Moving Company Ripp-Offs (Atlanta: apartment, insurance, movers)

[bayarea-girl]

I'm having a horrible experience with my moving company. They gave me a quote for $1700 and now want an additional $2000 to move me. Of the $2000 additional came up after they loaded my things on their truck and took off.

Everything is based on weight and I was quoted $.60 per pound. Most of what we are taking is clothes and the children's furniture all which I know doesn't come up to 4000+ lbs. When I told them I need to see what they are weighing their customer service rep said that he could fax me some BS weight sheet (which of course they can write whatever they want).

I'm sure others have gone through this. What do I do?

Thank goodness I paid everything with my credit card. As they wanted cash for everything (even told me I'd have to pay additional fees for them to process a credit card payment).

I'm cheap and was looking for the best deal out there. But it looks like it'll cost me.

People hiring movers please be careful.

[BobKovacs]

Yup- gotta love movers. I've yet to ever hear of a moving company's estimate of weight not being off by several thousand pounds when the truck was finally loaded. I estimate for a living- though for commercial construction, not for moving companies- if my estimates were consistently off by the crazy amounts that these moving company estimates are, I'd be out of a job.......

[ready2move]

that sux...we had a wonderful experience with ours. I had done lots of research using movingscams.com. We did not get the insurance and we told our driver that if everything was agreed upon and nothing broken or lost that we would give him that money. He got that and then some...

[Merin]

Gosh I am sorry to hear that. It cost about 2k for us to move from Dc to Atlanta. We used Two Men and a Truck to move from our Temp Apartment into our house.

[LovinDecatur]

Originally Posted by Merin

Gosh I am sorry to hear that. It cost about 2k for us to move from Dc to Atlanta. We used Two Men and a Truck to move from our Temp Apartment into our house.

My last move was through them and I was very pleased with their service.

[ffej]

FWIW, I had quotes from three different companies (Mayflower, North American and United) for a modest size move from L.A. to ATL and was quoted $6,000 to $6,700 (binding). Estimates ranged from 6,600# to 8,400#.

To be honest, I don't know how any moving company could expect to move furnishings cross-country for the original $1,700 you were quoted. That low price should've been a red flag IMO.

Good luck!

[goozer]

Originally Posted by ffej

FWIW, I had quotes from three different companies (Mayflower, North American and United) for a modest size move from L.A. to ATL and was quoted $6,000 to $6,700 (binding). Estimates ranged from 6,600# to 8,400#.

To be honest, I don't know how any moving company could expect to move furnishings cross-country for the original $1,700 you were quoted. That low price should've been a red flag IMO.

Good luck!

Good points. I have dealt with several moving companies in my life and I have ALWAYS had a better experience with the more reputable national comapnies (such as those three companies listed above). Typically, the less reputable movers will draw you in with a low quote and then try to get you on the back end. Not saying all smaller companies are disreputable, but it can be harder to distinguish the ones that are.

[gsfan]

[quote=bayarea-girl;4292947]

Everything is based on weight and I was quoted $.60 per pound.

I do believe the above figure of .06 per pound has to do with insurance.

[RainyRainyDay]

I've moved long distances a few times (most recently from the Canadian northwest to Atlanta - at employer's expense, luckily) and I agree with ffej and goozer. You always need to get three quotes, and the varying weight estimates can be informative too. I think smaller companies can be OK, but it's important to be careful.

Our move to Atlanta was a big-company move with Alllied Van Lines, but we had water damage to some of our stuff. Some appliance service people were sent to our house to prep our washer and dryer for the move. Somebody else whose load was in the same van did not have their washer properly drained, and that was allegedly the source of the water. There's no way to guarantee you want have this kind of problem. At least the damage was covered by insurance.

[BDevil07]

It is my understanding that the laws governing the moving companies when you cross state lines are not very strong. As a result, shady moving companies often give you a low quote, leave with all your stuff, then ask for more money. This is apparently a common practice for out of state moves and a reason why you should only go with the big name moving companies who care about maintaining a reputation.

Since they have your belongings and you do not know where they are located, you don't have much of a choice but to pay them. My college professor told our class about his experience (very similar) back before I graduated as a warning. He sued the moving company sucessfully and got his stuff back....but had to wait a few weeks and pay a lawyer. Hope it all works out.