Complaint Review: Father and Son Moving - Fort Lauderdale Florida

1. Uncoordinated (could not get our moving schedule correct before, during or after the move)

2. Misleading claims of service (feigned ignorance about described complete packing services upon arrival on moving day)

3. Unreliable (failed to complete packing and loading of property and the client was forced to complete the packing themselves and wait for the next day to have the remaining items picked up)

4. Extortion (Once the property was picked up on the first day, the following day the business owner used said property as leverage to extort another $1, 500 more from their 80 year old retired client by threatening to hold her property hostage if she didnt pay up, in cash! [No paper trail I presume])

5. Damage to property (Water damage to furniture, crushed and stained lampshade)

6. Failure to complete job and delivery (over three weeks from moving date and portions of property still not received to this day. Told it may be another two to three weeks.)

7. Untrustworthy (Status and story about when the remainder of the clients items will be delivered changes almost every time they are contacted with no evidence indicated that anyone can clearly account for the whereabouts of the clients property, that is if you can get someone on the phone)

8. Punctuality not forthcoming (clients moving/travel schedule was severely delayed, inconvenienced and costly due to lack of coordination, reliability, and comprehension thereof by the movers) 9. False presentation (Everything is all candy canes and lollipops until they have your property in their possession, then the masks come off)

_______

My experience with this moving company is on par with much of the prior complaints listed on this site.

My mother is 80 years old and she hired Father & Son Movers for a move from Fort Lauderdale, FL to Pensacola, FL as she was retiring. She spoke with their representatives first and was given the impression that they were a reputable and responsible moving company. She also checked in with Mayflower movers, among others, during her search for movers and Mayflower movers scheduled an appointment to survey how much property would need to be moved before quoting a price. However, Mayflowers representatives never showed up at the time they scheduled. As a matter of fact they never showed up at all the entire day which caused my mother to needlessly miss an entire day of work. Having been given a bad impression of Mayflower as a result of this act, she settled on using Father & Son Movers. Father & Son movers, however, only requested the number of rooms and never had anyone scheduled to survey the amount of property to be moved. Initially the representative stated on the phone that they do the packing, loading, unloading and that you wouldnt even have to remove articles from dressers and such as they would move these items whole. We made sure the company was aware that we had a two bedroom house and a storage facility from which items would need to be move. They quoted a flat rate based on 6,500 lbs and the move was scheduled for November 3, 2009 on a Tuesday.

As my mother is elderly she is not able to make extended traveling the norm so considering the trip from Fort Lauderdale, FL to Pensacola, FL would be about a ten hour trip she had already decided to split the trip between two days. She could then also make two stops along the way that need to be made anyway. So, the schedule would be that she personally would leave at 7:30am of Wednesday, 4, 2009, the day after moving out and travel half way. Then continue her trip the morning of Thursday 5, 2009 and arrive in Pensacola that evening so that she would be ready for the movers the next morning of Friday 6, 2009. When she informed Father & Sons representative that she would be moving out on the 3rd and moving in on the 6th they initially said that they could not accommodate her with that schedule. So, she decided and stated that she would need to look further for someone that would be able to do so. So, rather than have her turn them down they changed their minds and said, Ok, we will do that. So at that point the quote and schedule was settled.

Prior to the move my mother and I packed as much of the personal items and things that were of more concern. We both packed as much as we could prior to the date, at least as much as we could as was allowed by our available time. We did this especially since this would cut down on the $100 per hour cost of the movers working. We did not place any major concern on getting every single item packed by the move date since the representative stated that they do all the packing.

On the day of the move, the truck did arrive on time with two workers. After they initially surveyed the move they stated right away that they would have to bring in a third worker at my mothers expense because she had more property to move than they had anticipated. This could have been settled beforehand if they had surveyed the move prior to the move date as was going to be the policy with Mayflower had they shown up. While the workers were hard working and did work quickly, their offices were frequently renegotiating the cost during the move over little details that they would bring up.

The workers, upon accessing our move schedule stated, So, you will be in Pensacola tomorrow (Wednesday 4, 2009) to move these things in? To which I stated to them that she was moving in on the Friday 6, 2009. They looked at me dumbfounded and then stated, Oh, so you are leaving on Thursday? I again said, No, she is leaving at 7:30am tomorrow. (Wednesday 4, 2009). So, once again he stated, Im confused, so youre moving in on Thursday? I had to re-explain again that she was leaving tomorrow Wednesday 4, 2009 and that she would be moving in on Friday 6, 2009. At this point it was becoming an Abbot and Costello routine. However, I think they finally began to understand. It seemed so hard for them to fathom that I was not going to drag my 80 year old mother on a ten hour overnight trip.

