Ocean Moving and Storage AKA Scam Company AKA Worse Company AKA Scammers Besides threatening me the whole time for more money they also damaged and destroyed $10,000+ in personal items! Mandeville Louisiana

Ocean Moving and Storage:

On November 27th of 2019, I hired “First National Van Lines” to move my belonging from my condo in Norfolk, Virginia 23503 to a house in Mandeville, Louisiana 70448. I was quoted $2,600 and given an estimated delivery date of December 4th-5th of 2019 by a higher up in the company named Joshua Wiley and contact made mainly by his cellphone which was (929)209-7886 and a company number of (800)597-9826 ext. 1026.

When all was agreed upon, discussed and contact signed by both parties. That night on November 27th of 2019, I paid a deposit of $900 for the reservation, then agreed on paying $860 by check upon pickup and $860 by cashiers check on delivery.

Also agreed upon and was included in the price was 2 extra large TV moving boxes, minimal packaging material and insurance of $250,000 included for all of my belongings. Joshua gave me a USDOT number of 3091420 for the truck that was “supposedly” picking up and hauling my belongings. Joshua and I both signed a legal contract on November 27th of 2019 for “First National Van Lines” to haul all my belongings to and from agreed locations, which I have a copy of the contract signed via eFile.

Now with that being said, the company that showed up at my condo in Norfolk, Virginia was “Ocean Moving and Storage”. I was not made aware that a completely different company was moving and hauling my belongings.

I asked the drivers about this and they began to convince me that “This is First National Van Lines, that the company’s old name was previously Ocean Moving and Storage. We just still use the old contracts.” Extremely suspicious! Come to find out these 2 delivery drivers completely and deliberately lie to me!

I was not able to verify this information at that point because it was 11pm the night before Thanksgiving Day. However, the drivers “claimed” that they called there boss and everything was fine. Right before the delivery drivers loaded up anything, they demanded we now pay them $4,300 in delivery charges and we owed half of that now.

First off that is almost Double the original quote for the same items and locations that I agreed to and signed a contract for. I was very upfront and I told “First National Van Lines” everything I was moving with the company.

On top of that, the drivers said we could only pay that amount in cash or money order, when I was told specifically that I could pay with a check. Being almost midnight, the night before Thanksgiving Day, no one was open to get any type of money order or cashiers check. Skeptical about this, I was forced to give them cash so they would load up my belongings!

After hours of going back and forth, we finally settled on $850 because that was half the original quote. They said we could deal with the issue when the company reopened for business on Friday November 29th of 2019.

On top of going back and forth about the price, we were also Forced to leave 25% of our belonging behind because the drivers said it was too much to haul with the amount we were paying. Which was completely ridiculous!

These items were agreed to be shipped and were included in the quote and contract by “First National Van Lines”. The items left behind included: my less than 6 month old large barrel barbecue grill, new large deep freezer, 1 large tool box with lots of miscellaneous tools, child’s twin bed and bed frame, small baby toys and other small baby items, 1 smaller book shelf, 3 smaller bathroom racks, all my dog food, dog supplies and dog toys and several other small pet items. I was living in a smaller, 3 bedroom condo that was not even close to being fully furnished. The furniture and items we had we no way near the average household. 

I have pictures of the moving truck that came to our condo, it was rented from “Enterprise Truck Rental” and was not a company truck. The USDOT number is 2177599 and the License Plate is state: Florida AEZ-V37 with an almost expired brake tag of 12/19. The drivers did not finish loading up everything until 2:30am - 3:00am on November 28th of 2019. 

From November 28th of 2019 to December 9th of 2019, I was not able to get ahold of anyone from “First National Van Lines” nor “Ocean Moving and Storage”. I tried several numbers for both companies from the ones on the contracts I signed to numbers I found online for both companies. At this point, I was thinking all of my belongings were stolen.

After beyond numerous attempts to contact both companies with no answers or any contact back, I got my attorney involved and contacted my local police department. After 12 days of not hearing anything on where our belongings were, a random phone call from a Broward County, Florida number of (954)274-2219 calls demanding more money for my personal belongings.

