We were moving from Fullerton, CA to Lake Elsinore, CA (a total of 46 miles) on August 22. I received several quotes from several moving companies, all around the same price (between $85 and $105 per hour). I went with a company called ABM Van Lines (America's Best Movers). They quoted me $90 per hour, with a 3 hour minimum, double drive time and no fuel surcharge. The reason I picked them over the others was simply because they did not require a deposit.
I spent the week prior to our move date packing all of our belongings (we spent $70 on boxes) except for a couple of big items that can't be put in regular boxes, such as vaccuums. The day of the move comes. Three men show up in a Budget rental truck at 8am. The 'foreman' did a walk-thru of our apartment and claimed that they needed to do more packing because everything needed to be in boxes. He said he would have to charge us for all the tape they used, (and we later found out that it's illegal for them to charge for tape). We figured it wouldn't be a problem because like I said, I had everything already boxed and ready to go... Or so I thought.
So he fills out a 'contract' that explains that packing materials are extra, and that the balance must be paid in full prior to them unloading the truck at our new house. My husband tells the guy that we only had $600. We figured that we were getting charged a minimum of $270 for 3 hours, which we thought was more than enough time for three men to load all of our stuff, and then another $180 for the drive (it takes one hour to get from our old place to our new place, but they charge double for the drive), and then an additional $90 for another hour it would take them to unload the truck and put all of our stuff in our garage. So that would be a total of $540 for everything, and that still left us with $20 to tip each guy. The man said ok I'll help you out, my husband signs the contract, and they begin 'working.'
It took them half an hour and 4 rolls of tape just to wrap one couch with a furniture pad! And it was like that for every item that they had to wrap and tape. I've never seen anybody use so much tape! One hour passes. They all went downstairs and no one came up for about 10 minutes. One of the guys finally walks up and says they were on a smoke break! We were like "We aren't paying you to smoke!' At that point, my husband specifically tells the guy, again, to remember that we only had $600 so they needed to hurry up so we can get going. The man said, "Yes. Ok."
Two hours pass. We're stressing because they seem to be right where they started. They ask for drinks and start complaining about how hot it was! I told them sorry but all our stuff is packed. We reminded them, again, that we only had $600 and we want to make sure we have enough to pay them so please hurry up. Same answer..."Yes. Ok."
Three hours pass and he says that they are almost done. Finally at noon they're done! As we're heading out the door, they say that they are starving so they are going to lunch but not to worry we would not be charged for that time. We head to our new house and they supposedly head to Carl's Jr. We get to our new house in 30 minutes. They show up at 2:30... They claimed there was a lot of traffic (even though we were just on the same road... And it was a Saturday!). The 'foreman' shows us a piece of cardboard that had numbers written all over it with our total balance...$1270!!! We could not believe it! How was that possible? He refused to explain how our total went that high and said he couldn't show us the contract we had signed or tell us what we were being charged for until AFTER we paid. All he kept saying was that it took them a long time to get down here, they used a lot of tape, and there is nothing we can do except pay him or we don't get our stuff.
We reminded him that we told him from the beginning how much money we had and that he had agreed and said that it was fine. He said "Sorry. There is nothing I can do. Pay your balance or I can't give you your stuff!' We only had $600 so we told him that we can give that to him now and the rest the following Friday (8/28/09) when my husband got paid. He said he could not accept partial payment and they took off with our stuff. Of course I was devastated, but there was nothing that we could do until Friday.
Five minutes passed and I heard the truck pull up again. I ran to the front door thinking the guy had a change of heart and we would get our stuff. He said "Ok. My manager said I can take the $600 now and give you your stuff and you can pay the remaining $670 on Friday." We were sooo happy and like idiots gave him our credit card. He calls someone on his phone, gives him our credit card number, hangs up his phone and says, "We can't do it. You'll get your stuff Friday when we get the rest of our money!" And he walks out!
So we were left with no money and none of our stuff! Absolutely nothing! I have a four year old son, and I am 4 months pregnant, so I begged the guy, crying, to please at least let me get some of my son's toys and clothes and my pills because we have nothing at our new house. He refused and they took off.
My husband got in touch with my mother-in-law in New York, and she was willing to pay with her credit card so that we could get our stuff that night. I called their dispatch right away and told the manager that my mother-in-law was going to pay with her credit card and to please bring our stuff back. He said they would come back around 8.
So 8 o'clock comes around and I get a call from the driver and says that his manager told him they could drop off our stuff but that we had to pay our balance in cash! At this point I was so frustrated and upset and could not believe this was happening to us. It's like they would tell us one thing and agree to something one minute, and the next minute they would change their mind. It was just a game for them and they had the upperhand because we had already given them money and they had all of our belongings... Absolutely everything we owned!
