My wife and I are recent victims of a Florida moving company called Coral Van Lines (owner: Avi Neo, aka Avraham Shukir). I found this company online where you can input your moving information and various companies provide you quotes. They came in Feb. 2006 to our house in Orlando, packed and moved all of our furniture (about 1 year old), artwork and boxes. The final amount was more than the original estimate we were given, as they claimed that we had big stuff that took up more space in the truck than what we were originally quoted. As per our contract, they were to move our property into a storage facility (as they alluded, the facility was associated with their moving company and on their grounds) to be delivered to South Carolina at a later date that summer. We provided them a $300 deposit and half of the total amount when they picked up and we also paid extra for "Full replacement value" insurance (worth $68,530). The first two months of storage were included in our contract (Feb. 21-March 21; March 21-April 21).
We sent a check to Avi Neo for the May storage payment that he cashed. Then he tells us that he actually had to get TWO storage units because we had so much stuff and that the storage fee would be double the original amount. We asked for documentation, or a photo or something, because why would the second unit, if the first was full, cost the same as the first? That was never provided.
Avi Neo called at the end of June and said we needed to "wire transfer only" money to his bank account or he couldn't promise that our property would still be there. We did not feel comfortable wiring money so we sent him a check. He claims he never received it and again said we needed to wire him money immediately. Banks were closed by this time of day and we still didn't feel comfortable with wire transfer so I offered to overnight him a check. He gave me a different Suite number (but the same address). He finally told us the name of the storage facility where our goods were (it was not on their property of course.
We overnighted him a check but that apparently never got to him either because it was addressed to Coral Van Lines and the mailbox had been transfered by Avi Neo but now for a NEW moving company, no longer Coral Van Lines. So the check was returned to us as "undeliverable".
We had it with all of this so I called back to have our belongings delivered to us in the Carolinas, and we found out that all of our property had been sold at an auction by the storage facility due to never being paid. This would unravel the truth:
When the movers loaded our property into the storage unit (just ONE), they put everything under one of the employee's names, Joe Levy, not ours or the company's name. So when the storage facility was not receiving payment (after an initial $200 in February), they tried to contact Joe Levy (not us) and notify him by telephone, certified mail, etc. And got no response. So in June, the storage company held an auction and sold all of the contents of the unit to one buyer for under $900.
Coral Van Lines is claiming that we never paid them and therefore that was why our things were auctioned off, however according to the storage facility's records, they never received payment on that unit past February.
We have tried several times to contact Coral Van Lines by certified mail and by phone but apparently they have closed the business. The "full replacement insurance" for which we paid extra did not exist.
We are in a jurisdictional nightmare because the storage facility is in Davie, FL, the business address for CVL is in Boca Raton and our things were moved from Orlando.
We have contacted the BBB, the FBI (they apparently have dealt with other cases like this, however this is too small of an amount for them to help), police in various counties, Sheriff's offices in various counties, the FMCSA, Attorney General, Inspector General, Move Rescue, our insurance companies as well as Coral Van Lines' (no one will cover us due to technicalities or jurisdiction or Avi Neo cancelling policies or policies that never existed), FL Dept. Of Agriculture and Consumer Services, State Attorney, Dept. Of Financial Services and media resources.
There isn't any chance of us getting our belongings back, but there is a chance we can help stop these criminals from doing this to anyone else.
Dan
Charlotte, North Carolina
U.S.A.
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