Then threatens to have the drivers turn around and drop off all my belongings in front of my previously owned condo back in Norfolk, Virginia. Again I was forced to agree with these extra charges but with the understanding that my belongings were to arrive 100% safe and to be delivered between December 3rd and December 4th of 2019.

I was then again forced to pay this strange man named “Itai” who “said” he was employed with “Ocean Moving and Storage” now an extra $850 via “Zelle” a payment application on my phone to continuing to haul my belongings to my new house.

“Itai” specifically said via text message, to deposit the money directly into “MY account at Chase Bank”. I immediately asked if this was a company account, he said yes. I paid him the $850 on the morning of December 9th of 2019.

Now on at 7pm on Friday December 13th of 2019, now 9 - 10 days passed the final agreed arrival date, the delivery driver calls to deliver my belongings. If everything that has happened so far was not horrible enough, we had issues with them delivering our belongings to our physical house. We live in a subdivision, in a suburban area with a very assessable street and wide driveway.

The delivery driver said “he can not fit the 18-wheeler down our street and they would have to park somewhere else and shuttle all my belongings.” By the way, with that being said I saw a 18-wheeler moving truck pulling out of my street a few days later. So they said it was be an extra $400-$600 for them to rent a uHaul truck and shuttle everything back and forth.

With us already out $2,600 we declined them renting a uHaul truck because the price we are paying included them delivering everything to my physical house and the delivery driver said that the only other option was that we would have to use my personal truck to shuttle everything back and forth.

After finding a place for the 18-wheeler to park, I then had to pay another $860 by cashiers check before they would even open the truck’s doors for me to see the condition my belongings were in. If this wasn’t even more of a nightmare, the delivery driver said that he was not helping us at all with unloading and loading our belongings into our house and that we had to move everything out with my personal truck and into my house with absolutely no help from the delivery driver.

Not only did I hire a company to haul my belongings but I also hired them to load up and unload my belongings into my house. “First National Van Lines” was very specific when I was told that the amount I was paying was for loading up my belongings, hauling to the physical destination, then the delivery drivers unloading and moving everything into my house then whenever it needed to be placed.

Again, if this was not already bad enough, the delivery driver and a man riding with him, who would not identify himself, proceed to unloaded ALL of my belongings onto the side of the road where there was a cutout into the woods where uHaul stores extra small box trucks and small trailers.

The address of where they dumped my belongings is 1235 Florida st also called Highway 190 in Mandeville, Louisiana 70448. Which is 4 miles and a 12 min drive for 1 load back and forth. Seeing the location of where they parked, they still processed to unloaded ALL my belongings into the mud and then just took off right after dumping everything on the side of the road at 10-10:30pm at night when it was very foggy outside and it had rained a lot earlier that day. (I have pictures, with time stamps, of where they unloaded everything, how they unloaded, treated and stacked my belongings and also how damaged and destroyed my belongings were too.)

I have a 2014 Ford F-150 4 door with a standard size bed, which isn’t that big when it comes to making large loads, so since the delivery drivers Refused to help unload all my belongings and repeatedly tried leaving as fast as they can, I was again Forced to deal with the end result.

Before the driver took off, I was able to haul a few loads to my house when I discovered how badly they treated all my belongings and that several very expensive items were already damaged and broken. I asked the delivery driver what he was going to do about it and all he did was write down the items, that was discovered at that time, on the back of his copy of the contract.

He fully understood that these items were damaged beyond repair and/or use. Then told me, oh well sorry but you’ll have to file a claim with the company the upcoming week and the company will take it from there. Nothing else can be done for all of the damaged, broken and destroyed items of yours.

I had to make 12-13 loads back and forth, burned 56 gallons of gas and it took my wife, my 17 year old brother and my mother until 3-3:30am to get all of the belongings documented, loaded and unloaded, then hauled into our new house and out of the mud pile they were thrown into. 

