North American Van Lines

Well, where does one start? Stars selected is one, but not what we truly wanted to select which is a negative 10 Stars. There is good reason!
It's been almost 1 year to this date our nightmare of a journey began, and has now just been completed. I will say upfront that there are 2 parties involved, Moda Moving out of Oregon and North American Van Lines. North American Van Lines Custmer Service Department (upper management) did their best to satisfy us with compensation for all damages to our property.
This was our first time hiring a moving company, past moves we always did on our own. It was different this time as I was disabled. During moving day I was unable to observe entire crew packaging items as there was 3 levels to the house and crews on each level. We did pack most boxes, leaving Moda to pack and wrap almost all large items which included a brand new refrigerator (that received dents and scratches on both doors as it was not wrapped in anything when offloaded from truck), brand new bedroom set (had scrathes at end destination) and cement outdoor garden items (not wrapped in any protection and put in cardboard boxes and they weighed over 100 lbs each), broken heirlooms again not wrapped etc. In addition we were charged for disassembly and assembly at end destination of multiple items. Shelving was to be disassembled and wasn't and completely damaged. Assemly at end destination was attempted but driver said not his responsibility. We were charged for all those services in addition to regular moving fees.
We were told that our property would be in storage then put on a trailer direct to the end destination. Come to find out midway thru the trip across the country our belongings were removed from one trailer to another without our knowledge. This added the possibility of more damage to our belongings.
While Moda is packaging your items they have a process, they do not explain thoroughly to you and yet expect you to sign that you agree to what they have documented about your items. There is a numbering system they use which includes descriptions of damage your belongings have at the time of pickup. What was amazing is that this process, we discovered in the
end was misleading. It seemed to be that almost every item Moda was responsible for packaging and moving they stated there was already damage to those items, when there was not. We discovered this once we were collecting information for our damage claim. An example of this was when they marked on the sheet that an item had damage and when looking at the item at the end destination there was no damage at all to that item. I would venture to say this is a sly way of CYA for Moda and any damage created by their neglect of proper protection to your property. It explained why the sheets of paper were completed by the supervisor not in the vicinity of said items when itially documented, but in another location of the house. A suggestion is if you choose to use any moving company ask the movers to point out exactly where the damage is and get a visual first hand and initial each said damage listed on their paperwork.
I truly hope that the Supervisor, Vlad, who handled our packaging and loading of our belongings has been reassigned to a different position within the company. I did send information to the company once our belongings arrived damaged and some broken in pieces on how disappointed we were. The lack of care and handling our belongings was so disappointing especially when you are being compensated greatly for it.
This review might be one year late, but hope if you do choose Moda that you watch every move they make.
Would not recommend!

Awesome driver. Good loading team. Met challenges in a positive manner. Delivered early which made my day. Would use u again if I had the same driver.

Reading other reviews, I guess I got lucky! My driver seemed to be an independent contractor (he owned his truck) and very reliable. The trucks are MASSIVE, they did fit on Villebois roads so I didn't have to pay the $350 shuttle fee to get items on the truck. All my items were delivered, with no damage or missing items. They do an in-person visit to quote you, which led to a much less expensive quote than all other places except 1 because they had a more accurate gauge of my furniture. They didn't care that I ended up swapping some items out for others, because ultimately they'll charge by weight and as long as you're under the estimate you'll pay what they quoted.

During the negotiation/quoting phase the rep (Neil Gordon) for the company gave a good price stating that there are no hidden charges and that is exactly what I'd pay. The fine print on subsequent documents, however, counts every step of your building and states possible Shuttle charges.

Quote:
SHUTTLE CHARGE:

If the authorized motor vehicle carrier/agent cannot get within 100 yards of the customer's given address, the customer agrees to pay and will be required to pay an additional of $1 per cubic foot with a $350.00 minimum for the shuttle to bring them to the designated moving truck and or customers home.

End of quote

The trick is - they send to your destination huge 50+ ft trucks with your furniture even though it fits into pretty small UHall trucks, and the size of the truck is not specified in the Shuttle Charge clause. You'll find out about it only when you already partially paid, and the pick-up team arrives to your place requesting information if such huge trucks will fit onto your destination property. And it is, of course, up to the truck driver to decide if it fits or not, and out of my estimation and the words of the delivery driver, in 90% of the cases his truck does not fit to any destination point.

The driver says he gets angry customers almost every day because even if the customer considers the destination as fitting for such a truck, most of the customers have no clue about the real size of the truck and in most cases they miscalculate and such a big truck just does not fit. In fact, I called the apartment complex office and asked them about their property in regards to the size of the truck (as I had never been there and rented the apartment online). The office rep said she had no clue and just sent the apartment complex plan directly to the delivery company, which did not help anyway.

In other words, the company lays on customer's shoulders the logistics of the delivery and the customers will almost always pay extra shuttle/steps charges in case they do not know or miscalculate something.

In my case I did not read the fine print and eventually paid for the extra 10 steps to my second floor (the first 10 steps according to the fine print are included) - $75, and the shuttle cost me extra $350. But besides, I delayed and made uncomfortable the driver (who had nothing to do with this scheme) during the shouting match with the pick-up company (Condor Moving Systems AFAIR) and got upset that this information was omitted during the initial quote negotiation with the First National Van Lines,. When I got on the phone with the First National Van Lines, the rep just said - read the fine print next time you're signing anything.

I am giving 2 (instead of 1) stars only because the price was originally considerably (about 40%) cheaper than other moving companies I had contacted, the delivery was still made without almost any losses (for now just the lamp shade is missing, and a few minor scratches on the furniture. I am still unpacking, however), and the actual truck guys (especially the very patient delivery ones) were pretty good at what they did during both the pick-up and delivery.
Had they not hidden the charges employing the above-mentioned tricks, I'd have given them 5.

Also, be aware, that the First National Van Lines is just a broker. The delivering will be done by the actual moving companies, and they can be different upon the pick-up and delivery. So you'll be speaking with a lot of different people during the process and to most of them you'll be explaining the same thing over and over again.

We were very pleased with the moving company, North American Van Lines. They knew all of the paperwork that needed to be done at the border between Canada and the United States.