Pure Moving Systems LLC Ripped Off by Mission Hills CA California

I hired Pure Moving Systems thinking it was the highly reviewed, 5-star company, Pure Moving.  I had a binding quote for 21 boxes but at the time I didn't know binding meant they can't charge more when they arrive. However, after loading all of my property on their truck they told me that not only would it cost more but that I needed to pay by check, even though my deposit was paid through credit card.   

Here's the whole story. 

I thought I had done my due diligence, I read up on moving scams and bad reviews and finally settled on hiring Pure Moving Company because they had five stars and hundreds of amazing reviews.  However, when I went to their site to call them, I ended up on Pure Moving Systems.  Not realizing my error I thought I was placing an order with a highly reputable company.  I was shocked when they showed up looking very tough with a rented truck and tried all the scams I had read had happened to other people. I told my daughter to stay in the room and do not come out under any circumstances and to be ready to call 911, that's how scary these guys were.   

First, they told me that the quote was invalid and that I would have to pay a lot more because they measure by cubic feet and not by the items I disclosed.  The disparity seemed odd because I had far fewer boxes and things that what I had told them I had because I had shipped a bunch of it in my car already.  I refused to pay the exorbitant additional fees and instead called the company directly. I spoke to Miguel and them, in fact, I have less stuff, not more they asked to talk to the driver.  He proceeded to tell them that it was more because I have pillowtop mattresses which I didn’t disclose.  So, $315 more plus an addition $50 for the extra gas on my pillow top mattress, even though I had four fewer boxes.  I finally agreed, I mean what choice did I have, I was moving in three days. 

Pure Moving Systems, then hit me with, “we have to ship the stuff to LA and there are additional loading and unloading fees as well as storage fees”.  I was under the impression that they were shipping my stuff directly to Florida as discussed with Randy.  At that point I said, “let's just cancel it and I will get another mover”, and again, we called Miguel who agreed to waive the loading and unloading fees.  I asked him to send that to me in writing, but he never did.

When I attempted t to give them my credit card for the 70% which the contract says you can use,  they said they were not set up to take credit cards (even though I had paid the 10% deposit by credit card) and insisted that I could only pay by check.  I still thought, even after all that, that I was dealing with this reputable company and that I just had a bad batch of drivers, who were possibly contractors. It turns out they were not. 

Word of advice, it is very unwise to ship your tax returns and credit card statements while moving.  I am not saying they stole my identity, I will let you draw your own conclusion there. However,  the very next day I began getting credit alerts with people trying to open credit cards and place online orders on my existing credit cards that I never use and happened to also be in the boxes.  And while I am not making any accusations, the police and I both think it’s a very big coincidence that it was the very next day and that the phone numbers they were using to set up fake accounts in my name happen to have the same area code, 818 and the addresses they are trying to ship to  is 13 miles from the moving company. 

I was forced to call all my credit card companies, banks, and other financial places. I called Pure Moving Systems to tell them of the theft, still not connecting the dots that it might be them. I asked to cancel the check and use the card and they told me to keep my account open until the check clears.    I asked my bank if they could let the outstanding check go through. At this point, I was still thinking I was dealing with a reputable entity. The bank said as long as I keep it open, anyone might be able to go into my account and clean it out and they insisted that we close all accounts. 

I immediately called Pure Moving Systems back and let them know that I had to close the account but I have one credit card still open that I can give them.  They advised me they would accept the credit card with and a 5% additional fee, and the $50 “bounce fee” for the check which they claimed they had already deposited. Also, they insisted I fill out a form, send them a copy of the front and back of the credit card and a  copy of my driver’s license.  (what company does this, I mean they know where I live and they had accepted my card for the 10% deposit with no problems). 

Anyway, I agreed to pay and jumped through their hoops, made the copies, signed the forms, scanned and sent it all over to Pure Moving Systems.   I had to go do this at Staples because my printers were in the boxes being shipped. An hour after receiving everything they asked for they called me and said they are refusing to use the credit card and if I ever want to see my stuff again I had to wire transfer cash into their bank account. 

I was shocked that this company with the hundreds of five-star reviews was acting this way so I went back online to see if this had happened to anyone else.  It was then that I realized my grave error, while I had researched this highly reputable company, Pure Moving Company, I had connected with Pure Moving Systems.  I called Pure Moving Systems, and when Ann answered I asked, “is this Pure Moving Company?” (to see if they were intentionally deceitful) And she answered, “Yes”.  At that moment I realized I was dealing with a dishonest organization and not just an organization that just had the same name.

At that point, I asked Pure Moving Systems, if I could pay them what I would owe for them to ship it to southern California (even though I was never told they would be doing that) and have another company pick it up). They refused and demanded the full wire transfer.  Once I realized that I was likely dealing with a nefarious group of characters I went to the police.  

While at the police station dealing with the identity theft I gave them all the information on what had transpired in the past three days.  The police told me that they have seen this before and would try to help but can only investigate the identity theft. The police tried to contact Pure Moving Systems, but the company would not talk to the officer and instead hung up.  He called back and then they sent him to an extension that just rang, rang and rang.   And as you can probably guess, they did not call him back. 

Meanwhile, I decided not to pay them because I was afraid (as the other woman mentioned, they sent really scary people to my home) and there was no guarantee they would ever deliver.   I was willing to just let my stuff go to end this horribly stressful situation.  I help out for three weeks and bought all new stuff, but then they threatened to auction all my stuff and sue me for the money and their legal fees.  I talked to my lawyer and he told me there was nothing we could do except pay them, so I did.  

There was no word for weeks and then they called when I was out of the country and said they were coming Friday which was the day I was supposed to fly home.  I asked if they could do it a day later and they said no. So I paid $300 to change my flight and came home a day early and sat there all day waiting.  They never arrived and called and said they would come Saturday because it was better for them.  

When my stuff arrived three weeks later, everything of monetary value was missing or broken.  My daughters Star wars collections, expensive vases, PS4 games, silver coin collection, clothes, purses, shoes and more.  All of my lamps were broken as was my Dyson Vacuum cleaner and Pilates Reformer. The boxes were all opened and trashed, things were falling out the bottom, and yes the financial docs were opened and tampered with, and some were missing.  Also, retail credit cards that I never use were missing but had been used by the identity thieves were gone.  I asked Pure Moving Systems were going to leave my broken items there in the middle of the garage, and Pure Moving Systems said, "we can dump it for an additional loading and dumping fee."  I declined. 

I would like to add that through this entire ordeal their customer service people were abusive (and I don't use that word lightly).   I was and still afraid of them, they are very scary people.  They were not afraid of the police and also called my banker (who called them to get the details for the wire transfer) and my lawyer names who was on the email strings derogatory names. Pure Moving Systems should not be in business and some of them should be in jail.