Major rip off - Moving Review

Due to circumstances beyond my control I was forced to relocate from NY to Florida. While searching for a moving company I came across Royal Relocation Systems located in Brooklyn NY. I investigated them through the Better Business web site and found they were in good standings and had no bad reports, or so I thought. I had a man who represented himself as the company treasure come to my home to do a binding estimate for me. After he arrived he asked me what was in my budget for my move. I explained to him that I had recently become unemployed and my son in Florida was ill and that I only had $1500.00 to work with. I also told him I was considering renting a large U-haul and doing the move myself if the cost was to high any other way. At that point he began going from room to room, opening closets ect, and creating his list. Once he was finished we sat down and he said, well I do believe we can be of service to you and fit nicely within your budget. He handed me a binding estimate for $1501.00 He was a very kind and seemingly sincere gentleman. After he left I took out all the other estimates I received, evaluated them and made my decision to hire Royal Relocation Systems. The day of the move began with a man knocking at my door and informing me he was from Royal and that we needed to do some paperwork prior to them actually loading the truck, but assured me it was strictly a formality. He placed many pages of paperwork in front of me and asked me to sign them. Now this paper work was completely blank at the time, however he told me that it was the same paperwork I had already signed with the sales man it was just going to be their copy and that they would fill it out as the move progressed. It was to consist of lists of my belongings ect. Any way after the truck was completely loaded and my car was packed and I was ready to vacate the premises, the foreman presented me with a bill that now was over double what my binding estimate was. I asked him about it and he replied that he had nothing to do with the money aspect and I would have to speak with my salesman (Paul). If he gave me a specific price then he was sure it would be honored. Well needless to say Paul was nowhere to be found and 4 days later he finally returned my call while I was in route to Florida. After going back and forth with him for weeks about all this I was finally told if I did not come up with the additional $1700.00 I would not be seeing my belongings. So at that point what choice did I have. I had contacted the company directly and never got any phone calls back and the only person that would ever talk to me was this salesman, Paul. Not only did they threaten to hold my belongings hostage, when my things did arrive several items were broken and some things had been missing. Again I called the company to file a loss on their insurance and never heard a thing back from them. This whole experience was a complete nightmare not to mention a huge financial burden that will take me months to recover from. Beware, do not ever use them and warn your friends.

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