On April 9th we contracted DRS Storage and Transfer, formally known as Smooth Move Relocation and Storage, to pack and ship our goods from Pennsylvania to Arizona. My wife received a quote over the internet and over the phone from Guy Ailam. It was a quote slightly lower than all of the bigger moving companies that sent estimators to our house earlier that week. But just to be sure that this was an accurate quote, my wife insisted that Guy Ailam come to our house and visually see everything that was involved with our move.
Guy came to our house and looked around in all the rooms, and he did not have any of the fancy updated estimating systems that the previous 4 companies had come with earlier that week. Guy estimated and insured my wife that we had no more than 18,000 lbs., but to play it safe, he would give us an additional cushion of 3,000 lbs in case we went over. The 18,000 lbs seemed to be the right weight, considering the previous four estimates, which came from estimators well into 20 to 30 years of experience, and they were willing to give a binding price for our move.
After Guy Ailam gave us a quote of $12,000 plus an additional 7% off the total cost plus a coupon for $300 off and full replacement value insurance offered on damaged goods. Guy guaranteed moving our baby grand piano & assured us an expert would put it back together in Arizona. They also agreed to accept a credit card since this was a corporate move for me, I wanted to use my corporate credit card and made sure they accepted and we had them put it in writing with waving the additional fee of 4% for using a credit card.
Guy said he had to clear the credit card fee being waved from his boss Yigal Suisa (aka) Jay. Of course Yigal waved the fee and that was put in writing by Guy Ailam, this was important to me because my company was paying for the move and had a vested interest in how this was paid for.
Later that week we accepted the moving quote. Guy Ailam said that the travel time from Pennsylvania and our closing date in Arizona will not be a problem for the truck to show up with our goods. On April 16th, the packers showed up late, close to noon and started to pack our goods. They did not put down any floor protectors or carpets. Eli, a company employee of DRS Storage and Transfer knocked over our Pottery Barn coat rack and broke a hanger off of it and would not admit that he broke it when my wife just happened to see it tip over by him.
The next incident that happened was a broken candle holder. She also witnessed this mishap, and waited for the packer to report it, but when he didnt, she brought it up to the foreman, and he came to discover it had been wrapped up in packing paper in put in with the trash. My wife confronted Eli about this and he said he would buy a new one for her or give her one of the many he had at home. It was not that we wanted the candle holder replaced it was the principle of lying about it, which he could not get in his head.
Eli also approached my wife to tell her that it is custom to tip he and his workers, and that she should make a trip to the bank. My wife went out of her way to pick up pizzas for them on day one, and picked up and purchased pizzas for them on day two. Eli also asked my wife to help he and the workers find a hotel that was inexpensive, so she spent time on the internet searching that and trying to help.
On day two Eli informed her that they would not have enough packing supplies, and to help him locate and find a store to get more supplies from. On day two they were complaining about the cost of the hotels, so I offered to let them stay at our home, as long as they agreed to not use the upstairs bathrooms and also be sure to clean up after themselves.
Sure enough, they used the upstairs bathrooms and made a complete mess, which we felt was very inappropriate and when we came back in the morning, coffee grounds and garbage were all over the kitchen. On top of that, they decided to throw their Dunkin Donut trash in one of our drawers; luckily my wife found it and confronted Eli who had no clue.
Obviously this moving company has no respect for the few customers that own the property, or the new people moving into that house. I was furious at this point, and we called Guy Ailam who back peddled when we confronted him with this situation.
My wife also questioned why there were no inventory stickers, and Eli said they didnt need them, since we would be the only customers on the truck. (This is part of your right to know, they are supposed to pass out your moving rights among everything else and inventory everything they pack up. They violated these Federal laws among many more.) She said she would feel more comfortable with those on all our items, and he did so, very amateur like with attitude; very non discript inventory sheets.
Thank God, because it turned out that they ran out of room on the 53 ft truck, and added the rest of our goods to another truck, which they later reloaded onto a different truck, Also, they offloaded some things from the 53 ft truck, and added someone elses items, as well. (This was all part of their playing with the weights, this is part of the scam.)
The next incident was the moving truck showed up with other peoples good and the truck not being actually weighed in our presence in PA, but rather down in MD and MD again after it left. At this point we were starting to think we went with the wrong moving company and should have stuck with one of the previous companies we used on our last 8 moves.
We continued to let them pack and on the second day the next incident happened Eli did not have enough boxes and wanted to know were he could go buy some more. My wife looked up some addresses and Eli went and bought some more boxes. Eli said we had over $7000.00 in boxes. That is when I knew something was seriously wrong with this brokerage company that claimed they were an actual moving company, and NOT a broker.
I though, how can they only charge $12,000 if the boxes are $7000 and then you add labor of packers, drivers, gas, etc.? I asked Eli how could they run out of boxes and he started to tell me that we had at least 35,000 lbs in goods, I responded how could an estimator be so far off and assuring us that the weight would be no more than 18,000-21,000 lbs and he was off by at least 18,000 lbs more than the actual quote.
I knew this was part of their scam at this point, when you have a corrupt leader, he will train the rest of his employees to lie as well. The next incident was they expected for us to pay for their pizza, my wife took their money and picked them up pizzas and then we bought them pizzas when they loaded the truck.
The truck just got packed at this point, and we were locked in. I was very close to telling them to unload everything and we would have a reputable moving company pick it up.
After the truck left our house that is when the extortion started. Guy Ailam told us that our truck had 35,000 lbs. Of weight. I asked how and he said that we had a lot of heavy things. Most of our things are kids plastic toys, and so on. We even sold a ton of things off after his estimate, knowing that we would not have as much room to store everything in our new house. Guy Ailam and Yigal Susia said that I had paid an additional $7000.00 for their misleading estimate.
