On 7-15-08, Adam Eliad from New WOrld Movers came to our home to give a moving estimate. He was nice and courteous. He had a notepad and walked around the entire house with me including the attic, basement, storage room and garage.in the garage, I asked him if they could also transport our Harley Davidson. He said Yes, just make sure the gas is out, and the same with the lawn mower. After the thorough walk through, he wrote an estimate. I asked Adam if there were going to be any big price surprises because I have seen the disasters on the news shows. I told him we expected it to be maybe being a couple hundred dollars more than the estimate. He said, There are no hiding costs and the price includes the materials they use to wrap the furniture. I repeated that back to him and he said, yes. At that time, I called my husband at work and went over the estimate prices. With Adam standing there, I went over what was included and that the motorcycle was included. As you will note, the contract states Charges are payable by cash, money order or certified check upon delivery of goods
I signed the contract. I received a call from Dispatch a few days before the move to confirm our move date. She said nothing else other than confirming the date and time.
The driver and crew arrived an hour later than expected on Monday, 7-22-08. I jokingly asked if everything was going to fit into the truck and they laughed and said yes. After the truck was loaded without all of our belongings, my husband was presented with another contract and told he had to pay everything right then, and there would be an additional cost to get another truck to our house to finish the job. They also told my husband that it would be an extra $350 tip. The new contract price was $3136! We were told that would not include the delivery of our stuff. We left Adam two messages regarding the charge of the tip, and concerning the extra charges. Some how the packing charge went from a $200 estimate to a $1215 charge. He then called the main number and spoke to Jennifer several times and then Adam got on the phone, screamed and cursed at my husband throughout the conversation. He told him that we must have added stuff to our house, and that This ws all our fault. He proceeded to call Lee a liar and verbally bash him. During that time, I went to the bank and pulled out $1000 cash to give them as good faith. Adam also screamed at his foreman and accused him of going against the company because he was siding with us. It was approaching dark and the job was not complete. We had our three sons (6,4 & 5months) with us amongst this disarray. The foreman, was an honest man and assured Lee that because of us; he would be back with another truck. Lee left to sign papers for our house closing at our lawyers, and Adam called back. He started raising his voice with me. He denied negativity on his part for his conversation with my husband, and then started screaming at me over the phone. I tried to explain to him and later Jhis office staff that we know the first contract was only an estimate, but that Adam told us it covered all travel and the labor for both ends of the move. I also pointed out to them that the original contract states that payment was not until delivery of goods. Mike seemed confused and said that delivery meant when the truck came to our house. I tried to tell him what delivery meant, but he kept talking so loudly that I could not fully listen to him. Mike told me, Everyone has credit cards, just put it on there. We hadn't expected to pay until the delivery of our stuff and needed to close on our house in order to pay them. I told steve while at our house, during a phone call to him with the new address, or the call confirming our move date and time from Disaptch as every said about paying after the truck was loaded. He was very belligerent with me, and honestly not making much sense. He asked why we hadn't called earlier (this was around 4:30pm), and I told him my husband left messages for Adam and he had spoken to Jennifer a few times. He said, Adam must be out of the country that is why he hadn't called us back.
After going over everything with Jennifer, she said Adam NEVER makes mistakes and that this has never happened. I asked if he never makes mistakes how did his $1710 estimate turn into $3136 not including the delivery day! She really could not give me any clear explanation. She kept repeating that Adam never makes mistakes. I asked how could she say that when the $200 estimate turned into $1215. Then she went into how the move date was a whole other charge and that we had to pay for a minimum of 5 hours of labor. These things were never told to us. Adam said all charges were included on the estimate. Nothing was ever stated about the move date being another charge.
I went to a friends house with my sons, and Lee stayed to wait for the second truck, during that wait, he moved everything that was left, including heavy home gym equipment into the garage. Forreman came back with one other guy instead of 3 and my husband helped them finish the move. We had no choice but to pay the remaining amount because we had to vacate our house at that time, and close on our other two days later, and they had our belongings.
The delivery date was set for 7-23-08. We were accommodated for a 9am closing. We only had bare essentials and a couple changes of clothes with us. At 11:30am, I called to make sure they were not lost. An unnamed lady answer the phone, put me on hold, then office picked up and said, Your stuff will not be there today. She said the foreman called in sick and there was no one else to do the job. She said she just found out however, this was a half an hour after our scheduled time. We stayed in a hotel since we had no bedding, etc. Lee and I would have slept on the floor, but we had our sons to care for.
The next morning, the driver of the second truck, proceeded to throw trash on our lawn. My husband mentioned how the moving company should cover our hotel room. The man said, I am only the driver. My husband asked his name and he said, Mike. My husband informed him that he new he was we spoke to on the phone. He then told us that we should be charged for the extra night of storage. The foreman, Matthew, later told us that Mike was actually the owner. At the end of the day, there was another $870 charge. The estimate of $1710 turned into a $4006 nightmare!
I now called Division Of Consumer Affairs and BBB The man said to file a comaplint and that this is standard practice for this company If yopu need to caontact 1973-504-6512
M d
Glen Rock, New Jersey
U.S.A.
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