While they were not previously aware of the moving schedule they were aware, however, of the warehouse that needed to be moved so I drove there with them following in tow in the truck. That having been completed, they returned to the house and continued there. The workers however claimed to have no knowledge any condition that they do all the packing and stated that they were expecting just to load furniture and packed boxes on the truck. So they had to have someone from their offices bring more boxes. They kept complaining about all the property that needed to be moved, to which we kept pointing out that they never had anyone survey the move prior. Mind you we already packed a major portion of our property ourselves.

Towards the late afternoon with a small portion of the kitchen items packed these workers stated that they had to leave for the day and that we would have to go to Home Depot to buy more boxes and pack the rest of our items ourselves. Needless to say we were not happy about this. They said they would come back the next morning around 9am and pick up the remainder. We had to point out that it was the last day that our apartment was available to us and that we could not leave our things in this apartment. They didnt care and it wasnt their problem, they simply had to leave for the day. They suggested that we take the belongings, with our car, to keep at a relatives house across town where they would pick them up the next morning, which would be Wednesday the 4th. We also reminded them that we were going to be on the road by 7:30am, but it was of no concern to them, only that they leave for the day. So, we managed to have the apartment complex extend our lease by a day so that we could keep the boxes in the apartment at our expense. We purchased boxes and completed the packing ourselves that evening with my sister-in-law enlisted to help knowing that this moving company was already going to delay us on our trip by at least 1 hours.

Having no beds, we stayed in a hotel for the night. The next morning at about 8am I called to confirm that someone would show up with the truck and the office was barely aware that they needed to pick up the rest of our property. After the owner/representative complained to us that all their movers were out on jobs they said it would be sometime after 12 and that they would have to call. They also took the opportunity to tell us that they were going to need another $1,500 dollars because of all the alleged unexpected packing that they had to do the day before. (Again I remind you that we packed a major portion of our own property before hand and were forced to finish the packing the movers left behind the day before which was the whole reason we were waiting for them to pick up the rest of our property at this point in time) When we objected to this sudden new demand, the owner just threatened to hold our property hostage if we didnt pay up. Then when we objected to this outrage of extortion[1]the owner took it a step further (as was expressed in previous complaints Ive read to this date) the owner stated that he would now demand the money in cash as opposed to a cashiers check or money order. I guess by receiving money in cash there is no paper trail.

This real fine upstanding businessman had now doubled the cost of this Flat-Rate move by extorting an 80 year old retired woman on the day after the scheduled move date and after she had to complete their unfinished work all under the threat of using her personal property as leverage in a blatant act of extortion[1]. This had turned precisely into one of those buyer beware news documentaries that are broadcast from time to time warning people of unscrupulous moving companies.

After having to contend with this new development and pay the additional $1,500 and still wait for someone to arrive, we were also now looking at 4 hours delay leaving on our trip. After numerous calls to follow up on the whereabouts of the truck, we finally have someone arrive at about 1:30pm. They didnt bring the same truck that the rest of our property was on, they brought a different truck. We knew immediately that this was a recipe for disaster. That they were using a separate truck just didnt make sense, but they said the truck with the rest of our property was at the warehouse and assured us that it would arrive with the rest of our property. They loaded the last 10 items on the truck and left. We finally got on the road by about 2:15pm, an entire 6 hours and 45 minutes behind schedule. This made the drive more difficult for my mother since we had to arrive late at our fist destination.

The next day on the second leg of our trip to Pensacola Thursday 5, 2009, I receive a phone call on my mobile phone. It was the movers and they were already in Pensacola and wanted to start moving our things into the apartment. I re-explained to the caller that our scheduled move-in date was not until Friday 6, 2009. They were completely unaware of neither our scheduled move-in date nor our prior arrangement that we would be traveling there over a two day period. They called their offices and then called me back at which time they began to ask that they PLEASE be able to move our things in that day. Once again I had to tell them that the apartment is not ours yet. We have to sign the lease when we arrive on Friday, once the office opened at 9am. I also had to reemphasize the fact that we were not even in Pensacola, FL yet and that they were not suppose to arrive until Friday 6, 2009. They finally relented and said that they would call at 8am the next morning.

