Complaint Review: Quest Moving LLC - Fort Lauderdale Florida

I will say this one more time for all the victims of moving companies: You have absolutely no responsibility for the moving company's wrong doings. None. Do not accept any blame anyone tries to put on you. That, to  me, is what's laughable about this. Based on that logic, you can pretty much blame any victim for anything, simply based on "you should have known better." Tough childhood is all I can think of to explain this toxic and depressing way of thinking.

Jim - In my case, I checked the BBB, Quest's US DOT number, different review websites, and Quest's website. I read through the complaints and comments. I did not know the moving industry is full of scammers. My previous moving experience before this one was stress free and within my budget. So this whole "I am part of the problem" is based on the assumption that I must have known the moving industry is loathed with scammers, and then to what degree? To the degree where I "should have known" the BBB was"bought", how these scam movers operate, how cubic feet shouldnt be the measurement (it IS an acceptable form of measurement BY THE DOT btw), how I shouldnt have chosen the lower estimate? This is the flaw of your logic. You based these assumptions entirely on your own knowledge and experience, which is unreasonable. How can one know something that's beyond the products of their entire life experience? How often do people move in their life, or get scammed at this level? When I call the police officer in Montgomery county over to take a report, he said "I've been here 20 years and never heard of "moving fraud"."This is why I call your "due dilligence" standard narrow minded. Many people here are specialized in different fields. As a PhD in Industrial Engineering, it would be unreasonable for me to blame others for not having a standardized operation, communication method, or to do optimization problems! I see these issues in industry all the time! What kind of help am I if i blame people for not "researching" six sigma or the 5 S or all of the common buzz words out there? You can't help others if you make them feel worse, and worse than that, you place the blame on the wrong entity. If it is the system design, fix it! If it is lack of education, then educate! If someone does a bad thing, then it is them who are responsible! If it takes time to fix, then take the time! Your own "experience" simply doesnt give you the floor to blame others, and worse, the victims.

I appreciate your advice and best wishes. i did contact moverescue.com. They wrote a letter to Quest and said last they heard, Quest was under investigation. The Florida FMCSA field office said my case was still in "open" status as of today, so they recognize it is a hostage situation. I honestly do not have many valuable items, except my piano and all my books, like 14 boxes of them (unlike you, I know very little and depend heavily on all my books to function or make that $$$ ><). 

This has nothing to do with me - that's just you trying to deflect the blame you should be assuming.  And yes, I blame you as a consumer specifically because you won't assume any responsibility for your actions.  The entire industry is polluted with a number of companies who barely operate within the law and use a cheap price in order to lure you in.  You claim you did due diligence - clearly you failed in every aspect of that, and I pointed out why.  Using a mover is not inexpensive and choosing the wrong mover often results in what's happening to you.

There is currently no governmental agency that can help you and those that actually have jurisdiction can do nothing to help you because, of course, the agencies that have jurisdiction are overburdened, so they can't help you.  The problem, as you already pointed out, is that Quest lost their HHG authority in the middle of your move, and then gained it back without having your items delivered.  In such a situation, Quest would have no choice but to either broker out what they had in transit (at least a few people appear to have received their items while their HHG authority was revoked), or have your items sit in storage, or in a truck somewhere in the US.  Either way, I doubt seriously there was a great deal of care exercised in loading and unloading of your items - if they're sitting either in a warehouse somewhere, or in the back of a trailer.  Now that they have their authority back, the question really at this point is who has your stuff, and where is it?

At this point, I would contact moverescue dot com; it's a privately run organization supported by 2 legit moving companies as well as lawyers, who may be able to help you get your stuff.  There should be a phone number on the website to call.  They probably know all about Quest and they can give you the best advice on how to move forward.  Best of luck to you.

Jim, you must have had a very tough childhood. I feel sorry for you. As a victim blamer yourself, you're quick to admit that by responding to my complaint so quickly. And the complaint is not even about you. Your attitude and tone of voice lets me know you operate in a completely different set of values from mine. Which is fine; no good or bad, just different :)

I see that I need to make a clarification based on your response. I gave one of the estimates to Anthony from Quest AFTER I have hired them. He and i went over our items first and he had already given me an estimate. In total, he gave me 3 or 4 different estimates because I went over all of them and made sure it was correct. I offered to give him an inventory from one of the in-home estimates to make sure he had all the items correct. The price was given to me before that. The estimate actually went up a little bit after I gave him the in-home estimate, but I was OK with it because I just want to make sure that was the correct price with exact number of items. I have all the emails trail for this.

I know that you care about this issue and has reached out to many. I want to use my complaint to do the same, but I want others to know that they are not the ones to be blamed. Period. I want to encourage others to raise their voice and be aware, because lack of education in this matter is where we are at. Yes the damage has been done, I and many others learned our lesson, but I thrive to live in a society based on trust versus distrust, and so I refuse to accept that "this is the way it is" for the moving industry or your standard for "due dilligence", which is narrow minded.

