Complaint Review: Peace of Mind Relocation - Van Nuys, Oxnard, Los Angeles, Sherman Oaks California

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!  I WON a LAWSUIT against them this week!  This story about Peace of Mind will interest all of you considering using Peace of Mind Relocations services for a future move and those of you who have used them and they did you wrong too.

I contracted with Peace of Mind Relocation, Inc. to move my belongings from California to Iowa.  I signed a non-binding agreement with them for $1556.  

Now a non-binding agreement with a moving company who operates legally under the Department of Transportation, means that the mover gives you an estimate of what your belongings would cost based on most likely not seeing your items in person ahead of time.  When you contract for this, youre allowing the mover to charge you more if they find that you have more goods/additional costs than anticipated.  This is reasonable.  And with this non-binding agreement, you are only obligated to pay up to 110% of the original quote (or balance of that 110% if you gave a deposit, 50%, etc. when move was performed) when they arrive to deliver your goods.  If the balance owed is MORE than 110% of the original quote (which it can be) than you are only obligated to pay up to the 110% total, they must give you your goods, and you must make good on the remaining balance within 30 days.

What Peace of Mind did, is have me hire their company for this move, under the non-binding agreement, quote which I did.  The movers came (arriving 7 hours late), packed up my goods, then the foreman-Sergio- presented me with a new revised BINDING agreement that was for TWICE the original quote in the amount of almost $3000.  

So the DOT allows a moving company to operate using either a non-binding or binding contract.  It is okay for the moving company to change from a non-binding to a binding once they inventory your goods and deem it more than the original quote.  However- and this is key- a binding agreement must be made and signed BEFORE any work is started.  The reason for this is because a binding agreement locks the customer into the new price no matter how much it differs from the original quote, and the full amount must be paid to deliver goods.  This also is reasonable.

What the mover cannot do (which is what Peace of Mind does) is get you to sign a non-binding agreement and place a deposit.  Then they show up at your place, load all of your belongings first, then slap you with an inflated price and call it a binding agreement; they  refuse to deliver your items, refuse to tell you where your items are, and instead keep it hostage while demanding more and more money until you pay all of it and then some (whatever ludicrous costs they can come up with) and eventually you MAY get your stuff.

So to further expound on this: After Peace of Mind inflated their price by suggesting I had more items than anticipated, which they tried to justify by showing me their inventory sheet of 90 items rather than the 56 items I emailed them and was in the contract.  Upon further inspection, under their contract stating I had a king sized bed with mattresses listed as 1 item, Sergio listed my bed as 1 mattress, 1 mattress, 1 headboard, 1 footboard, 2 rails, frame equally 7 items.  Or my dining room table listed as 1 and on their 90 item inventory as 1 table top, 4 legs equally 5.  Needless to say, its easy to see why my goods expanded from 56 items to 90 items which they will justify as the reason for a higher cost.  

Beyond that, I never heard from Peace of Mind again until I called them 15 days later.  Miraculously, my goods were to be delivered the next day.  The next day came and went and no one ever showed.  The office manager Natalie told me (when I called her) that someone did show up and I refused my own property.  Really??  I requested the location of my belongings and she refused to tell me, telling me I needed to be patient.  Another 3 weeks went by, I heard nothing and kept calling and calling.  She gave me the number to their dispatcher David who kept screaming at me and hanging up on me.  I had to call Natalie again who said my things would arrive on December 30th.  That day came and went and no one showed.  I called again and sent email after email.  Natalie would no longer return my calls or answer them but would respond by email only, saying that again I refused my own belongings.  My goods were to arrive NLT 21 business days marking December 27th as 21 days and it is now past January and nothing.  I contacted the D.O.T. and the LAPD who contacted this company and after they got the complaints, Natalie finally contacted me.  To make a long story short, I received my property 53 days after they took it, I had to go get it myself as theyd left it in a storage facility 35 miles away, my belongings were severely damaged as theyd removed all of the blankets, bubble wrap and shrink wrap on them- furniture scratched, gouged, chunks missing, broken, stained, boxes were opened- rummaged through so missing expensive handbags, college textbooks, expensive bedding, clothing, and many more items were missing and Peace of Mind had extorted me for almost $4000.

Now remember earlier I said this would interest many of you?  Because I did not allow them to get away with this.  I sent Peace of Mind a demand letter of all of this and never heard back.  I filed a lawsuit in California for the state maximum in smalls claims court for $10,000 to cover the damaged and missing belongings, the inflated price I ended up paying (I expressed to the judge I thought it would be fair to allow them to keep $1000 for doing SOME of the work), and punitive damages.  I won this case against them for $8000 as the judge did not award punitive damages.  Peace of Mind appealed the case, bringing it to a superior court and hired an attorney to represent them.  During that hearing, I presented my case again and the lawyers defense was that I signed a contract (using the non-binding and binding both which is impossible and neither proved to be valid since the non-binding was superseded by the binding yet the binding was signed AFTER items loaded and price inflated) so this marked a material breach on their end.  The lawyer also presented a release from liability form I had signed over to Peace of Mind when they had more money and still refused to tell me where my property was.  I countered that with the email Id written when I was forced to send that paper- where I said it was only submitted under duress in order to get my property being held hostage, back from this company.  The lawyers other defense should I win the liability part, was that their damages scope ended at 60 cents/pound.  Except that since theyd removed all the protective material from my property, and boxes were opened and rummaged through, and theyd also given my property to another agent and didnt know what happened from them- they are showing gross negligence.  At that hearing, the judge told the lawyer that his clients are SCAMMERS and he awarded me the full amount of $10,000.

This company is a SCAM, as labeled by the San Diego Superior judge in this matter.  They are extortionists.  But worst of all, they treat you and your property with ZERO respect and they cause you months of worry thinking youve lost everything of material and personal value.  They call you names over the phone, send taunting text messages, irate emails, and refuse to tell you anything.  Karen Sadafi is the owner of this company as well, she came to the first hearing and the judge had to repeatedly tell her to stop talking when he was addressing the court.  They are also a corporation business even though its not listed as one on their website or their contracts.  Their corporation license was suspended for a while too, probably because they didnt pay their taxes to the Secretary of State and now the officer manager, Natalie, is listed as the process agent for this business and it is no longer Karen.  Please DO NOT ever do business with this company and if they have wronged you, take legal action.  They should not be allowed to continue getting away with this.