The following is a description of our HORRIBLE experience with DISCOVERY MOVING & STORAGE (I.C.C.M.C. #344900) from the San Francisco Bay area of California. From our experience, we would suggest being VERY CAREFUL in deciding to use Discovery Moving as your mover. All of the statements below are verified through documentation, Discoverys writings, and the testimony of myself and my fiance who experienced all of this.
I called Discovery on 5/6/02 for an estimate. Not knowing how much stuff we have in terms of numbers of boxes, I described the nature of our possessions (including how many shelves of books) and Burt gave me a number of boxes for the estimate. They gave us the estimate of $2,502.17. This estimate was accompanied by a furniture list, including box counts suggested by Burt. Burt assured me that his estimate was 90% accurate.
5/21/02: AFTER loading all items on truck, the foreman Eithan gave us the bill of lading with price of $4,068.22, without prior indication that the price would be OVER 40% higher than the original estimate. The truck was not weighed to calculate this price; Eithan told us it was his calculation of how much space our stuff took up. I showed Eithan a federal pamphlet (OCE-100) regarding our right to have 30 days to pay any amount above 110% of the "non-binding estimate." Eithan REFUSED to look at the pamphlet, demanding one with Discovery's logo on it. Candy (a dispatcher for Discovery) claimed that we had received a rate quote (even though the form says estimate in big, bold letters) and that meant we had to pay 100% of the total price in cash at the destination (or Discovery would hold our goods in storage and charge us for that!). I asked her to point to any statute or regulation that talked about rate quotesshe said it was all over the books. I wonder what books they read, as I CANNOT find any information on rate quotes in the federal guidelines for movers. See for yourself all the uses of estimate on www.discoverymoving.com and then try to find rate quote as a separate category distinct from binding and non-binding estimates here http://www.fmcsa. Dot. Gov/factsfigs/rights.htm. You wont. Binding estimates dont fluctuate and are not based upon the actual weight, whereas non-binding estimates (a curious omission from Discoverys glossary on their website) are based on the actual weight (or constructed weight if a companys tariff allows for thiswe are still waiting for Discovery to send a copy of that tariff provision). The logic is simpleyou only have to have funds for 110% of the estimate, and the rest you can pay within 30 days. Discovery flat out REFUSED to honor this FEDERAL REGULATION. Discovery has now responded to our complaints through the Better Business Bureau by manufacturing a NEW bill for $432 they say we owe them for extra weight. Supposedly, they weighed the truck (even though they already filled out the contract and charged us for a weight) without informing us so as to prevent us from observing the weighing. The weight tickets, besides being obtained in a manner not consistent with federal guidelines (see the above link), are missing the weighmasters seal, show the driver being on our truck while it was being weighed, and do not even include a full weighmasters signature (one appears to say Shirley).
Discovery has responded to our concerns by lying about what occurred, calling us names, and manufacturing addition charges to keep us quiet. We are quite DISSATISFIED with the way Discovery treated us. We are preparing claims for media outlets in the Bay Area; we are willing to forward all the documentation and testimony we have collected to the Department of Transportation, the California Attorney Generals Office, the FBIs fraudulent moving company division, National Bureau of Consumer Affairs (FTC), and various other consumer outlets. If you have had similar bad experiences with Discovery Moving & Storage, contact us and file complaints with anyone you can. Well see if they get the hint and act in a concerned fashion about the experiences and concerns their customers have.
The bottom line is this: we feel that DISCOVERY MOVING & STORAGE took advantage of us as first-time movers by giving a low estimate and then dramatically increasing the price once our items were on the truck. If you are on a budget when moving, we would strongly encourage you not to choose DISCOVERY MOVING & STORAGE, even though their prices may seem economical.
Scott
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.
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