Smooth Move Relocation And Storage - Personal Relocation Services ripoff moving scam, raising the price after loading our goods, no justification Hanover Maryland

I spoke with a moving consultant, Jumoke Gyenyame, from Personal Relocation Services and requested an estimator at our house to do a visual inspection and quote for a move from Ashburn, VA to Valrico, FL.

Travis (no last name provided) came out to our house the following Saturday morning May 6, 2006. We walked him through the whole house and garage, opening closet doors and storage areas showing him everything we intended on moving to our new location.

We were specific about receiving a guaranteed quote so that we would not have any surprises at the time of pickup and delivery. Further, we requested a quote to include full pack service including packing material, loading, shipping and unloading. Travis calculated a not-to-exceed price of $4000.00 before he left our house, including a discount because we were both over fifty years of age.

Again we emphasized that we did not want to be surprised with added fees and he assured us that the price would NOT be any higher than what he quoted us, unless the weight was less than he estimated, in which we would be billed for the lesser weight. If the weight was more than he estimated, his company would absorb the cost.

He told us that he would send us an itemized list of everything we showed him, along with the contract for service by email for us to review, sign and send back. He also promised that our goods would only be handled twice; once to move it on the truck then again at the destination to be moved into our new home.

We were provided an order for service that we mistook as the contract for service, without the itemized list, but with a guaranteed price and the terms "NOT TO EXCEED" written along with the price. On May 11th, I signed, scanned and emailed the contract back to Personal Relocation Services, with an agreement to have the movers arrive at our house at 0800 on May, 19th.

On May 19th, I phoned Personal Relocation Services at 12:30pm and spoke with Jumoke explaining my dissatisfaction with the company because the movers were 4 hours late. He told me that the dispatcher, Guy Ailam, who later on I found out was an owner and the driver's boss, would contact us to give us an update.

On that day, Guy had called us at 9:45am to let us know that the movers were stuck in traffic and would be at least another hour, then again at 11:00am to let us know it would be again another hour. I did not know at that time that Guy was someone other than the dispatcher.

Finally, five hours after their scheduled arrival Smooth Move Relocation and Storage Inc. showed up to our home, in a small box truck, and personnel with no uniforms identifying them as employees of the company. The driver, Marvin, explained that they needed to unload the truck before heading out to our home which caused them to be five (5) hours late.

Guy Ailam called our house to confirm that the movers had finally showed up and I questioned him about who Smooth Move Relocation and Storage Inc. were. He explained that Smooth Move, as he referred to them, Personal Relocation Services and Helping Hands were all divisions of Y.L.S Logistic Center, a company he and his partner, Jay, owned.

The packers/movers showed up with a truck that was clearly not large enough for our goods and did not have sufficient packing material, i.e. boxes, or blankets, and was littered with trash and garbage, and dirty clothes.

We questioned the driver about not being properly prepared and walked him through the house so he could also see what it was we were moving. He assured us they could fit everything in. He also assured us that they had just the right amount of packing material.

When the movers finally ran out of boxes, Marvin offered to just loose pack anything they did not get into boxes into the truck to be boxed later at the warehouse. We disagreed with their process and drove out to Home Depot to purchase 26 additional boxes to continue boxing our kitchen items, linens and other household goods.

In addition, because of the late arrival and in spite of requesting a full-packing service, we were forced to assist with the packing and inventory list in order to expedite the process. On several occasions, after walking through the rooms that were reported to be fully packed, we opened a closet/cupboard/drawer to find additional items not packed.

The trucks the company sent did not have operating interior lights or hydraulic lifts nor were they cleaned or sanitized, further delaying the loading process. The packers/movers left our home 11pm that night and returned the next day, May 20, to finish packing our goods with a second truck, this time with no markings at all, and again without an operational lift to assist with the loading process.

The driver's supervisor called and demanded that we provide him with our credit card number in spite of our previous agreement to pay by check. We paid the agreed amount of 50% ($2000.00) by check. Upon finishing the packing and loading of the second truck, we asked to have the truck locked.

The driver could not lock the truck because there were no working locks and he assured us the truck would be locked at the warehouse. The driver also promised the inventory list and the certificates of weight would be faxed to us that day. They were not.

On May 20th, Guy Ailam called us to let us know that he was requesting additional money because the weight of our household goods was more than they estimated. He also asserted we must of added additional items to our move. We assured him we did not, if anything, there was less items because we had loaded our own truck and car with items we did not want them transporting.

He refused to budge on his request for more money. We also informed him that our contract was guaranteed with a "NOT-TO- EXCEED" price and we will pay the price we agreed when they deliver our belongings in Florida. Again, we asked him to provide the certificate of weight for both trucks, both empty and full.

He said he would send them with the inventory list, but unless we agreed to pay additional money, he could not deliver our furniture for the agreed price. On Sunday May 21st, we drove our two vehicles to Florida.

