Energizer Moving And Storage Lies, Lies, and more Lies...Energizer is not so Energizing... Las Vegas Nevada

To Whom it may Concern:

August 4th, 2008, Worldwide Van lines sent Energizer moving and Storage to our home In Salt Lake City, Utah to have our household items picked up to be moved across the United States to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Energizer told us they would arrive at our home at 7:00 AM the morning of the 4th. At 10:30 AM, they decided to show up. They arrived with a large Penske moving van (about 40 foot) that was completely full except for about 2 feet in the back part of the truck. My wife (Ali) and I looked at each other and were shocked to see that there really was no room for our stuff. The main man Mike, the self-professed owner of the business, assured us over and over again that they would be able to cram everything into that truck and that we didn't need to worry. It would have taken a miracle; we have a couch, a mattress, a box spring, and a couple other larger items. After the movers sat around for a good 30 minutes and discussed what they were going to do, they ended up having to pick up another Penske truck to put our items in, which took an additional hour to get to our home. Somehow this was our fault and we would be the ones paying for it in the end. Originally, we had been quoted $1632. Then Mike walked inside and looked at our things, and after much deliberation and debate he told us he would only move our items for $2632. This calculation was not made by weight, counting boxes, or any other professional means of calculating, but by this guy's 8 years of professional experience in measuring things with his eyes. What was the point of even getting a quote? Ironically, he told us that if we wanted to wait an extra 2 or 3 days, he could get another truck and do it for the original quoted price. He said that according to Worldwide we didn't even have a couch so he thought he could have fit our other stuff into that full van (Our 2 mattresses, our kitchen table, TV, bed frame, and other larger items. But not the couch.) Of course, we didn't have the time to research other options as our house would be occupied the next day with new owners, so we talked him down $200. After much hesitation Mike agreed. We still ended up paying $800 more than we had planned. Why could he have done it for the original quote 2 days later? Maybe because they overloaded their truck and had to get another one? Or was it because he needed some extra cash? I don't know. He is good at ripping people off and knows that most people can't just put off moving across the country by a couple days.

