Beware! Rip-off artists!
A Hennessey
Submitted this review about
King Van Lines
Review made Live: 9/11/2008 8:44:00 PM
I contracted King Moving to move me from Oregon to Kentucky a year ago and Jill was oh-so nice to deal with, promising me all sorts of things, trying to convince me to use them to move my car, and all sorts of things. The movers were supposed to show up at 5 PM, but didn't arrive until 10 PM and then they showed up in a Penske rental truck. They did a lousy job of padding my furniture and charged me $12 per roll of tape it took to tape down the pads and anything else that needed extra security.
All this time, they were drinking energy drinks because they hadn't had any sleep (they admitted) since leaving Sacramento to go to Seattle to pick up someone else's belongings first. As a former tour bus driver of 17 years, I can tell you, these guys were illegal all over the place. They had no PUC or ICC numbers, no log books, nothing! And they told me that as soon as they had my things packed up they had to get back to California as soon as possible with no stops, hence, no sleep! I am certain that neither of them had commercial drivers licenses, either. By the time they showed, I had been sitting out in the hot sun for nearly 8 hours, so my resistance was low, plus they told me they would not come back the next day at a decent hour for my things!
At that time, they measured for square footage and came up with some insane figure of something like 2900 square feet. My things had been in a 1500 square foot storage unit and definitely did not fill up the entire space, wall to wall and to the ceiling! I told the drivers that I would consider paying by weight as I was certain it was less than the 2400 pounds I had originally estimated ( the folks who had helped me move my things out of the storage unit and the ones who helped unload the van in KY both agreed that my items could not possibly weigh more than 2400 pounds). Were they professionals? No, but then neither were the idiots who picked up my belongings.
As soon as I arrived in Kentucky, I called Jill and had to insist that they ship my belongings immediately, although she tried to argue with me about it. I was told when my things were put on the truck and sent and I was notified "when" they would be delivered and at that time, I believe it was, was informed that my belongings had not weighed my estimated 2400 pounds (I was off on that - they actually weighed less!), but 5800 pounds!! And so I was expected to pay for the extra non-existant weight. (The truck was also three days late!)
I was in shock as I had no such money at that time and of course I had signed their contract that says that should I wish to take them to court, I had to go to California. My son got online and began to do some research and this is what he found: King Moving and Storage was in blatant violation of Federal Motor Carrier regulations and I owed 110% of the remaining charges (100% of the charges, plus 10% of them added on) which came to $726. When the van arrived with my things and my son told the driver I did not owe more than the $726, he contacted the company's manager. My son also called her and her response was, "You're talking about the 110% rule, aren't you?" She was completely aware of the law and yet purposely operating in violation of it. When my son asked if he needed to contact the authorities, she conceded and told the driver to take the $726 and call it even.
A few months later, my husband and I hired a U-Haul truck and moved my things and his to another state for a whole lot less! My son says King has sent bills and threats to his home for the remaining $2400 or so dollars that the manager had conceded was in violation of federal law.
For those of you who have had to deal with them or find yourself caught up in their web of deceit while using them, let them know that you know about the 110% rule (check it out on the Internet) and then contact the authorities. These people had numerous federal and state violations where their vehicles are concerned as well as all the rest and I think it would be great if we could band together and not only put them out of business, but put them in jail as well.
Oh, and as for those people who had such a wonderful experience? There is nothing stopping Jill or anyone else at King from writing those glowing reviews and posting them to this site.
