BEWARE! BE WARNED! DON'T EVER USE MOVE ON AND RELOCATION!!!!!!!!!
Holly
Submitted this review about
Grand Merci Moving
Review made Live: 10/11/2009 12:13:00 AM
THESE PEOPLE ARE SCAMMERS!!!!!!!!! I was planning a cross-country move from Atlanta to San Diego. Chris is the contact person I spoke with. I explained I was looking for a reputable company to handle my things with care after a really bad experience with another moving company and also a company that would not "jack up" the price after signing all the paperwork. This guy was a real slick charmer. He has a silver tongue and tells you all the reasons "other" companies suck and rip you off. His big sales pitch is that Move On and Relocation charges "per item" and not by weight. That other movers add additional charges due to extra fuel or other people's items once at the scale... That a "queen bed is a queen bed" regardless of the weight. He answers the phone on the first ring for weeks every single time you call and comforts you about any worries. Then, 2 days before your move you have to update your inventory. He gave me about 5 minutes to update that day and said he was "in a hurry to get the ticket in" and of course run the credit card. This was THE LAST I COULD REACH CHRIS!!!! Also, what HE DOESN'T tell you is that THEY have a pre-determined amount of space that THEY allocate to each item (such as "large boxes", "medium bins", a "dining table and 6 chairs" etc.) and the reality is, it isn't a realistic figure and they will gouge you when your items end up taking more space than what they estimate. DONT FALL FOR THIS GAME! CHRIS was NOWHERE TO BE FOUND, wouldn't pick up his phone, never returned any calls, wasn't available on moving day, and wouldn't EVER call me back. I had to have someone else call him when my things were en-route because I was told NOT TO CONTACT THE DRIVER. Guess what? Chris picked up on the FIRST RING when I had someone else call. He made about 5 excuses to the person that called on my behalf but then realized he had to speak to me. He acted apologetic, made some lame excuses and told me to call ANOTHER NUMBER to find my stuff!!!! He is a fast-talking snake and thief. Once your things are on the truck, they then tell you that you took up way more space than what was estimated and now you owe BIG BUCKS!!!! On my moving day, the movers carefully and neatly loaded up my things orderly and professionally (by JAVIER who works with this company frequently) and then said oh by the way, you owe us $1900 dollars in ADDITION to my quote at the VERY END!!!! The only additional item that went on the truck was a two piece couch but it WAS STILL ON MY INVENTORY ALONG WITH MANY OTHER THINGS even though I had asked to have them removed from the list! So in adding it back, there shouldn't have been a problem. Not to mention that 11 large boxes as well as an office desk and two office chairs DIDN'T go because I sold them last minute which would have freed up a TON of space. I was furious and said NO WAY was I paying that!!! Within 15 minutes, the additional $1900 was lowered to $1200 and then to $600 where they wouldn't budge. Then crazy lady Roni at dispatch threatened to charge me $150 an hour when I wanted to empty the truck to the point of space they had estimated or that I was screwed. She was so evil and rude!!!!!! I tried calling CHRIS about 15 times when it was happening. The coward never EVER picked up! Javier, though experienced, is a total liar and schemer too. He said HE WAS PERSONALLY driving to California with my things BY HIMSELF and that he had two pick-ups once there. Then he gave me his sob story about only making $.13 per mile from Move On and Relocation and that he was making $.45 when he lived in New York. I felt bad for him and I also fed the guys and TIPPED VERY WELL. I also rushed to fly from Atlanta to California because CHRIS said my things would arrive in 7-10 days or even sooner. I wasn't in a hurry until he told me that over and over. I WAS NEVER TOLD my things would be off-loaded and jammed in with other people's things and could take 3 weeks, EVER. Javier also waltzed into my home first thing and tried to get me to sign a contract for "additional packing" consisting of these pathetic cheap tape rolls (half the size of what I bought at Uline) at $5 per roll!!!!! WTF??? I told him NO WAY! First off, I bought my own BRAND NEW MOVING BLANKETS for the large items that THEY were to use to wrap large furniture and is also included in the contract. Everything else was very neatly and thoroughly packed before their arrival with ALL BRAND NEW materials from Uline. DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING!! EVEN JAVIER said to me, "I deal with this all the time". "People are always upset and mad about getting ripped off by these guys"! Here we go again! Another dishonest and thieving moving company. Worse yet, I didn't get the 72, then 48, then 24 hour notice that Chris sells you on for your expected delivery window. Not even 24 hours. In fact, the driver gave me a delivery day the evening before and then canceled the next day. This guy was a real piece of work. HE DIDN"T EVEN HAVE A DELIVERY ADDRESS that I provided Chris via PHONE AND EMAIL!!!!! He had no clue what city it was going to nor that it was a storage unit. I was FURIOUS!!!! And don't even bother with "RONI" the crazy Latina at "dispatch" that will basically tell you to go screw yourself! She will shout at you "go read your contract" and hang up on you! So now it's delivery day. The driver calls me an hour after he was supposed to arrive and worse, he shows up by himself and hardly even knew my name. This guy weighed 300 pounds and barely said 2 words to me. He had NO HELPERS AND NO RAMP ON HIS PIECE OF CRAP TRUCK!!!! His tractor trailer that was falling apart had an old faded UNITED logo and was COVERED in BLACK graffiti, I mean COVERED!!! He also had NO PADLOCKS and had closed his doors with BUNGEE CHORDS!!!!! OH MY GOD!!! ARE YOU KIDDING????? I was so afraid to see inside!!!! I called dispatch and said "I want to see my stuff before I hand over another $2700! And where the HELL are his helpers???" They once again referred me to my "contract" and said if you aren't going to pay, you can't have your stuff. I NEVER said I wouldn't pay and I showed the driver the cash before I even called! That wasn't the point! I had GRAVE concerns about my property and rightly so!!!! The driver called two local guys last minute that told me they weren't even previously scheduled and if they were actually moving stuff into a home, they would have left the job because the driver had no PROPER DOLLIES AND NO RAMP!!!!! It gets worse. All of my things were packed in brand new boxes and blankets. Since Atlanta, my things were off-loaded to this hunk of junk (which Javier lied about) and jammed into the trailor with no rhyme or reason. I was absolutely heartbroken. Every box was crushed. Glass was broken. Furniture was stacked on fragile boxes and now-busted bins and jammed in to fill the space. All my blankets were ripped and filthy! The few things not wrapped were chipped and scratched up. The hired helpers said they had NEVER seen ANYTHING LIKE THIS!!!! It was THE MOST HORRIFYING image I had ever seen! The damage was done. I watched in sorrow as each piece of my life had been irresponsibly and carelessly crushed by these jerks. As for filing a claim? At .$60 a pound why bother. Had the original RENTED ENTERPRISE truck come straight here, my things would be as I left them... in great shape and loaded properly. Can you imagine an armoire (think the size and weight of a grand piano), being tipped over and "pushed and slid on metal" on it's delicate side to the two helpers below???? Insane. The guys didn't even have to unwrap ANYTHING or carry it more than a few feet and it STILL was a disaster and cost just as much!!! This kind of crap should be illegal. DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER THIS COMPANY! Send me an email and I will give you every single and frustrating detail about these thieves!!!! AND BEWARE OF CHRIS!!! HE IS UNETHICAL, DISHONEST, AND HE'S A COWARD WHO WILL NOT RESPOND AFTER YOU INITIATE A CONTRACT! If he loses even one move from mine and other's reviews, I will feel like at least fate is taking care of this crook. I hope he loses a TON of business and I am going to try really hard to WARN INNOCENT PEOPLE! I also really hope some government agency punishes them though for treating people and there things like this. CHRIS and MOVE ON and RELOCATION should be ashamed and OUT OF BUSINESS!!!!
