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Nightmare Moving ExperiencesFind below a list of nightmarish moving experiences suffered by people across USA. I contacted several movers for my relocation to the Nashville area. My intention was to screen several companies, and choose the best from the lot. I contacted United Relocation, Trans US Moving, and Gold Star Van Lines, American alliance of Ethical Movers, North American Van Lines, and All Over the States. Of these companies only North American Van Lines did NOT respond to my request for an estimate. (They did initially contact me, but when I called to set up an appointment I never received a call back) I received the following quotes from the remainder of the companies:
These quotes were based on several different methods. American Alliance sent an individual to my home to look at the goods. Trans US, Gold Star, And all Over the States had me fill out an inventory list. United Relocation had a representative named Monika call me and ask me about my inventory. In the instance with Monika, I was able to tell her that I did NOT know how to estimate the weight because I was not a mover. Monika asked me questions about the size of my home and access ability. I told her that my home was 2,800 sq. ft. and 2 levels. Based on this MONIKA estimated my weight to be 8,400 lbs. As a side note American Alliance of Ethical movers, who actually had a rep come to my home, estimated the weight at 8,590 lbs as well. This led me to believe that her weight was accurate. As I went through my decision process, I looked at several factors-
Based on the above factors, I contacted United Relocation for my final evaluation. I asked Monika several questions about the estimate. My first question was what happens if my goods weighed more than the 8,400 she estimated. Monika indicated to me that once the truck was loaded, the movers would take the truck to the scales and weigh it. If the amount was more than she estimated, United Relocation would charge the difference in weight. This made sense to me. So I made the decision to contract them. Monika asked me for my credit card to charge a $150 deposit, and we scheduled a pickup date of Dec 18th at 9AM. The other questions that I asked Monika were logistic questions about the lead time required to schedule the move and their calling before arriving at the home. I also asked her to include a vehicle transport to the original estimate so that I could use one company for the whole move. She added the vehicle and it added $975 to the estimate. (This was inline with the quotes I had received from everyone else) I thought all was good until the day of the move arrived. On the morning of the scheduled move, I received a call from the United Relocation driver saying that he was at another customer's home and he would be a little late. I said I understood and what time could we expect him. The driver stated that he would be at the home around 11AM. 11AM came and went and the driver still had not showed up. It was not until 1PM that the driver called again and stated he would be to the house at 3PM. Due to the fact that all the companies stated they needed a 2 week advance notice, and we were at the date of move, I had no other options but wait for United Relocation to show up. They finally arrived at our home at 7:30PM. I was not very happy, but I told them that we were supposed to get on the road to drive to our new home, and they were causing a huge problem with their lateness. The driver apologized and proceeded to tell me that we had way more cubes than were estimated. I asked him why the cubes mattered when the move was based on weight. He indicated that the move was NOT based on weight but in the cubic feet of the material. After much discussion, and my showing him the estimate that had 8,400 pounds on it, he called his boss (Ziggy) who ended up also being the owner of the company. Ziggy argued with me for a long time, but he finally agreed to charge me by the pound as agreed. The problem is that he was going to charge me .55 per pound when the estimate clearly worked out to be .51 per pound. I felt I had no choice but to agree to pay the .55 per pound. That was ALL that was stated was that he would charge .55 per pound! The driver finished up day one at about 10:30PM and said he would be back the next day FIRST Thing at 6:00AM. He knew we were way behind on our move, and promised he would be there at 6:00AM. True to their company motto, he was 2 and half hours late! They did not show up the next day until 8:30AM. I was livid. But again, there was not much that could be done. When they finally loaded up all of our belongings, the driver completed a Binding Estimate and estimated the weight at 15,000 pounds. I found this strange because we had eliminated a lot of items that were on the original inventory (furniture, big screen TV, pool table). The United Relocation driver than called the office and I heard him ask what does he charge for the overage? I asked him what he meant overage. He said that every pound over the 8,400 would be charged at .78 per pound. I couldnt believe this. I told him that Ziggy had agreed to .55 per pound for the move just the day before. I called Ziggy back and he basically told me that there was nothing I could do. The overage would stay at .78 per pound. How can you charge me for an overage when they were the people that completed the initial weight estimate? Ziggy was rude and defiant that I could do nothing. I had to pay the amount he required. I was powerless, and they had my belongings on their truck. My $4,700 MOVE WAS NOW GOING TO BE IN EXCESS OF $11,000. When they put the final paperwork together the coupe de grace was about to be put into place. They demanded a down payment from my credit card $4,000 (which I paid) and then said the remainder was to be paid in cash on the receiving end. Since this was a company reimbursed move, I did not have $7,000 in cash. I told them that I had to pay by credit card. The driver called Ziggy, and Ziggy agreed to accept credit card payment on the receiving end. I thought my hell would be over, but this company had way more pain to give. They also agreed to deliver our goods on Saturday December 22nd so we would have our belongings for Christmas. I had the driver put on the paperwork that credit card payment was acceptable and sign the sheet. I thought this would protect me, but I underestimated the power this company had since they had my possessions. On Saturday the driver of the truck with our goods called me and said he was still a day out. I should not have been surprised that, once again, they were missing a promised delivery date, but alas I was surprised. To add to our misery, the driver stated that we had to have cash or money order only before he would unload our goods. I explained to him that Ziggy had agreed to credit card payment. The driver called Ziggy, and Ziggy called me and said that he knew he had agreed, but he had "changed his mind". I had to have cash or I would not get my goods. He then hung up on me stating that either cash or my goods go into storage and I would have to pay the difference. I was completely distraught because I did not have that much cash available to me. We were in a new state, and I had no access to our banks to draw out the cash. I finally had to go to 5 different banks taking cash advances (at considerable expense to myself) so that I would have the required cash. I want to tell you that I finally received my goods on Christmas at 7Pm and the movers were at our home until 2:30AM unloading. We have several items missing and many items broken. I do not hold out much hope that we will ever be reimbursed for these items, and I cannot tell you the emotional pain and suffering we went through on this move. Moving is an already stressful situation, and especially during the holiday season. This company did everything in its power to misrepresent and con and scam us out of every penny. I dont know what legal recourse we have as the government seems to be unwilling to regulate this industry. The only thing they tell us is that we can lodge a complaint and they can do nothing to the company. Do they think this company cares about a complaint being lodged? I only hope that our horror story can help others avoid this company like the plague. There are many more things I could have put into this letter, but it would have been a novel at some point. Anyone that wants the full story can contact me. Taken from "Ripoff Report: United Relocation"
When Rob Burns accepted the Chief
Marketing Officer position with a Boston based company, he hired a moving
company to truck his life’s possessions 1,158 miles north from his Florida
home.
Rob Burns, Boston, MASpyro Malaspinas hired Nation Van Lines to move his belongings from Austin, TX.
to Chicago this past January. According to Mr. Malaspinas, the movers hiked his
bill from an estimate of $1,050 to nearly $4,300. The movers told Mr.
Malaspinas that his goods measured 500 cubic feet more than anticipated. When
Malaspinas threatened to call the police, the drivers made off with his
possessions (which he estimates are worth $47,000). Despite an FBI
investigation and the March arrest of Nation owner Eli Peretz by the FBI for
alleged crimes with another moving company, Mr. Malaspinas still has no clue
where his things are. "It's paralyzing," he says. "It's not like somebody
stealing your wallet; they have stolen everything you've got."
Taken from: "10 Things Your Moving Company Won't Tell You" by SmartMoney.comA Florida-based moving company offered to move Joy and Jeff Clemens from
Minneapolis to Billings MT. for a mere $2,700. Nearly three months and $10,000
later, they finally have their furniture, clothes and appliances…and they had
to move it all themselves. The family of five decided last fall to move to
Billings for a career change. They obtained a variety of bids from moving
companies, including a low bid of $2,718 from Nation Van Lines of Plantation,
FL. After the Clemens' household was packed and trucked away, Nation Van Lines
demanded an additional $12,000, saying the family had more goods to move than
originally estimated. The Clemens refused and the company locked away their
belongings. Complaints to the company were met with curses and threats of
lawsuits. A manager eventually offered to reveal the location of the goods for
$7,000. At this price, however, the Clemens would have to drive their own
belongings to Montana. The price was eventually lowered to $5,000. The family
wanted to fight the company, but soon learned that they were on their own.
There are very few laws governing interstate moving fraud, they said. The
Clemens said their experience was an eye opener. Until the move, they believed
the government would protect consumers against fraud, Joy Clemens said. "It's
like nobody cares. There's no law. You're on your own," she said. "It's the
perfect scam. It's just too bad the government can't step in and pass some
laws. I just don't see how blackmail isn't a crime." For the Clemens to find
their possessions, they had to pay Nation Van Lines an additional $5,000. When
the demands were met, Nation provided the family with the address and
combination to a Minneapolis storage locker. Jeff Clemens flew back to
Minneapolis, rented a U-Haul van and drove their household belongings to
Montana. The storage locker was six miles from their previous home. This works
out to about $1,300 per mile paid to Nation Van Lines. With the plane ticket,
van rental and gas, the family spent about $10,000 for the move.