Hoping that the worst was over we arrived at the apartment complex and signed our lease. After a couple of hours the movers calling ahead arrived at the apartment and began moving our things into the apartment and later into our storage. For some reason, much of our furniture (a majority of which is compressed particle board) had water damage. I took pictures for proof. Some furniture was also scraped and a lampshade was dented and stained. How they managed to get water into the truck I cant imagine accept that they must have poor seals around the doors of the trailer.

 After accessing everything that had been delivered we found that they did not deliver the items that we were forced to pack ourselves and that was picked up by the second truck, so our problems continued. Not only that but the bulk of our DVD collection that was on the first truck mysteriously failed to arrive, as well as our hand-truck (dolly) out of everything else that was on the truck that did arrive.

We contacted the company again and they explained that the items never made it on the first truck, that they had the items in their warehouse and were now waiting for another truck that might happen to be heading in our direction. In my opinion, if all of this was a result of their incompetence, I dont care if they had to ship it by Fed-ex and eat the cost, I want my G** d**n property now! Not even now, but yesterday!

So, that is the current state of things. For the past few weeks of follow up it has been the same old song. We call they assure us a truck will deliver our property. At one point about one and a half weeks after the move we were told that the property would be on a truck the next day and that it would arrive on a Van Lines truck or a UPS truck. However, the representative was unsure which, if it was already on the truck, if it was on its way, or if it was still in the ware house and that we should call back on Monday to follow up. The entire following week we could reach nothing but voice mail or a receptionist telling us that everyone was out or the office, in a conference or on the phone and that they would call back. They never did call back. When we finally manage to talk to someone, the week after, we were back to the old status. They again were saying that our property was still in the warehouse and that they were waiting for a truck that to be heading in our direction.

As of Tuesday November 24, 2009 we were told that our property was being picked up by a company called We move you or something to that effect and they would be delivering it. They approximated that it should arrive on Wednesday November 25, 2009 the day before Thanksgiving. Well, Wednesday passed and no truck arrived. Given the fact that it was approaching Thanksgiving weekend we assumed they may have delayed the trip for the holiday and we decided to follow up on the upcoming Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. So, Friday November 27, 2009 (today) and coming up to a month after beginning our move we call to follow up. Now the story changes again. They are back to stating that our property is still in the warehouse. The people that are able to handle the issue are out till Monday (I guess they are enjoying their Thanksgiving weekend) and that they are still waiting for a truck to happen to be heading our way and that it might still be another two to three weeks.

So in the meantime and until we regain our property, if ever, in the next month we are without our microwave, toaster, coffee pot, VCR, eating utensils, cooking utensils, phones (as they have the base of our wireless phones) and many other items that are beginning to slip from memory over this extended time.

I would never recommend Father and Son movers to anyone. On the contrary I would advise anyone to avoid this company like the plague.

As for myself I will never, ever use any moving company whatsoever again. This was my first and last time after this experience. I will no longer trust anyone. I will just hire friends, family, or even direct hire laborers for a day before I put my property in the hands of crooks and swindlers[2] again. And as far as the cost incurred after all the extortion[1], it is quite apparent that it is cheaper to just sell ones furniture, or trash it and just buy new furniture once you have arrived at your new location.

 Consequences (the economic or physical damage that resulted):

1. The client was force to pay at least $1,900 over the original contract.

2. The client incurred the cost of having to extend the apartment rent by once day.

3. The client has had to incur cost of food eating out as a result of her relevant property and means has yet to be delivered to this day.

4. The client has incurred more cost as a result of having to buy more food, utensils and other means of preparing food due to the fact that her relevant property has yet to be delivered to this day.

5. The bulk of a DVD collection is missing from the first delivery. A collection that would easily account for over 90 DVDs including production movies and home moves.

6. The loss of one hand truck that is missing from the first delivery.

7. Water damage to furniture.

____________________________

1 EXTORTION - The use, or the express or implicit threat of the use, of violence or other criminal means to cause harm to person, reputation, or property as a means to obtain property from someone else with his consent. USC 18

The Hobbs Act defines "extortion" as "the obtaining of property from another, with his consent, induced by wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence, or fear, or under color of official right." 18 U.S.C. S 1951(b) (2).

2 SWINDLE v. to cheat through trick, device, false statements or other fraudulent methods with the intent to acquire money or property from another to which the swindler is not entitled. Swindling is a crime as one form of theft.

_______

Other complaints filed with consumer affairs at the following link: (((Redacted)))

CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.