Complaint Review: WorldWide Relocations - Pembroke Pines Florida

On March 2, 2005 I contacted WorldWide Relocations to move my household goods from NY to Puerto Rico. I was told that they were "experts" in facilitating relocations to PR, and that the shipment I delivered to a local warehouse in NY (with the Tober Group, a horrible company they subcontracted)would be put on a ship and sent out the following day. The estimated arrival in port would be by March 15. Worldwide estimated the shipment would cost approximately $1500; the final bill totaled over $2000. My bank account was debited three times, once without prior notification or permission.

The last of these three transactions occurred in mid-March. When I delivered my goods to the NY warehouse, I was not given a copy of my inventory, nor was I given a bill of lading or any other documentation to prove I had delivered these goods. I was told that this documentation would be sent to WorldWide, who would, in turn, send it to me.

I never received any of this documentation, despite multiple requests to both companies. By March 17, I had neither received my goods, nor received any communication from WorldWide. I made many efforts to call (long distance), e-mail, etc., without much success. No one ever answers the toll-free or 954 #; the extensions in the employee directory are "invalid", and when I did speak with a living person, Ana, I heard her ask my contact, Joe Gonzalez, whether she should tell me that he wasn't available.

I called the cell phone of the employee who originally handled the shipment, and he told me he couldn't do anything. I e-mailed and left voice mails for Barbara Deane, in the finance dept (who was very quick to charge my bank account!), and never had a reply. I was told by the company in NY that they were NEVER PAID by World Wide. Joe, on the few occasions I spoke with him, told me that this had to be a "lie," but still refused to accept responsibility for the fact that I had not received the shipment, had outrageously poor customer service skills, and did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to resolve the matter.

Meanwhile, my boyfriend and I are sleeping on a twin mattress on the floor of our apartment in PR, which has no furniture. We have none of our personal or business documents, including our tax returns; we had to file an extension on our taxes. The NY company will not ship our goods without being paid, and after being so burned by WorldWide, I am hesitant to pay them to ship, particularly since they don't have any dates they can give me for their next shipment to PR. Over the past two weeks I have called WW on numerous occasions, and the phone rings and rings; it doesn't even have an automatic message that comes on. Like many who have posted here, the BBB informs me that WW has had over 125 complaints filed against them in the past three years. If this is only the number of filed complaints, I can't imagine how many more people must have been ripped off by this horrible company.

I am VERY interested in filing a class action suit and working with others of you to give as much negative exposure to WW as possible. Thank you, Karen from Georgia, for posting all of the tips for reporting WW; I plan to follow each and every one of them.

Yesterday WW sent an e-mail saying they can't meet their financial obligations and though they have not filed for bankruptcy, will not be able to actualize pending shipments or compensate victims in any way. What is our recourse?

Julie

San Juan
U.S.A.