Max Moving and Storage Guy Ailam continues to scam individuals and families in Henrico Virginia

I booked my move with American Moving Partners, which gave me little to no information. They did not inform me which company would pick up my belongings and said it would take 10-14 days for them to get to California. My pickup date was June 21st, with Guy Ailam from Max Moving and Storage changing the pickup times/dates on the day of the delivery.

Thinking he was the driver of the truck, he changed my pick up that Thursday, June 21st, to Saturday morning, then it changed back, an hour later, to Thursday night at 17:00 again.  There were no issues with the actual movers that night, however, the truck driver did hurry me up to sign the documents, which some I have not been able to retrieve from Guy Ailam.

One of the documents said they had 21 days to deliver my belongings, making it July 12th. I was also not aware that I had to pay with cash or money order the pick up day or who the moving company was. I paid Max Moving and Storage $800.00 in cash and gave $20.00 to each of the 3 movers as a tip. Upon speaking to Guy Ailam again on the phone that night, he said the driver of the truck told him that there was more stuff than expected and that upon weighing my stuff, he would let me know how much I owed.

I travelled to California on June 25th. On Thursday, June 28th, I called Guy on his cell phone, 757-754-1617, to inquire about the location of the truck and he told me that because of  “4th of July, which was a holiday, the company does not work around the holiday and because it is a busy season, that [my] stuff would only leave after, and that it would take another few weeks for it all to get to California”. I was never told this and was very surprised that my belongings were still in Virginia a week later than the pickup date.

Then when I called the Max Moving and Storage’s office later that morning, at 09:35 am PST, on phone number 877-251-2194, Guy picked up the phone and that is when I  found out then and there that he was the owner of the company, which I did not until that point. He was incredibly rude on the phone. He kept shouting, being condescending, and telling me there was no way the truck would move from Virginia to California before July 4th.

After an almost 20-minute conversation, with Guy including that to pick up my belongings from a storage unit he had put my belongings in Richmond, VA, I would have to pay another $1500, he said he would try to send my belongings sooner than the 4th, but that he “could not promise anything”. Unfortunately, that was the beginning of everything and I did not know that if I had involved the cops, he could not have held my belongings hostage and would have to release them to me. 

I called Guy on July 6th on his cell phone at 08:10 PST and he told me right away that the truck only had left Virginia that Friday, July 5th. Being discourteous, and arrogate again, as if he forgot the conversation we had the week before, he said he had already had told me that the truck was only going to leave after July 4th. I told him that Hannah from American Moving Partners (the broker) had said on Monday, July 2nd, that the truck would be in California on Sunday, July 8th, and he replied: “That’s impossible. It takes 5-7 days from Virginia to California!”. That left me puzzled and confused by the mishandling of information since I had to begin working on July 9th in California and all my work things were in the truck.

I then sent the following text message to Guy at 08:59 PST: “Hi Guy, I subtracted the total weight and it is 3920 lbs. That times .64 (cents) us 2508.80 dollars. Correct?”. He called me at 09:01 PST and said, no. That the price quoted by American Moving Partners was 2337.77 and that they said I had 2385 lbs. However, the weight of the truck with my belongings was 3920 lbs. That would meant that even though I had already paid $753.45  + $800.00 on moving day, which equaled to 1553.45, I would be paying (3920 lbs total in truck – 2385 lbs balance estimated by AMP  = 1535 lbs), which would equal to $3408.58 and still had to pay balance due was $1855.18. I also sent the following email to Guy from Max Moving and Storage on July 7th at 23:47 PST time:

I have been doing the calculations and I would like to go over them with you. On the paperwork, I was quoted by American Moving Partners a price of $2337.77, with an estimate volume of 2385 lbs, with $0.64 per pound. I paid $753.45 for the deposit and $800.00 on moving day (which I was not aware of I had to pay for it that day since I cannot see my contracts anymore nor is on the document that Hannah sent me on June 28th, much less that it had to be by cash or money order, but I made it work). This makes a total of $1553.40 I already paid, which is on the paperwork I signed on moving day. On the paperwork you sent me, the truck weighted 3920 lbs with my belongings. The 3920 lbs total in the truck, minus the 2385 lbs weight estimated by American Moving Partners is 1535 lbs. This is what you told me and what is accurately subtracted from. I already paid $753.40 of the deposit, $800 on moving, equaling to $1553.40. $2337.77 (which is the total price for my move per American Moving Partners) minus $1553.40 = $784.37 that is left for me to pay. $784.37 + (1535 lbs times 0.64 = 982.40), equals to $1766.77.his should be what I have left to pay. Can you look this over and reply to this message?

