My fiancee was planning a move from Cazenovia, NY to my current residence in Williamsburg, VA. We submitted a list of items via a website, and they had several moving companies contact us. Reliance contacted me and gave me a quote based on our items. The price was good, and without doing any further reseach (bad move!), I booked with them to pick up my fiancee's belongings in New York on the morning of June 28. I was to stay in Virginia and wait for her arrival. She was planning to get in her car after her belongings were picked up and drive to her new home in VA.
A few days prior, we called to confirm. Although they had originally said "first thing in the morning" they told us to expect them between 9 and 11:00 AM.By 11:30, nobody had shown up. I called the dispatch office and was told they were running a day behind and would have to push our move back to the next day.
I responded that this was absolutely unacceptable, as a family was scheduled to begin moving in to the her house the following day and she needed to be in Virginia that night. When I inquired why I was only being told of this 30 minutes after their scheduled arrival, I was not given a straight answer. "Why didn't you call me and tell me of the delay?" I asked?"I was going to, " came the response.
At 1:00 PM Saturday, I called again and was connected to the dispatch office. The gentleman assured me that they would pick up my fiancee's belongings between 4 and 6 PM. He said they were in Fayeteville, 11 miles away, and had 3 more hours of work. After that, he said, they would drive directly to Cazenovia. I asked him if this was guaranteed, 100%. He said, "I guarantee it my friend, you have my word, I assure you 100 percent I will be there." Frustrated but satisfied, I hung up and the waiting continued.
By 6 PM Saturday night, no moving company had arrived. I called again and spoke to a woman who informed me the crew still had about 3 hours of work left in Fayetteville. The delay, according to her, was because the crew had to unexpectedly load the contents of a garage into the truck, an unforseen delay. When nobody had showed by 9:00 Saturday night my fiancee called again and was again promised they would be there, "even if it's not until 3 in the morning."
Finally at 10:30 Saturday night it got interesting. The truck operator himself called my fiancee. At this point she was in tears, shaken, and incredibly angry at being made to wait all day. He asked her what the contents of our move were (shouldn't he have known this since we submitted a detailed list?). When she told him, he informed her that he could not fit her stuff on the truck! What?! He said he only had room for about 10 boxes!!! When she got upset, he threatened to hang up on her if she didn't calm down.
When I found out, I called the same man (whose name escapes me — he was hispanic is all I remember). I told him I was incredibly upset and we had been lied to throughout the day. He again told me he would hang up on me if I didn't stop. OK, I said calmly, how are we going to solve this? He told me the following: "First thing in the morning I will take the truck to a storage facility and drop off the contents in a rented unit. Then I will drive to Cazenovia, pick up your fiancee's things, and drive to Virginia. I promise you my friend, I will take care of you. I will call at 8:00 in the morning." I thanked him, hung up, called my fiancee and tried to reassure her that she'd be out of there first thing in the morning. Luckily, her landlords told her that she could take an extra day in the old house if she needed it. She went to sleep on her matress on the floor and waited.
The next morning I waited for his call. And waited. And waited. I called Reliance... No answer (of course, nobody works on Sunday, right?). I called the truck operator's cell phone and it went right to voice mail all morning. I called the dipatch office... No answer. I left message after message. Finally, after five hours of calling, and 26 hours of headache and hassle, I gave up. At 1:00 PM Sunday I called Reliance, left them a message telling them what I thought of their customer service, cancelled the move, and demanded my $225 deposit back.
I called US Air and got a one-way ticket to Syracuse for that afternoon. My fiancee called Budget and rented a truck. I arrived Sunday night, picked up the truck Monday morning, loaded it with her help, drove 10 hours to Virginia, unloaded the truck with her help, and returned the truck in VA on Tuesday morning. 1.5 missed work days and $1600 later, she was finally settled in Virginia. No thanks to Reliance.
As an epilogue, Reliance finally called Monday afternoon while I was driving the truck from NY to VA (now over 48 hours after they were supposed to have arrived) to try to explain.in my anger, I ingnored their call. I called later that week to try to get my deposit back. FIrst I was hung up on by the customer service woman, then when I called back, she asked me for my number and promised to return my call that day. She didn't.
After no return, I tried again the next day. I was told because I cancelled after the scheduled move date (and not 48 to 72 hours in advance) I could not get my money back. I responded "well since you did not pay any attention to the scheduled move date, I think I am entitled to my money back." She told me I would be connected to her boss, I was put on hold for 10 minutes, then hung up on. That is where things stand today.
Overall, Reliance Relocation is a bunch of scam artists. They run a shoddy operation that borders on criminal. They rope you in with attractive prices and promises. They pay no attention to scheduled pick up dates or times, and make no effort to inform the customer of problems or delays. The word "courtesy" is not in their vocabulary. They don't answer phones and they don't return phone calls. They are rude and have no problem hanging up on people. They lied to us and made false promises and guarantees on more than one occasion. Despite the fact that they NEVER showed up for this move, they are still holding firm to keeping my deposit.
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