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Report: #624111

Complaint Review: America's Moving Services and Royal Relocation Systems - Columbia South Carolina

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  • Reported By: rebhill — Atlanta Georgia United States of America
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  • America's Moving Services and Royal Relocation Systems 2800 Bush River Rd Suite #4 Columbia, South Carolina United States of America

America's Moving Services and Royal Relocation Systems Nation's Choice and "Your Moving Day" website Deceptive Sales, Subcontract Out, Unprofessional Moves, Nasty When Challenged Columbia, South Carolina

*REBUTTAL Owner of company: Our side of the story

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  I went to the website "Your Moving Day" to find mover reviews and choose a moving service. I thought I was being so careful. However, it turned out that the website I went to was owned by the same owner as "America's Moving Services" who also owns or owned "Nation's Choice" moving brokerage.

   So, not surprisingly, I chose America's Moving Services, who claim to be a family business with 40+ years of experience as my mover. The original quote for my move, despite my insistence that it had to be more - because I had 40+ boxes of books to move in addition to furniture, was $1746.00

  Although I was supposed to get 24 to 48 hours notice on the pick-up, I didn't know what time on the day the movers were coming until the day of, so I stayed up until 5am packing so as to be ready by 8am, when it turned out they were there at 1pm, but I didn't get that ETA until a few hours before.  When the actual movers came they were not from "America's Moving Services," but a locally based company called "Royal Relocations Systems." I had never been told that they would be the actual carrier during my phone conversation with AMS. If I had known it would be Royal Relocations, I would never have chosen them, because they have terrible reviews on the internet.

  They showed up for pick-up on schedule, and it went well. However, the price went to $2538.00, which was quite a jump. I thought that was actually more like what a full-service move should cost, so I didn't complain. I even tipped the moving guys quite generously and they were very happy.

   However, what happened next could not be considered a full-service move.
I was told delivery would be on July 1st or soon thereafter. No one said to me at the time that there was any problem with having six days between the pick-up and delivery time, though it may show up as a criticism of me in a rebuttal from the moving company owner. There was no suggestion that there was anything wrong about specifying these dates, or any warning that moving near a holiday weekend or around the sabbath might pose a problem.

  When I got to Atlanta, the movers called on July 1st to tell me that the movers would come to deliver on Friday, July 2. Boy was I relieved, because I had been "rushing" around by bus at 7am to make sure I was ready for the July 1 delivery with a postal money order to pay the driver. On the afternoon of July 2, I got a call from the driver that he couldn't make it because the move before me gave him the wrong directions so he had to go in a totally different direction from my move. Since he wouldn't drive on the sabbath, he wouldn't deliver on the next day either. Since the next two days were a holiday weekend, that was no good either. So my move was rescheduled for Tuesday 7/6 - and after waiting a whole day with no word from the driver or dispatcher, I finally called the moving company at around 3pm and found out we'd been rescheduled again for Wednesday. The driver said he'd come in mid-afternoon. I left my (brand new job) early to be able to wait for him, just like we did the day before.

  Instead, he showed up around 8pm on Wednesday night with no one to help him move and then the fun really began. He offered to hire "some guys who were hanging out down the street." Since there have been break-ins in our neighborhood, we thought this was a bad idea. My fiancee, the neighbor from across the street, and I  proceeded to help unload the truck. Literally all my dish boxes were dented, my metal filing cabinet had been so inexpertly packed that it was crushed beyond usability, and I saw one dish barrel box at the very bottom of the huge stack inside the truck.

 To top off this "professionalism" the mover brought out someone else's unpacked computer monitor and set it on the ground outside my house. I also saw other people's unpacked lamps and furniture randomly scattered about the truck. After we'd been unloading for hours, my fiancee asked "where's the bed?" Right: My queen sized bed and box-spring were missing. So was my grandmother's dining room table, two chairs, an antique dresser, my brand new paper shredder, and my futon frame. Ultimately, the movers did find these items and bring them two days later, which was a relief, but again, my fiancee had to help unload because the driver came alone. 

   Originally, I had considered all this simple incompetence, but once I began complaining, everything seemed a lot more shady. I wrote to the company and asked for damage claim forms and received a promise of them - but so far nothing has arrived.  I expect that someone from AMS will soon post a rebuttal here blaming the problems that came with this move on me. I was unreasonable, lacked empathy (gee, I'm the one who spent a week sleeping on the floor), and called the movers "9 times a day" and didn't tell them about the damage (which I did) as they did when I posted these complaints on movingscam.

I did call them often - I called them to find out when the movers were coming because they didn't keep me up to date on what was happening. They told me they would call back, and then never did. Ultimately, I wound up paying $2400 for a move that involved unpacking the truck myself. As the truck driver said upon delivery "oh, your back is going to hurt tomorrow." Oy! Don't use either of these companies. AMS puts on a big show of kindness and professionalism, especially when they are courting your business, and some of their customer service reps seem really nice.

However, once you ask for some portion of your money back, or write a negative review, they blame the customer and complain about how misunderstood and maligned the moving industry is.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 07/17/2010 06:56 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/americas-moving-services-and-royal-relocation-systems/columbia-south-carolina-29210/americas-moving-services-and-royal-relocation-systems-nations-choice-and-your-moving-da-624111. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
0Author
0Consumer
1Employee/Owner

#1 REBUTTAL Owner of company

Our side of the story

AUTHOR: America's moving services - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Tuesday, July 27, 2010

In response to the complaint listed, First we would like to sincerely apologize for any inconveniences caused during an already stressful time in someones life, so the fact that it was made more stressful due to the compliactions truly means that the client was let down in someway which we are sorry for. I would like to say, the customer was absolutely unequivocally under the impression that it would either be one of our trucks OR one of our agents which we have worked with for several years and subsequently it is the first line on our contract which is not in bold or hidden print. There were definately a few complications with the move as far as communication goes which we will definately take responsibility for and the agent has been placed on indefinate suspension due to the miscommunication so for that we certainly apologize. As for the estimated weight, the client requested a quote based on 2,500 Lbs. which she recieved from another "moving" company which was terribly underquoted by them and we noted that in her contract which she signed. The criticism by myself is that the client had her items picked up on 6/25 and could not accept delivery until 6 days later, the truck was heading directly to the delivery area and considering that it would arrive in 3 days, we had to place the items in holding and await the next truck which would be delivering 6 days after the 1st which was the 7th and the client was made aware of the variable prior to reserving we tell each and every client that requests a later delivery spread that there is going to be no guarantees made for the exact delivery and they also have that in the contract in BIG bold letters again not hidden. Also of note, we had not charged the client for any S.I.T fees (storage in transit) for holding the items for an extended period. The reason fro the evening delivery was that the client called several times daily and was basically demanding delivery immediately so rather than holding it until the morning we offered to delivery that night. When and if a client requests compensation, there is a process that comes along with it, we are more than fair and as generous as any company in the industry and go above and beyond for our clients when and if complications occur, but when we are harrassed, threatened and that client goes on every website slamming us, and filing Better Business Bureau complaints, at that point we feel that we were not given the opportunity to make things right and our reputation had already been questioned unfairly so we are not going to offer any compensation otehr than what is legally required and in this clients case it is a damage claim for a filing cabinet which she has already been sent a damage claim form for and will be compensated .60 per lb. per article as required. Any paperwork, bill of lading, contracts that anyone would like to request is available upon request.

 

 

Thank you,

 

America's Moving Services management

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