- Report: #624740
Complaint Review: United States Van Lines - Fort Lauderdale Florida
Reported By:
Customerosupremo -
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.A.
Submitted:
Updated:
-
Author Confirmed
Why?
United States Van Lines
401 E Las Olas Blvd. Suite 130-345 Fort Lauderdale, 33301 Florida, United States of America
Phone:
888-303-6711
Web:
Categories:
Business Rating:
(0)
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United States Van Lines Nationwide Movers, United States Relocation Services Will Not Show Up, Will Not Follow Up, Will Not Move Your Stuff! Fort Lauderdale, Florida
I recently relocated from Nashville to Santa Barbara. I initially asked for a quote from Allied Van Lines, and found it
beyond my financial means. Looking for other options, I applied for a moving quote online. Once I put in a request for a
quote, I was inundated with literally dozens of phone calls and emails begging
me for my business. (Once I put down my deposit, it was hard to get in touch
with anyone, but that's for later.)
When I first spoke to my moving consultant, Steven
Vandal, he gave me a long and well-rehearsed spiel on what a great and reliable
company it was, on what great customer service it had, and told me that he
would be in touch with me throughout the process. Unfortunately it appears that
his idea of good customer serviceand the mission of the entire companyis to
avoid phone calls, leave voicemails unreturned, and give no useful information
whatsoever. Not knowing this in advance, I fell for it and put down a deposit.
(Five minutes of Internet research on USVL, which is overwhelmingly
negative, would have saved me the trouble. Hopefully other customers will be smarter than I was.)
Once my two-day moving window had come and gone, I got a
call from Alexander, telling me they had "no information available" on
when or if a carrier would be available for me. He left his extension, in case
I had any questions. I did have questions (duh!), so I called back. I spent 45 minutes on hold, until their phone lines simply cut off.
This takes avoidance to a new heightit's a tactic I should try using on my
exes. (I now pretty much have it memorized: "Thank you for holding. Your
call and your business are very important to us." Ha! If only.)
Two days after the end of the window, when I spoke to
another customer service representative, she said absolutely nothing. She
merely repeated, over and over and over, "I have no information. I cannot
give you any information. I cannot give you any information. There is no
information." From
start to finish, all I got from the customer service representatives was
meaningless, empty blather like "we do not have any information at this
time." There was one guy, Alvin, who seemed relatively competent and sympathetic, but other than that none of them seemed the least bit informed.
Here's a tip: if you can't track down information, don't
run a moving company.
After grappling one or two more times with the "dispatch representatives" and cancellation department, I proceeded
to head to the nearest Budget Van Lines and move the stuff myself. I got the
job done more smoothly, more cheaply, and (judging from what I've read)
probably more professionally than USVL's "carriers" would have done.
They say they're refunding my deposit within a week or so. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt (probably dumb of me) and assume they're telling me the truth. If this changes, of course I'll be back here with updates.
For the moment, it appears that paying my deposit and getting my deposit back were
the only parts of the process USVL was equipped to handle.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Customerosupremo
Nashville,Tennessee,
U.S.A.
update
#2Author of original report
Sat, July 24, 2010
Just posting an update to acknowledge that I did receive my refund in a timely manner. Thank God this ordeal is over!
