Aerin
Raleigh,#2Author of original report
Sat, February 27, 2010
Jim,
Homeowners was willing to compensate for anything damaged - as long as it wasn't by water. This is considered "flood damage" regardless of how it occurred and flood damage is not covered without a separate policy. Since most of the significant damage was done by water this quickly became moot. HOW they were willing to compensate was also an issue. By the time we were dealing with them, we decided it was no longer worth the anguish to file a police report for the missing items and deal with the "depreciated value" of the items they were willing to compensate for.
As far as a fair price for that specific weight in 2007? If All My Sons were sketchy in their delivery and original quote, what makes you think they were truthful about acutal weight? The consumer has to trust that they are being honest about this. Wads All My Sons honest? I somehow doubt it, particularly when considering how many of our items simply did not arrive at their destination. If items were missing - some with significant weight - then it follows that the weight should not count as legitimate.
Also, as far as their $1000 offer? You must have missed the caveat the $1000 offer came with. They expected us to remove the report and state that the issue had been resolved satisfactorily. As I stated previously, this seemed much more like a buy off than an honest repairation so we refused. Yes, we could have taken the money. But it was worth more to us to stick to our guns and tell the world how heinously we were treated.
In closing, it seems you have a lot of education on the subject in general, but I urge you to read all of the information provided regarding my specific case before simply chalking my horrible experience up to lack of research on my part. What I can say - almost three years later - is that we will never trust another moving company again. We will most certainly handle all of our relocation needs personally in the future. This was an expensive lesson in dealing with an industry that has a poor reputation at best.
Jim
Anaheim,#3Consumer Comment
Sat, March 21, 2009
At least the mover turned around, moved your stuff, and didn't lose anything. The fact you had to drive - while unfortunate - is really on you. If you really wanted to do this right, you could have gone with a legit car carrier to transport your car, pay more, and deal with it that way. Counting on a mover to transport your car in their trailer is not something you should do because your not always going to get a trailer to show up - you may only get a shuttle and the shuttle transports your belongings to the warehouse where the trailer is located. In the case of the OP, she REALLY got HORRIBLE advice from her homeowner's insurance agent. I mean that advice borders on incompetent - no agent would give advice saying the homeowner's items would be insured during a move - PERIOD. Whether there's water damage, drops, breaks, scratches, or anything like that would absolutely NOT be covered by your homeowner's policy. That advice prompted the shipper to refuse FRV valuation (not insurance as movers do not offer insurance). I can only hope the OP speaks with a competent attorney (at least more competent than the insurance agent) because that attorney would tell you to take the $1,000 and chalk this move up to your inexperience and lack of research on a mover since movers have legal protections established under Federal Law that pretty much makes any lawsuit against them moot and tossed. I'll end this with what I always tell people - moving is not an inexpensive venture; it is fraught with risk and consequence when you fail to do any research at all. If you find a cheap mover - chances are it will cost you far more in aggravation, lost and broken items, and finally - time than if you had obtained FR valuation with a full-service mover. Moving 8,600 lbs with any legit mover would have likely cost you $4,500 with a large full-service mover; with diesel prices the way they were back in late 2007.... Put your pride away and take the $1,000 - you won't do better in court, arbitration, or otherwise.
Keahi
Murfreeesboro,#4Consumer Comment
Sat, March 21, 2009
In September 2003, my husband and I moved from Marietta, Georgia to Antioch, TN. We interviewed several movers and All my sons was the cheapest. We had requested specifically that they move my car along with our belongings. On moving day, they showed up with a smaller truck than we expected and it was too small to take my car. I then called the representative and told him that I wanted some money taken off the price since they did not provide all of the service requested.They deducted $300 off the final price and I had to drive the 4 1/2 hours to Tennessee, which I was not too thrilled about doing.
Keahi
Murfreeesboro,#5Consumer Comment
Sat, March 21, 2009
In September 2003, my husband and I moved from Marietta, Georgia to Antioch, TN. We interviewed several movers and All my sons was the cheapest. We had requested specifically that they move my car along with our belongings. On moving day, they showed up with a smaller truck than we expected and it was too small to take my car. I then called the representative and told him that I wanted some money taken off the price since they did not provide all of the service requested.They deducted $300 off the final price and I had to drive the 4 1/2 hours to Tennessee, which I was not too thrilled about doing.
Keahi
Murfreeesboro,#6Consumer Comment
Sat, March 21, 2009
In September 2003, my husband and I moved from Marietta, Georgia to Antioch, TN. We interviewed several movers and All my sons was the cheapest. We had requested specifically that they move my car along with our belongings. On moving day, they showed up with a smaller truck than we expected and it was too small to take my car. I then called the representative and told him that I wanted some money taken off the price since they did not provide all of the service requested.They deducted $300 off the final price and I had to drive the 4 1/2 hours to Tennessee, which I was not too thrilled about doing.
