California Moving Systems/Atlas Van Lines

Review: The following morning February 21st, I was surprised to see only one truck arriving at my parents house to unload a portion of my property. I asked what happened to the 2nd truck. I was told that California Moving System had unloaded the trucks in their yard and repacked the truck and in addition there was another load added which was going to a customer in Huntington Beach. So initially what took two trucks to load was now consolidated to approximately of a truck. Common sense would indicate that property being moved on and off trucks is not a good thing, plus I was lead to believe that this would not occur.The delivered Items at my parents house went fairly smooth, an inventory was done and most of the things designated to be dropped off at their residence had occurred. The rest of the items were to be delivered to a storage facility which would soon become another chapter in an ongoing nightmare.The crew arrived at the Public Storage facility where I had secured two 10 x 30 units. I explained to the driver T that one unit was going to be for furniture only and the other for boxes and miscellaneous items. The contract had indicated that I would inspect my property and that the furniture would be wrapped in paper pads, and the mattress box seams were to be sealed with tape (this did not happen). I asked the crew if they would like me to order pizza for them. They said that would be great. I explained that I had to put mothballs and rat poison down in the units and that I would go to the front office wash my hands and order the pizza.When I returned to the unit the crew had ignored my requests of furniture only and had already the unit filled with my property. I did not get to inspect the items and no inventory was done. I asked why they were not wrapping my furniture with paper pads as stated in the contract. The driver stated that he did not have any supplies and did not have the contract with the instructions. I immediately called [redacted] to let him know what was happening. I was informed by [redacted] that he told them to put the supplies on the truck, however the driver denied it. To make things even worse the crew that was acquired from the Atlas facility in El Monte refused to wrap the furniture and threatened to leave. So now I had a small mutiny on my hands where the workers were going to leave. The driver decided to use blankets to cover my furniture and talked the crew into staying. One of the crew didnt want to stay because he wanted to go to his son ball game.My furniture was damaged; I witnessed the crew taking fragile items and stacking heavy items on top of them, flipping boxes labeled fragile end over end with no regard for my property. One of the mover took two 20 gallon pots that still had some dirt in it and turned it upside down spilling soil on the finish of a very nice executive desk. I was perplexed when my aquarium came off the truck with water in it after I had emptied and dried it out weeks before my move. Because of the chaos, close to 300 items had not been inventoried and I had no clue to where most my stuff was. On two occasions one of the crew (Nick) climb up and across my furniture to look for items that I needed access to. Later I discovered that he had broken one of the legs off an end table while doing this.Several days latter I spoke with one of the owners [redacted] who acknowledge the nightmare and wanted to send a crew down to unpack the units, inventory, and finish off the work. Mr. Higdon sent ** down on March 11th 2014 with two additional helpers. ** had with him several of my items that had gone to the Huntington Beach job and I ended up with a picture from another customer. Needless to say we were able to consolidate the furniture in one unit and do a complete inventory of my property. As suspected there was more damage to my personal belonging that I had originally noted.I appreciate that California Moving systems made an effort to try and fix things but as I review all that has happened the negative experience and stress that I have endured far exceeds the positive.I am currently in the middle of trying to document the damages which at a glance may exceed the cost of moving. I am fearful that after all the issues that occurred with California Moving Systems, and this review, that the movers and insurance company will not compensate me appropriately for my time (weeks) and the damages to my property!!I will keep you posted!!Desired Settlement: I need to make sure that the damage to my property and time resolving these issues will be taken care of properly with no retaliation. Also, because of my employment situation my property will most likely be in storage for an extended length of time until I get my own place. The movers were extremely negligent with my property. I don't want to be in a situation where I unpack my fragile property in the future, find damage and have no recourse!!

Business

Response:

California Moving Systems continues to work with Mr. [redacted] in resolving his service and claims issues. Our insurance carrier has begun the process of arranging repairs.

