ORI VAN LINES CHARGES DOUBLE THE ESTIMATE AND DAMAGES PROPERTY AND DOES NOT PAY FOR DAMAGES AND ANTHEM CLAIMS WILL NOT PAY FOR DAMAGES San Jose , California

READ THIS HONEST REPORT FIRST BEFORE YOU HIRE ORI VAN LINES-BEWARE THAT OTHER POSITIVE REPORTS ONLINE ARE PROBABLY LIES & POSTED BY ORI VAN LINES EMPLOYEES!  We have suffered many losses as a result of hiring Ori Van Lines, San Jose, CA, to move our 11 pieces of furniture in early
January 2011.  The losses have been overly excessive charges, damage to our property & belongings, and mental anguish.  We were forced to sign documents we did not agree with under extreme duress, and pay over double what we were quoted.  All this just to get the movers to unload our belongings from their truck. 

We also believe that the three movers who performed the job in early January 2011.  stole a piece of our property and then promptly vandalized our vehicle with it, causing damage to the tailgate.  A County
Sheriff came by our home to take a report on the incident.  This Deputy Sheriff is convinced that the three men involved (one from Peru, one from Israel, one from Mexico) are responsible for the theft of part of our truck rack, and then used the long steel pipe part to damage and dent the tailgate of our truck.  The movers asked for a Tip, and when we did not give them one- we believe they stole from us and used the stolen part to vandalize our truck parked outside.

The following is a summary of what transpired as a result of hiring Ori Van Lines to move 11 pieces of furniture an hour away to our new home.

The Ori Van Line movers were scheduled to arrive between 9 and 11am on in early January 2011.  The 3
movers showed up a half hour later than scheduled (at 11:30am) which then caused unnecessary traffic delays, as a result of leaving our  townhouse at 3pm.  Before they even began the moving process, I was forced to look at extensive contracts to sign before they would even begin preparing the furniture (this was all on the clock & time I had to pay for).  The preparing of the furniture to move took excessive amounts of time and materials (tape, shrink wrap, boxes, bubble wrap, and more and more tape).  They wrapped things so in excess, even things that weren't worth the wrapping,  systematically adding unnecessary time & expense wherever they could. 

They scarred walls, doors, doorways, thresholds while moving stuff out of our home, laid down no mats to protect thresholds, door stop ripped off the wall, damaged 2 expensive wood armoires (the Peruvian foreman took pictures of the damage to both pieces and said that "Ori Van Lines will fix it"), then we were forcefully charged over $900.00.  The quote was less than half, after the company had already raised it from on third that price. I was told things would be wrapped in blankets at no charge, but instead I was charged to wrap some pieces in several boxes, plus I was charged for other additional packing materials. The language barrier caused them to wrap things to move that we were intending to move
ourselves.  Due to the language barrier, they were not understanding instructions, did not have proper tools to remove the refrigerator door so it could be easily taken out of the home- all costing us more &
more time and money. Time was spent looking for tools, in our tool boxes, that the movers should have had available themselves. The movers did not have proper strapped dollies for the heavy pieces like the refrigerator etc. The movers did not have covers for the thresholds to protect them from damage, causing scraping by the furniture running over them & banging the dollies over them with heavy furniture on top. There were no straps used to keep the furniture from tilting and scraping and putting holes in the walls and entry ways. Debris was carelessly left behind at both houses (empty tape rolls, scraps, balls of tape, dirt, empty drink containers).

We had to leave all the drawers and some of our furniture behind, for us to come back and pick up the next day, because we could tell they were purposefully delaying the progress of the job by over wrapping everything, taking several breaks, and the foreman spending lengthy amounts of time in our bathroom- therefore intending to charge us much more than the "estimates".  We had paid for 3 movers, not just two, which in itself would end up costing us more time and money.  The foreman spent excessive amounts of time on his cell phone, and in our bathrooms.  We had carefully stacked the wood drawers to the dressers in neatly organized stacks, and told the movers that we would just be moving those items also
ourselves. 

Again, we noticed that they were just purposefully over-wrapping everything to try to extend the time and the total bill, so we told them we would move many of the items ourselves.  Well, it could have been early
retaliation caused by our intent to do some of the moving ourselves, which would shorten the time & materials they could charge us.  They promptly knocked over two of our stacks of drawers, which damaged and chipped the wood on several drawers.  I did not immediately notice the chips on the drawers, due to the stressful situation and our intent to move them along as much as we could, but the damage is certainly evident today.
 
They were finally all packed up and ready to leave Santa Rosa at 3pm to transport the furniture to our new home about an hour away (3 hours to load 11 pieces of furniture on to their truck??). 

When they arrived at our Hidden Valley Lake home at about 4:45pm, almost twice as long as the drive should have taken, the 3 men refused to unload the furniture.  It was at this point, the foreman insisted that first I needed to read over and sign additional paperwork.  One piece of paper was a bill for over $900.00.  Another paper was an agreement titled "Not to Exceed-Item 465", which stated the "Not to Exceed" amount would be $1,000.  These two papers and other agreements seemed to be my ransom demand, while all our possessions were being held hostage in their truck. They refused to unload anything until we agreed to sign everything as it was written, which we did under extreme duress at about 5pm.  The
"Not to Exceed" form was only presented to me at the exact time they were to unload our furniture into our new home- not at the beginning of the job which I believe would have been proper business practice.  Then, even though I had secured the job with all my credit card information previous to move day and a $50 deposit to secure my move date, the foreman asked for my credit card again.  He claimed he needed all the information again, his cell phone was out of range, and he would need to send my credit card
information by text.  What was I supposed to do?!  Our furniture held hostage in the driveway, I was forced to sign documents I did not agree with, and my personal financial information was to be sent by text message to overpay to unload my belongings.  I know the company needs to make money, but times are very tough and who will pay for the damage Ori Van Lines caused to our homes and our furniture?