Keahi
Murfreeesboro,#7Consumer Comment
Sat, March 21, 2009
In September 2003, my husband and I moved from Marietta, Georgia to Antioch, TN. We interviewed several movers and All my sons was the cheapest. We had requested specifically that they move my car along with our belongings. On moving day, they showed up with a smaller truck than we expected and it was too small to take my car. I then called the representative and told him that I wanted some money taken off the price since they did not provide all of the service requested.They deducted $300 off the final price and I had to drive the 4 1/2 hours to Tennessee, which I was not too thrilled about doing.
Aerin
Raleigh,#8Author of original report
Fri, March 20, 2009
Isn't it funny how Mr. Malakies - an employee for the company - went around to every All My Sons Riviera Beach complaint and made "rebuttals" to complaints he undoubtedly has no first hand knowledge of? With your indomitable powers of reading comprehension, Mr. Malakies, you obviously missed some basic statements made by my camp. First, I expected the company (which you call the best in all of Florida and North Carolina - funny how many complaints seem to make here despite your lofty claims) to honor the original price they quoted. I didn't expect a "deal" because we knew someone. I expected the "deal" to be an honest quote. If it had been, say, $500 more than the original quote, it would have been easier to deal with. But $1300 more? All that in addition to the fact that many of our belongings were lost/stolen and much of our furniture and electronic equipment was damaged by water as a result of your lack of upkeep on your trucks? Second, the North Carolina crew was perfectly professional and polite. We even tipped them at the end. So, your company did something right. Kenon sent some of "his" guys over and they were the bright spot - helpful, nice and actually couldn't believe their eyes as boxes shredded from water damage began to offload. Third, I have no reason to lie. What, pray tell, do you really think I could possibly gain by lying? We got no money (we refused it, remember? Or did you skip that part of the update as you were skimming through complaints to 'rebut' them?), we paid $1300 more than we were quoted and many items were lost/stolen and damaged by carelessness on your company's part. We still have the BINGO sheet and photos to prove it all. Sorry, you can't bring me up on defamation - I have photos taken during the offload (with your crew in them) - PROVING the damage. In fact, some of the NC crew even held damaged items up for us to document with the camera! If Ripoffreport.com would publish them as I requested over 18 months ago, all of you could see them, too. Anyone who would like photographic evidence of the state of our belongings as they were being moved into our home, please let me know. I'd be happy to email them. In closing, Mr. Malakies, your attempt at discrediting your company's detractors is pathetic at best. Just saying "We're the best" and "you wanted a deal cause you knew someone" and "you're probably just lying" is really sad. You know nothing of what actually happened. You are essentially being paid to defend this company which you probably KNOW engages in this type of behaviour. So, all in all, your rebuttals mean little or nothing and are a pathetically transparent attempt by your crooked company to dismiss REAL complaints against the way All My Sons conducts business.
Just Looking
Westmont,#9Consumer Suggestion
Tue, December 16, 2008
It's too bad a moving company can get away with this. Water damage? What was Hector doing with your stuff? And for those who do not believe the Planitiff. Who could make this up? Who would bother if they have nothing to gain? The only ones that had anything to gain was the moving company. All My Sons should be ashamed of themselves. I know I'll never use them. Every company makes mistakes, how they are handled is what matters.
Mr. Malakies
West Palm Beach,#10UPDATE Employee
Tue, December 16, 2008
This company is probably one of the best in the country, and for sure the best in NC and FL. Hard to believe that they didn't do anything right for your move. I wonder how accurate your story really is?? Or is it thay they didn't move your things at cost, or free, which is what you hoped for because you knew an employee! Sorry, but businesses actually have costs to cover.
