Budgest Van Lines Moving Broker Powhatan, Virginia

This Broker is a scam.  My husband called them to get a quote for moving from Illinois to California.  He went over all of the items with the lady on the phone and asked her to include more weight and boxes because we have A LOT of books.  She informed him that she did and gave us a quote of a little over $3000. 

In the contract that we were given, it states 1 free flight of steps, wrapping/protection of furniture with moving pads/blankets, and standard disassembly and reassembly of furniture.

When the mover arrived, he walked thru he house and laid a pile of paperwork on my counter.  Never discussed any of it.  I asked him about the price list and he said "maybe 200 dollars".  When they were done and I had followed him to the weigh station and went over papers and bill.  The total bill for wrapping with blankets/pads was $738!!!!  Then the load weight in at double of quote!!!  So our bill was now more then double of quote. 

When movers arrived, driver was rude.  Complained about other customers in my home after he received phone calls from them.  He smoked in truck while unloading my goods.  He had picked up 2 "helpers" from the local Home Depot.  This I know because I talked to the helpers while driver was outside.  Contract states that they use professional movers! 

When I showed driver my second floor he told me he wasnt going to take off his shoes, which I never asked him to do.  He then told me it was an extra $75 dollars because there was more then 12 steps.  He then proceeded to tell me that he would take my goods up to the 12th step and leave it there.  Needless to say, I didnt pay him and ended up having to take the stuff up later with my husband.

Driver NEVER offered to rebuild any of my goods.  My daughter and I had to check in all goods.  I had an expensive ladder that they ended up finding out later was left on the truck.  Goods were delivered 6/23/11, it is now 7/29/11 and my ladder still sits on their dock in Illinois. 

My husband made numerous contacts with Amy over at Budget Van lines with little satisfaction.  They did get the movers to give us a $200 "discount" and then were going to give us $175 back but wanted us to sign a waiver saying that we would not file any complaints such as this against them.  We told them to keep their $175 because this needs to stop!  People need to know not to use them!!!

I have been trying to settle things with the moving company since they also ruined my $2500 mattress set that they charged me $44 to wrap and I believe that they owe me a refund since they did not fullfill their part of the contract, ie delivering my stuff up a continuous flight of stairs and rebuilding the goods that they took apart.  They also left 2 barrells of wrap and cardboard behind that the driver told me it was my problem because he would get a $500 fine. 

I hope these companies eventually lose their licenses!  This is a shame that they do this to people when they are vulnerable!