The following is an outline of complaints that I have against All Star Moving, located at the address listed above.
1. Failure to provide required documents regarding my moving rights.
Moving companies are required to provide the following: Ready to Move and Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move and All Star did not provide these materials. I suspect that the lack of these materials kept me from fully understanding what to do and how to avoid costly mistakes.
2. On moving day, the moving company presented a different version of the non-binding estimate. This second version of the non-binding estimate was more detailed than the original version that was provided before my move date.
While this is a smaller complaint among my other complaints & the original estimate documentation did not list any pricing for labor and materials that might be required, but second version of the estimate documentation did. I told the mover that this information was not on the estimate that All Star had already provided and asked why it was on this new estimate that I'm now required to sign. I cannot give a lot of specifics on the information in this second version of the estimate documentation because the mover accidently or deliberately took that second version of the non-binding estimate with him.
3. Actual Bill of Laden break-down does not support mover's claim that I had double the number of boxes than I had estimated when the moving company was preparing the original written estimate.
The original estimate included 120 boxes AND my furniture and every piece of furniture had been accounted for when I gave household content details & so that the moving company could give a fairly accurate estimate. Key point: the furniture and misc. Items like vacuum and ironing board, etc. Were listed separately from box count / estimate.
The actual bill of laden lists approx. 240 items (boxes plus furniture). Only approximately 125 of those items were listed as boxes. The bill of laden shows that I actually did stay very close to my estimated box count and certainly did not double the box count. Furniture cannot include furniture as the furniture was accounted for, separately, in the original estimate.
4. Being coerced into accepting flat rate bid.
Once 95% or more of my household items were loaded on the truck, the moving company informed me that instead of the estimated 7200 pounds, the new estimate was 17,000 pounds and that my cost for the move had increased from 1832.00 (original estimate) to a little over 7000.00
The lead mover then told me that if I tipped him and his two associates 150.00 each, he would lower my flat rate bid to a little over 6000.00. I told him I did not have the money to pay more than 3 times the original estimate, let alone tip his drivers such an insane sum of money.
I was then put on the phone with the owner of the moving company.
He told me that because of an additional 120 boxes (see complaint number 3) that I had to pay this additional 5000.00 dollars. I told him there was no way that I had 17,000 pounds of household goods and that I needed to have the truck weighed. The owner of the moving company then told me that they could take the truck to the weigh station but that I would no longer receive the discounted rate from the original estimate. I knew this would at least double my price per pound and at that point didn't suspect the empty weight of the truck might be fraudulent (discussed in complaint number 5) and quite frankly couldn't understand why the weight rate provided in the estimate would no longer be valid just because I chose to verify the weight. I chose this mover because of the weight rate promised in the estimate and there was nothing in the estimate that stated that the rate would not be valid if I chose to verify the weight.
When the owner of the moving company realized I was pretty serious about going to the weigh station, he agreed to cut the cost of my move to 4500.00 which was better than 3 times the original estimate but still more than double the original estimate. The owner of the moving company concluded his offer with a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum. Not knowing I had any choice (see complaint number 1) I believed I had to take the offer. I had to be out of the rental house on that day and didn't know what else I could do.
Although I would not understand this until after receiving copies of the weight tickets, even if I'd had them take the truck to the weigh station, I was still going to be charged for weight that was very likely truck weight and not the weight of my household items (again, see complaint number 5).
After all of this, the lead mover came up to me before driving off with my household items and once again asked that I tip him and his drivers. I once again said that I did not have the money to tip them. He concluded by saying just think about it. So now I am left wondering if my refusal to pay a tip will affect the delivery of my furniturethe proper unloadingetc.
5. Suspected falsification of empty truck weight.
Upon receiving a copy of the weight tickets for my moveI noticed that All Star claimed an empty truck weight of only 10560 pounds. Considering the size of the truck (26' minimum / 28' likely) it didn't seem possible that a truck with an empty weight of 10560 pounds could accept over 25,000 pounds of gross weight (truck weight freight weight). I contacted 2 different CAT representatives and asked questions about truck sizes and weights and both were also very skeptical about the truck having an empty weight of 10560 pounds. I contacted various other moving company reps and asked their empty weight for their 26 ft. Trucks and one claimed approx. 16,000 pounds while 2 others claimed 18,000 pounds.
Additionally: according to the after load weighing of the truck, the 3 moving men did not remove themselves from the truck. This is shown on the CAT documentation. If their average weight was 185 pounds each, this added an additional 555 pounds to the gross weight.
While no moving company is perfect, it's not that hard to find one that operates ethically and legally. I wanted to save a little money by going with All Star. My trying to save a few hundred dollars ended up costing me a few thousand dollars. Right now, all I can do is just warn others... Even though All Star threatened me with legal action if I filed any complaints or posted anything negative about them. I suppose that scares some people off. It only made me all the more determined.
Got scammed
Durham, North Carolina
U.S.A.
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