Complaint / Review
Best Time Movers
Ripoff Busted by Arizona Department of Weights and Measures

The following article appeared in the Tucson Arizona Daily Star on July 22:

Customer wins moving dispute

Company sought $2K for unloading
By Erny Zah
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

A state inspector helped a woman get her belongings from a moving company that threatened to keep them unless paid additional money, officials said.

The Arizona State Department of Weights and Measures was called by Robyn Cattler, 23, when Best Time Movers from Rockville, Md., told her mother that it would need an additional $2,000 before it would move her mother's possessions into her apartment.

An inspector from the Weights and Measures department and Pima County sheriff's deputies waited for the moving truck at the apartment complex in the 3900 block of West Linda Vista Boulevard on Thursday.

J.J. Stroh, a senior inspector with Weights and Measures, told the movers to unload the belongings or be arrested for obstruction of governmental process.

The state agency can get involved in a dispute with movers if the price charged a customer who lives in Arizona is based at least partly on weight, according to its Web site.

Cattler said she and her mother, Joanne Cattler, 55, chose a moving broker by searching the Internet.

The broker found Best Time Movers, which gave Joanne Cattler an original estimate of $2,100 to move her items from Woodbridge, Va., to Tucson. A moving company called Ocean to Ocean arrived to deliver Cattler's belongings, but the movers wanted $2,000 before they would unload the truck.

It is illegal for a moving company to withhold items from customers if they have already paid more than 10 percent above their original nonbinding estimate. If the customer pays the 10 percent over the original estimate, any remaining balance should be billed to the customer.

Robyn Cattler said her mother has paid almost $2,900 to Best Time since starting her move four weeks ago.

The moving company driver was cited by deputies for several vehicle infractions, including broken stairs on the vehicle, bent mud flaps and a bent exhaust pipe.

Resources

To report problems with movers or for more information, call the Arizona Weights and Measures Department at 1-800-277-6675.

Information is also available at www.azdwm. Gov/. Then click on "Moving Scams." An online complaint form is also available on the site.