American Transfer And Storage- A Mayflower Agent In Carrollton, Texas Rips off its Contractors', why not it's customers too!!! Carrollton Texas
am a former contractor for Mohawk Moving and Storage out of Carrollton, Texas. They are also known as American Transfer and Staroage, a Mayflower agent. They are what's called in the moving business a 'dual agent'. What this means to them is simply another way to cheat or mislead the potential customer. A customer calls up for a moving quote. Mohawk is a United Van Lines agent. They give them a 'United' quote for the move. They also tell the customer to get a Mayflower quote as well to seem like they are 'competitively priced'. Since they are one in the same company, the quotes are similar if not the same. They bid the jobs like this to get the jobs. Unbeknownst to the customer, they are calling the same company, or are speaking to someone from the same company.
I was an independant contractor for them from January 2007 until June 2007. When I left the company, they owed me over $10000.00 worth of compensation. I fought with Gary Trettle, the President of Mohawk in Minneapolis, MN repeatedly for over 3 months' trying to get them to pay me. They finally sent me a check almost 2 months' later for close to $800.00. what happened to the other $9000??? They came up with phony charges , phony damage claims, and phony repairs to delete my funds and keep them.
Upon hire, I had a verbal agreement with the then, Operations Manager Shawn Turner. He agreed to charge a rental fee for use of their trucks of $50 per job. I was charged $75 for each use. When contacted about this via certified letter, they denbied the verbal agreement. I was also promised by the 'new' salesman turned General Manager, Pjhil Pasche that he would increase the revenue on one of my jobs to cover the extra labor I took with me. AS part of the agreement to get the job done faster. I never recieved any increase in lcompensation as promised. Again, this wasw denied.
I was charged for a false damage claim. $350 was taken out of my final settlement for a damaged piece of furniture for a customer in Greenville, Texas. The customer even admitted to me that the original contractor that had picked up her furniture at the origin residence, damaged the piece. I was charged for it because the original contractor was no longer employed at Mohawk, because as was explained to me by Phil Pasche, he had a 'severe drug problem'. They made up false charges and I had no choice in the matter. At present, they owe me around $2000. I don't expect to ever see this money, so therefore I am filing a rip off report against theis company.
These were some of the allegations I am claiming against Mohawk. I feel that if they can't honor their word with one of their own contractors', how can they be trusted to honor their agreements with potential customers.
I have seen firsthand what contractors at Mohawk do to their customers. They break furniture, steal furniture to feed drug habits, steal furniture to pay their own bills, and even tamper with the weight of the shipment and packing to increase their take home revenue. It is an accepted practice at Mohawk Moving and Storage. The Carrollton branch is a small, financially struggling branch that has little business. So, in my opinion, they do whatever it takes to make a profit.
Mohawk hires mostly 'independant contractors' as day laborers'. Some of them are not fully background checked, or drug tested. So you don't know who you are letting into your home around your valuables and around your children and family. I have seen firsthand drug use by a former Operations Manager and several day laborers'.
I can personally attest to contract labor theft of customers property and such related acts. When I brought this to the attention of the GM, he simply ignored the accusations. When I tried repeatedly to contact the owner of Mohawk, Vern Larson, in Minneapolis, he simply never returned my phone calls. I tried at least a dozen times over a 3 month period.
Almost all of their independant contractors in 2006 were operating at a negative loss. How do they make this money up? Simple, by doing unscrupulous acts to increase their linehaul take home pay.
I can be contacted to provide the names and addresses of such customers who have been ripped off by Mohawk and American Storage. I have dealt with a few unhappy customer sin my short stint at the company. I was not the only contractor working for them at the time.
There is another ripoff report bgy a customer on a United Van Lines agent. Read about the 'bound estimate' story. Ask me any questions about it, I can explain in full detail what happened. It is the same practice that Mohawk uses.
Mohawk/American Transfer is a very unscruptulous company to do business with. Take it firsthand from an inside employee, I have seen it all. This is truly consumer beware.
John
Dallas, Texas
U.S.A.