Consumer

Response:

I am rejecting this response because:

I will like to keep file open until full resolution and satisfaction has been completed.

I am concerned about any out of pocket costs that I may incur. Because of my financial situation and the fact that Items are in storage. Had California Moving Systems had not damaged and lost my property this would not have been an issue. These were issues that I had discussed with the sales rep prior to hiring this company.

I need clarification on if California Moving Systems / Insurance carrier will cover the costs of unpacking and re-packing the storage unit to locate the damaged property. Some items may need to be assembled for repair etc....

Also once the repairs are completed they will need to be re-wrapped etc... for storage.

Please note that the contract stated that mattress boxes were to be sealed with tape, and to shrink wrap over stuffed furniture this has not been completed as of yet.

I was advised by the movers upon delivery not to wrap and shrink wrap my sofas and loveseats ...... I am not sure I had the best advise. I have had conflicting information.

I will hold off on moving forward until I get a satisfactory answers.

Thank you for your consideration.

Business

Response:

When we get claims that are over a certain amount we are required to sent it to our insurance company. Our insurance company has been trying to get in contact with this consumer but he is not cooperating.

Consumer

Response:

I am rejecting this response because: I rejected this response and initially held off contacting the insurance company because the contract was not completed. I also had concerns which I have asked for clarification....I have never received a response.(please review my correspondence) I had contacted The Revdex.com and spoke with two different women one on 5/7/14 and another on 5/12/14. I was told that they have left messages for California Moving Systems but had no response. I contacted the insurance carrier and the assigned agent on 5/12/14. Today is 5/21/14 so who's not working with whom!! See Comments below:

I have contacted Vanliner Insurance Company to discuss my claim. I spoke with [redacted], who informed me that I needed to have my property inspected to settle this claim. I explained that the majority of my property is in storage. I asked if they had a crew or service to unpack the storage unit so that the inspector could inspect the damaged property. I was told that I was responsible for the expenses of hiring someone to empty out the storage unit to give them access. . I also spoke with [redacted] at Weathersby Guild the agent assigned for inspection. She could not help either.

In summary, I hired California Moving Systems who acted in a negligent way, inflicting hundreds if not thousands of dollars of damages and now I need to cover the cost to have the insurance company inspect my property. This is a cost that California Moving Systems needs to cover. Had they delivered on the contract and acted in a responsible manner I would not have been placed in this situation. I have contacted the Revdex.com over this and I was told that California Moving Systems have not responded to them.

This is a portion of the letter I have sent to the Attorney Generals Office. If you look at this case closely there are issues with the companies employee trespassing after I asked him to leave my property. I contacted The Revdex.com because I anticipated retaliatory behavior from CMS. They have done a great deal of damage to my property and should be responsible for the cost to have it available for inspection. I explained this to the insurance carrier. I also explained to the insurance carrier that I had been waiting to hear back from CMS and they still have not in this response address my concerns. I explained that I do not have a job, and the money to hire someone to empty out a storage unit for inspection of the property. I was not refusing to allow the inspection.....I am between a rock and a hard space. When I spoke to the assigned agent [redacted]. I was told that this was for inspection only!!! That means that if the property could be repaired that I would have to hire a crew again for that. I asked Jessica and [redacted] to document that in there notes. As I have feared I am getting retaliatory behavior from the CMS. It would be nice if they stopped trying to make me responsible. I would ask that they would stop lying and be truthful and step up to the plate and fulfill the part of the contract which they have not yet completed, and make me whole by supplying the man power to allow this inspection to happen. If you look at the dates and my responses you will see that I have been the ONLY cooperating party to the nightmare that CMS has caused. For the record Jessica from Vanliner showed no interest to work with me...instead was adversarial .....indicating that time would go against my claim. Its funny that she would say that.....CMS stated that the way the furniture was wrapped and stored it would be just fine.....by the way CMS was the last people to handle my property in the storage unit that is in question!!