I. C. S United Shipping Inc. Mover fraud: low bid, loaded truck, raised price and held goods hostage Dania Florida

Hi!

I am here to tell you of a scam dating back to 1998. I was recently told by a friend that federal indictments had come down on mover scams in Florida. It is about time! When it happened to me I hit dead end after dead end and finally chalked it up to an expensive lesson. Of course I saved ALL my paperwork and files.

I received an estimate of $3500.00 after reciting an inventory list over the phone to I.C.S. United Shipping Inc. whose address on the Bill of Lading was 1200 Stirling Rd. Suite B, Dania, Florida 33004 (954-929-0177). Moving day came and they commenced packing up the truck. They never presented paperwork prior to starting. I had just come through a divorce and was alone at the time.

Through casual conversation early in the day they ascertained this. As the day progressed I noticed that they were putting one, two or three items and lots of packing material in each box. I began to get suspicious and requested that we go over the contract. I was told everything was ok and don't worry. The lead guy, (there were three), was in almost continuous contact via cell phone with someone and spoke in Hebrew which I do not understand.

They continued to pack, using exorbanent amounts of packing material and 18 wardrobe boxes! I am NOT a clothes horse....they used wardrobe boxes for individual lamps, etc. I continued to ask to review the contract and was bullied into silence. I was getting increasingly frightened.

Finally at about 2 or 3 in the afternoon after about 90% of the packing and loading had been done the lead guy finally agreed to review the contract. I was told that I had exceeded the truck space and that there was a lot more then I had told them over the phone. I was presented with a final bill of $11,054.30! I snapped and went ape sh-t on the guy and literally got physically in his face and told him to "f--king unload the truck right now" at the top of my lungs.

He did get flustered as my mild, polite manners had disappeared. I had offered these guys food and drink throughout the day and even bought them lunch!!!!! He got on the phone and spoke in Hebrew to someone. I was furious as my fear had sparked into anger. He said they could lower the bill to $9735.00 and that if I wanted the truck unloaded, (by now they had called a second truck because they had filled up the first with virtually empty boxes) it would cost me $3500.00. If I recall it was a Sunday. I made some excuse and drove off to contact help in private via my cell phone. I called my sister in Michigan and became hysterical in fear as I was alone with three huge men in my house who were basically robbing me.

At the time however I was not clear as I thought maybe they were right and I did have more stuff. This had now been going on for over seven hours. It was extremely stressful and I was not clear headed by this point in the day. She calmed me down and made some calls to friends and called me back as I sat on the shoulder of the road about a mile from my house sobbing. She said that the police probably could not do anything as I had signed a contract and that I should let them go, after copying all truck information down and pursue it with the Better Business Bureau in Miami on Monday. I did just that and proceeded to drive myself up to Michigan over the next three days to await my stuff in an empty apartment in Detroit. Of course a call on Monday to the Better Business Bureau was met with a recording stating that they were out of business.

About three weeks later I did get 98% of my stuff after paying over $9000.00 dollars. I used a Credit Union check which I promptly canceled. This was met by nasty phone calls and a letter from a Miami based Atty. working on behalf of United Shipping. The letter was hand typed and had numerous misspellings.

I was still distraught as I had spoken to my now deceased atty. who basically said there was nothing I could do as I had signed the contract. Any legal proceedings would have to be done in Florida and frankly I did not have the money at the time to pursue it.

I ended up paying the bill and chalking it up to a very unfortunate and traumatic incident. To this day I still have anxiety attacks when a relocation comes up. I am just now starting to pursue this case.

Nancy
leland, Michigan
U.S.A.