I was moving from Chicago to Orlando, FL, and called a few companies for quotes. Nationwide quoted me the lowest at $1,251.60. I spoke with "Kevin Smith" to set it up. He was very nice and assured me that everything would run smoothly, even when I would periodically call to make sure that the pick-up date would be 6/4. I asked for everything in writing, and he told me that my online application was in fact the contract.
On the night before pick-up I got a call from "Yossi" who said that the movers would not be coming the next day in a very matter-of-fact tone. I told him that you can't just call the day before and say you're not coming! The new owners were moving in the next day! He said the truck was stuck in Detroit because it needed a new filter! A new filter!!! He said maybe they could still be there, but not until later in the day, I said fine. I call the next morning and he says they are still stuck in Detroit, but could be there that night between 8-10 PM.
At 3PM I get a call from a woman saying that she is from Target Movers in Chicago and that they will now be taking care of my move and that they will be there at 7PM to move me. I ask if the number she called from is her contact number and she said yes. As 7,8 and 9:00 pass, I continually call this number, but only get a fax machine sound. I call Nationwide, but there is no answer. Finally at 10PM I get a call from some guy who asks if I still want to move, and I say yes, of course, I have been waiting all day. He shows up an hour later, now 11PM, in a rented Penske truck, alone. He tells me that they can't move me until 6AM the next day. I ask him why he drove all the way over to tell me that, and he says "just to tell you." I ask for the number of his supervisor. He says it's in the truck, he'll go get it. He gets in the truck and DRIVES AWAY. The number he called me from is a calling card.
6AM the next morning, nobody shows up, and of course, Nationwide is closed on Saturdays, the busiest moving day of the week. I ask information to look up Target Movers for me, and they said it does not exist. I ak for a reverse-lookup for the number the woman called me from, and it is actually a residence. I begin frantically calling other moving companies, and while many expressed their sympathy and anger for my situation, they were totally booked for many weeks. Finally, I call a very reputable company and they say thet had a cancellation and could move me that afternoon for $2,500. I am so grateful to have found them regardless of the price difference (as I now know that Nationwide would have charged me MUCH more in hidden costs anyway).
Many hours later, the woman from "Target Movers" calls me to say that they are very booked and can't come until Monday. I ask about her driver who left and she said that he said we had agreed that he would leave because it was too late. I tell her I have found new movers after her lying responses to why the company is not listed and why it is run out of a residence.
Thanks to All My Sons moving comany, I was out of my place by 6PM that night. I call Nationwide on 6/7 for an explanation and to tell them that they should pay for the difference in price seeing that they never showed up. I was told that it "was not Nationwide's fault" and that is is a "busy time for moving companies." I ask for Kevin Smith, and am told that he doesn't work there any more. I ask for the manager. He says her name is "Tali" and thet she stepped out but will return in 30 min. I call back, speak to a woman who tells me that Tali is never in the office, as she is the inactive president, but to call "Oreet, " the manager, the next day.
Next day I call to talk to Oreet. She is defensive and rude and claims this is not Nationwide's fault. I again ask for Kevin Smith, and she says she has never heard of him (even though she is the manager). I express how amazing that is that she doesn't know him, and she says that the only Kevin there is Kevin Soloman. I ask to speak to him, she says he's out. I ask when he will return, and she says he will never return. I ask her to pull my file, she says the computers aren't working. She says she will call Target Movers and call me back.
She calls back and said that she just spoke with Target Movers and that they were "very upset that they had spent so much time and gas money trying to move me on Friday and that I had them turned their driver away." I laughed out loud at this, and she asked if I would like to speak to "EZ, " who had spoken with Target. I say yes.
He right away begins yelling at me that it it not their fault that I "chose" to go with different movers. He then yelled, "IF YOU GO TO BUY A PEPSI FOR $1 BUT THEN CHOOSE TO BUY A COKE FOR $2, IS THAT PEPSI'S FAULY?" I say, "Well what if the Pepsi is poisoned and I had NO CHOICE but to buy the Coke?" He then just kept yelling, "YOU WENT WITH OTHER MOVERS, YOU WENT WITH OTHER MOVERS, " in reponse to anything I said. I said that what they did was wrong and they should have to pay the difference, and he said, "WELL WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?" I told him I would take them to court, and he said, "GOOD, I LOOK FORWARD TO IT - I'LL SEE YOU THERE."
I then called "Target Movers, " who actually answered the phone this time, to ask if they had spoken to anyone from Nationwide that day. They said no.
As I read these other entries, I feel VERY lucky that I never actually had to go through with the move with Nationwide, and I feel for those who were left with no choice, as I would have been had the other movers not had a cancellation. These people make me sick, and I would love to sue them, less for the money and more for the satisfaction of knowing that they had to face the consequences, once and for all, for what they have done. It angers me to see that some of these entries date back to years ago, and that they have been ripping us off and getting away with it for so long. It just isn't right, and they need to pay for what they have done to people and be SHUT DOWN.
Kim
Orlando, Florida
U.S.A.
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