21 Jun 2022 · MoveAdvisor
1.0 out of 51.0
I paid a deposit of $975.25 to the broker. Later, a few days before the items were supposed to be picked up by the movers, the broker called me and said that the movers would be delayed a week in picking up the items. I said I wanted to cancel and get my deposit back. The broker said that there were no refunds, except that the deposit can be used for future moves. The broker forced me under duress to sign a new binding estimate with the new dates. So, if I did sign, I would be signing something I did not want to agree to. And if I refused to sign, my items would not be transported and I would lose my deposit.
As of the most recent binding estimate, the cost was supposed to be $2,732.60 according to the broker.
It should be noted that we told the brokers everything we were having transported. I expressed concern to the broker that I did not measure all the boxes and that perhaps the box size on the estimate is not big enough, and the broker said it was fine and that they added a buffer. The binding estimate also had almost double the boxes we were actually transporting, so that was also a buffer. The only extra item we transported which was not on the binding estimate was a table top 36x24x1.5 inches, and I instructed my mother to not transport the table top if it would result in greater cost. To conclude, I made sure that everything being transported (except the table) was accounted for.
When the movers came to pick up the things, I was already gone and my mother was the one interacting with the movers. The movers did not give her the "Your Rights and Responsibilities" document nor an arbitration policy. When the movers came, they loaded everything onto the truck. AFTER the truck was loaded, they said the charges would be over $4,000. We told them that was not what the binding estimate said, and the guy called his boss and lowered the price. The total moving price ended up being $3,200. They illegally had my mother sign a revised binding estimate AFTER the truck was loaded. The movers talked to my father on the phone, and my father told them to unload the truck immediately. My father says the movers hung up on him.
When the items were delivered and unpacked, I found that they put the boxes into larger boxes. Some boxes had a substantial amount of empty space in them.
Other notes:
The mover's documents do not have a definite date or date range for delivery. Rather, it just says "1st date available for delivery." This date is also not on the bill of lading.
It should be noted that the DOT number and company name on the bill of lading given by the movers is different from the DOT number and company name on the truck driven by the movers (which is also all separate from the broker's paperwork).
According to the DOT number on the truck (3321368), the carrier which was hired by Southern Guarantee is not authorized to operate according to https://safer.fmcsa.dot.gov/CompanySnapshot.aspx (but they may have been authorized when the move took place not long ago).
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