Universal Moving and Storage picked up my household items in Redmond, WA on Dec 23, 2009. Their truck and employees looked nothing like the pictures on their web site. The truck was covered with grafitti and did not have a logo or company name on it. The workers were not in uniform. They were recruited that morning to do the job. While their estimate, based on an extensive telephone inventory my wife provided, was for $3,700, the actual cost they are billing is $10,091. When the mover left, they did not provide me with ANY paper work (inventory, bill of laden, truck weight) before leaving with my goods. The driver called (2) days later to say I had 20,000 pounds and the bill would be $10,091. Looking back, the scam began when the foreman, late in the evening, informed us that he did not have room in his truck to load all of our items. He said he would "unload" some cargo that did not need to be delivered to Boston until next month, and make room for our stuff in the morning. At that point, we were had to leave town so we agreed. Two days later he called to inform us that the actual weight was 20,000 pounds and the move was going to cost $10K. Universal Moving and Storage is a predatory company that uses low ball quotes to get your precious belongings on their truck so they can extort higher moving tariffs from you. I have been in my new home for over (2) weeks now without any of my household goods. Universal is sticking to their "story" and refusing to negotiate. They actually forged my wife's signature on a couple of documents. Can you believe that! Their only offer so far is for me to: A) send them $9,000 and B) pick up, at my expense, my goods from where they are allegedly stored here in Atlanta. First, I have no intention to send them ANY money until I see my goods and second, there is absolutely NO WAY I have 20K pounds of goods. I have documents from a previous move, with a reputable national company, to prove that everything I had, and we have purged A LOT since then, weighed much less than 20K pounds. At this point I spent hundreds of dollars on items I already own but need to run a household. This unscrupulous company has made a traumatic move even more eventful for my wife and teenage children. I spent several hundred dollars in attorney fees and anticipate additional expenses because this bullying company is used to ripping people off and knows exactly how far they can push the system.
I am not looking for a FREE move but definitely do not want to pay for pounds I did not move. You can find more on Universal Moving and Storage at www.movingscam.com. My advise is to AVOID doing business with Universal Moving and Storage at all costs! You have been warned.
