National Relocation - National Van Lines unreasonable extra charges poor business practices poor service Reseda California

Multiple problems with this company.
1. They did not show up on the day of scheduled move and did not call. When I called their phone numbers the individual answering the phone could only speak Hebrew and would impatiently hang up on me and my wife multiple times. Four hours later the phone went to an answering machine, and I left a message. That evening I recieved a call and was told that there was a computer software problem that did not dispatch my order and that they couldn't find a truck, they suggested the next morning at 8am would be a good time to move. They showed up at 9:30 with a rented truck and I learn that these movers do not work on Saturday because of the sabbath. So I question if anyone in the company works on Saturday and the propriety of making an appointment for Saturday! However it is possible they have some employees that work Saturday, I can't say for sure.


2. Although the website claims that there is no extra charges for wrapping furniture they would not move my china cabinet unless I bought a cardboard box for $50 to go over the glass. I agreed because I needed them to move it because of the weight. However they then proceeded to wrap two very lightweight cabinets that I can lift with one hand and throw in my car if I wanted to. I did not authorize this and they tried to get me to pay $50 each for the cardboard box. When I questioned the cost of the box I asked if it was additional labor on top of the hourly rate since and was told it was a type of insurance in case there was damage. But how much more insurance above the 60 cents per pound they were unable to say. If we are talking about cost of material then $50 is over the top, if we are talking about labor then we need to have a reason why it is additional to hourly rate. If we are talking about insurance then we need to know what it is insured for. Mixing these issues is a bad business practice and doing it without authorization is maddening. I objected strongly and was told that we could resove it later. I found out why they wanted to resolve it later. Later is when everything is in the truck at the other location and they will not unload until you pay.


3. I called their office during the week to ask about acceptable forms of payment and was told a check would be fine. Now that everything was in the truck and at the new address I handed them the check and was told only cash was acceptable. At this point I got really angry. To only accept cash is reasonable, if you say so from the beginning, but I was told explicitly that a check was acceptable. When I flatly refused to go to the ATM they then offered to take $25 off, so I went to the stupid atm. The extra fees for boxes were negotiated down to $135 from $175 initially. They acted surprised when I said I wanted to keep the boxes.

Conclusion:
The movers were nice guys and were fairly carefull but the business practices they were asked to carry out were frustrating. They were in constant phone communication with their boss. In fairness I need to mention that this was a busy weekend for movers and the hourly rate is lower than typical. So if I consider the extra boxes into the total cost and divide by the hours spent then it comes out to an hourly rate that is typical of movers. However I chose this company because the hourly rate was low, and what I got was an effective rate that was typical and a big headache. I try to avoid confrontation in general and am slow to anger but this experience really made me angry and I cannot reccomend this company to anyone.

Keith
Los Angeles, California
U.S.A.

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