Article from the Billings GazetteBusinessmen Lou and Eddie Talebloo’s moving experience was very costly. “We just
looked through the Yellow Pages, and it’s a full page ad,” said Lou Talebloo,
owner of Oriental Rugs. Talebloo hired Prime Movers to transport almost
$500,000 in oriental rugs to his cousin's store in New York City. Lou and his
brother, Eddie, have been in the oriental rug business for years. They've hired
companies to move their rugs before, and said they never had problems. But this
time, things were different. “The suspicions came when they said it would be
there in two days, and it never got there,” Lou Talebloo said. “So we called
them up, and they kept saying, ‘Oh, it’s going to get there,’ and then they
said the truck was broken down in North Carolina, like, several days in a row.”
The Talebloos said there were a total of 180 rugs…and they were all missing.
“We received a phone call from Max Million Rug Company, and he said, ‘there's
two fellows selling Oriental rugs on the street,’” Lou Talebloo said. One man,
who claimed to be a former employee of the moving company, admitted that he
stole some of the Talebloos’ rugs and sold them on the street for $50 to $100 a
piece. Another former employee said about working for the moving company “It
would be like open house, I mean it doesn’t matter if it was locked up or not.
Hands were going into it, and taking whatever they wanted.”
Taken from: www.WDSU.comA Christian charity trusted a local moving company owner (who said "trust him
because he trusts Jesus") when they hired him to get gifts and supplies to an
orphanage in Rwanda, Africa. But the leaders of the charity quickly lost faith
in the moving company and the law. When Tony and Serena Morones hired Ty Allen,
it was before they found out that he has run moving companies under nearly a
dozen different names, and before they knew existing laws do little to protect
consumers. Serena and her husband help run Africa New Life Ministries, a
Christian charity that supports an orphanage and school in Rwanda. Last year
they contracted with Allen to send a crate of Christmas gifts, computers, a
rebuilt car and other items to the orphanage and school. "It took the better
part of a year to make all that happen. Hundreds and hundreds of hours of
gathering donations," Tony said. The ministry paid Allen more than $6,000. The
shipment was picked up in October. They say Allen told them it should arrive in
Rwanda by Christmas. Christmas came and went, as did January, February, March,
April and most of May. The shipment still hasn't arrived. "Every day you
promise them that 'your gifts (are) coming', and that's very hard for the kids
because it puts us in a position where we are lying to them," said the Rev.
Charles Buregeya, who runs the orphanage and school in Rwanda. Tony and Serena
say all they got from Allen was the run around, and that authorities were no
help. "Everybody told us 'there's nothing we can do'," Tony said. "How is this
not criminal?" asked Tony. "I would like to see somebody put him out of
business somehow and keep him from taking people's orders, taking people's
money, because he hasn't demonstrated any ability to follow through with
contracts and promises and apparently has hurt a lot of people. I don't think
he should be allowed to do that." Tony and Serena eventually found out their
shipment had been sitting at a port in Kenya because Allen hadn't paid the
shipper, and that they would have to come up with an additional $10,000 to get
it from Kenya to Rwanda.
Taken from: www.9News.comWhen Dan and Michelle Blucher moved from Sterling to Pittsburgh last year, they
called several moving companies for estimates. The $1,575 quote from Giant Van
Lines was "in the ballpark with others," says Dan Blucher. The salesman was
friendly and helpful, so Blucher hired the mover, based in Jessup, MD. Using
the square footage of the Bluchers' townhouse plus a list of major items,
Giant's salesman calculated a written estimate sight unseen, explaining that
the boxes of books and clothes "would all be factored into the quote," Blucher
says. But on moving day, after Giant loaded the truck, Blucher says the bill
came to almost $6,000. When he complained, the foreman reduced it to $3,985, he
says. Blucher wouldn't budge. "They threatened us and said, 'We'll just keep
your stuff if you don't pay'." Finally he relented and paid half the total at
pickup, as contracted, then tried unsuccessfully for a week to resolve the
dispute before delivery. Nobody returned his calls. To get their belongings
delivered, Blucher paid the balance with a cashier's check — then stopped
payment on it. Giant sued…the Bluchers counter sued, asking to pay what amounts
to the original estimate.
Taken from: www.WashingtonPost.com |