He called me the next morning, on Sunday, July 8th and said that the reason for the charge I calculated from the difference he has is because of the extra fuel surcharge which is 9.00%. I asked Guy where the truck was. He said he did not want to bother the truck drivers so he would never tell me where the truck was before and after this conversation. He would tell me that the truck could be in New Orleans or Texas. I decided to keep in contact with him every 2 days because of it.

 Per our text messages, he kept saying that the truck would be coming to California soon, between “2-3 days”. Upon speaking with Guy on Saturday, July 14th, he told me that the Max Moving and Storage truck was stopped in Texas on Thursday, July 12th, and when I asked Guy, he said he did not have a lot of information about the location of the truck or what happened to it. I tried again to get more information from him when we spoke again that weekend, but did not have much success.

When I spoke to Guy on July 16th, he said the driver who was coming to California to drop off mine and oher people's belongings got in trouble with the State Department of Motor Vehicles in Texas and the truck had not been released from the government yet. He said he was not told exactly what happened, or would not tell me, but thought that the man who was driving the truck "maybe upset the state trooper" and "had been in jail for a couple of days".

He did disclose any other more information other than that "they can only keep the truck for a week" and "they've had it since July 12th". I contacted and sent an email to American Moving Partners about it, which were not aware of it, on the night of July 16th, and when Henry from American Moving Partners called me at 06:00 PST time, I explained to him that is what I had heard from Guy. He then called Guy right after that morning on July 17th, and Guy told him the driver of the truck was NOT in jail.

On Thursday, July 19th, I called Henry again, who put me on hold, and said he would call Guy on the phone again. Guy then told Henry the driver of the truck was actually in jail and would be there for an indeterminate amount of time.  Nevertheless, my belongings were supposed to be delivered by July 21st, within 3 business days "from leaving Virginia" by Guy (July 5th), which was the latest date they could come up with after so much misleading and miscommunication from the company. By the way, the Texas investigators never found evidence of this happening in Texas. There have been many stories told by other brokers about what really happened but as Guy himself told me, he did not release all the information to the investigators. 

I texted Guy again on that Monday, July 23rd, and he said the "estimated date of delivery" is that I should have "the items by the end of the month or beginning of August”. Around 16:00 PST that day, I called Guy again. He said that the delivery was supposed to be on July 23rd, but he had 30 days to deliver my belongings, therefore it hadn’t been a breach of contract (even thought he had 21 days from the time of pick up to deliver it to me). He said that after August 3rd, if I still did not have my belongings, that I would receive “some kind of refund”.

The conversation with him went from changing the dates constantly, saying that my belongings did not leave Virginia until July 9th, that he had until August 4th, August 5th, to deliver them. Because of the confusing and misleading information, I asked him to send me an email with the exact days and he refused to do it. He said that I should talk to the broker and ask them to send me something in writing about it. He said he had sent all the documentation the DOT investigator from Texas, who I had contacted to help me with this case.

On July 24th, at 09:25 EST, I spoke with Guy again, who told me that after the 21 business days passed the day of delivery, I would get a refund. It would be “$30.00-35.00 per day”, about “$300-$500”. The Texas DOT investigator called me on the phone on July 25th and confirmed he received the documents from Guy. I told him I had not filed the complaint to FMCSA yet, but had sent part of my documents to their email before I talked to someone on the phone.

Guy called me again on the phone on July 26th at 09:02. He sent me a copy of the yellow document, which on the back of the documents I signed upon my delivery. And said that he would only keep my belongings if he got at my address and I would not pay him the $1855.18 upon the delivery. He “assured” me I would receive my things no matter what, even if they were late and that he had never not delivered belongings to anyone during his time as a mover (paraphrased by me).

