Complaint Review: Moving Relocation Systems

Most people will pack away jewelry and valuables prior to a mover entering into their house.  A lot of legit movers will actually exit a house, notify the owner that they found jewelry, and tell the owner that they need to pack the jewelry away, before they will reenter the house.  Same with firearms.  If the mover finds more jewelry or valuables or a gun, they will exit again, and repeat the process.  It's one of those additional precautions a legit mover will take in order to avoid a 'missing jewelry' or gun claim.  If that extends the time the mover spends at the house, then so be it.

Having said that, it doesn't really change your situation - move contracts exclude this type of loss from any claim - whether the mover processes the claim, or as in your case, the process is subcontracted out to a 3rd party.  In the contracts I used to work with, the wording appears in 3 different places in the contract, and the customer has to either initial or sign acknowledging such.  However, all it has to appear is once.

Best of luck to you...

 I guess it’s my fault when I did not explain how the ring went missing. I needed to run out of the house for a moment the day of the move. My husband and my daughter were still at the house. When I came home my husband handed me a box and said that one of the movers when he went to move the Jewelry box noticed there was something in it so he dumped everything into a box. He told them to wait I would take care of it that I would be home on a few minutes. But he just pulled all the draws out and dumped them into a box. I was not trusting them to move my jewelry. It was my mistake to have forgot to pack it up. I got upset about him just dumping everything into a large box but at that point what could I do. I just wanted to clear that up. I did not trust and did not want them to transport or touch any jewelry.

For starters, there is no mover - legitimate or scam - that assumes any responsibility for the transport of money, jewelry, and other valuables of the sort.  If you were missing rings, or any other sort of jewelry pieces, that responsibility rests with you.  No police report changes that.

Now to the rest of this:

It took almost two years before I actually received a quote of what they say Moving Relocations would pay.  Which wouldn't cover the repairs to the larger furniture.  Your contract probably indicates that you would be reimbursed at $0.60 per pound.  Contractually, and legally, that's all they have to pay.  You could have chosen FRV, or Full Replacement Valuation, but most people don't because they balk at the cost.

I was told to agree or not agree to the settlement and of course I disagreed and sent a letter stating why.  You should have simply accepted the amount.  Once you rejected the amount, your claim closed, without the ability to reopen.

I received a email that do to my non interest the claim was closed.  When you reject a claim - that's what happens in this industry.

This is when I found out that CSI is not their insurance company but a company that tells them if they have to pay for damages and or lost or stolen items.  All this time I thought I was dealing with their insurance company.  Actually, CSI would be their claim resolution company; there are a number of companies like this out there.  Now, you did not buy insurance for your move, because movers cannot sell you insurance without a license required by the state.  So by Federal Law, they must provide you what is called valuation, and CSI is the claim resolution company that processes the valuation claim.  You cannot go after the mover's insurance company because the insurance only covers such things as a truck having an accident, or smashing into a house, or something similar.  The insurance does not cover an individual's move, and this is standard throughout the moving industry - not just this company.

I was told by Kristy the women at CSIPros that I had no right to get paid for any damages or missing items.  That's correct.  If the company only moved the items from origin to destination, and did none of the packing, then anything you packed (called "Packed by Owner", or PBO) would not be covered by the valuation.  I always tell people if you are going to pack your own items, then don't bother calling a moving company.  The vast majority of the most valuable items are items packed in boxes, and if you decide to PBO, then the liability for anything and everything in the boxes falls on you.

...including the poor behavior of Moving Relocated Systems up to the fact that I had made a police report regarding a missing ring and how they dumped all my jewelry into a box not waiting for me to do it at which time a ring was noticed missing once I started to try to go through the box of everything that was just dumped and mixed together.  As I already said, your jewelry is your responsibility.  If you chose to give the mover the responsibility to move the item, then that's on you and not the company.  Filing a police report at this point does nothing and means nothing, except to claim as a casualty loss deduction on your tax return.  Neither does your perception that the mover exhibited poor behavior - how would any of that affect your claim?  Answer:  It doesn't.  Valuation and the claim associated with it, is not a negotiable item

I was informed that the federal law states that they are not responsible for damages and or missing items.  100% correct.  The Federal Law in question is called the Carmack Amendment.  Carmack protects movers against lawsuits by consumers for such things as negligence, fraud, and other civil torts.  It limits you to exactly what is in the contract, which I suspect was $0.60 per pound for items they moved, and ZERO for anything you packed.  It is not subject to any type of negotiation, and this law extends to every single mover.

Moving is not inexpensive; it is labor intensive and there is no automation.  Trusting your valuables to a company you found on the internet is insane, yet people like this person seem to do it every single day.  The way to avoid this sort of thing is to do this:

1.  Choose a mover close to you (not off the internet), and have them come out to survey what needs to be moved prior to the move.  Have them provide you a quote in pounds (if they provide you a cubic foot quote, discard them from consideration).  Repeat until you have 3 quotes from 3 companies with all of the quotes in pounds.

2.  Select the mover you trust - not the cheapest.  It may be more expensive than the internet mover, but then look at your stuff that got delivered, as well as consider the missing stuff, and tell me how cheap was your move?  It's amazing that people trust their prized possessions not only to a mover based on price, but to people they met that day off the internet.  I mean we shake our heads when kids run off with someone they've been talking to on the internet, without meeting that person, yet adults seem to do that with moving companies.  I just don't get that.

3.  If the price for the move is out of your budget, then don't use the internet mover.  Rent a truck and find guys who will load your items for you.  It may be more work than you hoped, but the price is cheaper, AND you remain in control of your move and your items.

Best of luck to you....