King Arthur unreputable, dishonest business practices
Alice
Submitted this review about
King Arthur Moving Express LLC
Review made Live: 2/4/2010 12:33:00 PM
On December 1, 2009 I submitted an online request for a moving quote to ship a small amount of my daughter's household goods from California to Colorado. I received many responses by phone and email. I chose King Arthur Moving Express LLC because a friendly man named Rich called me and told me his company travels between California and Colorado twice a week anyway, and he would be able to move my small shipment very cheaply. He then sent me an email stating the same.
After checking the Better Business Bureau and seeing that the company had a very good rating, I filled out and submitted King Arthur’s online inventory list. I received a Moving Quote by email on December 3 which showed my inventory list with estimated volume (173 cu ft) and weight (1035 lbs), and a price of $0.77 per lb. The total moving quote was $796.95.
I called Rich Ryan and set up the date for pickup and paid a $200 deposit through Paypal. On Dec 5 I drove to the storage unit in town to wait. The driver arrived at our storage unit near my home an hour and a half late, in a Budget rental truck with graffiti along the sides. He looked extremely disreputable – dirty with lots of facial hair, long hair and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. I was intimidated but went ahead and took him to the unit containing our belongings. The first thing the driver did was have me sign a lot of paperwork and fill in the to: and from: addresses for the shipment – I tried to read most of it and ask questions about what they were for – his answers seemed sensible enough, but there was so much that I wasn’t able to read it all. After I had finished the driver told me he’d give me all the copies as soon as he finished loading the truck.
Once the truck was loaded and locked, the driver presented me with two papers: one was the list of items he had packed, the other was a bill of lading showing “Flate rate $1873.99”. My signature was right below it. I was shocked and told him that I had not agreed to pay that. He said the volume was a lot more than I had stated and that I needed to write him a check for 65%. I told him my checking account couldn’t cover that and I was only prepared to pay $380. I wrote him the check, intending to call and get everything straightened out with Rich.
Unfortunately Rich was not available by phone, so I emailed him my complaint. On Monday morning, Dec 7, I called Rich but he said he didn’t have time to talk to me and would call back. He did not call back. I emailed him again on Monday evening. I was able to contact him by phone on Tuesday but all he said was that I owed the full $1873.99 since I had signed the paperwork showing I had agreed to the flat rate. Next, I put a stop on the check I had written for $380.
At some time either on Dec 7 or Dec 8, I received a phone call from Mike at King Arthur. I told him what the driver had done and he said he had heard this same complaint from other customers, and that the driver would be fired if this is what was done. He acted very kind and persuasive, asked me to be understanding, and said the company does need to make money and that $1800 was a fair price. I asked if he was willing to lower the price at all but he said no.
I called Paypal customer support, who filed a dispute for me but their system immediately emailed me “our investigation into your claim is complete. ..the claims process..does not apply to [this transaction]..we are unable to reverse this transaction or issue a refund.”
I decided not to move the shipment to Colorado after all this. I emailed Rich on Tues, Dec 8, asking for a binding estimate for the shipment of my belongings back home.
A woman named Alison from King Arthur called and said she’d like to work with me and let me know what my options were. I asked her to email my options so I could discuss with my husband what to do. Her emails on Dec 9 presented me with three choices - $1200 to deliver the shipment to Colorado, $800 to deliver it back home, or $600 if I wanted to pick it up at their warehouse.
On Dec 9 I asked Alison to email me an explanation as to why the driver was allowed to load the truck and then change the price. Her response on Dec 10 was that he needed to load the truck to see how much space is being used on the truck. She also itemized charges for the materials used to pack the furniture. She sent a binding estimate for moving the shipment back home and scheduled a delivery for Dec 15. I responded by email that I would show the quote to my husband. I did not sign and return the binding estimate.
On Dec 14 Alison emailed that they had not received confirmation for the Dec 15 delivery. She asked me to let her know if I wanted the delivery to go to Colorado instead, but if not “we will see you in the morning.”
On Dec 15 I emailed Alison a request for a quote to pick up the shipment from their warehouse, stating that I had used some of the moving money I’d saved to pay for a new bed for my daughter (which was part of the moving contents). There was no response, so on Dec 28 I emailed again. Alison responded by email with a binding estimate for $800 to pick up the items at King Arthur’s warehouse. She also let me know that starting tomorrow storage fees would be added. I emailed her asking why the amount was now $800 instead of $600, and also asked for the location of the items so I could print out driving directions. Alison’s next email replied that the $800 is correct since they had spent time and money on scheduling the re-delivery date. Included in the email was the address of the warehouse where my belongings are supposedly stored. I responded that I had never signed that estimate. Alison then sent me another estimate showing $600 for me to pick up the shipment.
Mike from King Arthur called me Jan 7 at 4pm and asked what I wanted to do about my shipment. I had read on the BBB site that I should inform the company of my complaint and talk about a resolution. So I told Mike that I no longer wanted his company to move the shipment because they had been dishonest by changing the price we had initially agreed on with the first estimate without my consent, and changing the price from our verbal agreements each time they sent me a new estimate. I told him that I no longer had confidence that King Arthur would honor their side of any agreement. To resolve the dispute, I demanded the return of my shipment and the refund of my $200 deposit.
Mike then began to argue with me, stating that I "wanted everything for free" and threatened that I would be hearing from his attorney. I told him that I had already filed complaints with the BBB, FMCSA, and CPUC and that I did not intend to argue, I was just informing him. I asked him if we could set up some kind of arbitration, but he said that was only for lost or damaged goods. He then told me that he was going to have to auction my shipment to try to recoup his losses. I received a notice in the mail that my shipment has been put up for auction.