I called their dispatch again and spoke to the same manager. The guy was a total jerk. I told him I was pregnant and needed my medicine. He said he'd give me the name of a pharmacy so that I could go buy my medicine. I asked him how did he expect me to buy anything since they took all of our money?!? He hung up on me! It was already late at night at that point and he stopped answering our phone calls. My husband, my son and I ended up sleeping on the living room floor that night.
The next morning we called dispatch at 8am so that we can get an exact dollar amount as to what we owed so that we could pay and get our stuff. My mother-in-law was going to wire money through Western Union so we needed to know how much she should send us. The guy that answered said that he needed to call his manager to find out and that he would call us right back. Two hours passed and no phone call so my husband calls back. The guy said he still hadn't heard anything and that he would call us back as soon as he heard something. Two more hours pass and nothing. My husband calls back again and tells the guy that we are just trying to pay so that we can get our stuff back so all he needs to know is our balance. The guy says, very rudely, "Sir, I cannot help you. No one has called me back so I can't help you!" So all day Sunday we never heard back from these people. Our second day with nothing and no money. My mother-in-law ended up wiring us $467 so that we could buy the necessities for the week.
Monday morning I called the main office to see if someone could tell me our balance so that we could get our things back as soon as possible, because by this point, it had been two days that they were charging for storage. The operations manager tells me that she'll call me back because she needed to calculate how much it would cost to get my stuff (which was now in San Jose) back down to Lake Elsinore. I never got a call back that day. That lead us to believe that we were scammed... There we were trying to pay these people, trying to give them more money so that we could get our things, and no one would return our calls!
Tuesday morning I call my local police department to see if they could help in any way, even though I knew this was more of a civil matter, but I decided to give them a call anyway. The deputy gave the company a call and the only thing he was able to get for me was my new balance...$1057!!! So it went from $670 on Saturday to $1057 on Tuesday! We would not have money to pay until Friday when my husband got paid, but at least now we had an idea as to what we owed.
Friday came. I called them first thing in the morning to tell them that I had money so that I could get my stuff so I needed to know my balance. They said $1094. I thought not bad since Tuesday it was $1057. She then tells me that once they receive payment, they can give me my new balance! I said "Huh???" She says that the $1094 would cover the balance we owe. She said I needed to overnight a postal money order and once they receive it, a new contract would be created for whatever the costs are for bringing my stuff down! And now they'd have to charge me by weight and not hourly since it was a long distance move from San Jose to here.
So pretty much this move was going to cost us more than $1600?? They had already taken $600 from us, I was about to give them another thousand and still had no guarantee that I would get my stuff. What if they got here again with my stuff and with a new bill with an outrageous amount that I could not afford? I'd be in the same situation again that I was in to begin with... No money and no things! I told her to please fax me something in writing to assure me that once they receive my $1094 they would send my things out. She refused! Said it was against company policy! So that's supposed to make me trust them and give them more money??? What kind of company refuses to give their customers something in writing? One that plans on committing such a scam!
My mother-in-law called them Friday afternoon to ask for the balance again so that she could pay it with her credit card so that there would be no more delay. They gave her the balance...$1694!!! What??? Are you serious? It went up $600 from Friday morning to Friday afternoon. At that point, we just assumed that we were never going to see our things again and that we lost $600!
All the grief and suffering that I went through for days when all of this happened turned to anger and motivation! I spent days and nights doing research on this kind of scam (something I should have done to begin with!). I got in touch with the California Public Utilities Commission on a Tuesday, they had their investigators at ASAP Relocations in San Jose on Wednesday, and I had all of my belongings at 6 am on Thursday!
Some helpful information that I found out while doing my research... It is ILLEGAL for them to charge for tape! That's why when I demanded an itemized list of the $524 of packing supplies that they were charging me for, they refused! I only used 3 of their boxes! So what was the other $449 for? Bubble wrap? Yeah, nice try!
Oh and also, if you are unable to pay when they arrive at the destination, they are still required, BY LAW, to let you get anything belonging to a child or for the care of a child, and medicine, out of their truck... Whether or not you pay!!! I begged the guy, crying, to please let me get my son's things and my medicine, he said no.
Bottom line, I think every moving company will scam consumers in one way or another. It's so easy for them to get away with it... All they have to do is start doing business under another name! Lesson learned! Rent a U-Haul and move yourself!
Just because I have all of my things back doesn't mean I'm done with all of this. Something needs to be done to protect people from this type of scam to begin with. No one should have to go through this. These moving companies are getting away with doing this to innocent people. There has to be something someone can do to put an end to moving company scams.
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