Quest Moving Up-Chrged to double, lost property, left gun safe behind Ft Lauderdale FL

We contacted Quest Moving LLC on June 18, 2018 for an estimate on our move to Texas from California. I explained that I had one 10x20 and two 10x10 storage units that they would be picking up from. I explained that the 10x20 was about ¾ full one 10x10 was about ½ full and the other 10X10 was full, this included a large gun safe weighing approximately 1000lbs. They gave me an estimate of approximately $4000. This seemed a bit low to me so I asked if I could call him back and send pictures of the storage units so that he could see how full they were and adjust his estimate accordingly, he being the expert. I called back about an hour later after sending him the photos. He told me that he had received them and his new estimate was $4250 with discounts for early signing. Again, I thought this was a bit low but he’s the expert and I had sent him pictures of the units and gone over an inventory list with him. We also set a date for the movers to pick up our property. I had originally wanted July 5 but they said they were booked and it would have to be the 7th or 8th. I explained that would not work for us, that we were having appliances delivered to our new house in Texas and needed to drive there to receive them. He put me on the line with their transportation manager who guaranteed me that they would be there at 8am July 4 to pick up our property.

About a week before our move day I was contacted by a representative from Quests CA office to go over details and collect another deposit. They had both our storage unit address and new home address wrong. I asked about the estimate again stating I thought it was low for what we had, again explaining what we had and that I had sent pictures. They suggested that I buy more space at the discounted rate and if I didn’t use the space I would receive a discount. I agreed, just to be safe, after all there the experts. This increased my estimate by approximately $1200. We agreed to the terms and they said I would receive a call the day before our move.

July 4th, 8am came and went. No phone call on the 3rd, no phone call on the 4th. At approximately 10am I called their office, the person answered and was very apologetic and promised they would get back to me asap. At 12pm I called again, same response different person. I called again at 1pm, same response different person. I called for the forth time at 2pm, same response different person. Feeling very frustrated I went to there web site and found a contact email. I wrote a complaint and included the suspicion that I was being undercharged only to be grossly up charged later. I received a call back from a man claiming to be the manager in Florida by the name of Kris. He started off very hostile in my opinion trying to intimidate me. He explained that the “guaranteed” was just an estimate, that they had one or two days to complete the job. He went on to tell me that if there was more property then what I had told them that of course they would charge me at there normal rate. I explained what I had done, sending the pictures, filling out the inventory, explaining how large the storage units were. He was silent for a minute and calmed down considerably. I also told him about the date we wanted to move and the guarantee that was made because they could not do it on that particular date. He told me that all conversations were recorded and that if I were telling the truth about the conversation with his rep. that he would work with me on the finale price and that the movers would be there the next day on the 5th at 8am.

July 5th we drove to the storage units at 7:30am just in case they were early. At 8:45am they finally arrived in a rental truck. Not what we expected sense they told us they were not a broker but the moving company that would be handling everything. I opened up the doors to the storage units and the foreman was immediately concerned that the truck was not large enough for all our property. Eight hours later they had gotten everything but two items on the truck, including my safe. The left-over items were loaded into our van and the foreman had us sign the bill of lading with up charges that sent our total to $15,242. When the shock wore off he assured us that he had been in contact with his boss and the total would not be what was on the paper work, that I would get an email with the final paperwork and price. He asked when we would like our property delivered, we told him as soon as possible. He said the soonest would be three days from then, on the 8th. We said yes that would be great.

July 8th came and went with no contact. We were patient and waited three more days before contacting the company. They said they would look into it and get back with me. They got back with me stating my property was in their warehouse and that I would be contacted when it was being loaded and the approximate date of delivery. That it could take up too ten business days. On the tenth business day I contacted them again and told them we had had no contact about our property being delivered. They said they would check on it and asked when it was picked up. I told them and they said they had up too twenty business to deliver our stuff. I told them that this is the third variation of what I was told but they didn’t seem to care. I also asked for the paperwork they were supposed to send me with the total price and the balance of what I owed. The emailed me a copy of the paperwork the foreman had me sign and said that I would receive a $1500 discount because of my conversation with the manager in Florida. Not the discount that we were expecting, not even close. Our price went from $4000 to over $13000, but we felt trapped, they had our property and we needed it.

On the twentieth business day we received a call from the movers that they would be there the next day at approximately 8:30am. They explained that I needed to have the balance in cash or postal money order to hand them before they could start unloading. After deposits already paid through this hole ordeal the balance a was quoted was approximately $2300. The drive said my balance due was approximately $5500. I explained that was not what I owed and we both began contacting people. I finally got in contact with someone at Quest. She said she would look at everything and get back with me. She was true to her word, she told me there had been a mistake on my account and I now owed another $1000 over what I had been told bring the total owed on delivery to approximately $3300. I felt like we were paying ransom to get our property back. They contacted the driver and gave him the new total.

August 15th 9:30am the movers finally arrive and hour and a half late but finally our property is here. I took them through the house explaining where we wanted our things put. I got to the room where I wanted my safe and he responded by saying “they didn’t tell you”. Tell me what. They didn’t load the safe, it was too heavy and they couldn’t get it on the truck. At this point I’m furious, the sole reason for hiring a moving company and not doing it our selves was the safe. I call Quest and asked where was my safe, it should be on the truck, it’s not, why? She took my info and requested I give her two hours to find out what happened and she would absolutely get back to me. I should have known, I had heard that story many times before but I took her at her word. The next day I emailed my usual contact at Quest telling her what had happened and asked what was going on. She informed me that I had talked to Whitney, the manage, and that she had found my safe still in the warehouse and it would be on the first truck headed our way. I contacted them every two days asking what the status was and to report missing property. I was told nothing about the safe and that she would tell the transportation manager about the missing property. After two weeks I tried to contact them everyday with no reply. On August 4th I finally received an email from Whitney stating, again, my safe would be sent when the had a truck coming my way and that I needed to contact movingclaims.net to file a claim. I told her that I had been in contact with them for weeks about the missing property and was always told the transportation manager would be notified. Never anything about filing a claim. Of course no contact about that. I also told her their truck problem was not mine, I paid to have my safe here with my other property if they had a problem they need to fix it and get me my safe. No response.

It is October 1st and my safe has not been delivered as stated they would in their contract and no attempt to find my missing property. If this is not criminal it should be. The up-charging alone should send someone to jail and then leading people to believe they are looking for your property when what they are really doing is hoping to delay you until the deadline for filing a claim is up.