Gary
Raleigh,#11Consumer Suggestion
Tue, June 03, 2008
Hi, I am not associated with either party, but I am involved in the moving business. I hear horror stories like this from time to time, and I hate to see our industry tarnished like this. It is true that if you did not sign up for extra insurance, you are limited to .60/lb per item. The missing items are more problematic, since as you state, they cannot be weighed. There are a few people you can call for help, or to exert leverage on the Mover. The first thing to do in North Carolina is to call the North Carolina Utilities Commission. They regulate movers in this state, and can also give you good advice on what to do next. Their consumer complaint line is 1-866-380-9816. Next, since this was an interstate move, you can call AMSA (American Moving and Storage Association), and ask for arbitration services. Also, you may have some luck getting the federal government to help. Try this website: http://www.protectyourmove.gov/ Since your mover did not give you the proper paperwork, they are in violations of the Federal law. You can also file a report with the Better Business Bureau in Raleigh - their website is http://easternnc.bbb.org Finally, since your belonging were stolen, you may want to call the police. I'm not sure how much they can do, but its pretty obvious that theft was involved, plus some fraud. Best of Luck
Aerin
Raleigh,#12Author of original report
Wed, February 13, 2008
I would also like to add in response to Damien's above comments about TRUTH in this matter. We have refused to accept All My Sons final offer for excellent reasons. We have absolutely nothing to gain (or lose) by continuing to state the truth as our negotiations with this company have ended. Damien, however, has to consider job security. That is certainly motive for lying. Everything my camp has stated is factual. Damien cannot attest in absolute truth of any kind as to what his employees did or did not do. HE WAS NOT THERE. HE WAS NOT A WITNESS TO ANY OF ALL MY SONS' EMPLOYEE'S ACTIONS. HE WAS IN FLORIDA. We were there. We lived through it. His employee Hector called him several times over the course of the day of move in. Never once did Damien ask to speak to any of us. Not once. Tell me what kind of customer service I am suppose to believe Damien's company provides? The problems that occurred with our move were huge and he never once wanted to speak with us on that day. So as far as I am concerned his knowledge of what actually happened in my home on that day is extremely limited at best. His employee absolutely tried to get us to sign the damage waiver before the truck was offloaded. We have four witnesses to that fact not including my husband and myself. It happened. End of story. As far as going tit for tat with his runaround lies, I will not stoop to it. Dear readers, let's face it. Damien is a liar for hire. His job is to protect his company, not to admit to their schemes and/or completely horrendous business practices. If he told the truth in these situations, the company would obviously be bankrupt as is evidenced by the amount complaints on this web site alone. Not to mention a local television news story covering ALL MY SON'S questionable business practices that aired in June of 2007. It wasn't a positive story, readers! Imagine that!
Aerin
Raleigh,#13Author of original report
Wed, February 13, 2008
After posting this complaint, we receive additional correspondence from All My Sons. One day after the rebuttal was posted, Damien contacted my husband regarding this situation. My husband expressed, not without a tinge of fury, that our belongings had been damaged, lost or stolen and that we felt violated. We also felt that All My Sons failed to live up to their end of the bargain - that our belongings were treated with light-fingered contempt rather than the great care they claim their company provides. As far as our unwillingness to proceed with our insurance company, I would like to clear this up. We chose to use the coverage provided by our home owners insurance to fill the gaps left by the supposed $.60/lb agreement we made with All My Sons (remember, this company refused to provide us with any signed contractual information - we have no copies of anything we signed regarding insurance). Upon filing the claim with our insurance company, we were dismayed (but not really surprised) to learn that there was absolutely NO COVERAGE for water damage. So any item damaged by water was not covered and we would not be reimbursed for. Referring to my original post, you will see that many of our belongings were damaged by water leaking into the moving truck. This water covered our belongings for several days as evidenced by the mildew and terrible smell emanating from the furniture as well as the disintegrated cardboard boxes. Also, the insurance company required a $1000 deductible as well as a new reimbursement plan that further put our already shaky finances into the red zone - they were willing to provide HALF of the DEPRECIATED value on our lost/stolen items and then would compensate us the remaining half of the DEPRECIATED value upon receipt of replacement purchase. Note, this is DEPRECIATED value - NOT replacement cost. Furthermore, we would have been required to file a report with the local police department to have these items considered "stolen". All in all, the insurance company left us with little or no choice. We therefore decided to abandon the claim through our insurance company. After speaking with All My Sons on the phone shortly after our post, we received a third and final offer from All My Sons. The final offer was $1000.00 but only under the condition that we "REMOVE" our post from this website AND say that we were satisfied with the service provided. Now, that sounds like a company trying to silence us rather than a genuine gesture of repair. So, standing on principal, we refused the offer. Even if I could remove this post, I simply would not. The $1000.00 was not adequate compensation for the emotional anguish we experienced - let alone adequate for the actual losses we incurred. The $1000.00 is not enough to buy my silence on this matter and not enough for me to consider the issue resolved. It is also not enough for me to stand idly by while another uninformed consumer makes the same awful mistake we did. So, yes. We may be stupid for refusing this offer. But I would have felt just as slimy as the people at All My Sons had I accepted under the pretense of being silenced. The idea was to be fairly compensated for the abysmal job the company did moving my home from Colorado to North Carolina - not to be offered money to lie about the service provided. The only thing that would result in my total satisfaction is a FULL REFUND! FULL REFUND! FULL REFUND! Bottom Line: DO NOT USE ALL MY SONS FLORIDA. THEY WILL STEAL AND DESTROY YOUR BELONGINGS WHILE SOME FACELESS GUY YOU'VE NEVER MET DOES HIS BEST STONEWALLING DAMAGE CONTROL. Since the original post we've discovered several other missing items. We have also found that our 14-month-old high-end king sized mattress was abused to the point of collapsing on one side. I weigh 100lbs so I know use is not what caused this. The only thing that could have caused individually wrapped coils to entangle in themselves and collapse is if something extremely heavy was sitting on the one side for a long period of time. Also, this mattress was in excellent condition prior to the move. I have no doubt this was caused by All My Sons moving company. So, we're out a lot of money and have suffered misery at the hands of this company. Also, stay tuned for PHOTOS of the damage incurred. It's nasty stuff, people. Rip Off Report has informed me that they will post these photos as soon as they are finished updating various features of the site!
