Old Country Van Lines Holding my possesions for more money Newark New Jersey

This all started with Bill, my salesperson with Old Country Van Lines. Bill was great at first. Went over the costs, things to be moved, shot me an estimate right away. I contacted some other movers and they had a better price. Bill asked me for a copy of their quote. He directed me to ripoffreport.com and showed me where the lower priced company had a negative review. He discounted my binding estimate by $150 to match their price and get my business. I e-signed the binding estimate for $2582 and paid $692 as a deposit on 9-20. Everything went downhill from there.

First, our pick up day was supposed to be 9-25 or 9-26. They called on 9-23 and insisted they had to pick up on 9-24 or they would not be able to pick it up on time. They acted as if they didn't get it on 9-24 they had no idea when they would be able to pick it up. My fiance and I told them we may not have everything packed up by then. They didn't care.

The movers showed up and started loading the truck. The foreman, Abraham, then started telling my fiance that she needed to figure out what she was going to leave behind because everything wasn't packed yet. Then she needed to figure out what to leave behind because they may not have enough room on the truck. The movers damaged the house when they moved items out. They put a hole in a wall and scratched and dented walls. My fiance called me frantic, they were damaging the house and telling her she would have to leave stuff behind. I called Bill because he was my only contact at Old Country. He told me he would take care of it.

They left items behind and still claimed we were over our binding estimate by 480 cubic ft. They tried to charge us for packing material but my fiance told them to unload the stuff they used packing material on and they changed their mind on that charge. Then they told her she had to sign off on the overage or they wouldn't be able to take anything. She signed their contract 'B' and they took our stuff.

We called and made multiple complaints to the company by phone. Bill never answered any of my phone calls after that night. When a 'customer care rep.', Mary Ann, called to do a follow up she told my fiance that she would have to contact a complaint department and that there was nothing that she could do. When we sent an email about our initial complaint, Mary Ann was the one to call us back and put us in contact with Charlie. Charlie told me he didn't work for Old Country but was dealing with my complaint as a 'favor' to the owner. He offered me $250 for my trouble and all I had to do was sign release for Old Country against any further claims or complaints. Mary Ann sent the form and a form for direction of payment. I have not signed or responded to that yet.

In the mean time, we called dispatch and requested delivery for Oct. 24th and to speak to a supervisor. When I spoke to the supervisor for a final price, he claimed I owed $4090.02. My original contract was for $2582 and I paid $692 upfront. They claimed a bulky item charge of $400 and another $1800 for the so-called overage. When confronted about the charges they claimed too many items, not cubic ft. The bulky items they referred to were disclosed during the sales negotiation, they are listed on the original packing list and were not calculated as costing extra in the original binding estimate. Some of the items that were on the list, that would have taken up a decent amount of cubic ft., were sold prior to pick up but they were not discounted from our cubic ft. estimate. I told the supervisor (he never gave me a name I could understand) that I was not paying $4000 for a bill that I only owed $1900 on. He said he would call me back.

This went on for almost two weeks. I would call, try to state my case, he would say he was busy, or at lunch, or not answer at all. Through all of this he said he would look at the items once they were on the truck and adjust the price. He would hang up on me or pretend like he didn't say anything about adjusting the price. He refused to acknowledge any claims about certain items not being on the truck. We sold some of the items that were on the original list so how could they be taking up space on the truck? My original estimate was for cubic feet but when he did argue price he just referred to the number of items and not the amount of space they take up.

When I asked him about my delivery he said it was already set for Nov. 8th. No one had set a delivery date for Nov. 8th so I asked him where they were delivering it. He said he did not know, I said you don't know because I haven't given you a delivery address yet because you never gave me a date. He said he would have to call me back and hung up on me.

He never called me back until he called on Nov. 4th to tell me that they were delivering on Nov. 5 I asked about the price and he said $4000. I said he was supposed to adjust it. He said he was tired of hearing me talk. Ultimately, he discounted to $3800 and said that if I didn't have the money I would not get my stuff. I asked how I was supposed to get $3800 on a Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning. He said not his problem. I siad I will pay him $3000 just to put this to rest and he said we will see and hung up on me. They came on Nov. 5th and I tried to pay with a credit card. They said payment would have to be made in cash or postal money order for $3800. That is a Sunday. I could not get what they wanted and so the driver, Sergey, said they were charging me $100 an hour to wait while I tried. They refused any other type of payment. He left with my stuff and said the charge was now $4000 plus storage fees of an undetermined amount.

He then called and told me to get $3900, rent a Uhaul and meet them somewhere and I could have my stuff. I told them I could/would not do that. Then he said they would deliver to the original location for $4000. I told him I did not have $4000 in cash. So Sergey said they are putting my stuff in storage that will cost me another $300 and when I pay they will give me the location where I can go pick up my stuff. Then he called again and would meet me at my original storage location for $3900 plus and extra hundred to be paid tomorrow.

I paid $3850 in cash. It was all I had. They unloaded everything except the driver kept my 50" flat screen tv and said if I wire him $300 tomorrow he will ship it UPS. A floor lamp was broken, multiple boxes are crushed and deformed and I don't even know if I got all of my stuff.