On Friday, May 31st, Kevin with Elite Van Lines conacted me wanting to know if I would be interested in a quote I had inquired over the internet the night before. I had requested this for a very small studio apartment in Amityville, New York. We would be moving the contents of this apartment to Georgia. After going over the contents, it was mentioned that there was a promotional sales going on, with a $125.00 coupon. That sounded good. Anything to reduce the price. Kevin did some figuring and came up with 200 cubic ft. X7 at around 1400 lbs, which he came to $1075 which included full packing.
After we agreed, I was to pay a $200 deposit, payable by a major credit card, which I did. This all sounded so reasonable, and was the best quote we had received so far, so I figured why not use them. 60%of the fee ($525.00) for pickup, and 40% ($350.00) for delivery, left us a balance of $875.00. I was told this could be paid upon delivery, by personal check or money order.
The arrangements were all scheduled for Monday June 3, between 9-12. Sounded like a done deal to me, right? Wrong. On Sunday, the landlord called and requested the time change to 7:00 a. M, and were told that was no problem. Well, 12:00 that same night, the landlord was awoken by phone, by the driver wanted directions to her house. He was in Massachusetts, wanting directions at 12:00 in the morning.
The next day, (Monday), the driver called at 6:30 asking us for directions to the address of the pickup. We are in Georgia, and told him he would have to call New York. They arrive, and took a look around, and said it would take about 2-3 hours, and ending up taking 4. When the driver got the landlord to sign the inventory sheet, that is when she noticed a difference in the final price.
She mentioned that this was not what we were expecting, that we had been told, $875.00 for delivery, and now was $2,175.00. He mentioned something about using an extra 900 cubic ft, and more packing material, and that we would have to talk to the manager. The driver then asked for a 50% deposit, and this was not even her things. The driver called his supervisor, and got an ok, to proceed.
Monday night, I put in a call to Kevin at Elite Van Lines. I just wanted to clarify what was going on, and why the driver was asking for money. His response was he probably didn't know who the things belonged to. When asked why the big difference in price, he said to call back the next day and talk to his manager (David) and that maybe he could work out a deal. Yeah!
Tuesday, my husband called in attempt to speak to Kevin, who wouldn't even come to the phone. It was directed to David, who passed us off to the driver of the van, who in turn said we needed to talk to David. Well, by this time, tempers were getting alittle hot, if you know what I mean. We told the driver that when he arrived we would have a cashiers check for the amount that was orginally quoted to me by Kevin, ($875.00) and was again passed to David.
The arrival date was to be 5-7 days, so am curious what happens. After much investigating on the internet, we found out there another circumstance of the same nature from a Glen in Palm Harbor, Fla. His story is on this website, if you care to check it out.
This company needs to held accountable for their deception to innocent customers once and for all. Based on the BBB files, Elite Van Lines has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau due to unanswered complaints.
We will be sending this to the Chamber of Commerce, BBB, and the attorney generals office. If these problems are not rectified immediately, you will be in for much publicity.
Like Glen, in Palm Harbor, we to will continue to the end.
Linda & ronnie
warner robins, Georgia
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