Complaint Review: Moving Network USA - North Miami Beach Florida

Moving Network USA is a scam operation. They stole my $1300 deposit.

We contracted with Moving Network USA to move our goods on Aug. 10th. The move date came and went without our having heard from them. It's Sept. 1st. We've spoken with them several times. They've been incredibly rude, given us the runaround, and refused to refund our money. After our last conversation, they said they'd refer our request to bookkeeping and that maybe we'd get our money back in 3-4 weeks.

According to the Florida Division of Corporations this company's registered agent Eli Ashkenazi has been previously associated with American Moving Services, Localmovers.com, and America's Moving Network. This last company racked up a terrible online reputation and 32 DOT complaints before shutting down. On top of this, the registered agent is a convicted felon: (http://florida.arrests.org/Arrests/Eli_Ashkenazi_5362201/). It looks like the owner is playing a shell game: registering the same company under different names, to outrun his reputation.

Ive registered complaints with the BBB, Florida Attorney General, and DOT. I doubt Ill ever get my money back. Dont work with Moving Network USA!

A detailed timeline of our communication with Moving Network USA is below.

 ** On 29 June 2012, Joey from Moving Network USA contacted me to offer a quote for our interstate move.  His offer was reasonable, although not the lowest out of the companies that gave us quotes.  At the time, no complaints were listed for the DOT/FMCSA number for his broker company on the protectyourmove.gov website.  After comparing offers from several moving companies, my fianc and I decided to book a reservation for a move during a two day window of 10-11 August 2012 with Moving Network USA.  On 2 July 2012, we paid a deposit in the amount of $1307.51 via electronic check.  

** 8 August 2012:  I called the company and left a message for the dispatcher because I had not been contacted for a pick up time for our load.

** 9 August 2012:  The dispatcher returned my call and informed me that no truck was scheduled.  She offered to call all of the truckers to try to find someone for my shipment and said she would call back on 10 August 2012 (the first day of our pick up window) at noon.  There was no excuse for not contacting us first about the change in date.  She said that she thought it was more likely that someone would be available for pick up on Monday, 13 August 2012 than over the weekend.  She never called me back with an update.

** 10 August 2012:  I called the dispatch office at 4 pm EDT to ask about the results of the dispatcher's search.  No one was in the office.  I left a message on the answering machine, but it was not returned.

** 13 August 2012:  We spoke with Joey, our original contact at Moving Network USA, several times.  He said that his dispatcher, the woman with whom I had spoken on 9 August 2012, had quit suddenly and apologized for the delay.  I asked if we could arrange a refund because I started to suspect they were making excuses for a botched job when he told me the truck that was scheduled for my load broke down.  I was also very uncomfortable with the lack of company-initiated communication regarding changes in pick up dates.  After insisting that we come to an agreement on when a refund could be made, he told me that I needed to allow "reasonable time" for him to find a replacement driver before a refund could be granted and offered 14 days from the last date in our two day reservation window as his definition of this period.  He assured me that he, himself, would take care of calling all of their drivers and would be in contact on a daily basis for the next two weeks.  I never heard from Joey again.

** 27 August 2012:  This date is the first business day after the 14 days from our pick up window.  I first called the consumer questions/complaint hotline for the FMCSA to ask specific questions for what my course of action should be to file a complaint.  Their representative checked the DOT/FMCSA database for Moving Network USA and told me that the company had four complaints against them, three of which were in the same category as my own, and all of which had been posted to the protectyourmove.gov website after we had booked our reservation in July.  

In an attempt to resolve the issue first with the company itself, I called Moving Network USA and asked to speak to Joey.  I was informed that he was out of work and was redirected to the new dispatcher, Nicole. Nicole told me it was her first day on my file and continually repeated that we were not eligible for a refund because we weren't canceling 7 days before our pick up date, as specified in our contract. She later said that our file would be reviewed by billing in 2-3 weeks to start the refund process, but given our previous experiences with this company and the number of complaints lodged against them in this same issue, we do not feel that our refund is likely.