Team USA Moving Did not show up, will not refund deposit after cancelation Fort Lauderdale Florida

I scheduled a move through Team USA Moving (based out of Fort Lauderdale, FL) in the middle of July for a move from Indianapolis, IN to the Boston, MA area at the end of July. We agreed to a pick up date window of either Saturday July 29th or Sunday July 30th. I paid a deposit of over $750 dollars and agreed to pay the rest after the move was completed.

Team USA then subcontracted out our contract to a moving company (Modern Moving out of Michigan). The week before our move, I called Modern Moving to find the exact pickup date and was able to talk to the dispatcher. The dispatcher asked if they could pick up our load earlier as they had a pickup scheduled in Iowa and then would pick up our load. I said, no, we can't be picked up earlier than our agreed window.

As late as the Thursday before our move, I was told the movers would be there on Saturday and they would call Friday to let us know what time they would be there. I had not heard anything by Friday afternoon, so I called Modern Moving and they informed me that the driver had to make a couple stops in Illinois (which were made after I was originally told Saturday) and will now be there Sunday. This was OK as it was still in the agreed upon window. They told me the driver would call sometime Saturday to let me know the exact time of pickup.

On Saturday, the driver never called and I could reach neither the moving company nor Team USA Moving to get a time which they would show up. On Sunday, the last day of the agreed pickup date, the driver called (this was the first time I talked to him), said he was running a little late' and couldn't be there until Tuesday. I said this was unacceptable as we agreed to a pickup date of Saturday or Sunday. The driver said his truck was filled and they could not get there until Tuesday. I asked for his manager's name and number, but the driver would not tell me and said he'd talk to him and have him call me. This was my last conversation with anyone from the moving company.

He never called. I tried to call the number I had for Modern Moving's dispatcher and Team USA but could not reach anyone. After about an hour and a half, I called the driver back. He still said it was going to be Tuesday and there was nothing I could do. I again asked for his manager's number, but then the phone mysteriously cut out. I tried to call back, but for the rest of the day there was no answer when I called.

At this point I emailed my contact at Team USA and told him I considered the contract void and we expected to be compensated for the violation of the agreed upon date. I also stated our lease with our apartment complex was over on Monday so a Tuesday pickup would not work and was unacceptable. While I wanted some type of compensation, I was willing to accept a pickup on Monday.

Monday morning, I first tried to recall the driver. He answered this time, but as soon as he realized it was me, the call was lost' again and I could not get a hold of him again. I then called Team USA who expressed shock that the driver did not show up. I was told Team USA would call the mover, find out what happened, would try to find a way to pick us up that day and would call us back with details. I asked about compensation for the delay, but was told they could not guarantee anything and would not give me a number for the compensation.

I was never called back, so I called back Team USA. At this point I was told they could not get a truck that day (it was afternoon by this point) and they truck could only get there Tuesday. I expressed my frustration and said the only way Tuesday would work was if it was Tuesday morning as we still needed to clean the apartment without anything in it, so afternoon Tuesday would push us back another day (incurring addition charges from our apartment complex and an additional hotel cancellation fee). Team USA told us they would contact the moving company and have the driver call us.

After an hour or two of not hearing from the driver, I called Team USA back to see if they talked to the moving company about when they were coming. Team USA told us they would be there Tuesday before noon. I said that could work, but I still wanted to talk to the driver or at least the dispatcher of the moving company to confirm this. Team USA said that was no problem and would have the driver call us. I said OK, but stressed we needed it before noon and asked if they guaranteed the pickup before noon. Team USA then specifically guaranteed us (using the actual word guarantee') our load would be picked up Tuesday before noon and the driver will call to confirm this.

After still not hearing from anyone from the moving company, my wife and I decided to look into other arrangements. Previously, we did not believe it would be possible to arrange a move in a day so we felt stuck with Team USA and helpless to do anything else, but we started to look into our options. We came up with the idea to rent a U-Haul and hire local movers both in Indianapolis and Boston. While this option would cost more and be much more difficult, we felt Team USA was no longer trustworthy so we wanted to find a backup plan. We also knew they had over $750 of our deposit and would not refund it to us easily.

According to the contract, to receive our deposit back we had to cancel within five days from our pickup date. While this window had passed, we felt (and a lawyer has subsequently agreed with us) that since they missed our pickup date, they violated the cancellation policy, so we were free to cancel at anytime.

