Do NOT move with this company!
Brannon Jordan
Submitted this review about
Quality Relocation Services
Review made Live: 4/27/2015 12:19:00 PM
I hired American Discount Movers to move my furniture from Colorado to Alabama, and they in turn contracted with Quality Relocation Services. They both did a terrible job.
The agent who signed me up was Michael. When I signed up with him he said I would be able to get ahold of him at any time during the move. He also told me they could arrange for me to be picked up and receive delivery on a small truck, instead of a tractor trailer, as well as an optional 30 days of free storage, at no extra charge. I gave him my estimate which was a 1-bedroom apartment, consisting of a number of pieces of furniture, a painting, and 40 boxes. He also said there would be no charge for wrapping a painting. He said delivery of the furniture should take about 5-7 days, and we scheduled a pickup date of December 5, 2014. He estimated the cost would be $1599. He said the cost would probably be as low as $1450, especially if I reduced my load, but he just wanted to overestimate a little bit so that I was not upset when my furniture was actually weighed.
He then e-mailed me a contract to sign and tried to sneak a number of things by me. I told him “Michael, the contract says you’re allowed to charge me extra if you use a small truck. Could you please put that in writing?” He then resent the e-mail with a note added “Pick up will be scheduled for a 26 ft truck.” I said, “Well, can you please say that there’s no charge for the 26 ft truck?” He then re-sent it with a note that said “Pick up will be scheduled for a 26 ft truck at no additional cost.” However, he didn’t say anything about the storage and delivery on a small truck. I asked him to fix the written contract again. He then wrote a note and resent the contract, and it said “30 days of storage and re dilivery [sic] at additional cost.” I told him “It says ‘additional cost,’” and asked him to fix it again. He re-sent it and it said “30 days of storage and re dilivery [sic] at no additional cost.” I said “It says re-delivery at no additional cost, but it does not say it will be delivered on a 26-foot truck. Could you please fix that?” He finally re-sent it and it said “Thirty days of storage and re dilivery on a 26ft truck at no additional cost.” Basically he thought I wasn’t even going to read what he just sent me.
A few days later a representative called me and said there would be a charge for wrapping the painting. I said that was not what Michael told me. However, I ultimately decided to remove the painting and just carry it in my personal car. I also reduced the number of boxes from 40 to 33, and I added 1 ironing board and 1 suitcase, and added 2 small folding TV tray tables.
The movers did not show up on December 5, as agreed. They called me and said that they would arrive tomorrow, Saturday, December 6, in the morning between 10:00 and 12:00. They didn’t show up. I tried to call them but couldn’t get ahold of anybody. The manager was saying she didn’t know who my driver was. Eventually Sal called me and said that I would be moving “today.” He told me to relax and just watch some T.V. I said I can’t watch T.V. because I’ve already disconnected my cable. He then said “Just plug it back in.” I said I’d already returned the cable box to the cable company. The movers did not show up that day, as Sal said they would. While I was calling up people trying to get ahold of someone from American Discount Movers, I noticed that I missed 2 phone calls. However, I did not receive a voice message. I then called those numbers, which apparently belonged to movers, but no one answered. I tried calling those phone numbers, and several other phone numbers, but couldn’t get ahold of anyone. I then had to call my power company and tell them to delay my termination of power service because the movers didn’t show up.
On Sunday morning, the subcontracting mover, who had a foreign accent, called me. He said he had left a voice message for me yesterday but couldn’t get ahold of me. I said that I didn’t receive a message and I was trying to call him. He said he did in fact leave a message. I said I don’t want to argue, I just want my stuff picked up. He said the movers would be there at about 10:00 a.m. They didn’t show up at 10:00. I got ahold of the driver and he said they’d be there in about an hour. They didn’t show up until 2:35 p.m.
There were 3 movers who arrived in an unmarked truck. All 3 of the movers were foreign, two of them were Mexican. The Mexican guys wore uniforms. However there was a 3rd foreign guy who was over 45 years old who was not in any kind of uniform and he looked very unprofessional. He was probably over 45-50 years old. He was probably eastern European; I know he wasn’t Hispanic because he spoke English when he talked with the Mexicans.
The lead mover was a Mexican guy and he came in and asked me to sign some paperwork. One of the papers said “I agree that I have received a copy of the claims procedures.” I asked “Where’s my copy?” He said he didn’t have a copy for me. I said, “Well, you’re asking me to sign something that says I have a copy of it.” He then said I didn’t have to sign it right away, and that I could sign it when I received delivery of my furniture.
