National Arbitration Forum

We used the National Arbitration Forum after United Van Lines destroyed some of our belongings and breached our contract during our interstate move. Although we tried to settle with United Van Lines, when it appeared that they were demanding that we sign away our right to publicly discuss the issues we had had with the company just to receive due compensation, we opted for arbitration. Big mistake.
Enter National Arbitration Forum
The first arbitrator we were assigned described themselves in their profile as «a business-​oriented business owner.» No joke. For reasons you might imagine, we used our one «opt out» to have him replaced. Needless to say, in our consumer versus business claim we did not feel he would be particularly impartial. We were also certain that someone who described themselves as a «consumer-​oriented consumer» would never have been allowed to arbitrate. Indeed, we were astonished by how blatantly pro-​business it appeared, though in retrospect this was perfectly in line with our experience.
The second arbitrator was no better. As best we could tell, he arbitrarily made up numbers for the award and did not appear to have actually read most of our claim. If he did read it, he chose to completely ignore many of the facts. Confusingly, and for no apparent or explained reason, he awarded us even less money than United Van Lines had stated it could be on the hook for if we established fault (which we did). When we pointed this out in deliberate and painstaking detail (and paid $ 200 for the privilege of his «reconsideration») we received what amounted to a single sentence that he agreed with himself, though still no explanation was provided.
That’s right, review of an arbitration decision — effectively an appeal — is reviewed by the very same arbitrator who was responsible for the initial award. To put this in perspective, we were essentially saying that the arbitrator was either incompetent and hadn’t read or paid attention to our claim, or was actually biased — and he was the person who was put in charge of reviewing whether he was incompetent and hadn’t read or paid attention to our claim. Big surprise, he didn’t think he was incompetent. He also didn’t appear to pay any attention to any of the information we included in our «appeal».
When we asked for an explanation of how the arbitrator arrived at his figures, the Forum refused. So we asked for a refund of the $ 200 we paid for the reconsideration that, to our minds, clearly had not occurred. That, too, was refused.
We then asked for information from the Forum about what our next steps would be to contest the award. The Forum dismissively responded that they couldn’t provide legal advice. This despite the fact that it was not legal advice, but rather just a procedural question that is, as we later found, published on their website.
Oh yeah, we forgot to mention that the whole process took over 14 months. Yup, 14 months to get shafted.
We would also note that the National Arbitration Forum has a history of law suits against it, some filed by State Attorneys General, for being biased. Just look it up «law suits against the National Arbitration Forum» on Google and you’ll find plenty to dig into.
So in short, we had a very cut and dried case, where we established fault and harm, but we inexplicably received less from an arbitrator than the amount that United Van Lines said it could be on the hook for if we established fault and harm.
That’s why we say run. Run as fast as you can from the National Arbitration Forum. In our experience it is massively inequitable and completely stacked against the consumer. Though we are typically against litigation at all costs, we would choose court over this forum in a heart beat.