I found Reliance Relocation on the internet and submitted information to receive a price quote.
A woman named Julia Mazara called me and we went over the items that I would be moving. She informed me that my items appeared to weigh 1400 pounds and the remaining 600 pounds available for the minimum weight of 2000 pounds would be plenty for my boxes. She quoted me $1380 at $0.69 a pound. I was told that I would be charged 20% down, 50% at pickup, and 30% when my items arrived at the destination. I was told to call by Monday to lock in the price. Julia told me that her e-mail would have the name of Josh because they shared a workstation.
When I phoned back at Julia's extension my call was returned by Josh Avramovich. Josh told me that Julia was new and had made a mistake with my case. When we went over my items he told me that the estimated weight of my items would be 2673 pounds, raising my quote to over $1800. After some struggle Josh told me that he could reduce the price to $0.59 a pound. Still this was considerably more than the original quote. As I was saying goodbye, having told him that I had received several other quotes, some of which were lower than his, Josh suddenly lowered the price down to $0.54 a pound. He told me that the movers would wrap my furniture for free. He told me that the truck would be weighed prior to picking up my items and that I would be given a certificate of weight. My items would then be weighed when at their office. Josh told me that I could go with the truck to a weigh station if I wanted. I was told that if my items weighed less than the quoted estimate I would pay the actual weight, down to the 2000 pound minimum. When it was time to pay the 20% down Josh informed me that there was a 3.5% fee to use my Discover card and no fee to use other cards. I did not have my other cards with me and Josh agreed to waive the fee. I was told that I could use credit to pay for the next 2 charges. We set a time for between 8:00 am and 10:00 am on my move day. Josh told me that I would get a confirmation call 48 hours prior to that time.
I called Josh 3 days later to ask questions. He told me that I was guaranteed a truck and that it would definitely arrive between the 8 and 10 timeframe. I asked if it was possible that I would have any additional charges come up in the moving process and was told no.
When my moving day came I waited for the movers to arrive. When they did not show up on time I called and spoke with the head dispatcher, Jerry. I was told that there is no way for them to guarantee a specific window of arrival time. There was calling back and forth and eventually my truck arrived at 2:00 pm.
The movers did not have a weight cert. They had an empty rental truck. They informed me that several pieces of my furniture, including a full-size desk, would have to go in boxes that they were going to charge me $50.00 for. If I chose not to put these items in boxes they would not be responsible for any damages that might occur to the items. The smaller boxes were $25.00. The fact that I had been specifically told that I would not face any additional charges seemed to make no difference. I did not put the furniture items in boxes nor my toaster oven. I did put my 13 television in a box. The head mover told me that he did not work for the company, but was helping them out. He said not to worry about the weight because he could tell that my items weighed less than the 2000 pound minimum weight charge. The movers took nearly 2 hours packing up my few items. When it was time to sign the paperwork I asked the head mover what the insurance section meant, as it was vague and I could not tell what the options were. The employee could not answer my questions and I was so frustrated and stuck at that point that I signed. I did not receive a copy of any paperwork. Then it was time to pay the $274.00. I told the employee that I would put the charge on my Visa card. He told me that there was a 3.5% fee. I informed him that this was not what he had told me, we argued and he eventually waived the fee. I was then told that my final payment would have to be a money order. After considerable arguing, Josh told me that I could put the final charge on my credit card if the delivery occurred during regular business hours when the banks were open. There was nothing else I could do at that point, as I needed my items to be moved and was very far behind schedule.
While I was driving across country I received a call that the weight of my items was 3349 pounds. I knew that this was incorrect. Kelly, the employee I was now dealing with said that she would check the weight cert. She did and confirmed that this was the weight. I had to pay $963.63 more, 50% of the new total. She all of a sudden was requiring me to fax her a copy of my credit card and driver license to put the charge through and, again, I had to argue with her to not give me the 3.5% fee. She agreed and I faxed the information. She informed me that my items had not left the warehouse yet. I was okay with this because I was still driving to my new city of residence. I was assured that I would be able to go with the truck to a local scale.
I then discovered a charge of $274.00 on my credit card. I called Kelly, who informed me that there had been an accounting mistake. She credited my card the $274.00.
Approximately 2 weeks after my items were picked up I called Reliance Relocation to see where my items were. I spoke with Jerry who informed me that they had been forgotten about and were still in their storage in New Jersey. He notified me that the driver that they had expected to take my items was unable to and nothing was done after that point. He told me that they would definitely be on a truck in the next two or three days. I called again 2 or 3 days later and was told that they would be on a truck in 2 days. They finally made it on a truck. I was told that the truck driver would call me 24 hours before delivery time and then again within an hour of delivery.
After some time waiting for the truck I called Reliance Relocation. They gave me the number of the truck driver. I eventually got in touch with the truck driver and informed him that I wanted to be present when he weighed prior to and following my delivery. He had heard nothing of this and said that he would talk to Reliance Relocation. It came down to me having to tell the truck diver which scales to meet me at and my having to pay for the weight certs. The driver told me when to expect him. We then spoke and he had truck trouble and could not make it when expected, though he was approximately 7 hours away. He ended up arriving several days later, late in the evening, coming from a completely different direction that where he had broken down. I had spoken to Kelly at Reliance Relocation and she told me that I had to have cash or a postal money order to pay the driver with. Though I informed her that I had been informed otherwise, she would not budge. I got a postal money order for the remaining $714.00.
When the driver and his passenger unloaded my items they attempted to give me someone else's mattress and boxspring. It ended up that the shipment did not have my mattress, desk, and pillow, worth approximately $700.00 and that my couch, chair, and the toaster oven that I had refused to put in a box were damaged.in addition, after moving my items to my home and unpacking, I discovered that my 13 television, that I had paid to put in a box, was cracked and broken.
The truck was weighed in my presence before and after the delivery and my items weighed 1780 pounds. At $0.54 a pound, this equaled a refund of $847.26.
When I called Reliance Relocation they refused to give me my refund. From nowhere, I was told that it was their policy to charge a minimum of the original quote. After a long discussion we agreed to the quoted rate plus an additional $100.00 credit for my troubles of driving to the weigh station twice and paying for the weight certs and a subtraction of the $25.00 for the box for the television. I was told to e-mail the company with the information on my missing items and they would put through a claim on them and was told that I would have to take pictures, have them printed, and mail them to the company for the damaged items. They would not accept digital pictures e-mailed. When they received the pictures I found out that they had done nothing with the lost item and that all would be sent to some company that they contracted with to handle claims. It took them longer than they implied to get the paperwork to the claims company. When I spoke with the claims company I was informed that I was supposed to send the information and pictures directly to them, not through Reliance Relocation. The company agreed to use what Reliance Relocation had sent them. They said that they would send me s settlement offer. The settlement offer that I received was for under $100.00 and stated that I was only covered for a small amount of money per pound of my lost items. I also had to pay a notary to have the paperwork notarized.
Anonymous
Coalinga, California
U.S.A.
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