Damien
Riviera Beach,#14UPDATE Employee
Fri, November 09, 2007
After reading the report filed by Ms. Burr I am needing to respond to the many acqusations and fallacies listed. In moving large items on what is called a linehaul there would be necessity to break down furniture into the smallest areas to fit everything properly on the truck. Any move considered long distance would be priced by the weight of the items combined with the other associated costs of moving. The estimated weight that was given by the Raleigh office was approx. 6,000 lbs. The actual weight was 8,600lbs. There are several times where customers, after getting estimates, add items onto the move, which is why the weights come into play in determining prices (unless the customer is given a binding estimate, which the Burrs did not). Another issue the Burrs are mentioning is that the delivery was one day past the estimated date. Please note that the Burrs did not request, nor pay for, direct (guarunteed) delivery service. They were given an estimated date of arrival, but due to the previous dropoffs being extended (due to customer's need of additional services) that the driver, Hector, was not able to make the dropoff on the Saturday that was estimated. The next issue is the paperwork. Not at any time did our company try to have the Burr's sign paperwork releasing that all items were in excellent condition before unloading. There are "exeption" locations both on the bingo sheet and the acutal inventories that allow both the customer and the workers to note any damages or missing items. In reviewing the paperwork that was signed by the Burrs they only listed very few items being damaged or lost, which I gladly told them I would look into and evaluate per the claim procedure. This seemed to not be good enough, as the Burr's wanted something done right then and there. I explained there was a claims process that had to be followed, which Mr. Burr was reluctant to try and work through. Another thing that bothers me about the Burr's acqusations is that I was misquoted in several things, many of them too trivial to address, but some of the major ones were that their belongings were taken off the truck at the warehouse. This is not true. I said that the standard procedure would be to do that if unaccounted items were left on the truck after a run then they would be taken off the truck and put in the warehouse to be evaluated and identified. When Mr. Burr asked me to do this I advised him that only the warehouse manager has access, as to allow internal controls, to start this procedure. At the time the warehouse manager was extremly sick with tonsilitis and did not make it into work that week. I assured Mr. Burr that when he came back we would look for the items as he requested and if anything was found they would be sent to Mr. Burr immediatly. I also never stated that we would get to looking for his items in a couple of weeks, what I actually said was that sometimes it could take a couple of weeks to locate missing items as we do have 4 large warehouses. Mr. Burr did, in fact, discuss our company paying $1000 due to damages, but he also said he had filed a claim for insurance through State Farm. Mr. Burr was insured through our company for the standard mover's liability, which was $0.60 per pound, per item, which I had evaluated his loss upon. Even though Mr. Burr accepted this amount at the beginning he refuted this at the end saying this was not good enough. In the interest of trying to resolve the matter amicably I re-evaluated the claim, and reached for additional approval to go above and beyond the chosen limits, which I was able to do. Below is an actual transcript taken from the settlement offer sent to Mr. Burr after evaluating his claim based upon actual fact and proof of damages: "Please note that these are the only items with signed, noted, exceptions per your inventories or check off sheet. Any other claims for missing or damaged items cannot be substaintiated at this time due to lack of information and/or proof. However, out of good faith and the understanding in your claim you were seeking $1000 for your deductable we are offering you $500 to fully settle this claim." The actual claim amount per Mr. Burr's chosen level of liability for the listed, proven, damaged items was $103; the amount if all items Mr. Burr was claiming were evaluated (even without proof of damage or loss) was just over $300. I recieved approval to go above that to meet Mr. Burr 1/2 way with $500, and fully understanding he was also covered by State Farm. Since then our company has not heard anything either way from the Burr's. Please note, readers, that in no way did our company imply that the $500 was a final offer or only other remedy. It was exactly what it was, an offer at resolution that the Burr's had not even responded to. My last conversation with Mr. Burr was discussing the offer and a promise to send it to him. Mr. Burr stated that was not what he had hoped for, but "just send it to me and I'll get back to you". It is the position of our company to try and appease the customer, within reason, and reach an agreement when things go wrong that is mutual. Our company would have been, and still is, willing to try to work things out with Mr. Burr. That is what I was trying to do by going above and beyond the limitation of liability that Mr. Burr chose and trying to meet Mr. Burr half way, still knowing he would be reimburesed by his own insurance company.