They were almost done unloading, unwrapping, and placing all the furniture in our new home, when the foreman approached me with yet another agreement to sign stating that all the furniture had arrived safely. Previously I had noticed that two of our expensive armoires had been damaged in the move- wood was gouged, chipped, and splintered. Though this foreman tried to deny causing the obvious damage to the wood parts, he took pictures of some of the damage with his cell phone camera and stated: "Ori Van Lines will fix it."  Lastly, before the movers left at 7pm, the foreman approached me and said: "You can tip us now". They seemed upset when I said: "if the job didn't cost over twice the estimate and if there wasn't damage to our property, I would tip you." We went back in the house, heard a bang as they were leaving at 7pm & then we heard their moving truck speed away.  But we didn't think anything of it, at the time, as we were extremely exhausted and we immediately began unpacking boxes inside the house until late in the night. The next morning at about 8am, as we left to make the trip back to our old home to get all the drawers and other furniture the movers left behind, we noticed the large steel bar for the back of our truck rack was missing and a large indentation was found in the middle of the tailgate.

This damage could only have been caused from a deliberate bang on the tailgate with a blunt object.  The dent definitely was not there, and all the truck parts were present, when we parked the truck late the day before.

This has been a general summary of the incident.  I have tried many repetitive times to get a response to my phone calls and emails from Ori Van Lines Customer Care.  The head of the department will not
respond in any way.  I have also requested that the General Manager respond, but to no avail.  Ori had a
multitude of opportunities to resolve this matter buy simply continued with the Rip-off.
   
The Deputy Sheriff, who stopped by to do a report , upon thorough analysis of the damage to our truck and the missing truck rack part, is convinced that the movers did this in retaliation for not receiving a cash "Tip" from us for the job.  The stolen truck rack part and the large dent in the tailgate amounts to more than the cost of the move itself.  Additionally, upon issuing a thorough report of the incident to the officer, he sincerely believed all three men to be illegal.  Hence, they would not give their names, or any signature on documents besides the foreman signing as "Ori Van Lines".  This may lead us to believe that the documents are not legal, as they are evidently not signed by a valid person representing the carrier.

Report was filed with CPUC.

When I finally did reach the head of Ori Van Lines Customer Care, she finally agreed in writing to refund a small amount and send me a check.  Manager stated "All refunds are processed within 1-30 days".   Well, after months of receiving no check, and a multitude of phone calls made by me to ask for the check, still no check one year after the move.  The last phone calls I made, the numbers for Ori Van Lines had been changed, and there was no Manager I was given the opportunity to speak with.  Several individual men, who picked up the phone and put me on hold for 10 or 15 minutes and then would come back to verify the mailing address & promise to send the check.  These promises are in the 20 some category & still no check.  The last man I spoke with there, who could barely speak English, apologized all over himself and stated the check would be sent to me right away- months after yet another promise and still no check.

I originally had the basic valuation insurance coverage on this move, so I filed a claim for damages, with detailed pictures, with Anthem Claim Management.  Anthem responded with: No liability shall be provided for damage caused after delivery was completed.  Carrier cannot be held liable for an items previously existing condition.  No damage notations on inventory, Bill of Lading & Inventory signed at delivery.  Ori did not supply an inventory list to me, nor did they ask me to make my own list. The only list available is the one I sent to Anthem in August 2011+ detailed pictures.  Before the work crew left the job in early January 2011, the ORI foreman did have me sign a paper stating that I received the furniture at my new home- I wrote very clearly on this document that the movers had damaged certain pieces of my furniture.  And I listed them on this document, that the foreman took with him & did not furnish me with a copy.  My copy
machine was still packed in a moving box, so I could not copy it myself before he left.  The foreman even took pictures of the apparent furniture damage before he left, but evidently he never intended to make good on his promise that ORI will take care of the damages.

I call Anthem a couple weeks ago, and your Rep said ORI should have furnished me with a list of inventory and a copy of the damage report-which ORI did not do either.  ORI not only charged me over double what
they quoted, but also left me to foot the bill for the damages that they caused.  ORI also originally agreed in writing to send me a very small refund check, but after many months of reminding them, and hearing feeble excuses & even apologies for not sending it timely, the check never arrives in my mailbox.

It is all a evidently a game that ORI plays.  We also suspect that Anthem might be involved in this rip-off game, as they automatically reject your valid claim sent with very illustrative pictures to show all the
extensive damage to your possessions.

There are many, many, many reports online that state the basic horrors of hiring Ori Van Lines.  I wish I had read them before we hired them the day before our move.  Unfortunately, the previous movers we had
scheduled called at the last minute and cancelled, and we had a deadline to be out of the house we were in.  Additionally, there are several surprising reports online that sing the praises of Ori Van Lines- BUT BEWARE AS THOSE ARE FALSE REPORTS & KEEP IN MIND THAT ANYONE CAN GIVE A REPORT ONLINE, EVEN ORI
VAN LINES OWNERS & EMPLOYEES!   My advice is to avoid Ori Van Lines at all costs, and save yourself a huge headache and expense.  If nothing else, I want to help others not to make the same costly mistake that I did.