I had no idea where was the exact location of my belongings, other that it is in a storage unit in Killeen, Texas. Guy have always avoided talking about the refund, the estimated delivery day of my belongings, and I have been yelled and screamed at me for more than a month before I involved the investigators in the process. I started a new job and all this brought a lot of stress and anxiety on my loved ones and myself. I put a great deal of time and money with things I was not even able to use. I got a lease on an apartment in which I had to pay a monthly rent which I was able to live in since June 25th because of the lack of furniture. I scheduled internet service on July 9th to sit on the floor with my electronics right before Guy said his trucker was arrested.

Since July 30th, I have been in contact with investigators from FMCSA. I gave him Guy’s information from Max Moving and Storage and Guy put in writing about me receiving some money back, saying I was supposed to have my belongings on August 11th.  After a lot of back and forth for weeks, Guy told the investigator's suppervisor from FMCSA, on August 13th, that the truck was going to leave Texas on August 14th and be in California on August 17th. She made him put in writing a window of when I was supposed to receive my items, which was between that Saturday and Wednesday, August 22nd.

I never received a word from Guy until Sunday, the 20th, when I inquired again about where the truck was. He said he would check and update me the next day, which did not happen. Once I reached out to the investigators and the broker, Guy said my belongings “were on the way”. He also went back on his word and said he told me the truck would not leave Texas before Tuesday, August 21st, and he said I “should expect the belongings to leave Texas the next day and those would be in California on Friday, the 24th” and that they had “8 deliveries just in [my area].” I still basically had no idea when I would have my items.

When my belongings finally got to my home, much of the stuff was either broken, perforated, scratched, dented or missing. The pictures I sent to the investigators, the broker and to Guy speak for themselves. My $600 marble top desk was severely damaged. Even the marble is cracked. My dressers which I had only purchased last year have many dents. My $900.00 65 inch TV’s glass was perforated, scratched and broken. It was a total loss. They also lost the screws for the other TV and I could not connect the TV to the base.

The boxes that I bought for the move from Walmart were missing latches, bent, and could not close anymore. One of my 3 tall lamps came back without the top glass and broken plastic to hold a lamp. The box that it came in was smashed and had someone else’s writing, therefore initially I thought it was not mine, until I opened it and found only 2 of the top glasses inside. I found a piece of the glass in the trash, which means it was broken on the way. My shredder was also broken. 

Nonetheless, the movers (one whose name is Yuri), Guy Ailam contracted to deliver my belongings, left everything trashed in the apartment and did not even unwrap at the end because all they cared about was the signature that I received my items. Once seeing the desk and the 65 in TV, I called the broker immediately, who called Guy. Upon waiting 10 minutes to receive a call back, the drivers left my complex with their truck.

I have on record that Guy said he would give me back money from the delay of the move, would file a claim and send me paperwork, and then decided on  August 28, 2018, that I had nothing to claim for. He also sent a text saying that the majority of my damages were scratches, which is obviously not true. He did not want me to file a claim with his cargo insurance company, saying on text that I had nothing to claim for, however, I called the broker customer service and the investigators reach out to him and he finally sent in the form.

Guy "offered" $776.40 for the damages pending that "sign a release form we send you to waive all future claim and law suits and than [they]process [it]". However, the damages, the delay, the lying, his yelling on the phone, the stress, pain and suffering he put myself and other people through this entire process since the beginning is not even close to cover everything that happened. Research Guy Ailam and you will find a bunch of scams throughout many years. Hope this guy is caught red handed and goes to prison someday.

There are things you can do so he is reported to the right agencies. The more reports he gets, the better. They cannot make him pay for the damage and delayed shipment with a fair amount, but at least it will be on record what he has done to you and there will be investigators and investigations involved. He will not want his insurance to pay for anything because he wants to "take care of it" himself (meaning he does not want his cargo insurance to go up and will offer you the minimal amount for damages, delay, stress, pain and suffering). Still report it. Also keep everything on record.

Call the victim hotline of fraudulent moving companies at 1-800-424-9071 or email them. File a complaint with the BBB, file a complaint with the FMCSA, and if he tries to keep your stuff hostage in a storage unit (where he won't tell you the exact location of where it is), call the police. He will tell you that you need to pay more money to go get your stuff. That's another one of his lies. His Insurance information for Max Moving and Storage LLC and is Travelers Property Causality Company of America. The policy number is : 5J321745