Complaint Review: Loungecraft Moving And Storage; American Red Ball - Maspeth New York

We looked up American Red Ball in the Nassau County, NY phone book and it was Loungecraft Moving and Storage's phone number. When we ended up being scammed with missing goods from our home and American Red Ball would not take reponsiblity and filed the complaint. It claims no responsiblity and does not hold its company responsible. Beware of using these "well-established" companies because they are established with connections to keep themselves going. We thought that Lougecraft Moving was a nice family company but they have proved to be cold and callous. We ended up missing thousands of dollars worth of goods including heirlooms. The company will not give back our goods. The driver told us that many people over the years who didn't buy the extra insurance have reported their goods missing - especially when traveling distances. This was a warning of what happened to us - and there was no help from the owners! We tipped them well several times and paid for all meals. Even a dog would not bit the hand of its owner - so the workers who were involved are beyond being called animals. The owners will first sympathize, then turn against you with remarks and laughing. They backed them up and send them into more homes! One of the workers said that he and the driver looked for things of market value; they take the trucks to different warehouses and talked about a store. The owners said that they do not hold their workers responsible and they do not monitor them once they hire them for the job. Many of their workers are hired for the day or job. The workers called their owners cheap *&*&. Yet, the owners do not care that they are badly talked about and think that the workers are joking! The owners do not back up their clients and it is a risk to hire them. The associations that they belong to work for them - not for you! Now - what is the term when goods are taken and not given?

Loungecraft Moving & Storage in Maspeth and Seacliff, NY under American Red Ball harasses customers while condoning possible moving scam of missing goods for customers that didn't purchase their insurance for $750 (there is no written confirmation of its existence). Loungecraft harassed us saying it was our fault that the workers saw and took goods from our home. We suffered a moving scam of close to $3,000 of goods missing during an interstate move from gift items, tools, household goods, art, art supplies, boxed gift items, new clothing and designer shoes, handcrafted imported goods and heirlooms and most hurtful are the items of sentiment that had survived nine moves including n**i and Mussolini invasion in Europe. Boxes had been opened and resealed with their tape and the boxes were found skimmed. The items had been seen taken out by workers who were instructed to put them back and later found gone. Of course the workers deny everything to the owners. The company workers (with the exception of one) had no scruples. It didn't matter that we were generous spending hundreds of dollars on workers for tips and food. Loungecraft owners badly harassed us calling us names from autistic to a family of liars that were trying to extort money from them, blackmail them and came along to mar their good reputation by going to the Better Business Bureau. American Red Ball took no action and only filed the report for its award winning company, which falsely advertised we were hiring them as American Red Ball. Their best driver threatened us that we should know that he was passing through our area. He said that he was going to take our home and possessions away from us and make them his. He also said that we didn't know his wife and what she was capable of (whom he claimed was mentally ill and he shouldn't have married her) and would put his wife on us. The company still supports this driver putting him back in people's homes claiming they know him for years. The company put the workers back into homes after the incident. There was a driver/worker partnership with use of cell phones to call one another. The driver kept ignoring our complaints saying we didn't need this or that. One worker, a former Vietnam Vet may have needed a fix (the company said they know he has a problem) and the other worker claimed a UFO put a stake put through his neck he believed it. One of the workers had a car visit him and had put a box on the side of the truck where there was no door. He and other workers were caught snooping opening boxes of tools, for which the driver did nothing and the owners justified that they were looking for warfare in the times of terrorism. The worker dislodged the garage door and the driver allowed him to roam during the signing of the papers as goods were found missing from door pathways. He yelled not to follow the worker who ran out with a box and that he always goes to the truck at the end of all jobs. This scam is therefore ongoing. The company and driver claim that they are not responsible for the actions of their crew - so who is responsible when a customer entrusts a company to put honest workers into their home? The Better Business Bureau, a profit company that supports its paying members, condones the scam. LIMSA also says there is nothing they can do, as the company is also a paying member. Even if their father started the company, he is gone and it is the children that are running the company for profit, unlike the father who cared. They claim they have to sleep at night it is we, not they have lost sleep and our elderly mother with a cardiac condition needed additional medication. Don't believe the Newsday publicity piece about the new Nassau County DA's Office being tough on crime - think twice. The office first sympathized that Loungecraft having a shopping day with our goods, that they would help us recover money for the thousands of dollars, that the workers should have been screened, that tariffs and taxes should have been paid by the company to the government, etc. Then, in two days they turned around refusing to investigate or assign a detective and passed it off to civil court therefore allowing continued moving truck scamming. The Nassau County DA's Office therefore is allowing corporate interest which is more important than