I was furious at this point and got my corporate lawyers involved and the Department of Maryland Transportation and started to get advice. The next thing was they would not accept credit card but wanted me to wire transfer $9000 to $12,000 to their bank account. I was starting to wonder if I would even see my things again. Yigal Suisa said if he did not get the money wired the truck would be off loaded in a warehouse and it would cost me more. If I did not pay him by 30 days my things would be auctioned off.
The whole time I kept telling them that everything they told me was a lie, they responded back oh no that is not true we are a reputable moving company. I asked the owner Yigal if he was actually a moving company with your his trucks and he said yes. I got back on the phone with Kathy at the Maryland Department of Transportation and she said they are not a moving company, they are a broker for sure, they also have other complaints against them.
I was advised by everyone to just pay them part of the fee to get the truck going to Arizona, which I did. Let the Department of Weights and Measures, local police and Highway patrol handle them when they show up.
As soon as the trucks got close to my new house, DRS was demanding postal checks for the extorted balance, otherwise they would not off load. I was advised by the Arizona weights and measures to promise them the moon to get them in my neighborhood and they would take care of the rest. I told the drivers I had their postal money orders and they showed up. As soon as they showed up the Arizona Department of Weights and Measures, the Gilbert Police, and the Arizona Highway Patrol surrounded them. Weights and Measures had all of our emails with the contract from DRS and compared it to what the drivers had.
Things did not match up, the original quote was scribbled out on the drivers paperwork, they had no bill of lading, the weights were off, and the papers were missing signatures. Weights and Measures gave the drivers an opportunity to weigh the trucks before and after in front of the weights and measures department officials and both drivers waived their rights to re-weigh.
That is when you know dishonesty has been involved, when the truckers could have proved I might actually have had 35,000 lbs in weight, but instead they waived their rights to re-weigh in front of a Federal Agency. All three agencies stood by until both trucks were emptied and gone.
As far as DRS having a professional to put the piano together, that was also a lie. They didnt even have people to unload the trucks and put ANYTHING back together. I had to have a professional piano technician come to our house and after he took one look at the piano, he and asked if everything else was packed as poorly as this piano. I quote he said this is atrocious, what they did to your piano, they stripped all of the screws and took things apart that should not be taken apart. This will cost me an additional $500 to get this fixed, this was just one of many things that was broken.
My wife had also questioned Eli several times, as to whether or not they could transport hazardous good and chemicals, and he of course said they could move everything and anything. Many boxed and goods were damaged, because they moved chemicals, and mainly bleach.
After adding up the damage, it was time to email DRS and make a damage claim. I emailed them and they just played games, they insisted I call them and talk like human beings. I knew what was going to happen next and let one of the VPs and two other colleagues in my office listen in, and this is how the conversation went.
I called D.R. S on 5/2/07 to file a damage claim. I emailed them first the sales representative Guy, and he asked me to call them, did not want to email back and forth. Called Guy's phone and his boss, the president Jay, of D.R. S, took the phone from him and called me a cheap suit and continued to vent on me. I actually enjoyed his venting on me, It showed what kind of cheap hood he is and the people that work for him like Guy Ailam. My boss and 2 other coworkers listened in to Yigal's ranting, raving and his threats to my family and I.
The rest of the conversation went like this - after cheap suit, he said I got away with ripping him off of $9500.00. I laughed and said that he is real funny considering your contract was for $12,000 and then as soon as you closed the doors on the moving truck and rolled away the contract was out the window and you started to strong arm me by extorting me for more money. Holding my furniture for ransom and threatening to auction it off if I did not pay. I continued to say that you did not hold to any of your contract terms and forced me to wire money to your bank account to get the moving truck to just move.
Yigal aka (Jay) responded back telling me he is more American than me and pays more in taxes then I make all year. He said that I am a coward for having the cops, weights and measures, and Arizona highway patrol waiting at my house. I told him no you only like ripping Americans off and that he should go back to his own country. He said me and my f&ing bitch wife will be paying more than $9,000, one way or another he will get the money. But he personally will not be collecting the money. I said are you making a threat to me, he said he was above that, he said he was going to ruin by life. He will cause more pain and suffering to my f&ing wife, children and so on. He will destroy my credit and make me bankrupt by the end of the year. He said he trusted me and I double crossed him.
I spoke and said he lied to me from the very beginning by not honoring anything on the non-binding contract. Everything his sales representative (Guy Ailam) promised he did not honor. Yigal Suisa spoke again and kept making threats to me about doing harm to my family. I said you are making threats again, he said he was above that, but someone would be collecting the money one way or another. He said he was done with me and never to use his moving company again. I laughed and said no problem, I would not even consider it. Yigal said to never call his company again and kept calling me a coward. I responded back, asking for his insurance carrier, and he said to go f—k myself and my f&ing b*h wife and our claim. He said maybe if you pay the rest of the money I will possibly look at your f&ing claim. I responded back and said you mean the extortion money, and he told me again to go f—k myself, he said his lawyer will be making contact with me and hung up.
If you are in anyway considering this company that hides behind different names do not do it! It is worth a little more to go with one of the big five moving companies and not some small brokerage company that changes it's name every so often to hide the corruption that follows it. Also, get your moving rights, learn these.
If you are involved with a move with a dishonest company get The Federal Weights and Measures involved, Dept of transportation, etc. I am not done with this company, next report is going to the Maryland Attorney General, and so on.
Joe
Phoenix, Arizona
U.S.A.
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