I started working with this company back in February for a move across the country from Atlanta to Laguna Niguel Ca. I have a pending job offer contingent up a security clearance. The security clearance can take up to a year but I fully expected it would be done in by around the April or May. I needed to know the costs involved etc..to plan such a large move. I contacted Ocean Moving in Storage for a quote along with several other companies. I sent the inventory list from when I moved to Georgia to them which has not changed at all to get prices. I did some research on the companies and narrowed it down to them based on price and the fact they actually had some reviews etc.. Although I beleve the good reveiws on here are posted from people from within the company.
I wanted to wait to set the dates but the sales person (Victor) told me I should go ahead and lock in the price before the prices go up in the spring. I agreed to a contract and then sent them a deposit of $500 on May 12th 2010. I made it extremely clear the dates were tentative in all of our correspondence and I even wrote "Apr 30 tentative" date on my Credit Card Authorization form. The date on the contract was April 1st, 2010 which as of the Mar 12th, 2010 when I gave them the deposit I already knew was not going to work and told them I told them to make the date April 30th, approximately as stated on my authorization form. They agreed and told me no problem.
All of a sudden I get a call on April 14th asking if they could change the move to Sunday April 18th. I didn't know what they were talking about or know where that date came from? I told them I'm not moving on Sunday and still don't have any viable dates. I also told them maybe I should cancel and I will get back to them when I have something more solid to work with. The sales person, Victor then told me if I cancel then they are not going to refund my deposit since it wasn't within 3 business days of the move. First the way I count it is Wednesday is 3 days prior to Sunday? Which he of course did not agree He said why don't you just extend again instead. So I did for an additional month which would have made the date the mddle of May. It is now pretty apparent that I may not be moving since I was promoted in my current location. I emailed them on 05/03 asking them to cancel the move and return my deposit. They stated that since I did not cancel with the three days of my original date they are not going to give me my deposit back.
I even went so far as to tell them when I was cancelling that I would be back in touch with them when I have actual dates and if I actually take the job. My deposit of $500 was over the minmal amount required of 15%, I gave more as an act of complete good faith, and so I would have a leesot balance due at the end. This company has spent minimal time and effort is setting this move up. I sent them the complete inventory and contacted them. I made it extremely clear from the beginning that I did not have confirmed dates. They assured me that I would get my deposit back as long as I adhered to the 3 business day policy, which I feel I did.
They are unreasonable in the fact that they are acting like I ripped them off. Quotes from the sales person emails " After review of the order my manager will not let me give your deposit back because you did cancel first with in our cancellation window last month and then I changed the date. I thought I would be able to save the deposit for you but my manager will not let me.", "My system shows you cancelled 2 days from the original date of move and signed our terms and conditions. I really wish I could help you with this but I have no other option." and "Well we do have an electronic signature from you as below for the date so you are wrong on this one. We do this so when we have disputes we have documents with your IP address and date and time so we don’t loose money AND I BOLDED THE DATE FOR YOU.. Listed below is what you signed last month. We have everything in writing as a legit company. We don’t scam any one and you can post what you want but all phone calls are recorded and ALL EMAILS are saved in the computer system." and lastly, "From the original date Brian not from when you switch it. We can’t have customers try to scam us as a company. You tried to cancel 2 days prior to the original move date which we have the phone conversation recorded for our credit card companies."
Enough said, so this poor company needs to protect themselves from all us scammer consumers, Silly me. Not to mention there is no mention of any phone calls being recorded when speaking to them. So if they are recording peoples conversation without their knowledge it is illegal. Not to mention also that I have asked them to produce some sort of an agreement that shows the date the move was changed to the 04/18/10 date, which they have of course not provided. So they have no evidence to provide that I agreed up the date they were trying to move me. I extended and cancelled two weeks prior to the date I extended to and they are saying I didn't do so in time. No trucks ever came to my house or anything. They conveniently did not contact me prior to the supposed date until it was at or within the cancellation period and now I am the one trying to rip them off?
I even went so far as to offer them $100 of the $500 for their efforts which was refused even though the actual required deposit was only $360. Which they will not even refund the differance between the $500 and the 15%.
Nice, anybody want to do business with a company that treats someone like this? So watch out all you scamming consumers we sure wouldn't want these moving companies to be ripped off by us. Let me see all I did was try to use them, act in good faith, give them a larger than required deposit, and cancel a move that I might not be making, and it costs me $500. Usually the scammer comes out ahead somehow so I scammed them and it costs me $500? I must be the worst scammer in the world?
And by the way when they respond concerning my language and the fact I cussed them out, well that's probably the only thing they say that will be the truth. I'll be seeing them in court. I filed a complaint through the BBB. I am disputing the charge with my credit card company, and I will be posting this on every moving web site I can find. This is how stupid they are. If I cost them one customer they will have lost far more than the $500 they took from me for doing nothing.
