I contracted with National Moving Network on the internet to have household goods transferred from Washington state to Minnesota. The agreed upon total price was $4,075.00 with a down payment of $1,100.00 for an estimate of 8,500 lbs. I did not furnish them with a credit card number, but told them I would pay by cash or money order. Carol, the woman I spoke to at National said a money order would be acceptable. The items were in two storage units in Washington. The drivers spent an entire day sorting through my belongings and repacking them for a total cost of $752.00 which they added to my bill. I never gave permission for this to be done and was told that since I was not there to sign a waiver, they had to repack the boxes. They took it upon themselves to repack my items and never bothered to call and speak to me about it. Now, the bill was increased to $3,727.00 from $2,975.00. Since I was contemplating a move to New York, I asked what the additional amount would be to move everything to New York instead of Minnesota. They tacked on another $600.00 bringing the total to $4,327.00. The shipment was sent to California to await a delivery address. There was no mention made of any "storage" charges. Tom simply stated that they were being held in California. I spoke to Tom on August 8th and told him that I was going back to New York again and would call him when I returned to Minnesota. On several occassions Tom repeated that the total due upon arrival was $4,300.00. I was upset to say the least since I had to pay for boxes I did not authorize, but felt that I had no choice but to pay the full amount. On August 29th, I received a call from Tom at AY Transport stating that my belongings were on their way to New York and where should they be delivered. I was in shock since I did not authorize the shipment to New York. I asked him why he did that and he said that I told him to. That was a lie.
Now, in addition to the other charges, they were going to add on another $600.00 for a change in shipping location, and $900.00 for storage charges. This would bring the total to $5,900.00. I told them I do not have $5,900.00, that I did not tell them to ship anything to New York, and that I wanted the items sent back to Minnesota. They said that would be an additional $3,000.00 bringing the total now to $6,200.00. They said the shipment was on a train going to New York and that it would cost my $2,000 to load and unload the items from a train to a truck, in addition to the $3,000 for the return to Minnesota. I had to find a storage unit for them to unload their truck. My belongings are now in two storage units in Ogdensburg, New York, for which they have the keys, and they told me that I cannot have access to anything until the bill is paid in full. My property is being held hostage in New York and I am 1,500 miles away from there. What can I do? The move to New York was illegal since I never authorized it, and I believe they had no right to repack my boxes since I never authorized that either. I am also going to have to spend an additional amount to hire another moving company to move my things to Minnesota which is where I am. Any comments would be appreciated. This is a major rip-off.
Annie
Bovey, Minnesota
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