Rating:
, Posted by Ali on Feb 03, 2011
We decided to hire a moving company for a local household move on Feb 2nd 2011. We called around and looked at pricing. Lee at Father & Son Moving and Storage provided us with a competitive quote that we secured. I spoke to Lee a few different times before choosing their company. It was important to me he was clear on our package and what we would be charged and what could vary vs what would be a fixed cost. He repeated himself several times over multiple conversations what we would get: "4 men, 2 trucks, $142.30 per hour, 1 hour of travel fixed, minimum of 2 hours, no additional charges outside of the $142.30 per hour. This includes a 10% internet coupon discount. He said the job would be 8 hours or less and he said $1138.40 before tax would be the max charge for 8 hours. Additionally we wanted to choose the day-of if we would be moving our items to their storage with 2 months free... or moving directly to our new house. Additionally, we wanted to choose the day-of if we would add "packing" services if we had not completed the packing ourselves." Lee assured me we could decide these things when the moves arrived with no problem. We successfully packed all our items before they arrived so we only needed the loading and unloading. We also secured a new house and told them to move directly to the new home. I left with my two babies after they arrived. My husband remained at the home. At some point after they arrived, the head mover/director had a 5th man arrive. He asked my husband to "sign him in" with no mention of cost... or anything that would affect the set contract. My husband signed his initials to "sign him in". After all items were packed, they arrived at our new home. Before they unpacked, the head mover approached me and asked me to sign the contract and they could charge our credit card and they could unload the truck. I looked at his paper and saw $188/hr, 5 men, packing job, $100 for tape and stretch wrap, 1.5 hours of travel time, an 18% transportation surcharge of $270.72, FOR A GRAND TOTAL OF $1774. I told the head mover I could not sign this as this was not our agreed upon rate. He said he could not unload the truck until I signed it and my card was charged this total. I let him know I would just call Lee, and get him to straighten up the costs. Immediately the head mover was defensive and claimed he was "told this was a packing job" and that my husband "approved the 5th mover" . I let him know it was not his fault, I would simply clear up everything by calling Lee. Lee did not answer and I left him an urgent VM asking him to call so we could clear up the contract terms and so we could continue with the unload. He didn't call back. The head mover called his boss, a man named "William" who works at the Denver office. The mover had me speak with him. I let him know we just had a misunderstanding of the rates and he could speak with Lee to assure the right numbers. William was immediately angry and said the charges were correct and he would have my items sent to their warehouse if I didn't sign and pay. I reiterated my contract terms with Lee as described above. William told me Lee "didn't know what he was talking about" and they "never offer those terms". He said there was an email confirmation that was sent to me regarding the contract (which I never received) and that the "fine print" in this contract indicated he was correct. At this point I let him know I was upset the sales team and warehouse team didn't work together in a way that was cohesive and I needed to have my original rate I was quoted. William began to yell at me so loudly I had to pull the phone away from my ear he said "Put my movers on and I'm telling them to take your stuff and bring it to our warehouse PUT HIM ON". I asked him softly to please not yell in my ear and to please provide me with better customer service. He was still yelling and I couldn't understand what he was saying... I handed the phone back to the head mover. I was extremely upset and embarassed at this point. The head mover indicated that William had hung up on him. I said we needed to reslove this and the head mover said we needed "to wait a bit so William could calm down". Lee was still not answering my calls of VMs. I begged the movers to unpack our things and let us resolve the contract once Lee was available, but they refused to open the trucks until we signed/paid. After minutes kept passing, in defeat, my husband agreed to sign the document and pay with the understanding we could reslove this the right way today and be reimbursed. We were in a horrible situation with 2 small kids and all our things on these two trucks... which we were being threatened would be taken away as soon as we choose not to pay on their new terms. We didn't feel we had a choice but to sign so we could get our life back off their trucks. The contract was very messy, numbers had been written in... then written over and parts were barely ledgable. The move was completed and they left. Today I called Lee. He answered at around 9am. I let him know what had happened, what we were charged. He pulled up our order and confirmed we were only to be charged $142.30 per hour flat with 1 hour of travel ect ect as mentioned above. He confirmed that their rate was wrong. He apologized and said he would "make some calls" and to "give him an hour or two". I never heard back from him. I called again today at around 3pm and left a VM asking for an update and for him to call me either way. It is 830pm and I have had no calls.
We feel cheated and I feel verbally abused from the call with William. When they heard we wouldn't pay their new rates, they threatened to take our items away to their Denver warehouse. This threat was repeated several times.
We are now over budget by hundreds of dollars.
Quote or Order ID: 599144
Movers Cost: 142.00 USD
Packing Included in the price: Yes
Unpacking Included in the price: No
Packing materials included: Yes
Storage service included: Yes
Car transportation: No
Pet Moved: No
Origin pickup Country: USA
Origin pickup State: Colorado
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Picked up: Early
Destination drop off Country: USA
Destination drop off State: Colorado
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Delivery: Late
Primary contact person (Salesman): Lee
Secondary contact person: William
Dirty Items: No
Stolen Items: No
Damaged Items: No
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I called these movers after another moving company failed to show.. The gentlemen that arrived were not professional movers.. Just some guys off t... - read the full review