Roger
Wylie, Texas
U.S.A.
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3 Updates & Rebuttals
Jim
Anaheim,California,
U.S.A.
Actually, I DO Know
#4Consumer Comment
Wed, September 05, 2007
Your OP and response are typical of most contractors working for a moving company. The type that sign their contractor agreements with the date of February 30th, the type that claim they know what they're doing and know how to calculate revenue (not one I knew could get it right - even when I showed them how to do it multiple times), and the soap opera like stories that have so little truth in them, you couldn't trust any of it. A lot of contractors (I count you among them) are unable to keep a business going because they take on small COD pack jobs with small margins, try to keep all their crews busy, and then they wonder why they made no money? Part of that is the agent's fault since you really had no choice to refuse, but if you're a good contractor the agent makes up for it with a good O&I or a larger pack job for a corporate sponsored customer for you to do. If you didn't get such jobs, my guess is you weren't the best one out there, or even close to the best one.... Oh, yes.... the subs that were the most incompetent were the ones who thought they crossed every t and dotted every i..... until I had to step in and show them they didn't. In the end, one contractor we had thought we owed him $15,000 did end up receiving $550. He sued us and lost.
As I said, it's time for you to move on....... no use being disgruntled.....
Roger
Wylie,Texas,
U.S.A.
Rebuttal against Mohawk and American Transfer
#4Author of original report
Wed, September 05, 2007
Unfortunately, Mr. Ex "in the industry", I don't think you know what you are talking about. I have seen firsthand, like I stated, teh theft, destruction of property, and drug use by employees of Mohawk and American Transfer.
I am a very professional contractor in the business foir a long time. My t's are dotted and i's are alwys crossed. My bookeeping skills are remarkable. So , yes, they do still owe me quite a bit of money; and yes, even after the expenses, etc, etc.
There are professioanl Van lInes agents in the business and then there are "shady" ones. It is like this in every type of business. This just hits closer to home because of all the stories associated with rip off moving companies.
I still maintain Mohawk is a very "shady" operation. They employ very "shady" people as well. One should seriously think twice before doing business with them. Check references , always.
Thanks for the response. I needed to clear the air.
Jim
Anaheim,California,
U.S.A.
A Disgruntled Contractor
#4Consumer Comment
Wed, September 05, 2007
Having dealt with moving contractors at one point in my life (not for any Unigroup company), I never met a contractor that didn't think he was being ripped off - not a one. Every contractor thinks they don't damage a thing during a move, nor do they think they should incur the types of charges allowed under the subcontract agreement you signed with them. All I heard from contractors is a whole lot of whining, but when it came to getting work - they they gave you a lot of work and you made a lot of money. I mean you can ask for a breakdown of how they got from $10,000 to $800 - but I would suggest that the revenue you earned probably wasn't as substantive as you thought, or the expenses you incurred are higher than you thought, and the charges or revenue were all audited by someone. Bottom line: There's probably no additional money for you. In the end, every contractor who left a moving company to either (1) jump to another contractor, or (2) decided to get out of the business - never leave on good terms. They always think they're being ripped off.
Let's also understand you are not an employee of Mohawk, as you claim, nor were you ever. As a contractor, you own your business and are responsible for the costs that are associated with the running of your business, including your own insurance (which the company probably helps secure for you), the supplies (which you buy from the company and upsell to the customer), and the labor (which you are responsible for hiring, not Mohawk). Let's also understand that one hears more tales from contractors on what they thought went on regarding a job, only to find from the customer that what was said didn't really happen. My staff used to call these sorts of stories "fairy tales" because that's what many of them turned out to be. I don't know why you left - it certainly wasn't because of the reason you cited. It probably had to do with the fact that you couldn't make enough money.... and get large enough jobs to make up for the small thin margin ones dispatch handed you.
Some people in the industry respect the agency you decided to slam here; it's pretty big and you don't get to be a large agency in the moving industry by ripping customers off. They certainly aren't anything like the scam movers like many of the moving companies found on the internet that customers complain about. My advice is to move on......