I want to trust in the BBB and all the responsible entities, as frustrating as I am with them rightnow. I also know that I must keep the hope alive, for one day, this will change, and so I and many others must work towards it. Because we have good values and trust in other human beings that we must protect. But maybe your toxic way of thinking is what helps you to function in life and feel secured, in your little cocoon full of moving nightmares and 'experience" :)

Whoever said that we, the victims, didnt do due diligence in searching for moving companies and should feel "thankful" that some of us did receive the HHGs and could have paid a lot more (?) really are telling honest consumers they are the problem, not Quest or deceitful moving companies. Quest was rated as A- by the BBB by end of June when I hired them, with all >4 star rating in major review websites, and only under 10 complaints with the DOT. Looking for cheaper deal? Of course! Many of us move because we are trying to make a better life by going with new opportunites that are offered to us, so you can't blame people for trying to do everything to achieve just that! That put us in a vulnerable place, but that is not a reason or excuse for bad people to do bad things! There are so many things that are wrong with that kind of thinking, but I dont want to go into that rightnow. The victims appreciate your feedback and sharing of experience, but your experience alone, or the fact that this nightmare is not happening to you, doesn't give you a higher stand to look down and victims blame.

Yes Anne I put the blame directly on the consumer for failing to perform their due diligence in this situation.  That is not EVEN subject to a discussion and your reasoning is laughable.  Then you claim that your due diligence is looking at a BBB Rating.  Seriously??  Virtually all scam movers in Florida (Florida is the scam moving capital of the world - if you had really done your due diligence you would have known this) are members of the BBB.  If you are a member, the worst grade you can possibly receive from the BBB is A-.  A few years ago, one very large scam mover in FL had over 630 complaints in a 36 month period.  630!!  Their rating with the BBB?  A-.  The BBB is membership driven and they serve their members - not the consumer.  Had you done some serious due diligence, you would have known that as well.  Movers also populate various sites with fake reviews that make it seem like they do a great job.  These sites all help the scam mover stay in business by luring in unsuspecting customers who think they've done their homework - like you thought you did - and you end up with what happened to you.  Each time a customer chooses to go with a scam mover, they are perpetuating the problem.  So again, I place blame on the consumer for a lack of due diligence.  I do not absolve scam movers; I simply accept the fact the law allows them to operate.  If consumers didn't use them, then they would not exist. 

The best site I would have recommended a consumer use to research BEFORE an interstate move is movingscam dot com, for starters.  There are experienced moving professionals there who can advise you best on movers and moving, and can help you determine who the best mover might be in some situations.  There are also consumers who were burned that volunteer and moderate for the site.  Many serve there for free because they care.  Doing research now is almost a waste of time.

Scam movers have the law on their side.  Interstate movers have special protections as long as they don't do something stupid like a hostage load.  They can break everything you own, lose stuff, pay you $0.60 per pound, and you can't sue the mover for negligence, pain & suffering, and other financial or other losses.  They stay in business for maybe 2-3 years, shut down for a short while, and start up again with a new name and no complaints, either with DOT or in other places on the internet.  Having dealt with Congress people and the DOT in DC a number of years ago to at least work to modify Carmack made me realize the law isn't going to change in this regard.  Scam movers are a part of the current environment and they will continue to be so long as consumers choose to use them.

If you are looking for better opportunities in life, you really only have 2 choices:  you can choose a legit mover local to you, or you should do the move yourself and do the drive yourself.  The former is an expensive process for all of the reasons I've listed on ROR many times.  The latter is the cheaper alternative, but it will cost you just as much in what I call sweat equity.  A scam mover can cost you even more.  Does my experience in the industry give me a higher stand to look down on?  I never thought of it that way, but sure....

I'll show you areas in your narrative where it is obvious you didn't do sufficient due diligence, or simply have no ethics:

I had 4 in-house estimates by 4 different reputable companies, and I emailed Anthony one of the in-house estimates so he could have the best calculation.  What you did here is a completely unethical act on its face.  Some companies I know would have fired you for cause for doing that.  What you did was take the work of 4 different reputable people/companies and tell Quest, "here, see if you can beat this?" without doing an ounce of work.  Of course, he'll tell you anything because he wants the business.  So he got it.  So now you've been chasing your stuff down and it's been 2 months.  From my perspective, that's what I call karma.  I'm sorry if you think that's an outrageous statement, but you just took your all of your possessions, some of them I'm sure were important to you, and gave them to someone who didn't do any of the work the others did - and then went with that guy based on price?  Karma.

After loading, the foreman told me I went over my cubic feet, from 810cf estimated to 1200cf.  Legit movers use weight, not cubic feet.  A scam mover uses cubic feet because it allows him to manipulate your quote by not packing the truck efficiently and then upping your quote.  A legit mover uses weight; the mover goes to a weigh station and registers the tare weight, gets a ticket, loads your stuff, and registers the gross weight of the truck.  The difference in the 2 tickets is your weight.  It doesn't matter how the truck is packed when you do the job by weight.  Had you done your due diligence, you would have known this as well.

My suspicion of this company and this foreman was at the highest point right at that moment.  That should have happened the minute you got a cubic foot quote.  Legit movers will quote you in weight.  If your quotes were not in weight, then none of your quotes were from legit movers.  Again, this can be found when you research interstate moving.

What else needs to be done for these authorities to do something; something that they are directly responsible for???!  There's very little they can do.  The DOT has jurisdiction over the entire moving industry and they have 3 people assigned to oversee the entire country.  States don't get involved because they can do little.  Florida has few laws governing moving, so that's why many scam movers reside there - well, that and they don't pay state taxes on income.  A private attorney at this point would be your best bet.  However, your attorney is going to tell you to arrange for full payment of the move FIRST - that should get the mover to deliver.  I just would not get your hopes up though...the heartbreak will likely continue once the delivery is made.