Onto loading the truck. My wife and I packaged all of our fragile items (wedding pictures, vases, glassware, etc.) individually bubble wrapped and in CLEARLY marked boxes with large FRAGILE and arrows pointing upwards written all over them. Mike, kept telling his guy (only one of the three men actually did any loading) to hurry up because they had to get to the airport to pick his girlfriend upwhich left the movers doing a very quick job of loading our items. When watching them load the truck, labeled fragile boxes were sideways, upside down, and some even balancing on the backside of our couch. When it came time to disassemble our bed frame, kitchen table, etc., Energizers, ALL- INCLUSIVE package left me unscrewing everything by myself. Guess our extra $800 wasn't enough motivation. When signing the contract and going through the paperwork, Mike explained the process, that this company is his baby and that his customers are his first priority. He told us that our items would arrive to Chapel Hill NO LATER than 14 days after the date we requested. He was in a hurry and went through the papers quickly. Ironically Mike skipped right over the section that says that they have 21 business days to get our stuff to its location. Sure there is a spot that I am supposed to initial but I DID NOT INITIAL THIS SPOT. I was never shown this spot. I don't know if he was just in that much of a hurry that he forgot to show me it and have me initial it or if he thought his verbal 14 day guarantee was good enough and did not want us seeing the 21 business day guarantee that is printed. I really don't know. Is it my fault for not reading the seven page contract and all of the fine print? YES!! If I had to do it over again I would read every word. But the day was long since we spent half of it waiting for them to figure things out and I just wanted our stuff loaded and on its way to NC. Fortunately for them they have included in the fine print that verbal guarantees are absolutely worthless. Their personal representatives are not held accountable for their words and can say anything they want to please a customer or make a deal. Personal guarantees mean nothing to them and are only mere estimates. You just hope that when you put all of your personal possessions in the back of a truck that the people responsible for it have some bit of human decency and integrity. Our request for delivery date was Aug 10th. Supposedly he had a truck going out on Thursday or Friday (Aug 7th or 8th) of that week and we would have our stuff soon. He told us that he would call us at the first of the next week (Aug 11-12th) and let us know how things were going. When I had not heard from him by the 13th I called him. There was no answer so I left a message. The next day. Called again, and again no answer. Finally, on Friday the 15th I called him and he answered. He said that our stuff was being loaded into a truck that day and that we should see it the middle to end of the next week (Aug 20-22nd) and that the driver would call us 24 hours in advance of delivery. So I waited until the following Sunday (Aug 24th) and was disappointed that we still had nothing (and no phone call with explanation). The following Monday Aug 25th, I again called and was greeted by a voicemail. I left a message. No return call. After calling again a few times I got a hold of him and he reassured me that our stuff is fine, we are taking great care of it. Good to know, but where in the great states of America is it? He didn't know. He would get in touch with his driver and have his driver call me back or he would personally call me back and let me know where our stuff was. Guess what? NO CALL. The next day, Tues Aug 26th I called him back and again left a message. I called Worldwide Van Lines hoping that they might have more success than me in contacting the driver. They were successful and were told that the truck was in Oklahoma and would be here in the coming days. Why did they successfully reach the driver when Mike, the OWNER of the business couldn't? Maybe Mike didn't call them, doesn't know their number or just doesn't give a crap about us! Anyway, sorry to digress. Oklahoma on Tuesday, be to Carolina in a couple days, we wait patiently. Sunday comes around and no stuff. Monday is a holiday though so maybe they are not driving that weekend? You tell me. September 2nd. Two days from our one-month anniversary. And sure enough, we have no stuff!!! After calling the owner of Energizer each day for the past 5 days and getting no response or return call I again called Worldwide. They were able to get a hold of the driver who said that they were in Texas (because they got stuck by the storm) and they were leaving today and should be here in a few days. Sound repetitive? be there in a few days, I have heard that before. I don't know how these companies work but if they were in Oklahoma last Tuesday, why were they still in Texas a whole week later? September 4th. I contacted Worldwide again and was finally connected to a supervisor named Joe. He and I discussed what could be done to ensure that we would eventually get our stuff and possible reimbursement options. It seemed that Joe really wanted to help us but seemingly had no power to do anything. They contracted our move to Energizer and burned the papers. Their dispatch was not much help this time. They were never able to contact the driver of the truck and seemed to pass the buck when it came to solving our problems. Later that evening I finally got a call back from Mike from Energizer. He was not happy. He said, and I quote, I don't normally call customers back but I don't like your tone in your messages and I don't appreciate when people talk to me that way. You don't appreciate it? Mike, you have had everything we own for a month now and don't have the decency to at least tell me what is really going on and you don't appreciate it when people leave unhappy voicemails on your phone? I tried to have a conversation with him but it was hard to get a single word in. Although I had realized by this point that Mike really didn't care about us or our stuff, it still came as a surprise that he would straight out tell me that. After I explained how tough it was being lied to every week for over a month about our stuff he said, that's not my problem. Really? He told me that he was in Israel at the moment visiting family and that there was nothing he could do. He was sure to mention that it was costing him $5 every minute to talk to me and that he normally doesn't call his customers. Yet, this is the only contact number we were (or ever have been) provided for Energizer. I almost felt bad for inconveniencing him. He said that he would be back in the office on Monday the 8th and that he would call me first thing to try to figure out where our stuff was and how he could compensate us financially for our troubles. After hearing nothing from him during the day on Monday I called him in the evening. He seemed absolutely shocked that we did not have our stuff. He told me he would call the driver and either have the driver call me or he would personally call me back that night with an update. Neither called. Tuesday the 9th I called Mike to see if he found anything out. He didn't answer. I called World Wide again and this time spoke with a Jeff. Jeff was very nice and seemed to show a little empathy for us. We discussed our options (which were basically nothing) and he said that he would look into things as well and also let Joe know that I called again. Wednesday goes by with no phone calls, no updates, no ideas of what is going on. Thursday Sept 11th comes and I finally get a hold of Mike again. He is again shocked that we don't have our stuff and have not heard from the driver. (At this point Mike is acting like he really cares about us all of the sudden but that things are out of his hands and it is all the drivers fault. We figure out why later.) He tells us he will call the driver and have him call us. Finally, we hear from the driver. We see the light at the end of the tunnel. At least we know that our stuff is actually on a truck still. The driver seems very nice and says that he is leaving Florida that night and that things are going slowly because of the weather. He says that he will be up our way soon but that he has a couple drops before us so he will be to our place Sunday night or Monday. The best part of this (we think), was that we now had the drivers number so we could call him direct instead of going through World Wide or Mike at Energizer for all our updates. The driver of the truck says he will call us on Saturday and give us an update of where he is. We are slightly relieved. But when Saturday comes and goes and we hear nothing we begin to think it is almost comical and that we are on a hidden camera being filmed for a very bad reality TV show. We are looking everywhere for Ashton Kutcher to jump out and say Punk'd. On Monday I call Mike, who doesn't answer, the driver, who doesn't answer, and have another conversation with Jeff at Worldwide. Jeff said that they were going to file an official complaint against Energizer but that there was nothing they could do, or wanted to do, until we actually got our stuff. Tuesday comes around and we feel we are back to square one. We call Mike who answers and is now obviously upset as well. He goes off with all kinds of profanity toward the driver who has cost him much more than he has cost us. Mike says that if the driver was there in Vegas he would be buried out in the dessert somewhere. Again, Mike does a great job passing the buck in effort to make me believe that everything that has gone wrong has nothing to do with him or his company. Mike says that the driver is not answering any calls. He asks us what number we have been using to try to contact the driver (which was a little odd). At this point I strait out asked Mike if the driver was an employee of Energizer or if they had contracted our stuff out to someone else. He reassured me that the driver worked for Energizer and had been there for several years and had never done anything like this before. Meanwhile, my wife called the driver almost every hour in hopes that he answers and gives her some idea of where our stuff is. The evening comes and I call Mike to see if he has had any luck. Mike says, what, the driver didn't call you? I have talked to him six times today and he assures me that he talked to you. Meanwhile I had heard nothing from the driver. Mike tells us that he will call the driver as soon as we hang up and tell him to call us immediately. Finally, the driver calls. He is calling from somewhere in Carolina right? Wrong. He is in Mississippi. His truck broke down there and he left his phone in it so he has not been able to answer or make any calls. He wanted to call us but it would have been long distance from his hotel room. So why in Mississippi I ask? He says that he was never in Florida. He said that he told me he was on his way there the previous week when he talked to me. This is very confusing to me. Why would he say he would be in Carolina on Sunday if he was in Texas on his way to Florida on Thursday night. Somewhere along the way the story doesn't add up. He says that he will hurry to Carolina as fast as he can and will call us with updates to let us know when he will be here. Meanwhile, Mike almost apologizes now that things have been this bad. He says that we are still going to have to give the driver the remaining $1000 we owe but that he has spoken with the other owner and they both agree that they will be able to reimburse us almost all of our money. During these past several days my wife had been researching things online to see if she could find anything out about the companies involved. Interestingly, when she googled Energizer she was directed to a website www.movingscam.com, an entire forum of people who had been scammed in similar ways by Energizer. We were actually able to speak with some people who went through the exact same scenario as us: Given a low quote by World Wide, had the price increased by Energizer by $2000 on the day of their move (the day before our stuff was picked up Mike and his team picked up their stuff in Logan Utah), and lied to over and over about why things were taking longer than promised. Luckily for them they actually did get there stuff delivered to Florida back on Sept 2nd . If Energizer picked up both of our things from Utah one day apart, why didn't they come out to the east coast on the same truck? I eventually found this out as well.