The lead mover then said there would be a $60 surcharge for wrapping some of my sofa and bed in shrink wrap. I had included my sofa and bed in the original estimate, so I do not see why I was not told about that at the beginning.
During the move, two of the guys struggled mightily to get my couch out of the front doorway. They were banging it against the wall and couldn’t figure out how to get it out. Eventually I went and told the lead mover that the other 2 movers were having trouble. They continued to struggle to get it out, and eventually had to remove the door to get the couch out. When I had moved into that same apartment months earlier, I had hired a couple of black guys off Craigslist, one was heavily tattooed and the other was mentally retarded, and they were able to move the couch in without any problem. Apparently the couch was much harder for these guys.
The eastern European guy took my kitchen table and slid it down the staircase, without another mover assisting him. I did not think that was appropriate and he should have gotten another mover so that they could both carry it down the stairs.
When the movers were checking out, the lead mover didn’t have copies of paperwork for me, so we had to go to my apartment office to get copies. He also told me that I had to choose whether to purchase full liability insurance or minimum liability insurance. I asked how much full liability insurance cost. He called his boss and then told me I was not allowed to purchase full liability insurance; I had to sign for minimum liability insurance.
I then moved out of my apartment and got out on the highway. While I was traveling across the country, that foreign moving dispatcher I described earlier called me and said they would not move my stuff unless I signed the claims procedure form. I said that the lead mover told me I didn’t have to sign it right away. He said, “Yes he did in fact tell you to sign it, and you didn’t sign it!” I then had to go find a store with faxing and copying service in an unfamiliar city. He e-mailed me the form, I signed it, and faxed it back to him. It took more than one try to fax it to him because he apparently gave me a bad fax number at first.
Later I tried to call them to confirm they had received the fax. I got ahold of them on December 15, a week after they threatened to not move my stuff. The woman I talked to said, “I’ll check on that, and call you back if they haven’t received the fax. I then said “Please call me back either way, just so I know they’re not forgetting about my delivery.” She then called me back and said that they received the fax. She said they would be leaving Colorado for Alabama on Tuesday (December 16) or Wednesday (December 17).
I then followed up on Thursday, December 18, 2014, and the ADM staff member said that she believed the driver had left Colorado with my belongings on Wednesday night.
I then got ahold of their office on Monday, December 22, 2014. The woman who answered said that the driver had not yet left Colorado with my belongings and they would be arriving “the middle of next week.”
I then spoke with ADM again 8 days later on Tuesday, December 30, 2014. They said that the driver would be arriving “this weekend.” The furniture did not arrive that weekend.
The furniture did not arrive until January 9, 2015. This was far beyond the time promised and beyond the maximum time permitted by the contract.
When the movers arrived at my new apartment, the lead mover was a guy with long hair & dreadlocks. My apartment was on the 2nd floor of a building. There was 1 flight of stairs. We looked at the stairs and the mover said “That’s 2 flights of stairs. One flight is 10 steps.” He said there would be a surcharge.
I said “No, that’s one flight of stairs.” The contract didn’t say that one flight is 10 steps. A flight of stairs is a flight of stairs. He also said there was an extra charge for carrying the furniture more than 75 feet. I showed him the paperwork which said the extra charge only applied after 100 feet. He tried to tell me, “That’s the broker’s paper work. That’s not my company.”
I didn’t give him the money that he asked for; however, I gave him a little more money than I believed I owed him, as I didn’t want him to drive off and steal my furniture.
As they were moving, the #2 mover started setting lots of the items outside of my apartment. He said he would start out setting them there before bringing them inside. Then later the lead mover came and started yelling at me and being ugly to me, for having the 2nd mover set furniture outside. He had a thick accent so I couldn’t catch the precise words that he said, but he was mad at me for not moving the furniture inside myself, or for making them do “double work,” as now they had to move the furniture a second time, into the apartment.
Several pieces of furniture were damaged--the headboard to the bed, 2 chairs, and the television.
Then when I got to the claims process, the pain continued. They require you to submit your claim by snail mail and you can’t submit it electronically. They say that you have to submit photographs and you can’t submit them on a CD; they have to be printed out. Also you have to go get estimates for repair of the furniture; however you’re not allowed to move the furniture from the delivery location. They also ask you to sign paperwork that says you agree to only litigate the case in Florida. It was just ridiculous.
I would not recommend this company to anyone.
