Abusive Cheats take advantage of the elderly
Ronnie
Submitted this review about
ASAP Relocations
Review made Live: 2/15/2010 5:07:00 PM
Description
I hired Fast Move Vanlines on October 7th, 2009 to move some furniture from my mother's house in Vacaville, CA to my home in the Hamptons, New York. The scheduled pick-up was on October 21st, 8am in the morning. The agreement was for $786.45 for up to 1000 lb. My shipment ended-up being 980 lbs. I made the arrangements over the phone with Ashley.
Fast Move, aka ASAP Vanlines, intimidated and took advantage of my elderly mother; kept changing their payment requirements and harassing me personally; and charged unauthorized extra fees at every turn.
Elder Harassment:
On October 21st, the moving men did not arrive until 8:00pm and their van said ASAP movers on the side. My elderly mother was very nervous to let them in so late, especially since their van had a different company name on it, and she wanted to watch them move her things, but they tag-teamed her: one cornered her and made her sign a large bundle of blank documents in her home while the other went into her garage alone. The paperwork should have been completed before they arrived, but she was forced to fill-out new forms which were completely blank and which they refused to give her a copy of.
After 20 minutes of signing blank invoices, she went into the garage and found the man was wrapping two pieces, even though everything was already boxed. The other man joined him in over-wrapping everything and telling her she had to box all the chairs, she protested but they said they would not move the chairs unless each one was in a separate box. When I spoke to them on the phone, I was told that they offer free furniture pads and furniture is not required to be boxed.
Extras and Payment Issues:
I was charged extra for all the packing materials and tape. After all this, they left packing material and debris scattered across her yard and her street.
After this debacle, I called Sally Green, the manager, about the ASAP moving van. She lied to me and said they just purchased those vans and had not had the chance to paint over them yet. After calling ASAP movers directly, they told me they were owned by Fast Move. They refused to give me a copy of any of the forms my mother signed either, telling me I could only have them after delivery. I was originally told that I could use a credit card to pay for the order, but then I was told their machine was broken. They told me that I had to pay $300 in packing charges, which were added to the blank forms, even though I had self-packed. I was told they wanted full payment, plus the $300 in cash before they would let my shipment leave California. They were holding my shipment hostage.
I asked to speak to the owner and Sally refused to let me speak to the owner, or even tell me the name of the owner. After originally agreeing to accept credit card payment, she said that now that they had possession of the shipment, they would only accept cash or money order. After many phone calls, they said they would only accept the credit card payment in-full and it would cost an extra 5%. Sally was rude and abrasive, hanging-up on me several times. I spent 6-7 hours over the course of a week trying to make payment arrangements. As a small business owner, I don’t have time to waste on issues like this.
They also tried to make me pay for storage while they waited for the payment, though the contract states that they give 30 days of free storage. When the shipment arrived, the driver told me it would cost $350 extra to take my shipment from the van into my home, I refused and he ultimately relented.
Though my shipment came-in under the weight requirement, I was charged $1,081.45 instead of the original estimated price of $786.45. My classic Eames Recliner also arrived broken, despite their $300 worth of supposed packing supplies and service.
Customer Service:
Although Ashley, who took the initial order, was pleasant, Sally’s customer service demeanor was combative, rude, obnoxious, abrasive, inconsistent, hostile and less than honest at every turn.
My mother and I were harassed, upset and lied to by this company and then overcharged! We felt helpless and almost considered letting them keep our belongings.
We filed with the BBB.
