I'll make a very simple list of the unethical, borderline fraudulent tacrtics this company used on us: - Blatant Bait and Switch; Low-balled an estimate, then two days before the move, gave a new estimate $1,000 more expensive, with several new fees, and prior fees jacked up;
- Hires sketchy, unreliable movers to do the job: They hired a mover in Florida to do a pickup in New England; That mover "broke down" and couldn't make the date of the move. They cancelled on us literally just before 4 pm on the day of the move (they were supposed to be there at 10 in the morning); Neighbor's response was (seriously) to try to get a new, random carrier at the last second, and to tell us that we couldn't hire anyone else, even though the contract you sign is, by Federal law, a Binding Estimate tied to one specific mover
- Will refuse to refund your deposit after the mover they hire cancels on you thus voiding their contract, and will then try to invent any and every reason to tell you that they can't refund it. With us they: 1) Attempted to use the deposit we paid on the first mover, to coerce us into signing a contract with a new mover by threatening to not refund the deposit if we didn't hire the new mover 2) Tell us that they had "... Until 11:59 pm" on the moving day to hire a new mover, and if we didn't accept it, they wouldn't refund the deposit; Yes, they actually claimed that their contract allows them to show up at midnight if they feel like it; 3) Try to get the customer to "cancel" the move so it violates their policy; No matter how many times you tell them that they are obligated to refund your deposit because the mover canceled, they will try to get the customer to say "We're canceling, " so they can then claim that it was the customer who cancelled, so they can keep the deposit
- Engages in blatant false advertising on their website; They tout several "Movers of the Year" awards, implying they were awarded that title in some kind of objective evaluation against other companies.in fact, they purchased that "award" and simply renew it every year by paying the company who "awarded" it to them; They claim and imply that they've been moving people in several cities "... Since 1939, " when in fact, the vast majority (perhaps all) of their offices were incorporated after 2000; They finally claim that theya re "family owned and operated" even though they are wholly owned by two apparently unrelated individuals, and do not appear to fit any reasonable definition of a company that is "family owned and operated"; The State of Washington, when assessing numerous fines against them between 2005 and called these out specifically as misleading advertising, in their audit of this company
In sum: This company is the very definition of a rip-off; Their goal is to get you to put down a deposit, and then to hang on to it. Period.
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