NW Relocation Bait and Switch, Deceptive, Rip-Off, Abrasive Portland, Oregon

This company is a complete rip-off!

My wife, Lisa and I just moved to Fife, WA from Denver, CO

at the end of October. We had never used a moving company before and we were put in a situation with a new job where we only had 12 days to pack our house and move our family of 7 here. In doing this we found a moving company (NW relocators based out of Portland). We talked to them over the phone and they did an estimate that came out to $2971.14. We went ahead and paid a $600 deposit and scheduled them to come on Oct 24th (the start date in Seattle was Oct. 29th). We were never given an option of an in home estimate and only given the option of pricing by weight, not by cubic feet and never having used a moving company before and being rushed on time, we did not have time to research thus we never knew of these options until after the fact.

On the day of the move, the movers showed up to load our stuff. The crew leader walked into our house and said that the move was going to be at least $6000 and said as high as $7500 dollars (the actual price ended up being $6060). Also, we were only given an estimate for 914 cubic feet and it was going to be at least 2000 cubic feet. We were both confused and in shock.

We told them we didn't know anything about cubic feet and we were only told of weight as a pricing option. He said that weight was still an option as well but they had to leave to weigh the truck because they hadn't done that. He also said that we had to choose right then whether to use cubic feet or weight and that once it was decided then there would be no changing it. We decided to go with weight because we had no idea on the pricing of cubic feet nor did we knowhow well they would have packed the moving truck. So they went and weighed the truck which took them over an hour and a half to do, then they came back and started loading our belongings.

During this time (and most of the day), we were frantically on the phone with the company headquarters trying to find out why and how this could have happened. We spoke to a woman named Gilly and she kept telling us that she had 7 years' experience with this and at this point we had the option to leave things off the truck and that the weight was the weight and that there wasn't anything that they could do about the price. We asked to speak with her boss and were told that she was the manager and that there wasn't anyone else to speak with.

At this point we felt very trapped and railroaded because we had to leave town and didn't have a choice to get anyone else to move our belongings. The movers loaded the truck and were not able to get everything on a single truck (this took them almost 10 hours when they said it would be 4-6) and that it would be another 3 hours if they came back that night (which he said that they did not want to do) or they would come back in the morning and finish loading. We didn't have a choice because of the time and the fact that it was snowing already in Denver and we had to drive through that so we told them to come back in the morning.

They put everything in the garage that was left to be taken and left with our things. Before leaving they had us sign a barrage of paperwork with costs of a "new estimate" including packing charges for things that we didn't know they wouldn't take unless packed a certain way totaling $425 dollars (they did not disclose the prices of the packing materials and labor before this, therefore at the end when this cost came to our attention, we were even more taken aback. Another way they were not upfront with us) for about 8 boxes and labor. We felt sick signing the paperwork because we felt that we had been screwed over with everything that had happened but also felt we had absolutely no choice but to sign it.  

As a side note to this part, we were so scared and in a complete panic that we started leaving things behind to try to reduce the costs (items like an armoire, desk, shelves, freezer and couch and many other items).

We had a friend come a couple days after to take the things and donate them for us. She had also noticed that there were a few things left behind that the movers were supposed to have taken. Now we are without those items and it will cost us even more money to have to replace them.

Since the day we left we have had several conversations with the company. We were trying to get a better understanding as to why this happened the way it did with no other explanation than the one we got on the day of the move. Basically, we did not tell them about the things we had in the house and that there was so much more than we told them. We felt then, and still do feel, like it was nothing less than calling us liars.

We finally got a house in Fife, WA on 11/18 and then called the company again on 11/19 to try to negotiate with them and get our belongings. After getting routed to Gilly again and being told the exact same story of the weight was the weight and that it was our choice to leave things or take things. We asked to speak to her boss again and I was told that a man named Tim Reynolds (owner of the company) was going to call me. Instead I got a call from a guy named Gil (when I asked his last name he refused to give it to me and said it was irrelevant) and when I asked his title he said "I am the person you need to talk to, that is all you need to know" after talking for quite a while, he said he finally divuldged that he was a co-owner of the company.

He then proceeded to start yelling at me about the situation saying we were trying to get this for free and he said "we are losing money and we have absolutely no room to negotiate" I told him that we were not looking to get something for nothing but we felt that we had been screwed over and would like to work something out with them. He, for some reason, calmed down and said that he wouldn't budge on the price but since we were at the 30 days of free storage included in the price that he would waive the storage fees and to call back when we had the money in full. He then hung up the phone.

At this point we only want our things and want to be treated with fairness and respect. Because we were on a tight budget for this move and them doubling the original quote we do not have the money to get our belongings. Our children do not have their beds, we have no pots and pans to cook with, our children are starting school again and are missing most of their clothing due to being packed in the moving truck, they also have all their school supplies on the truck so we have to find a way to get new ones. There are also a lot of sentimental belongings that we do not have and are irreplaceable.