protecting consumers who have paid Nassau County taxpayer's dollars. They shouldn't promote themselves as Democrats as being better that the Republicans before them as both parties are supporting corporate interests for years. The Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan New York had to be reported several times to the Virginia headquarters for non-reporting of consumer complaints as the BBB supports its paying members and only reports once in mediation, for which they don't go into anyway. Don't believe the nice BBB record of Loungecraft or other companies. The BBB lied that they would go to mediation and arbitration and then placed an administrative judged statement without our consent. The BBB was going to originally leave the issue unresolved until the company agreed to pay more money, show the original weigh tickets (handwritten) and return goods of sentiment. As soon as the case was going to go to mediation the honest mediator was departed. The scam is that when a customer doesn't buy the company's moving insurance where there is no written brochure to support its existence, the workers feel that they can take what they want because only .60 per lb. will be offered as a settlement, they take what is not listed on the invoice in boxes, they take gifts where there are no receipts and the company pays membership to companies that support them as the BBB and LIMSA. The workers said that they are paid $100 per day or $325 per job, so they supplement their income and the company gets to keep the thousands to themselves for interstate moves. The company doesn't weigh the truck interstate, which is illegal, but laws are not enforced by the USDOT so tariffs and taxes may not be paid. The company falsely advertises that they take credit card, but after the goods are loaded says only cash or money order on this job or they won't do the job for which they refused to give an invoice as proof that they have your goods. So they get cash and it doesn't show. The government knows this but the USDOT took other complaints off the computer and filed them in the back claiming that they don't investigate one complaint and to civil court. One question for me to leave you with can elderly who move out of state go to court? Are people afraid to follow suit because they are afraid that workers know where they live (our driver called us threatening that he knew where we lived)? Think about it. If you get scammed - write to everyone - the press, etc. Retain a lawyer. After it is all over - write to your Congress Representative.

Loungecraft Moving and Storage, an agent of American Red Ball scammed us royally in $3,000 of cash and missing goods, accused us of extortion and threatened to take our house away. They have been protected to date and need to be exposed to the public. The scam is that people without insurance will find their goods missing by the company. The driver warned, "If you don't buy the insurance you may find you are missing goods as other customers have reported missing goods. You need to protect yourself by buying the insurance." We asked, "Why would our goods be missing if you are a good driver? The truck won't fall off the road." He couldn't answer, but said, "Yes, I am a good driver." The Better Business Bureau said that that they find that people who report missing goods by trucking companies are those that are without insurance because the movers know that missing goods is liable for only .60 per lb. not more to pay with the purchased insurance. When we couldn't afford to purchase the extra insurance, for which the company would not substantiate with a written brochure, the driver wouldn't tear off the invoice and made a cell phone call. Then, coincidentally, his partner worker yelled from the bedroom for us to come in to see this box. Then, they all ran out with our goods on the truck without an invoice. We worried about receiving our goods at the destination. When the truck arrived, we had no proof and they wouldn't unload without the payment up front. Loungecraft movers lost our cherished possessions in a flash that had survived over 65 years untouched by the Nazis, Mussolini's soldiers and Communist Guerillas. We were upset in our household for our missing family heirlooms. Other goods found missing were boxed and new, handcrafted imports, tools, art supplies and items that the workers said they could use in their apartment or of market value. There was talk of driving to a warehouse and that my painting could be sold up front in a store (artwork was later found missing from my portfolio cases). The first incident was missing cash. The driver said not to call the police but he would call the President, who didn't call for 28 days and claimed the driver did not tell him. After much back and forth, the company sent a check for the missing cash that they believed that a worker could have been placed in a pocket. The workers had no scruples even though we had treated them in an excellent manner with two tips, breakfasts, lunches, dinners and coffee breaks. They smiled and took from us at the same time with no scruples. The only honest worker was let go by the company - he took goods away from workers and told us that we would find items, which he hid away. He brought in the televisions, which the driver and workers told him to leave in the garage. Many goods were found missing from the attached garage entrance. The owners at first did not call back for 28 days, so we went to the police for the report to be under the 30 requirement. The owners justify their workers and told us it was our fault if anything was lying around for the workers to take. They told us that we were a lying family, that we were extorting money and blackmailing them by marring their reputation by going to the Better Business Bureau. They told us that they never had a problem until we came along. He claimed that his men would never do anything - they weren't even permanent. One of the day workers claimed that a UFO in Times Square put a stake through his neck and kidnapped him. We were accused but we are an honest family involved with the American Legion. The FBI cleared us for public service employment. The President said he wasn't responsible for his workers and theft. He said that he lost money when we didn't