US-1 Van Lines, Transit USA fraudulent, threatening, rude, liars, thieves, cheats, dishonest contracts, misleading contracts and promises Miami Florida

I hired US-1 Vanlines to move me from Florida to New Jersey and the scheduled date of pick was October 20th, 2006. I had called in for a quote and spoke to an Ann. She asked me to roughly estimate how many items I had and to describe them so that she can give me a price. She had quoted me a price of $1635 which included the packing and securing of furniture and 1 months free storage if needed. When the movers arrived there on October 20th the head mover looked at my things and said that he would have to charge me extra to pack my glass top tables and my big screen tv. When I spoke to Ann previously I clearly mentioned that I did have a big screen tv and glass top tables and she told me that the packing of those items were included in the price.

As soon as the mover told me that I called the US-1 office to talk to Ann about them changing the price on me. She then lied an said that she didn't recall telling me anything of the sort. At the same time the movers were yelling at me, telling me that they didn't work for free which lead to an argument. After all of this, I took it as a warning of what type of company I was dealing with. So I told them to cancel the move. The movers then started to re-pack my belongings into my apartment. Please keep in mind that my lease was up at my apartment and I definitely had to be out of there that day. I then got the yellow pages and tried to schedule another mover to assist me, but they could not come out at such short notice. I called back US-1Vanlines to ask them how much more would they charge for packing my tv and tables. The said they would add on another $150 for cardboard boxes for the tv and tables (which raised the cost to $1785). The movers then came back and packed everything for me. After they had gotten all of my belongings in the truck the same mover who was rude brought over the contract for me to sign. I told him that I had to take a little time to read it over. He said that he didn't have the time for me to read it and was very aggressive in making me sign it quickly. So I signed the parts that he wanted me to sign because I just wanted this whole nightmare to end.

I was very distraught in the way he was talking to me and was very frightened. So frightened that I called 2 of my friends to witness if anything might happen. I was a little worried since one of the movers and I go into an argument that they would deliberately damage my stuff on purpose. So I called the office with my concern and told me that I should not worry and they do not work like that. After all was said and done, I paid the movers after they were done and even tipped them $20 each.

I also decided to take the option of the 1 month storage which was included in the inital agreement. I called the Long Distance Dispatch department to tell them a date of delivery with was November 16th 2006. In the interim I moved to New Jersey and made arrangemts for a storage unit. On November 22nd I recieved a call from a lady named Tal who said that my delivery had been delayed because the driver had an issue with a previous delivery in transit. She also said that my stuff would be delivered sometime the following week (after Thanksgiving). This inconvenienced me because I now had to re-schedule all of my arrangements. I received a call on Thanksgiving from a William (the driver). He said that he would be delivering my things the next day (November 24th). He also mentioned that the payment must be in Cashier's Check or Cash. I said to him that the Tal never told me any such conditions when I spoke with her. Keep in mind that when they initially picked up my things I paid them with a money order (totalling $892.50) and I had purchased another money order for when they delivered my things for the rest of the balance (totalling $892.50). William said that he could only accept a cashier's check or cash for the delivery or else he would have to make arrangements to put my stuff in storage and the company would have to charge me extra for the inconvenience. At this time I was very upset again, on a holiday by the way. He then told me that he would call the office and talk to them about it. He called me back and said that I should call the office the next day or they will call me to speak about this. At 9:30am on Thanksgiving, I recieved a call from Tal. She was very rude and said that under no circumstances can she accept a money order for the delivery. The next day came and I scrambled everywhere to find a place to exchange the money order for cash.

Without luck, no one would cash it for me since I had an out of state license for identification. My father then came to my rescue and covered the amount for me. 4pm came around and my father and I went to the storage unit to meet William. He and his helper started to unpack my things. As they took out the boxes and furniture, I noticed all of the boxes were crushed and deshevelled. Especially a box that I put all of my personal paperwork and my checks were missing. My wide screen tv was brutally puntured and battered. My Love seat was ripped on the side. My dining room table and coffee table was scratched up and busted. I was literally in tears from all of this. Not only was I mistreated but so were my things. When they were done William came over with the inventory list. He told me to go over the list and add comments about the damage. Without having time to go through the boxes I just listed what I saw damaged. I also noted that I would take pictures of everything I came across that was damaged and send it to them. I also wrote that I will submit all additional lists of items that were damaged later on. He then told me that the claims department will not pay for the items in the boxes that were packed by me. Which is totally unfair since the items were not broken when I packed them.

Everything damaged was damaged in transit or by the way they were handled. It says nothing of the sort in the contract I signed about damages only being paid if they packed the item.

This company has had several complaints against them pertaining to the same issues. I am not the only one that they have cheated and mistreated. Please help me resolve this issue.

Dionne
Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey
U.S.A.