Our stuff arrives. On Wednesday Sept 17th we got a call from the driver. Just as promised he was calling to update us and let us know that our stuff would be here Friday the 19th and that he would call back on Thursday with a specific time. Thursday he called and let us know he would be here between 10 and 1 on Friday. I stayed home from school on Friday until 1 in hopes of being there when it was delivered. No show. Then at 2 pm they pulled up with the truck. My wife gave them their $1000 and they unloaded everything, moved it into our house for us, assembled the table, bed, coffee table and even offered my wife coffee or soda. They were a little confused about the box that was completely empty though. They said it was empty when they picked it up in Vegas a couple weeks ago. A couple weeks ago? my wife asks. The drivers were completely shocked that our stuff had been gone since Aug 4th. They had no idea it had been that long. They said that they had called Energizer to say they were bringing a load to the east coast and to offer to bring anything. That was only a couple weeks ago. Where was our stuff from Aug 4th until the beginning of September. Why had Mike told me originally that it was being loaded on a truck the third week of August. He later told me on the phone that it was picked up the 26th of August. I don't know who was lying but that is something that has been constant throughout. Through all of this interaction we learned that the drivers indeed DID NOT work for energizer as Mike had directly told me they did. They were contracted by Energizer to bring our stuff here from Vegas. No wonder Mike seemed like he had no control. He didn't. Things were no longer in his hands. Yet for some reason, he painted a picture as if though he was leading and guiding our stuff every step of the way. In reality he just pawned it off onto another company. We have no put the pieces of the puzzle together. World wide gave us a quote for $1632. We pay them the $432 up front for booking the move for us. They then put our stuff out on the moving truck site in hopes that someone will pick it up for the remaining $1200. Energizer swoops in, accepts the contract, shows up at your house and tells you that they cant do it for $1200. They need at least $2200. They then take your stuff to Vegas ONLY. They keep the $1000 they made on the top. $1000 just to move your stuff a couple hundred mile from Salt Lake to Vegas. They then turn around and re-post our stuff on the truckers site for the same (or lower) prices as it was originally posted. Now it only needs to go from Vegas to Carolina (a much more frequently traveled route). They contract with someone else to do the delivering for them and they disappear into the night with a few thousand dollars, a bunch of angry customers, but a well written contract with lots of self-protection.

Unfortunately it doesn't end there. As we open our bruised, smashed, broken, and even empty boxes we realized that we only have most of our stuff. Almost all of our glassware is shattered (the box it was in looks like it has been dropped several times), many of our vases are broken, and our dining room table chairs are broken and twisted. The box that was empty had contained home dcor, vases, sweat shirts, iron, and other goods. Where did these things go? If the box did get ripped open on accident, why didn't they put the stuff back in it? Why did they still deliver the box? In great shape none the less. But empty! OK. We can live with some accidentally broken stuff and some accidentally misplaced contents. But then comes to the stolen goods. Unfortunately we are trusting people. When we were packing things up we didn't think that our stuff would be gone for several weeks and that it would be looked through. As we began unloading our goods we quickly realized that my wife's jewelry box was missing. Luckily it did not have all of her stuff in it, but there was a diamond necklace, a diamond bracelet from Belgium, and a ring. That is not understandable. People trust you to take care of their stuff and deliver it in a timely and professional manner. We received none of the above. We will not let this go on. We don't want others to go through the nightmare that we have been through.

Josh
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
U.S.A.