My husband and I hired Reliance Relocation to move our household goods from OH to MN. They were very friendly during the planning process and the price was very reasonable. They told us to pay a $600 deposit and then the balance of $2200 would be paid to the delivery driver upon delivery. They promised to pick up our things on a Thursday and have them delivered 2 days later on a Sat, we were very pleased with these plans.
On pickup day, I had my mom wait at the storage facility in Ohio because we had mailed her the key to let the movers in. They said they would be there between 9:00am and 10:00am, at around noon, my mom was calling me to find out where they were as she had been waiting 3 hours and needed to get to an appointment. My husband tried several times to contact the company, but we were told someone would return our calls and didnt for hours. Finally late in the afternoon, we got hold of a dispatcher who told us the drivers were on their way and would be there within the hour. After 2 hours, we called again and were told just a few more hours and they would be there. At 5pm, we were told they would be there before the storage facility closed at 10pm, and when they still did not show up at that time, we were told they would be there forst thing in the morning. They in fact, as we found out 2 days later, had never been on their way there, they had never left their facility and showed up 2 nights later at approx 9:30 pm, had to cut the locks at the storage facility because nobody could sit there and wait for them anymore. We got a call from the storage facility owner the next morning that the movers had trashed the unit, leaving garbage, some of our property and urinated all over and that we had to pay the damages and cleaning fees.
When we got the company on the phone, we were told by JOSH, the "owner" that we would still receive our delivery on time, so we waited all day at our new house that Saturday and never heard a word from anyone, they would not return phone calls or emails, we in fact never got through to anyone until the following Monday and we were informed at that time that our shipment "didnt fill the truck" and that we had to wait until they had enough to fill it in order for them to deliver! I was extremely upset, and let them know this to which I was told, "you can fire us anytime you want to". At this point though, they had our belongings and we needed them back!
5 days went by before the company would return any of our calls again, and we were becoming very distraught over this experience. At this time, Josh told us that because my husband had a few rifles in the storage unit (which we had called Ohio and MN law authorities and were told that there was no special paperwork involved in shipping these and they WERE registered to my husband) that he could not deliver them over state lines. So. Because the movers had packed them in boxes, they refused to remove them from the boxes. They told my husband he would have to drive to Chicago, where they were keeping out things in a holding facility, to go through the boxes himself and remove them, and then they would deliver as promised. This is an 8 hour drive, we couldnt BELIEVE they were suggesting this! 2 days later however, they called my husband at work and told him that they would make arrangements to drop off the guns at my mom's house in OH and proceed with delivery as promised. Things were beginning to look a little better - UNTIL, in the same phone call we were told that we now had to pay an additional $1400 in "packing supplies" which we never agreed to, or were informed of. My husband became very upset because this wasnt what we agreed and we couldnt afford that amount! We told them we would have to report our property stolen at this point because it had been 2 weeks since pickup and they refused to tell us the address of where our property was. At this, Josh said to my husband, "If you do, we will just see what happens to your guns" Now they were threatening to harm our property! We didnt know what to do at this point. I am 6 months pregnant and the stress from this has caused my blood pressure tobe sky high at points and I have had to see the dr twice for stress related premature contractions.
After giving them a probem with the new price of delivery, we were told by Josh that we now had to pay in full by WIRE ($3400) or they would not deliver our property at all. We were scared to death to do this because we had already given them $600 deposit and had nothing but problems and we didnt trust them to deliver our things after they were paid. We informed them that the agreeent was payment on receipt of the delivery and that we would only pay in that way. Josh then said he would turn our property over to the attorney general and that he was done dealing with us, like we had done something wrong! At this point we felt like we would never see our things again. I spent all weekend crying because I have albums of pics of my children and things that belonged to my father which I can never just replace. We accepted the fact that it would be a long time, if ever, until we had our furniture and other goods so we went out and purchased what we could in order to have a bed to sleep in for ourselves and our 3 children.
Monday evening, my husband received many calls from Josh and a delivery driver who "claimed" to be in MN with our shipment and now wanted $4000 when they showed up at our house. Of course, my husband told them we didnt have $4000 and that they told us they were NOT delivering. They became very angry and threatening. Finally the owner and driver agreed with us to put our things in a sef storage unit in MN and to send us pictures and the name of the facility (because we didnt believe they were in MN at all). We would then agree to make payments on the balance of $3400 and when that was paid in full, we would be mailed the key to the storage unit and we would pick up the things ourselves. This seemed like a fair solution at this point. However 2 more days went by and they would not answer our calls or emails, in which I asked Josh why we hadnt received pictures of our property, because we would not send any money to them blindly and HOPE we would get our property someday. To this email Josh replied, "this is the first I have heard about any pics I promised to send you, we dropped your things off at a storage and are waiting for your payment"
We are completely at a loss here as to what to do, this is the most stressful experience we have ever had, we wouldnt wish this on anyone! We dont know where our things are, and they refuse to tell us the name of the storage facility so that we can contact authorities in our town to investigate. I hope someone out there can help us so I can stop being sick over this! Please be advised and do not hire this company, you will experience nothing but lies and threats from the owner.
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