Not only were my belongings treated way beyond disrespectful, my personal items valuing well over $8,000+ were mishandled and trashed, covered in debris, dirt and mud, damaged and/or destroyed! These items include but is not all of the items: A 2019 Samsung 75” LED QLED 4K UHD Smart TV completely shattered and destroyed, which is valued at $2,700.

A 2019 Ashley Furniture Coahoma 7- Piece Leather Reclining Sectional ripped, torn and damaged, which is valued at $2,800. An 8 month old Simmons Kids Slumbertime Convertible Crib was completely damaged and destroyed, now is completely unsafe for an infant to sleep in, which is valued at $350+. A less than 1 year old Kid Craft Large Wrap-Around Play Kitchen completely destroyed, which is valued at $220.

A 2019 BeautyRest Luxury MemoryFoam Kind size Mattress, was delivered nasty, filthy, ripped and torn, smells musty and thrown on the ground and into the mud when delivered, which is valued at $3,900+. Plus the mattress was not properly wrapped like previously agreed upon and for this exact reason!

Also missing the detachable legs/feet and the plug-in motor for the adjustable base for the mattress, which is valued at $700+. Another major issue was, we found that 1 box that was labeled “Ammo” by me was obviously opened during the time it was in the possession of the moving company and my ammo was stolen out of it.

The ammo that was stolen was: 4 large boxes/cans of 5.56mm AR15 ammo, 3 boxes of .22 ammo and 4 boxes of 12 gage slugs, which is estimated to be about $1,200+ in value. All that was left in the box was 3 boxes of 40 caliber pistol ammo.

Along with over 75% of the boxes shipped, which were 21 Large boxes, were damaged, torn, retapped, thrown upside down, busted wide open and completely crushed. All of which was tossed on the side of the road and into the mud, where it had rained hard earlier that day!

Now with this absolutely nightmare moving experience with these 2 companies, I am out $3,450 in delivery charges, $10,700+ in damaged and destroyed items with that just being the main expensive items, not all the lower valued items, $1,000+ in stolen items and $3,000+ in items that were forced to be left behind by the first delivery drivers. 

The way my personal belongings were handled and treated is beyond disgusting, inconsiderate and completely unprofessional! I am absolutely blown away at my whole experience! Now at this point, I signed a legal contract with “First National Van Lines” to move and haul my belongings for a price of $2,600.

The first agreed delivery was scheduled for December 4th - 5th of 2019. Then another company shows up with a completely different contract, without me being contacted, informed nor having any knowledge of what was going on and then being LIED to about who the company actually was.

The company that shows up then was aggressively attempting to way over charges me, well over the first estimated price, every single step of the way! Plus being forced to leave personal items behind because the delivery drivers “did not feel” like these items were worth hauling for the amount that I was paying.

I was also forced to give the drivers cash, instead of check or debit/credit card for part of the payment which was not the agreement and “Ocean Moving and Storage” LIES to me again about never receiving that money! Along with the company(s) being completely unreachable for almost 2 weeks and arriving way passed original agreed time frame.

Then randomly being contacted by a man wanting more money and proceeds to threaten me with dropping my belongings back off at my previous location because I was not agreeing to pay even MORE money! The calls and text messages exchanged with the very suspicious man “claiming to be with the company” starts making uncalled for demands and contact was not always during business hours and were sometimes later in the evening which is a red flag all together.

On top of, the delivery drivers not delivering my belongings to my house, instead they leave everything on the side of the road in MUD and being told “oh well sorry you have to move it yourself or you pay us a lot MORE money” for something that was suppose to be included. End result is after paying thousands of dollars, being over charged, threatened with my belongings multiple times, most of my belongings are now damaged, destroyed, broken, thrown in mud and some stolen.

I still to this day, do not understand why companies were switched plus without my knowledge and all my property completely mistreated is Completely uncalled for and unprofessional, to say the very least! 

Yes, I have documented proof of everything I am talking about! I am beyond blown away with this company and how absolutely horrible my experience was with them!