Moving is stressful when all goes to plan, but when you’ve made the mistake of choosing a disreputable moving company to move your belongings, your move can quickly become an all-out nightmare. In this series, we’ll take an in-depth look at those moving horror story scenarios and provide you with the knowledge to avoid your own moving horror story.
A recent client engaged Rented Truck Driver in the midst of her moving nightmare, but this story actually begins weeks prior to her call to us. The client had booked a move from New Jersey to the Denver, Colorado area at a cost of approximately $11,000. The company had promised her a stress-free moving experience, and though their contract was a bit difficult to understand and she wasn’t entirely clear on the process, she was relieved when they arrived at her home on time on the scheduled date and began loading the moving truck with her belongings. Things seemed to be moving along, and the client was even kind enough to buy the loaders pizza. When she returned, pizza in hand, it was apparent that the work had slowed considerably, and that very few of the client’s belongings had actually made it onto the moving truck.
Did You Know?
When you hire a moving company, your belongings are almost always placed on a shared truck and moved between different trucks multiple times on their journey to your final destination. Moving companies do this to save on fuel and maximize profitability but rarely does the client understand that their belongings are combined with those from other moves, or that their items are loaded and unloaded multiple times during the trip. When you rent your own truck and engage Rented Truck Driver, you can rest assured that your belongings are never co-mingled with those of other clients and that our DOT licensed professional drivers are in contact with you every step of the way.
When the client returned, work eventually resumed and things were being placed quickly on the truck, but the worst was yet to come. The driver informed the client that the truck was full, that in fact, she had more belongings than truck space, and that she would need to pay an additional seven thousand dollars in order to continue with the move.
Did You Know?
You might be wondering how the client’s initial estimate could have been so incredibly inaccurate, and how a professional moving company could have overlooked an additional $7000 worth of required truck space. Did the client purchase more items after her estimate? Did she fail to disclose the entirety of her home’s contents? Unfortunately, what happened to this client isn’t uncommon among unscrupulous moving companies. It was actually nothing that the client did, nor was it a poor estimate; when the client left to get the movers pizza, they blocked off a portion of the moving truck to make it appear as though it was full when there was plenty of empty, unloaded space in order to charge the client a large additional fee.
The client, now in a desperate situation, her belongings on the moving truck, was told to “handle it with the office” and that her move would not be completed until she paid the additional $7000. Her moving cost had nearly doubled before the movers had even left her driveway! One would think that the worst of this horror story was over, but things didn’t improve once the truck pulled away. When the client called the office to contest the additional charges, those talks went nowhere. Eventually it became clear that they intended to hold her belongings hostage and refuse to return them to her unless she paid up. Finally the client, at her wit’s end, called Rented Truck Driver and spoke with expert moving specialist Frank Futie. Frank took charge and advised the client to make a complaint with the DOT, and took over negotiations with the client’s original moving company.
Did You Know?
In situations where your moving company is acting unethically, refusing to release your belongings, or demanding money or other consideration that was not outlined in the contract that you signed, a DOT complaint (which can result in fines of up to $10,000 a day for the moving company) is often the only effective way to get your move back on the road. You can avoid the extreme inconvenience and stress of filing complaints and dealing with delays when you hire a licensed driver from Rented Truck Driver for your move. You’ll be dealing with moving professionals from beginning to end, no complaints necessary.
Once Rented Truck Driver was handling the client’s move, the original moving company agreed to tender the client’s belongings via text message. At this point, the client had been without her belongings for over a week. The agreement was made on a Friday, but there were still issues ahead. The client’s original moving company would only release her belongings the following Tuesday and did not provide an address at which the truck could be offloaded and reloaded onto the client’s new rented truck. After more wrangling, the Rented Truck Driver team was able to set a meeting and get the client’s belongings safely loaded and on the road to Colorado.
Fortunately for this client, she was able to recover most of her original moving costs in small claims court. But the stress, wasted time, and additional costs could have been avoided had she engaged a reputable moving company from the start.
Moving is stressful under the best of circumstances but it is truly a nightmare when you’ve hired an unscrupulous or unprofessional moving company. Rented Truck Driver has hundreds of 5-star reviews with the Better Business Bureau and thousands of satisfied clients. Our contracts are easy to understand, our processes are always clearly explained, and we’re in contact with you from beginning to end.
Looking to move without your own moving horror story? Get a quote now!