Eilid Moving & Storage - On-line Moving Consumer rip-off fraud

**See the link at the end of this report to other Rip-off Reports on Eilid Moving & Storage.

This was our 4th move in the past 6 years and we have had approximately the same possessions during that time. The other moves were all done with national movers and we had no problems.

On February 12, 2001, a representative from Eilid Moving & Storage, Inc., 130-11 Atlantic Avenue, Richmond Hill, NY 11418, Anthony Garfel, came to our home in Cedarhurst, NY to give us an estimate for our move to Jupiter, Florida.

Mr. Garfel walked through our home, accompanied by my husband, and he had an opportunity to see everything we planned to move, including the garage and basement items. Mr. Garfel gave us a written Binding Estimate of Cost totaling $4,808 which was broken down as follows:

- 1,714 cubic feet at $2.50 per cubic foot ($4,285)
- labor to pack: 4 people for 7 hours at $89 per man hour ($623)
- less $100 off coupon.
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Ironically, the coupon specifically says, NO HIDDEN COSTS, EXTRAS, SURPRISES!

After Mr. Garfel's visit, Amy of Eilid Moving called and quoted a price of $3,856 plus packing costs. Based on this estimate, we contracted with Eilid to move us on April 17th, 2001.

Contrary to our previous moves, they were going to pack and load us on the same day. Instead of four people at $89 per man-hour, they charged us for five people at $109 per man-hour. However, instead of charging us just for the packing time, the labor charge included packing and loading the truck (8 hours).

They arrived at our home with a truck, not a long distance moving van. They loaded this truck, took it back to their warehouse and returned with another truck which they also loaded.

At 5:30pm when they were finished loading the second truck, the lead person, Danny, sat down to complete the balance of the paperwork. There was a flat charge of $1,160 for packing materials with no detail whatsoever. Considering they used only our boxes, this seems like an exorbitant amount and we would like to know what it covers.

He then informed us that we had an additional 1,486 cubic feet and the total for the move was now $10,032! We spoke with Amy, at Eilid, who insisted that we violated the Binding Estimate of Cost and the only thing she could do was subtract the labor charge. Because they already had half of our possessions in their warehouse, we put the balance of $9,160 on a credit card. Danny then had the unmitigated gall to ask us for a tip for the crew!

We were originally told that our possessions would be delivered to us in Florida in 3-5 days. We arrived in Jupiter on Friday, April 20th. We called Amy at about 3pm and were told that she was gone for the day and no one else had any information about our delivery. We called again on Saturday, April 21st and were again told that Amy was off and no one else could give us any information. We had almost daily conversations with Amy after that, during which she informed us that the van had broken down in North Carolina and they were waiting for a part to be delivered from overseas to repair it.

The van actually arrived at our home on Sunday, April 29th at 3:30pm. The driver told us the van had been in New Jersey and he was flown from Miami on Thursday, April 26th to New Jersey to drive the van to Florida. We waited for two other men to arrive from Miami (a 2 hour drive!) and they began unloading our possessions at 5:30pm.

I checked off each item as it was brought into the house. Virtually every item on the inventory was described as box. This included pieces of furniture, lamps, etc. In many cases, the sticker with the inventory number had fallen off the items so identification was not possible.

At one point, the driver asked me to come out to the van to be sure all of our possessions were removed since there were other people's belongings on the truck as well. He proceeded to toss items around the van to move them out of his way. Our exercise equipment was practically dropped from the height of the van to get them to the ground. The space our possessions occupied in the moving van was less than the length of one of the smaller trucks that took our belongings to the company's warehouse.

The three men finished unloading the van at 10:30pm. They again asked for a tip and began arguing when they were refused.

We paid the part of the credit card bill that we felt we actually owed, but put the balance in dispute with the credit card company. The credit card company is unable to do anything since we signed all the documents. I have filed a complaint with the DOT and am currently awaiting their response.