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Pacific Coast Moving & Storage, Pacific Coast Van Lines moving scam, held our belongings hostage for 2 months Granada Hills California
I hired Pacific Coast Van Lines to move my personal belongings, two of my company's offices, and a storage container across the country. Everything was picked up over two days on August 20th and 21st 2002.
Next thing I know, Ron Ratoviz, the guy who gave me the "not to exceed" bid, gets fired from the company. The new owner, Lee Fischer, who changed the company name to Pacific Coast Moving and Storage, promises delivery within 5-7 days, and says he's available 24/7 by cel phone. Funny thing is, an article comes out in the LA times about moving scams. I call Lee in a panic that I hadn't done my homework on them. Lee promises that he's not one of those guys.
The next two and a half months were a ****ing nightmare, full of lies and deception. Lee cried the whole time about how badly Ron had misquoted the move, and ended up not honoring the bid. Just getting a hold of Lee was nearly impossible most of the time, then when I did reach him, it was always a different story.
When my stuff (except some missing items) finally showed up more than two months after the promised date, the driver made several accusations as to how crooked the whole deal was, especially considering Lee's company is not licensed to do interstate moving.
Juan
Millville, New Jersey
U.S.A.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Anon
Miami,Florida,
U.S.A.
!! $50,000 estimate to move? Are you out of your mind?
#5Consumer Comment
Tue, February 11, 2003
I can't believe that someone from that company actually had the balls to say the moving job should have cost $50,000, but they only charged $24,000. Do you think $24,000 is some sort of bargain?? What? Did the guy move a whole town across the country?
Some people ( a lot of people!) don't make $24,000 a year and it is a lot of money. Unless you are moving Liberace's Museum (lots of pianos and cars) I don't see how you could quote such a ridiculous amount with a straight face.
I agree with the comment that the so-called supervisor probably lied just to get the job. I moved this summer and I got lied to, too. (Different company). I tried to track my stuff for over 2 months, only to find it was still at the point of pick-up and had never gone anywhere. There was no explanation.
Then, the priceless part was the supervisor acted as if the fact that they weren't going to charge me STORAGE for the crates THEY left on the freakin' loading dock for 2 months and lost, was some sort of massive concession on their part. Give me a break.
Next time I move I am selling everything I possibly can, shipping other stuff UPS, and stuffing the rest in my car. I will never deal with another moving company again. THEY ALL SUCK!
Lee
Granada Hills,California,
U.S.A.
we did not hold the furniture as hostage
#5REBUTTAL Owner of company
Tue, February 11, 2003
First thing, we did not hold the furniture as hostage fro New Castle. In order to have a better understanding of what happened, we need to start at the beginning.
Prior to the forming of Pacific Coast Moving & Storage, Ron Ratoviz was a majority owner, CEO and lead salesman for Pacific Coast Van Lines. As things were coming to a head with his co-workers Ron changed his financial strategies.
One of his strategies was to collect as much money up front from the customer. As the job was being done he notified the other co-workers, that he collected this money as part of his commission
Ron started to low bid the jobs in order to collect his commission with no regards to the customers or the company. This created a financial nightmare for the new forming company. (Pacific Coast Moving & Storage).
This forced the shut down of Pacific Coast Van lines and the start of Pacific Coast moving & Storage. There were several complaints and they were handled ny the best of the companys ability.
Back to the rebuttal. Yes we were late. This was not due to hostile act. We did not hold the customers goods as hostage. We did not request for additional money. At the same time the company ran into its misfortunes.
Our truck was late coming back from NY due to mechanical difficulties. So we decided to send our second truck but we didnt have a driver. So when our first driver returned late we sent him with the second truck. Within a short time into the trip we receive a phone call. The driver was involved in an accident. Thank God no one was hurt except the truck. Six weeks later and $ 35,000 in repairs, we received out truck back. Our insurance company did not cover the same driver who was involved in the accident.
At this point we placed an ad in the paper for a new driver. Within a few days we hired a new driver to deliver the first load (everything was satisfactory). On the way back, the newly hired driver abandon the truck and disappeared. This is an ongoing investigation. The third driver, which has not been on the road for eight years or more consented to ake the load. The load was delivered, once again in satisfactory condition.
You may asked, why we did not subcontract the job with another company? The job was billed by the former CEO for $17,000.00 dollars. Following expenses are:
Commission 1,500
Pick-up Labor 3,000
Rentals 600
Materials 2,000
Warehouse Labor 1,200
Long Distance Hauler 16,200
Total 24,500
As a new company we could not afford to take a lost of $7,500.00 dollars on a job that we did not bid! According to PUC this Job was grossly under bid by CEO Ron Ratoviz. The total job weight was approximately 112,000 lbs. At a minimum cost of $55.00 per one hindred lbs the fair market cost should have been $61,000.00 dollars. The customer stated to Lee Fischer and Pete Dresser, that he had bids from as low as $17,000 to as high as $74,000.00
In closing I would like to say that New Castle took the lowest bid. Theres an old saying if it is too good to be true I would like to apologize for the inconvenience that we may have caused Carlos and the people at the New Castle but nothing that we did in anyway in bad faith.
This is a company where character counts. The only fault you can find with us is that we were late we never ask for more money or held the goods hostage.
Sincerely
Lee Fischer
Rick
Granada Hills,California,
U.S.A.
We Were Ripped Too!
#5UPDATE Employee
Mon, February 03, 2003
Ron Ratoviz was the owner and CEO of Pacific Coast Van Lines. He has full knowledge of everything and was the main decision maker.He did the estimate on this move and made unrealistic promises to the customer just to book the job. The job should have been quoted at $ 50,000 but Ron booked it at $24,000.
He asked the customer to pay him a 10% deposit which he kept to himself as his commission then walked out of the business.
The Pacific Coast Moving & Storage tried to keep up with the promises made by Ron to the customer. Our company delivered using the limited resources and lost $10,000 on operating expense.
In this case the Company is a victim too.
Ron Ratoviz is a person who makes a lot of promises and keeps none. He put he's own company and employees in trouble and has no regards what happen to the customers during and after the move. Unfortunately he is still in the moving business and connected with Super Movers of LA in Sun Valley.
Ron
Sun valley,California,
U.S.A.
Wrongly Accused
#5REBUTTAL Owner of company
Mon, January 20, 2003
I was not working for this company at the time of the complaint I was working somewere else and can prove it.
Also I had nothing to do with the follow up of this case.
I am asking to remove my name out of this article
due to faulse information.
Thank you ,