Unethical and Dishonest. They do not honor their contracts. Do Not Use!
Rebecca
Submitted this review about
Royal Relocation Systems Inc.
Review made Live: 9/10/2010 4:00:00 PM
I believe that it is very possible the Royal Relocation Systems is just running a scam by using deceitful and unethical practices to get people to use them, and then raising their prices on the day of the move because they know that most people aren't flexible in their moving dates and will have no choice but to go with them. The best case scenario is that the company employs salesmen who are not competent to deliver accurate quotes, and then refuses to stand by the contracts made by these salesmen.
I am a young, single woman who need to move from New York to Chicago. I called Royal Relocation Systems to ask for a quote. Paul came to my home, made an inventory list of everything I was moving, and gave me a quote of $1,100 if a shuttle was not required in my drop off location and $1,225 if it was. (Stairs and packing materials included)
I told Paul that I had heard stories of people having quotes changed on them in the middle of a move and that I was very concerned about this and did not want any surprises. He assured me numerous times that we were signing a valid, binding contract; and as long as I didn't add anything to the move that was not already on the inventory list he made, the quoted price would not change.
For my packing materials, Paul promised to bring me 30 boxes and 3 wardrobe boxes in which to pack my things. He said he would bring the boxes the on Thursday of the next week (July 22), which would give me a couple weeks to pack. He did not show on 3 separate occasions when we told me he would bring them, and would not answer his phone. He finally showed up on Saturday, but he only had 13 boxes and no wardrobe boxes. After more not showing up and not answering his phone, he brought 1 more wardrobe box on Wednesday. He said that the other 2 wardrobe boxes would be delivered on the day of the move and I would just have to pack them then. And if I needed any more small boxes, the movers would have those too.
On the day of the move (July 29), 3 movers came and I showed them my contract to make sure we were on the same page. They knew nothing about my inventory list and refused to honor the contract I had signed with Paul. They also didn't know that I was still waiting on 2 wardrobe boxes to pack. I had nothing more than what was on my original inventory list, but they said that the total would be $1,900 instead of $1,100 and $2,200 instead of $1,225 if a shuttle ended up being needed. They tried 3 times to get started loading before telling me what the new price would be. I think they were just trying to get my stuff loaded before telling me the true price because they thought I would have no choice but to pay after they had all of my things loaded onto their truck.
The man in charge of the movers also lied to me and tried to intimidate me into going with the new price. He said that Paul was no longer with the company, which turned out to be untrue and he said that I only had five minutes to make my decision cause "he has other moves and things he has to do and can't wait around for me." I said I wanted to talk to a supervisor, so I ended up speaking with Anthony. I asked the mover to wait until we had resolved the situation but he said he wasn't waiting and he was leaving. Anthony told me 15 minutes later that the movers were still outside my building and could do the move, but at the $1,900 price. I can only assume the mover told me he was leaving to try and scare me into going along with the move at the new price. Anthony said there was no way they could do the move for $1,100 and it didn't matter at all that I had a contract. His only explanation for why I was not given an accurate quote in the first place was that "Paul was getting a little old" and that he "might have to be let go after this." To my knowledge, he is still employed by the company.
After all of this, I no longer trusted anything Royal Relocation Systems said and did not want to do the move with them, especially not for such a high price. I was luckily able to get a last minute slot for two days later with another company, who did the entire move for $1,493.
After I didn't do the move with Royal because they wouldn't honor their contract, I then tried to get my $125 deposit back. At first, Anthony told me I would have to go to Paul's home and get the money from him myself. It took three weeks of e-mails to get them to mail me a check. And when they did, they had deducted $50 for packing supplies worth $30 and so only gave me $75 back. At no point did the company admit that they had breached a contract or done anything wrong.
