Complaint Review: Long Distance Movers - Delray Beach Florida

According to their business binding estimate, "...If you have not signed the mover's revised estimate, and the mover loads the truck, then federal regulation requires that the mover has reaffirmed the original estimate and cannot demand additional payment at delivery for the additional items." I have pictures and witnesses that prove the truck was loaded prior to a new estimate being done. I was not told I would have to pay an additional $1,900 (our original estimate was $1,957.01), until our stuff was already on the truck. They demanded that this amount be paid on delivery even though we had not budgeted for this additional amount and thought it was extremely unreasonable. After calling customer service, the salesman, and quality control person and only getting voicemails, the owner finally called me 2 days AFTER my things were on the truck, and that is when the negotiation took place. I was worried that if I didn't agree that I would not get my things. I was told I would need an additional $1,600 upon delivery, or they would not deliver my things and they would go into storage. I was crying as I agreed because I felt they were holding my things hostage. In addition, their binding estimate claims, "...if shipper tenders more property or makes a change to the initial order for which they received an estimate...the remaining balance will be billed after the 30 day deferment."

When delivery day came I asked if the additional amount could be worked out later. They REFUSED to take our items off the truck even though we had the money to honor or original estimate. Asking for double the amount of what was expected AFTER the items were loaded is not only unreasonable, but it is against their own binding estimate. Since we did not have the additional money at delivery, we were berated by their staff, we were harassed, and called names. They drove away without telling us where our stuff was going and we had no idea if we would see it again. Their binding estimate says nothing about what would happen to our stuff. The next day we had to take out a loan to get our things back. Now we were told that the price went up to $2,150 and we would have to pick up our own things. They would not tell us where our things were until we deposited cash into their business bank account because they "didn't trust us". I was crying the entire time and was also yelled at for that. When we finally got the location of our things we were told by the carrier that they never got off the truck, even though we were told they were in storage and charged an additional $250 for storage. We had to rent a U-Haul and drive 2 hours to a truck stop. We then had to load our own things, bring them back to our place and unload our own things. Since their binding estimate does not say anything about having to pick up our own load after they refused delivery, they are in violation of their own binding estimate, which states, "This estimate includes the following services...Itemized inventory indicating condition at origin...Loading & unloading of all goods."

For these reasons, we feel the additional money ($2,150) paid to get our things should be refunded in full. We had to pay an additional $2,150 to pick up and load our own things. This service was not provided, and we should not be asked to pay for a service we did not receive. The response from the business states, "…for a refund we can't since the move was rendered in full." This is simply not true for the reasons listed above.