In late April, I was sold moving services by Reliance Relocation based out of New Jersey. The reason I chose them above other companies was because of their low price of. 65 per pound for moving from Maryland to California and their charge of $350 for making a stop in Arizona. I asked Todd, the salesperson, if there were any taxes, fees, or any type of additional charge that would be charged at any point during the service. He said very explicitly, No, there are no additional charges.
I also asked how they would know how much everything weighed. Todd said, An empty truck will be weighed at a scale. The same truck will come to my residence and load all of my belongings. From there the truck will go directly to a scale and be weighed again. This sounded fair and was also told that I could go with the truck to the scale to verify the weight.
A week before the move, I called to confirm that the movers would arrive at the house the morning of May 21 because I had to work at 5 in the evening. I was told that the movers would arrive between 9-11am. On the night of May 20th at 9pm, Asi, the dispatcher from Reliance Relocation, left a message on my voicemail requesting confirmation for the move the next day.
In his message he stated that the move was now going to be between noon and 1, and not 9-11am as previously discussed. He did not leave a complete phone number, only saying that he was at the 800 number and his extension as 100. I called back at 10pm that same evening, once I was able to retrieve the number, to confirm the time of 12-1. I was only able to leave a message.
The following day at 9:30am I received a call from Usi (?) saying that the movers would be at my house sometime soon because they were in the area. I waited until noon, and called again. This time I was told they would not be there until 4pm. I told them this was unacceptable because I had to leave for work at 5 that evening. They said they would try to get someone to come earlier and a moving truck finally arrived at 3:30pm. The movers were professional and courteous, but I noticed that their truck was already half full of someone else's belongings. This contradicted the salesman's description of how the move would happen and precluded any chance of me being able to verify the weighing process.
After an 1 hours I had to leave to get to work while the movers were still in the house. Before I left they gave me a stack of contracts to sign. I signed them under duress without having the ability or time to read or understand the contract.
Two days later, around midday on May 23rd, while I was driving across country, I received a call from Asi and was given the final bill for the move. He said that the final weight was over 600 pounds more than the estimate. I found this strange because I did not end up taking several large pieces of furniture that were originally included in the estimate. I weighed everything that could be weighed before the move (I only left out three couches) and the weight was roughly 1000 pounds less than the weight I had been quoted (approx 2100 lbs).
Asi also told me that there would be an additional 12% fuel service fee that came out to just under $300. There was no prior indication that I would get charged this additional fee. I disputed the final price but was told by Asi, knowing full well that I was in Alabama, on my way to California, that if I was not satisfied with this price he would just return all of my belongings to the original address in Maryland. I had no choice but to consent.
The first part of the delivery arrived in Scottsdale, Arizona and a good portion of the furniture had been destroyed. Glasses had been shattered and everything looked like it had been negligently handled. One couch was missing and they told me to wait until the rest of the shipment gets delivered to San Diego.
Roughly 4 weeks after the move began the final delivery was made to San Diego. Although not as bad as the Arizona delivery, many boxes and pieces of furniture were destroyed. The missing couch also showed up. I sent the couch back with the movers telling them that it was supposed to go to Scottsdale, not San Diego. I later found out from Reliance that they considered the couch my problem, not theirs, and there would be a charge for storing it and for delivering it back out to Arizona.
I am planning on filing a lawsuit and I hope that anyone with a similar story regarding Reliance Relocation will join me in a class action suit.
Www.reliancerelocation.com
The second part of the shipment arrived in San Diego and
Jrhut
San Diego, California
U.S.A.
0 comments