Complaint Review: Call Me Van Lines - california

THIS IS A SCAM! Do NOT use this company if you value your belongings or money.

I booked a move through New Amsterdam Van Lines, who are also part of this scam. I was on the phone for an hour with New Amsterdam giving measurements of every piece of furniture and boxes. I was told that pricing was weight based and the truck would be there Friday. So Friday I get a call from Chris who says the truck I was promised was full and they were sending another truck on Saturday at 10am.  I told him that was not the deal and he basically said there was nothing I could do but cancel and lose my $700 deposit. I had no idea New Amsterdam was a broker company and didn't actually do the move.  

11am on Saturday, still no movers. I called New Amsterdam and they were closed. I finally get a call from "Dave" from Call Me Van Lines who seemed to think his driver was already there. I said there was no truck and he said he would investigate and call me back.  THREE HOURS LATER Dave calls me back and says the truck will be there in 15 min.  I had called over 6 times in those 3 hours and he would not answer my call.  15 min turned into an hour.  The truck, who was supposed to be there at 10am didn't arrive until 2pm in a rented Budget truck.  

The driver walks through the house and says, "There's way more stuff than we expected." So he gives me a new quote for over $9,000!  I said no way and why did the price change when I had given an inventory list of everything. They said they had estimated 800 cubic ft and this would take up over 2000. I said, "This was a weight based move." They said no. Chris gets involved and Dave calls to tell me he's sending his guys to lunch while I figure this out.  Chris calls me back and says the best he can do is $6800.  It was too late to rent a moving truck, so we just ate the cost.

The movers return 2 hrs later. They didn't have all the tools to disassemble the furniture and kept asking me for my tools, which were packed. At one point, because they did not have the proper ratchet attachment, they just unscrewed the legs of my antique dining table. But since this is an antique, one of the screws was stripped, so they just ripped the screw out, damaging the wood in that part.

After they loaded, they said we owed them 50%. I handed them a credit card and the driver said, "Cash or check only."  I told them we paid the deposit on a card, so he makes a call (presumably to Dave) and says someone will call me the next day to get a credit card payment.

Then I notice that they have left 2 of the dining room chairs. So I asked them and they said there was no room!  I said, "What am I supposed to do about the chairs?" and they just shrugged their shoulders.  The driver was having me sign paperwork and said we could write good comments about them. So I said, "If you fit those 2 chairs on the truck, I will write a good comment."  And guess what?  They fit the chairs on the truck!  

Two days later, Dave calls at 10 pm to tell me I haven't paid. I told him what his driver said about the credit card and he said no he doesn't accept credit cards, no matter what his driver said. Now he had our things and could demand whatever he wanted.  I didn't have that kind of cash and he told me to get a cash advance on my credit card!! I asked him if I could just come get my things. He said they were at a warehouse in Phoenix and I could get them for $2500!!

A few days later, I contact Dave to tell him when I would be to Phoenix and he told me that he had the truck take the things to LA because he doesn't have to pay a storage fee there. I tell him when I will be coming and he said he could be there to let me into the warehouse.

So we fly into Vegas to rent a truck because it was $1000 cheaper. I call Dave to tell him we will be there in 5 hrs. When we are an hour away, he tells me it would be the next day! The next day we show up and call him and he says he is closed for the day and hangs up. Turns out he just rents a storage unit at the facility.

We called the police who took our statement and said we could file extortion charges on him. The manager of the facility said that she had another man come with the same story. She calls Dave and tells him that's not how they do business and he can't stay there if this is going to happen.

The next day he refuses to show us our things until we give him $2500 CASH! He told us that was how it worked and call the police. So we called the police AGAIN. Then he leaves to go get food! When he comes back, we had worked out a solution with the manager and owner of the storage facility for him to sign a paper saying he would not lock us out of the unit until we had gotten our things out if we paid him the $2500. So we gave him a money order. Once he had the money, he told his men to unlock the unit, take our things out and then he leaves! But that was fine, we wanted him gone. And SHOCKER! We fit everything we had into approx 1200 cubic ft. Waaay less than what he was charging us for. TOTAL SCAM!