Don't trust apollo van lines! I chose them because of an impressive package filled with positive references. But they shamelessly use those to take advantage of at least a certain percentage of customers.
When our goods were loaded onto the moving van, I was presented with a bill 50% higher than the estimate. The estimate was around $2800, and the bill was $4200.
I expressed my surprise at the bill to the foreman. The owner was out of the country, and unreachable. The foreman, "if you help me, I'll help you, do you know what I mean?" I said I wasn't sure what he meant, and he told me that if we gave him a bigger tip he would adjust the bill. So I him $30 and he lowered the bill by $400. He was totally casual about this, obviously not the first time he'd done it.
The owner of Apollo Van Lines, Edna Selzer, acknowledged by phone that the foreman who extracted a bribe from us to lower the amount of the bill had elicited complaints about overcharging before from other customers. She didn't seem surprised, but was apologetic and told me that we were probably due a refund of at least $600-700.
After a few weeks of sending repeated e-mails and phone calls asking for documentation of the actual volume from the actual trucking company (Apollo pays other truck lines to actually move things outside of the NY area), I told Ms. Selzer that I would be disputing the payment with VISA, and this finally got me an e-mail with a very brief excuse. She claimed to have mailed a check for her offered amount of $400 but I never received anything in the mail from Apollo.
Although I paid by credit card, VISA wouldn't back me up when Apollo re-billed my disputed amount. Since, when the truck was full of all my worldly belongings and the buyers were coming to take possession of my apartment a few hours later, and I was (conveniently for them) unable to reach anyone at the office when the foreman extorted us, at the time there was really no choice other than to sign the bill. This is how unscrupulous movers ding you.
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