Trans American Van Lines Fraudulent weight charges, lost goods and poor service ripoff North Miami Florida

I had a horrible experience w/ TransAmerican Van Lines over 1 year ago when moving coast-to-coast. Not only was my shipment horribly delayed, but we were overcharged and presented with fraudulent documentation of that charge. Below is a copy of a letter that was posted electronically to the Florida Attorney General's website.

I wish to file the following complaints against TransAmerican Van Lines (the Mover):
1. Fraud
2. Gross Negligence
3. Making False & Misleading Statements
4. Intentional Deception in order to increase charges

We contracted the Mover to transport our household goods from New York, New York to Portland, Oregon. The agreed charge was $0.70 per pound of weight to move our goods. Based on an online estimate, my anticipated charge was $3503.50, based on 5,500 pounds of weight. We agreed on a move date of July 7th, 2005 at 8am.

On the move date, the representatives of the Mover were over 2 hours late. Had they arrived to our apartment at the agreed-upon time, there was ample parking on our side of the street for their truck. When they arrived, there was not enough street parking available on our side of the street. I spoke with the landlord of my building, and received permission to have the Mover park their truck on the sidewalk.

The Mover refused to park on the sidewalk, instead insisting that I pay for a rental truck to pick up my goods. I was then assessed the first additional charge of $450.

Not only was I assessed an additional unwarranted charge, but the Mover's representatives did not return for over six hours, despite a promise from their dispatcher that they would return within two to three hours.

During the loading of my household goods, I tracked the Mover's representatives as they used tape to wrap blankets around furniture. Many tape rolls were partially used prior to being discarded. I was charged $5 per roll used to blanket-wrap my goods.

I also witnessed the Mover's representatives loading boxes of packed goods onto hand trucks to transport to the truck downstairs. More often than not, my boxes were stacked haphazardly, with boxes labeled fragile' underneath boxes labeled heavy'.

Once all of my possessions were loaded onto their truck, the real issues began.

During the wait from pick-up to drop-off of my goods, the Mover did not provide a weight receipt for my goods. After a third request (and mention of having our lawyer call) they released a weight receipt for our goods.

The truck carrying our possessions was alledgedly weighed on July 7th, 2005 at New York Sand & Gravel (the Weigher), located at 63 Flushing Ave in Brooklyn, New York. When we received the receipt from the Mover, we contacted the Weigher to ascertain whether the receipt was valid. Once we had faxed a copy of the receipt to the Weigher, we were contacted by Tom Dooley, General Manager. He mentioned that this document was fraudulent based on the following conditions: the Weigher had discontinued weighing of trucks on July 1st and the receipt appeared to be doctored as it was not correct.

Based on the comments of Tom Dooley and the fact that the loading of my truck was not complete until 7PM at night, I believe that the Mover committed fraud by providing this receipt. This fraudulent receipt resulted in an additional charge of $1,151.50 due to added weight.

Further, the Mover did not complete the move in a timely fashion. My personal belongings were put in storage for an unknown time period before the final delivery of my goods was sub-contracted to another firm. During the storage and transportation of my shipment, over $10,000 dollars of damage were done to the goods being transported as well as over $2,000 of damage to my new home.

It took many frustrating phone calls to the Mover to be supplied a delivery date for my goods. The Mover's slogan is You're never far from service you can trust. They also claim to help make a difficult transition easy. Needless to say, neither of these claims held true to my experience in dealing with this company.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY EVER!

J
PDX, Oregon
U.S.A.

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