After 5:00 PM on Monday, we still had not heard back from the driver so we again called Team USA Moving. We told them we wanted the driver to call us back ASAP to verify the Tuesday morning pickup or we would cancel the job. Team USA told us they would get the driver to call us. In about twenty minutes, the driver (who did not call at all the entire day) finally called us. He told us he had to pick up a 10,000 pound load in Kentucky then he would head up to Indianapolis, sometime in the afternoon. Our load was just 2,500 pounds and that took over two hours to load. There is no place in Kentucky within 2.5 hours of Indianapolis (most places are more like four hours), so we calculated there was no way they could get to our apartment before 3:00 PM on Tuesday and that was assuming everything would run perfectly (which was a terrible assumption at this point).

So at this point, Team USA could not pick up our load in the agreed upon pick up window and now could not even get there Tuesday before noon as they guaranteed. We decided at this point we had no choice to but to cancel our job and fight for our deposit. I called Team USA and told them the driver could not get here before noon on Tuesday. Team USA said they saw no difference between Tuesday before noon and sometime Tuesday afternoon after picking up a 10,000 pound load Tuesday morning in Kentucky.' I told them, there was a big difference to us, said I wanted to cancel our contract, and told them I expected a full refund of our deposit.

The representative of Team USA said we would get no refund because we canceled within our pickup window. I told them they had already missed our pickup window, so we were not bound by the cancellation portion of the contract. She disagreed and told me the dispatch manager (Chad) would call us the next day.

Chad never called, so we started to call him. It took a long time for him to accept our call, but we did finally contact him. He, very rudely and smugly, told us we were stuck and would not get our deposit back. He said we canceled in our pickup window and did not give them the opportunity to compensate us for being late. I informed him his company could not tell us what they would compensate us and our pickup window had passed as they did not show up on Saturday or Sunday and could not even get us picked up on Monday or even when they guaranteed a Tuesday morning pickup.

He then said we agreed over the phone to a pickup date of either Tuesday or Wednesday and an employee of his would never guarantee anytime for pickup. I said, first of all, Wednesday was never mentioned once. Also, I didn't consider being told Tuesday an agreement. I could never get the moving company to tell me personally it would be Tuesday morning and never trusted Team USA's claim of Tuesday morning, so it was nothing I technically agreed to. But all that was beside the point because the cancellation policy, as agreed to in the contract, was based on the five days prior to the pick up date and this was voided when they did not show up. I said, and he agreed, I never received any service from Team USA so all that was in play here was the cancellation policy.

In further conversations with Chad and his manager (Mark Morin), their reasons for not refunding my deposit kept changing. At one point Chad said they incurred costs of dealing with our phone conversations. I told him that the only time I took up his representatives' time was Monday, the day after our scheduled move and this point was never brought up again.

Another occasion Chad told me they were charged by the moving company for our late cancellation. I asked him why would they accept a charge from Modern Moving when their overloading their truck caused all this in the first place? He said the driver coming on Tuesday was with a different company, so they were the ones that charged Team USA. When I pointed out that the original driver from Modern Moving mentioned they could come Tuesday, I continually tried (unsuccessfully) to call Modern Moving all day Monday to confirm the pick up, that his employee knew I was calling and never informed me they switched; Chad never mentioned this charge again.

Also in my conversations with Chad he called me a liar and told me to man up' and admit I agreed to a Tuesday or Wednesday pickup. When I mentioned I sent an email Sunday after talking to the driver which stated Tuesday was too late so why would I agree to Wednesday, this was never mentioned again. During other conversations, I told I was really annoying and, when my wife was getting upset in the background, was told to handle her.'

When I first talked to Mark Morin, Chad's manager, I asked him if he knew of my situation about my deposit. Mark told me yes, that the driver showed up to my door' in Indianapolis and I refused service. That one actually made me laugh and told him, no, That wasn't the case at all. After checking with his staff after that, he changed his story and went back to the line about canceling in my window.

He also said they could have got a truck to me before noon on Tuesday, but I didn't give them a chance. He said they work with over 120 movers, so they could have found someone to pick us up. After they couldn't get one to us on Monday and we were told we would have to accept a pickup on Tuesday afternoon right before I canceled, I questioned that claim. I then asked if, after they didn't show up on Sunday, if there was a time I could have canceled and received my refund.

He said absolutely', I could have canceled Tuesday if they didn't show up and to be more patient' next time. Following that logic, I could have canceled Sunday when they didn't show up, but I could not talk to anyone because they were out of the office and I actually did cancel the following day. Basically, I have now been told I canceled too early and too late to get my deposit.

Mark offered me $100 back and I told him that was not unacceptable. I have contacted a lawyer to sue for my full deposit back and, in addition, the damages incurred to myself as a result of Team USA moving. All I really want back is my deposit (for which I received no service) without having to file a lawsuit and any assistance I could get would be appreciative.

Nathan
Allston, Massachusetts
U.S.A.

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