck.  The delivery was even worse.   We called for a delivery date numerous times, a week after delivery was originally promised they told us they would be coming in two days and that the driver would call 24 hours ahead.  As the second day came to close I called again and was told the truck broke down and that it would take 5 more days.  Two days later I received a call from the truck driver who said he would be at my home  in 1 ½ hours.  I changed my plans and raced home.  He then called back a few minutes later demanding $350 more, claiming he had to transfer the items to a smaller truck.  I refused and insisted he could come with the tractor trailer.  Thirty minutes later he called and said he was stuck at a bridge he couldn’t cross and was twenty minutes from my home; this was obviously a lie as there are no bridges by my home.   After he failed to show I called and he said he couldn’t come today and hung up.  I called every number we had and got no answers.  Three hours later I called and the driver answered saying he was in Rhode Island, not Long Island where I live.  He claimed he made a mistake!  He said he would be at my home the next night at 7:00 PM.  The next morning at 8:30 AM he called again and said he was two minutes away!    

However, my complaint major complaint lies with the damaged they caused to my belongings due to their gross negligence.  I paid extra for three lamps to be boxed and all of the furniture to be wrapped in moving blankets.  They failed to wrap two pieces of furniture, which lead to the destruction of both.  They wrapped the lamp bases, but shipped three lamp shades unboxed or protected.  They all were destroyed as well.  Finally, they put a large piece of tape on an antique hand painted Chinese silk artwork panel and pulled it off.  When it was pulled off a large piece of the painting tore off the panel.

I complained to the movers who delivered the items and they unsuccessfully tried to contact someone at the company.  I also left messages on several phone numbers over the course of several days with no response.