Complaint Review: Moving Star

Moving Star / Olympic Moving And Storage ripoff tricked and lied to us, Moving Star is nothing but con-artists who took us for all we had Miami / Chicago Florida/ Illinois .....

This is a message to everyone about to move, DO NOT use Moving Star!!! I am a 21 year old guy from Ohio, who decided to move from Ohio to California for school and to begin a new life. I decided to move in March of 2003, and started to research moving companies in December of 2002. I only had a one bedroom apartment, so I didnt think that renting a moving truck would be worth the money. I decided after long consideration to go with a company out of Miami Florida called Moving Star. Julie Forester, who I now consider a master of the Con Artist trade, quoted my small move consisting of 1 bed, 1 couch, 1 chair, 1 coffee table, an armoire, a tv stand, one bar style dinette set, and 9 boxes moving from Columbus to San Diego at 1,100.00.

I was warned by many that I shouldnt use a moving company at all, but Julie seemed nice enough, and the price was affordable, so I went ahead with Moving Star. The week before my furniture was to be shipped, I called Julie to push my moving date to three days later. I was at that time informed that Moving Star was contracting another "sister company" to retrieve and unload my things. I didnt think much about it, so I left on my voyage to California, and left my mother to wait for the movers. I also left her with a check made out to Moving Star. When I left, I took and or had gotten rid of half the items on my moving list, including the largest things like the Armore, and the coffee table, but I added about 4 more boxes, thinking that I would have extra space considering my quote was for 285 cubic feet. When they came to get my things, the loader/driver told my mother that it would not be by cubic feet but by poundage. I thought that this was great, because I would probably not have to spend as much as anticipated, yet another plus to my "new voyage on life"

Boy, was I wrong!!! I was about 3 days into my road trip when I recieved a call from the driver himself telling me that I had gone over my 285 cubic feet by 200 feet!!! AND that it would cost me an extra $800!!! I was floored! Considering that my tiny little apartment was only 735 feet to begin with an that was including the bathroom and kitchen and laudry room, closets, ect. They also informed me at that time I would have to send them another check made out to Olympic Moving and Storage, because Moving Star was no longer handling my account. My mother gave them a call, and tried to get an explanation. As my mother spoke with the guy who is in charge of Olympic Moving and Storage, a company that I never agreed to give my things to, nor signed a contract with, the manager kept telling her reasons that we could not sue them. I found that VERY strange. I just wanted an explanation, and to this day I am still waiting.

As contracted with Moving Star, my things went into free 30 day storage. I was told by Julie, that the storage unit would be in San Diego, so when I was ready for it in either 30 days or less, the men would come and get it out of storage, bring it to me, and then unload it in my new place. NOPE! They took it to their main Headquarters in Chicago and left it there. I didnt call them for about three weeks, and when I did, yet again was I amazed at the natroucious service I recieved. The manager told me that I was going to have to overnight him a check for half the amount or the driver would not take my stuff out of storage on the last day of my free storage time. He also told me that I still owed him another $380.00 on top of the extra $800. because they had recieved no payment. I informed him ever so nicely that he would have to take that up with Moving Star, because they were the ones who had the first of what was supposed to be 30% of the payment for the move. He suddenly remembered that this was in fact the case, and I would only owe him $1,468.00 more now. He informed me that as soon as the check cleared his mover would be on his way, and that he would call me within 24 HOURS of his arrival to let me know that he would be at the destination. I informed the manager of my NEW phone number, and told him to only call me on that number!!! THEY DIDNT LISTEN. TWO WEEKS LATER, and after two calls I finally found out where my things were at, and it only got worse...

As I got home from work on Tuesday, May 6th 2003, I was met at my car door by my roommate. He informed me that the moving company had called at 2pm and said they had been trying for 24 hours to reach me at my old phone number and that they would be at the designation point,(a storage unit that I had rented out until I move into my apartment in 2 weeks)in 2 HOURS! My roommate immediately called them back and told them the place was closed and that they would have to meet us tomorrow. THe driver started yelling and then hung up on my roommate. My other roommate, who once studied in law, called the manager and told him what had happened and informed him of a person's rights. The manager told my friend that he had to deliver the stuff either that night, or he would have to take it to San Fransisco for TWO WEEKS, and I knew that meant at least another 4 weeks in "Olympic moving and Storage time" so my roommate had to take of work to meet them at 9am, when the storage company opened, and get my things. My roommate with the law backround tried to negotiate a later time, and the manager said "the latest we can schedule the drop off is 9:05." At this time, they also tried to tack on another 80 Dollars!

So, on Wednesday, May 7th, I finally recieved my furniture!!! I have yet to see it, but my roommate said that everything was in tact, and that it all fit into my 5' by 10' storage space quite nicely!!!

I want everyone to know what kind of company Moving Star and Olympic Moving and Storage really is, and that they are all con artists, as well as the fact that they are not natives of this country. I would like to get legal, media, and any other representation for this story so that I can help others, and maybe if there is someone else out there that is going to move across this country to follow their dreams, it wont have to start on such a sour note!!!!!!!!

Ron
Oceanside, California
U.S.A.

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