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Delivery delayed by 35 days. Final cost 18.6% more than the binding estimate. Poor communication. Misrepresentation
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I signed a moving contract with Royal Transport in June 2018 for household move from CA to NC. The pickup date was July 29, 2018 and the promised delivery date was August 18, 2018. Here is the summary of the service that I received.
1. Delivery delayed by 35 days.
From about a week prior to the promised delivery, I called Royal Transport every day to inquire about the status of the shipment and the delivery date. For the first two weeks, the only information I received was that the shipment was still in a warehouse in California. No delivery date was given until September 21, just one day before the shipment actually arrived the NC address. In summary, the delivery was five weeks later than promised.
2. Final cost 18.6% more than the binding estimate.
Royal Transport gave me a binding moving estimate of $2034.38. I paid $610 deposit on June 15. I was instructed to have cashier’s checks made to Royal Transport, one for $712.45 to be paid upon pickup, and another for $712.44 upon delivery. The mover in Berkeley didn’t want to accept the cashier’s check. He wanted cash, or a personal check made to him, and only accepted the cashier’s check after a heated discussion with the agent Nikki of Royal Transport. The mover demanded an extra $200 in cash, supposedly due to “extra cubic feet.” The agent Maya, who called the day before the delivery in NC, instructed us to have cash or money order for $891, to be paid to Green Van Lines. A promise of a $100 discount due to the delay was not honored. In summary, we paid $378.56 more than the biding estimate.
3. Poor communication.
The agent Paul, who drew up the original contract, never answered the phone nor returned any call I made to him after the contract was signed. Almost all of my calls to Royal Transport were answered by the customer service person Nikki, but she never had any information on the status of the shipment and its arrival in NC. She gave me phone numbers of dispatchers, but they rarely answered and their voicemail boxes were full. On September 3, I called the Royal Transport sales department, having received no response from customer service nor dispatchers. I told an agent named Dave that I had received no information on the status of my shipment nor its arrival date in NC. In response, I received a lecture on appropriate manners in speaking to him. Nevertheless, this unpleasant call motivated some action: a few minutes afterwards, I received a call from a mover named Mike. He said that he was personally in charge of my shipment and he gave me a number of yet another mover named Suki. In the following days, I communicated with Suki, by calling him every day. My shipment arrived in NJ in mid-September, and it was stalled there for a week.
I addition to phone calls, I repeatedly tried to use Royal Transport web page (http://royaltransportandstorage.com) to track my shipment. The web page gave error messages “The E-mail Address Entered is Invalid'” in the Origin Zip Code and Customer Reservation Number fields.
On September 6, I have mailed a certified letter to Royal Transport, outlining problems with my shipment and requesting that they contact me. They never did.
4. Misrepresentation
On their website, Royal Transport presents itself as a full service moving company with a large fleet of trucks and professional movers. In fact, the pickup in California was done by an unmarked truck, and the payment receipt was from Expedia Van Lines. The delivery in NC was made by a Penske rental truck and the payment was made to Green Van Lines. The movers were unprofessional (they dropped a box of china and damaged other items). It appears that Royal Transport outsourced my shipment to subcontractors. In summary, Royal Transport displayed far too little responsibility, concern and courtesy in the processing my shipment.
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