Congressman Henry E. Brown, Jr
Washington, DC Office:
124 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative Brown:
I am writing to ask for your support of Representative Thomas Petris HR-1070 (Securing Consumers Assurance in Moving Act of 2003) by cosponsoring this bill. The laxity of current law is why Representative Petri, chairman of the Highways, Transit and Pipelines Subcommittee, has taken up the issue of abusive movers.
In March, Representative Petri introduced a bill to allow individuals or states to take legal action against rogue interstate movers under their state consumer protection laws. Right now it's difficult to go after moving companies because of the Carmack Amendment, a law that prevents consumers from suing for punitive damages, receiving attorney's fees or getting amounts beyond the value of the goods in question. Representative Petri's bill would mean that people have a realistic chance of getting some recourse. Consumers, including your constituents like myself, will continue to suffer at the hands of unscrupulous moving companies until this regulation is enacted.
I know about this because it happened to me during my move from San Diego CA to Charleston SC on 23 May. Here is a brief account of my experience with an unscrupulous mover.
All City Movers & Storage, 3645-A Oakcliff Rd, Doraville, GA 30340, (770) 729-1722, www.allcitymovers.com sent me an unsolicited E-mail offering a very competitive quote April for moving household effects. Through telephone and E-mail I contracted All City Movers & Storage on April 10 to provide moving and storage services from San Diego, CA to Charleston, SC. The contract noted all the consumer insurance coverage and moving company membership affiliations. The contract specified that the moving company would pickup household effects weighing approximately 3850 pounds Friday May 23 at 0900. The company advised they would call two days prior to pickup and confirm dates. The contract E-mail did not mention a down-deposit or offer to inventory the personal effects prior to quoting a price. The company called nine days prior to pickup day and wanted $200.00 deposit. The deposit was drawn and cleared from Wells Fargo Bank. I called the company 20 May to confirm pickup date 0900 23 May. The date was confirmed.
On May 23 at 0835,25 minutes prior to contracted pickup time, a company dispatcher called from Doraville GA and informed me that the truck was in Los Angeles and would not make the pickup until possibly Saturday. The dispatcher would not be more specific and could not confirm an arrival time. I informed company dispatcher that I was not happy and wanted to talk to the company president. I was informed that the dispatcher was in charge and I would have to deal with him. I subsequently called the Sales Team Representative, filed a complaint, and
immediately found another firm to pickup my effects that morning. This was a very stressful event and added a lot of pain to an already horrendous years accented with the recent suicide of my only daughter and diagnosis of breast cancer in my mother. While transiting to Charleston SC, I visited All City Movers & Storage, operating out of an unmarked office building at 3645-A Oakcliff Rd Doraville, GA. The owner, Mr., Zungy, promised a refund. Subsequently, Mr. Zungy on the phone, retracted his refund offer since I was now out of town in Charleston SC and out of his face. No refund has been executed. I immediately filed online and written complaints to BBB Atlanta, Georgia Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs, and sent an E-mail to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Atlanta, GA. All these agencies appear to be equally ineffectual in handling these moving company complaints under current bureaucratic red tape and lax civil codes. Typical responses I received were Contact a lawyer, We are understaffed or from the Georgia Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs Contact the FMCSA.
Because of the number of scam movers located in Florida, the legislature there recently passed HB-893 as protection for consumers against scam movers. But that bill only covers moves within the state of Florida; consumers engaged in an interstate move have virtually no protection. Scam movers know this and consumers are getting swindled out of thousands of dollars on a daily basis.in spite of what some organizations representing the moving industry may tell you and in spite of the contributions they make, please hear and come to the aid of the consumer on this issue. Please cosponsor Representative Petris bill.
I was one of the fortunate victims. Fortunate to only lose $200.00, a lot of time, and suffer emotional trauma.
Enclosed for your staffs perusal and education is a summary of moving company facts compiled from consumer advocacy WWW site MovingScam.com, recommendations, and my complaint to BBB Atlanta GA.
Encl: (1) What Should I Tell My Representative?
Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Atlanta, GA
MovingScam.com encourages consumers to write their local, state, and federal representatives about the problems facing the moving industry, and ask for them to not only support change, but initiate legislative changes that would support the consumer.
Let's start with some quick facts, and then move onto some remedies that representative can proactively take to help consumers from being taken advantage of.
Nearly 6,900 complaints were lodged with Better Business Bureaus against movers in up from 5,097 in 1999 and 2,970 in 1996. Federal officials logged an additional 4,000 in 2001. Consumer watchdogs say only 1 in 10 complaints actually gets lodged for the 1.5 million households moved each year. (Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer)
The laws regulating the moving industry are written in civil code (49CFR375) that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) was charged with enforcing in 1995 when congress disbanded the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC). As of this writing, there are three investigators spread across the country tasked with investigating the thousands of complaints each year. At one time, the ICC had 50 investigators in it's Philadelphia office alone.
One of the dirty secrets about the moving industry enforcement is what happens if a company is actually investigated, and found guilty of violating laws. The FMCSA has a chart that sets limits on the amount of fine that they are allowed to assess the company based on the crime that they committed, and the size of the company. No matter how serious the offense, there is no jail time involved, and the company is allowed to continue to operate as usual.
Once a fine is assessed to a company, the responsibility goes to the treasury department where there is no tracking of whether or not the fine is ever paid by the company. Most of the time, the moving company will ignore the fine and keep on taking advantage of consumers, but if they actually take responsibility and pay the fine, that money goes into the 'general fund' that the Department of Transportation (DOT) uses to pay for road improvements. The consumers who were taken advantage of never receive any restitution for their extorted money.
Heres what we ask representatives to do.
Title 49, (49CFR375.3) part d states the following:
"Maximum charges required to be paid at time of delivery on collect on delivery shipments subject to non-binding estimates of approximate costs. At time of delivery of a collect on delivery shipment, except when such shipment is delivered to a warehouse for storage at the request of the shipper, on which a non-binding estimate of the approximate costs has been furnished by the carrier under the provisions of paragraph (b), the shipper may request delivery of the shipment upon payment, in a form acceptable to the carrier, of an amount not exceeding 110 percent of the estimated charges. The carrier shall, upon request of the shipper, relinquish possession of the shipment upon payment of not more than 110 percent of the estimated charges
and shall defer demand for the payment of the balance of any remaining charges for a period of 30 days following the date of delivery."
You may know 49CFR375.3 part d as the civil code that is often referred to as the 110% rule. What needs to change is that this code needs to be re-written in the criminal code books so that consumers have the protection of the law enforcement community to protect their belongings from being held ransom at whatever price the carrier decides to charge. Our representatives need to know that carriers are often extorting thousands of dollars from a single consumer, so penalties need to match the crime.
We support penalties that not only affect the driver of the moving van, but extend back to the owner of the company, as well as the owner and company's assets.
We also recommend that any financial penalties collected from the company be used to reimburse the consumer for financial, and property damage and loss that was caused by the company.
This action alone would have an immediate effect that would benefit consumers, and we believe would face little resistance in the political arena.
Ask federal House representatives to cosponsor "Securing Consumers' Assurance in Moving Act of 2003 (SCAM Act - HR 1070)", which was introduced by Rep Thomas Petri on March 5th.
Other remedies that MovingScam.com supports are changes to the Carmack Amendment (49 U.S.C. Section 14706 et seq). HB 1070 would address serious flaws with the Carmack Amendment. Currently Carmack prevents consumers from suing in civil court for fraud, extortion (hostage-freight), negligence, breach of insurance contract, breach of contract of carriage, conversion, intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The Carmack Amendment preempts State Laws, so any state legislation is not applicable.
Because the Carmack Amendment affects so many aspects of the shipping industry (not just household goods carriers) any changes to the Carmack Amendment would face strong resistance. The American Moving and Storage Association (AMSA) supports Carmack as it is written, and other industry groups also lobby to oppose any changes. Ask most AMSA members how Carmack protects them however, and most of them are unable to tell you. That's simply because no reputable moving company has a need for the protections that the Carmack Amendment provide
Terry
Charleston, South Carolina
U.S.A.
0 comments