buy his insurance for $770 and to use this money to buy back missing goods. I told him there was the principal of matter. He said "What principal?" The General Manager said that since we didn't buy the extra insurance as other people, it was our fault, not his that "goods were stolen from the truck." We found out that Loungecraft booked independently of American Red Ball so we couldn't be covered for our loss by the parent company. We took them because they claimed they were under American Red Ball Company. They even falsely advertised that they take credit card, but once the goods were on the truck, they raised the price $1,200 or they wouldn't do the job; we had to drive to the bank for a money order "No credit card - not on this job". The workers complained that the bosses kept the thousands and were rich and paid them little. The company tried to blame another member moving company that had assisted with a previous move from seven months earlier. The goods that the previous company moved were not lost. We saw our goods that were later found missing from Loungecraft - these items were mostly commented on by this company when they kept opening packed boxes, closets and drawers. There is probably more missing that we haven't realized yet. There was also the question about the authenticity of the weigh tickets for interstate travel. The President, General Manager and driver promised to weigh the truck interstate to be official, but it was never done. The USDOT won't regulate this. The driver and worker both lied when they said they weighed the truck at the interstate weigh station up the road. The driver said he lost the ticket on the truck. We later drove to the weigh station and the police said that the company was not on the computer. If we had known to call the State Police, the truck would have been seized; the workers thrown in jail and the owners would have to collect them out of state. As far as the local weigh tickets, the driver said he lost them too and never showed us any original weigh tickets. Then the owners claimed to have lost them in the office, but upon writing, they mailed copies of partially handwritten weigh tickets from their own warehouse and a private warehouse. There were many irregularities, from a visiting car to one of the workers, tools relocated from the basement to the attached shed, a second truck, our truck detoured to an independent out- of-state warehouse, a worker dislodged manually an electric garage door to have access at the end, goods missing from doorways, goods taken out of originally packed boxes, repacked together and then found missing, boxes skimmed and discovered that they had been opened and re-taped. We questioned why the worker was upstairs in the bedroom and the driver said he was allowed to roam. The driver made a call and said to the party on the line to know that we were finished and to understand that the papers were signed that the goods were delivered. This was repeated several times and then immediately following, the worker ran down the stairs and picked up a box and ran to the truck - the driver yelled not to follow him as he always goes to the truck at the end of all jobs. The worker was allowed to roam on the premises and the driver was refusing to call the worker back in for a long time, then picked up his cell phone to call, then stopped. The worker had access to the opened garage - the garage door he had manually opened. The driver and worker refused to open a weighted box on the truck. The worker kept commenting what we didn't need. The owners justified the invasion of privacy saying the workers have the right to open packed boxes to look for warfare. We checked with the government that this was not true. We called the driver hoping he could assist us to speak to his workers to find the missing goods with no questions asked. He called the following night taking things to another level, threatening to take our house away. He said that if we sued him, he would counter sue us. I told him that if we went to court, it would be the company who is responsible. He said he had been here and had knew what we had and it was going to be all his. He said we didn't know his wife and that she would come after us. The American Moving & Storage Association told us to report the threat to the police. We told Loungecraft about being threatened by the diver and the company said "Never mind. Let's not talk about it." The USDOT has been receiving complaints, but routinely takes them off the computer and files them manually. They said they can't investigate one single complaint, but now has more. The LIMSA (Long Island Moving & Storage Association) said it can't do anything; the BBB had to be complained about to headquarters to assign another mediator - the previous one said he couldn't do anything and that I was making allegations; the police promised a detective, then wouldn't assign a detective for theft and said to go to civil court, the Nassau County District Attorney wouldn't investigate because the police said it was a civil not a criminal matter (even though we witnessed the worker taking out missing goods and running out with a box), the congressmen said it wasn't their jurisdiction, the Consumer Affairs passed it to the NYSDOT who passed it to the USDOT, who won't regulate federal law and said for us to go to civil court. Only the AMSA (American Moving and Storage Association was honest and helpful, but they are bound to the .60 per lb. but would proceed to arbitration on our behalf. The fault is in the Better Business Bureau, which falsely reports Loungecraft as a good standing member. The BBB is a profit organization, which doesn't record complaints of member companies which offer a settlement before a "formal" complaint is placed in mediation. Our complaint is in mediation and I have been writing for months to have it placed in the computer report ratings. This is how we got stuck by believing false Better Business Bureau ratings that Loungecraft had zero complaints for three years. In the end, it is a matter of finding a good lawyer to take them to civil service court because the government and agencies won't investigate a scam, rip-off operation. Bottom Line: If you don't buy the moving company insurance you will risk losing your goods.