East Coast Van Lines ripoff Davie Florida

We had an estimate on Thursday, July 7, 2005. The estimate was done by Dan Janowitz. Dan claimed to be the owner's uncle and explained that your company was very professional. He told us that they do not sub-contract the jobs out to other companies and use all of thier own men. He also told us that all of our furniture would be pad-wrapped to prevent damage. He explained that they would be bringing 7 wardrobe boxes for clothing and shoes. The total cost of the move was $690.00.

He stated that there would be three men and one truck. About a week later we gave Dan a deposit of $100.00 for our move on Friday, July 29th, 2005. He told us that the movers would arrive between 8:30 and 9:30 am to begin the job. This was important to us since we were closing on the property that morning and the new owner needed to move in that afternoon. Dan assured us that this would not be a problem.

On the morning of July 29, 2005, the movers arrived at 12:15pm. They were about 3 hours late. There were not three men, instead only two, even though we did pay for three (this is listed on the contract). They did not arrive in an East Coast Van Lines truck and explained that the job was contracted to them. I believe the name on the Van was All Pro Van Lines. We were soon to find out that these guys were anything but All Pro. Before the job began, we reviewed the contract and I gave them my check number and credit card information to begin the job. We had all of our boxes in the living room to make things easier for them.

My father was also present during the move. The move was taking very long. The new owner was calling me waiting to move in. The buyer's realtor came over checking to see what was going on. After this, my family started helping them load the things onto the truck. The truck was finally full and not everything fit on the truck. We would have to come back for some things. Part of the reason everything did not fit was that the packing of the truck was terrible.

They were not pad-wrapping our furniture and things were getting damaged and scratched. They were even dragging some of our furniture on the ground instead of lifting it. Since there were no wardrobe boxes as promised, we had to carry all of our clothing down to our cars to move it. We called Dan's cell phone and he did answer (one time), we explained what was going on and he said he would contact the moving men. The men did not ever hear from Dan and said they did not even know who he was.

Then, after the truck was full one of the men, Frank Marin, said that he had a family emergency. I am not sure if this was true, but if so, you think that they would send another mover to help finish the job. This man wanted to take the truck with all of our belongings in it to Miami, supposedly to see his sick daughter in the hospital. We have heard horror stories about movers and did not want our things going to Miami, maybe never to be seen again.

We called Dan several times and he would not pick up his cell phone anymore. He then turned the cell phone off and it was going straight to voice mail. We could not get in touch with him at all. Bill even offered to drive Frank to the hospital to see his daughter. He did not take us up on that offer. He said he would finish the job. So, we started over to the new house. They proceeded to stop at McDonalds for food. Then we followed them to the house. That is when they did not want to unload the truck and wanted to leave. We had to call the Sheriff's department. The Sheriff's said that if they were going to leave the truck locked up at the new residence, then that would be ok. But we still needed to get the rest of our things out of the old house so that the new owner could move in.

Finally, Frank agreed to unload part of the truck to go get the rest of our things. We went back to the old house and a girl showed up in a car. Both of the men were in the car talking to the girl for a very long time, while we moved furniture. Finally, they helped finish loading and we went back to the new house to unload, or so we thought. When we got to our new place they refused to unload the truck. We called East Coast Van Lines and talked to Allen who said he was a manager and that he would not get involved. When we said that we would be filing a complaint, Allen threatened to sue us for defamation of character.

The men locked the truck and went home with the girl in the car. They said that they would be back at 9:00 the next morning, Saturday, July 30th. Frank also informed us that because of all the problems, we needed to pay in cash the next day.

The next day came and we waited and waited for the movers to show. Finally at 12 noon, they arrived, again 3 hours late. They quickly unloaded the truck and we paid cash before the truck was empty, like they required us to. I had Frank sign on every page of the contract that we did pay the balance of $590.00 in cash.

I have never seen such unprofessional people. This move was an absolute nightmare. We have many pieces of furniture that were damaged. We have headboard that has a chunk out of it, a scratched aquarium stand, a broken desk drawer, a ripped sofa, a damaged dresser, a scratched coffee table, a scratched desk, a television with a chuck out of the top and a scratched dining room table. The coffee table was so damaged and scratched that we had to replace it. I have included the invoice. I have also included pictures of the damaged items. I do not have pictures of the coffee table since at the time I did not think about it and threw it away.

We have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I have never seen such an unprofessional company. We paid your company so we would not have to move things ourselves. We both ended up moving things out to the truck along with my father. We even moved things in our cars. I wish that we had never hired this company and I would never recommend this company to anyone. The truck was not unloaded the same day as promised, there were two men when we paid for three, we helped move things, there were not wardrobe boxes as promised, and we have several damaged items.

Heather
West Palm Beach, Florida
U.S.A.