Guy called again that day asserting he would not deliver unless we agreed to paying more money. We told him the issue was with his estimator, not us, and that he had still not provided evidence of the weight of our furniture.

On May 23rd, we received another call from Guy demanding more money or he would not deliver our furniture. When asked again about the certificates of weight, he agreed to fax it to us. What we received was the inventory list, and three certificates of weight, all dated May 20th. Clearly two of the certificates were for the same truck, and indicated an empty and full weight.

The third certificate, also dated May 20th, was clearly the weight of a full truck, but there was no corresponding weight certificate of that truck when empty. The weight amount of the pre and post loading weights do not agree with the information provided to us by Guy Ailam, general manager, dispatcher and partner of the moving company, and it is impossible to calculate the total weight of our furniture from the certificates provided.

When we questioned Guy Ailam on May 24th about the weights, he stated that they did not get a chance to weigh the first truck on May 19th because they were running so far behind schedule and that they are going to use the unloaded weight of the second truck (No.7) 18,500lb as a base and subtract that from the fully loaded weight of the first truck (No.6) 14,220lb to determine the weight and charge us accordingly.

As you can see the figures just do not work and makes no sense. Guy Ailam also stated again, that he had a truck ready to send down with our goods but could not afford losing any money so unless we agreed to pay the additional charges he would not have our items delivered.

At this point, we tried negotiating with him and offered to pay 50% of the increased rate to get our goods delivered. He refused our offer and demanded full payment at the new rate before they would deliver anything.

On May 26th, our earliest agreed date to deliver, no trucks showed up. We started contacting Consumer Advocacy groups, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Better Business Bureau, Attorney General's offices in Maryland, Virginia, and Florida, Sheriff's office of Loudoun County Virginia and Hillsborough County Florida, and several attorneys' offices. From Tuesday, May 30th through Sunday June 4th, we received countless harassing phone calls from Guy, always with the same message.pay more money or you won't get your belongings.

On June 5th , the 10th business day from the date of pick-up and the latest delivery date to deliver, we spoke with Jay the partner at Y.L.S asking repeatedly for a delivery date. He would not provide one and repeated calls and emails to Guy went unanswered.

We also called CAT scales asking for an explanation and verification concerning the certificates of weight they provided to Y.L.S. According to the attendant from the CAT scales, truck 6 was one truck with the weight of 14,220 pounds and truck 7 was the second truck with weights of 18,500 pounds unloaded and 24,340 pounds loaded.

On June 6th , after Guy called us to tell us we were no longer on the schedule to deliver, because we had refused to pay the higher price and therefore not ready to receive delivery, we finally relinquished and agreed to pay the higher price provided he could prove to us that the weights were correct and that we could witness the trucks getting weighed before and after delivery here in Florida.

He agreed to let us witness the weighing of the truck, but refused to give us a delivery date, saying he "would have to check the schedule, and that the 'ten business day clock' restarts from this date." We called the AG's office in Maryland and spoke with Beth Silverman, Mediation Supervisor of the Consumer Protection Division, who agreed to contact Smooth Moves to work out an agreement.

On June 8th, we contacted Guy again and asked for a delivery date. On that date he insisted that we could no longer pay with a credit card but needed to provide cash or postal money order and for the full amount or not deliver and they were not going to reweigh any of our goods.

No matter how many times I reminded them that they are in violation of the DOT OMB.No.2126-005 and they were required by federal law 49 CFR 375.213 to provide us with this document they continue to do business as extortionists. Their reply has been they are not concerned what the law says. The bottom line is they want more money or they will not deliver. We agreed to pay by Postal money order, and he agreed to deliver our furniture in 2-3 days.

On June 9th, we purchased the postal money orders to pay for our household goods for the amount Smooth Move was requesting. We also phoned the Maryland Attorney General's office to complain again about the company holding our belongings hostage as well as visited the local Sheriff's office to find out what we can do to insure that Smooth Move delivers our goods now that we have the funds in hand.

A representative from both offices called Guy Ailam to discuss with him this situation. He assured them both that he was having our household goods loaded onto a truck that day, Friday, June 9th, and that as long as we have the funds in either cash or postal money order, we should expect delivery either Sunday June 11th or Monday June 12th. A driver would call us 24 hours prior to delivery to confirm the time he was to show up.

On June 12th, we received a phone call from Guy telling us he just sent an email with an attached new Order for Service that not only changes the amount of our original order but also significantly changes the contract verbiage, including provisions to pay for all packing materials, which was originally included in our order, and removing the NOT-TO-EXCEED price to a non-binding agreement.

His demand was that unless we sign this new order, he will not have our goods delivered even if we do have the money ready. We have now contacted a lawyer.

Marian
Valrico, Florida
U.S.A.

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