Complaint Review: North America Moving & Storage Services - San Diego California

I was contacted by Chistopher Overby who indicated he was an agent of North American Van Lines about a request I made on the internet for moving costs from FL to AZ.

Mr. Overby quoted me an initial price of $3995 for pickup and delivery with a $300 deposit. I requested that they also pack and the second quote was a total of $4995 including packing, disassembly, pickup and delivery. I asked him if he was comfortable with that amount since I told him it was a 2800 SF 4 bedroom home with separate office, eat-in kitchen, and dining room and he said yes. I suggested that the movers pack on one day and move the next and he said that wasn't necessary. I then suggested that they do a home inspection prior to the move and he said "we don't do that."

On the day of move the movers showed up and I was immediatly told that this quote was not going to be acceptable.Although he never told me who he was in the company it appears that Yair Knafo, is the owner of the company. He had his workers sit around for over an hour while he did the inspection I had requested earlier. His quote came back at $15,670 with an immediate down payment of $9,100 by check. This is a 300+% increase over the former quote.

I was dumbfounded and told him I would contact the initial representative to find out why we had such a big change. He would never return my calls while the move was ongoing. I was caught in a bind and paid the downpayment. It took them approximately 16 hours to complete the move. Partly because one mover disappeared early and never returned and then the company owner decided he needed more wrapping paper (he didn't) and left for several hours. When he returned he began yelling at the remaining crew for being so slow.

The moving truck they used was already partially filled so they decided to bring another one. This one, as well as the first, were not owned by the company. They sub'd the work out. They indicated to me that they were going to direct deliver the homegoods in 4-5 days if I was available. I said I would leave immediately and meet them there. I was expecting delivery on the following Monday but they called and said they would be arriving on Sunday and I needed to have the balance of the payment ($6174.80) in cash. Given that I received this text msg Friday evening (Veterans Day) and I was not home until Saturday afternoon I called and asked if they could delay delivery a day or accept a check (like they did for the first installment) and they said no and if I was not there with the money they would off load and start charging storage fees. Several phone calls went back and forth now with Mr. Overbay and Mr. Knafo. These were threat phone callse that included dumping the load and "good luck with your shipment". Put in a position that they had my belongings and I was not in control I found the money to make the payment.

Needless to say when we opened a good number of the boxes as well as the padded material we hade multiple broken items (lamps, dresser feet, desk, etc.) in the shipment. The reassembly was poorly done and all beds had to be reset

Once we finished the move and got back on line we found that Mr. Yair Knafo was charged by the state of Georgia with 60 improper moves and fined $5000 per move ($300,000). He is known to have threatened clients and in one case withheld an heirloom until he extorted additional money from them.