American Van Service- North American Van Lines

3 minutes ago-Edit On 6/10/19, American Van Service moving company picked up items from our previous home in Lake George, NY and delivered the items to storage located at Big Boom Road in Glens Falls, NY. As per our agreement, the contents were delivered to Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 on 6/17/19. Upon delivery of the items to our new home, it was clear that several items were damaged either in storage or in transit. It was brought to the attention of Seth Rukat immediately upon the time of delivery and he dismissed it. His response was "I don't know what happened". We certainly don't know what happened except the items were damaged. We were also concerned at the time since originally there were four moving trucks (three full trucks and one was filled only half way) that picked up the items in Lake George and there were only three trucks (two were full, one truck was filled only half way) that delivered the items to Saratoga Springs, NY. I’m not sure how fewer trucks were used to deliver same items. There are several boxes that have yet to be unpacked due to remodeling efforts being done the new home, therefore, more items could potentially be damaged. Also, when the delivery was made on 6/17/19, American Van Service moving company was supposed to bring a small sofa bed upstairs and that was not done. It currently sits in the first floor kitchen area. We are elderly and this is not an undertaking that we should have to do especially considering it was agreed upon that it would be delivered to a second floor room. In addition, the boxes were all labeled to where the final destination was to be (i.e. kitchen, basement, upstairs bedroom, first floor bedroom) and most of the boxes labeled "basement" were left in the garage. Again, it was agreed upon that these boxes would be delivered to the appropriate location labeled on the box. I did phone the moving company on 6/25/19 to try and resolve this matter, but Seth was not available to take my call so I left a message with the receptionist (no response to date). Since that date, several phone calls have been made. The receptionist refuses to give me the owners contact information.

many items broken, a 19 piece, 5' long mirror was lost and I was not reimbursed properly.  the mirror alone was valuable and I got a check for $240.00.  they are totally  unrepentant about anything and refuse my calls

There were 4-5 movers and our home is 3-storeys with 2 entrances. So it was a big job for my wife and me to just try (not with complete success) to get them to put everything where it needed to be. In the end, despite our instructions, our bedroom mattress was on the lowest level and our bed on the top. The movers refused to bring the mattress up, and with all the boxes in the way we could not do it ourselves, so we slept on the floor for a week. Foolishly, we gave them a tip anyway.

As we unpacked we discovered huge problems: a 7 foot ladder was missing, the glass top of an expensive coffee table was broken (the movers MUST have known this, but said nothing), an antique hand painted French coffee table that had been in the family for at least 2 generations was missing, a large cabinet had a broken leg, a large oriental rug was missing. And there were other, lesser, broken items. Total loss: about $3500.

We were compensated for almost none of this. Reason 1: the moving company takes NO RESPONSIBILITY for missing or broken items, it passes all responsibility on to the insurance company. Reason 2: the insurance company (TRANSGUARD INSURANCE COMPANY OF AMERICA, INC) refuses to pay for anything that was not checked off, recorded and verified AT THE TIME it was removed from the truck. Of course, neither company alerted us that we needed to stand at the door of the truck to inspect and sign off on everything removed.  The truth is, had we attempted to verify the condition and presence of everything, it would have take MUCH longer to unload--and these guys were in a BIG hurry to dump everything and leave!

The end of this story is that we got compensated for a small amount, but for the most part got screwed and lost several thousand dollars worth of goods, some being antiques with sentimental value. This company, American Van Service in Glens Falls, New York, and the insurance company it uses (TRANSGUARD), demonstrated to us that they do not care about their clients. IF YOU USED THEM (which I do not recommend), SPECIFICALLY REQUIRE THE FOLLOWING: IN THE CONTRACT REQUIRE THAT AMERICAN VAN SERVICE (or any service you use) INSPECT AND CHECK OFF EVERYTHING REMOVED FROM THE TRUCK AND PLACED IN YOUR HOME, AND REQUIRE THAT THE SERVICE COMPENSATE YOU FOR ANY ERRORS ON THEIR PART AND LOSS TO YOU AS A RESULT OF THEIR INSPECTION.  DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH ANY COMPANY THAT REFUSES TO AGREE TO THIS OR THAT DOES NOT OFFER YOU AN ALTERNATIVE ACCEPTABLE TO YOU!

The people at American Van Services of Glens Falls never sincerely apologized for losing and breaking our possessions. They gave the impression that they really didn't care. My opinion is that they don't have enough self-respect or confidence in the service they offer to the public to back up that service with a guarantee that you'll get back everything they took and in the condition that you gave it to them. If they don't have confidence in themselves, you shouldn't either!