I Got Lucky
Mike
Submitted this review about
Moving On Up Inc.
Review made Live: 11/27/2011 4:04:00 PM
This review is for Moving On Up in Hollywood, Florida.
I received a quote from Jason at Moving On Up to move my car and household goods from Miami, FL to Los Angeles, CA. I had a requirement to have the car ship on the same truck as the other goods, as I had to meet the truck at both ends of the move and I was driving from FL to CA. The quote was the lowest I found at $882 for the car AND 150 cubic feet of household items. Supposedly, Jason had a truck already going to CA and I could receive this super discount because I was "filling out the rest of the truck." It was a little too good to be true, but I was in a hurry to get the move lined up and paid a 10 percent deposit ($82) up front for the move to take place 10 days later in early November 2011.
Over the next couple of days I refined my item list (no furniture, only the car, a few boxes and many plastic storage totes) and forwarded the list to Jason. Jason revised the Binding Estimate a couple of times to reflect the new inventory list, and the original total price never changed, however Jason's per cubic foot rate fluctuated wildly, from around $1.50 per CF to over $5 per CF. This was important because if I in fact needed more than the estimated 150 CF I would have to pay the per CF rate for anything over 150 CF.
I started doing my online homework on the company (I know, I should have done this before I paid a deposit) and found several complaints. I also found descriptions of moving scams that sounded very much like what I was seeing: up front deposit, quoted price much lower than other companies, the company has only one local truck and was farming out to who knows what other movers, the scant terms included in the written Binding Estimate did not match what the rep was telling me over the phone, etc. Each time I pushed Jason on the discrepancies, he gave me more or less a "don't worry about it" response. The more questions I asked, the less comfortable I felt.
Anyway, a couple of days later I decided I did not want to trust my move, and my prize car, to Jason, especially seeing as the scene had so many red flags. I told Jason I was cancelling the move. He assured me the refund to my credit card would occur in 24-48 hours.
I made the move myself a week later, with my car moved by an auto transport company (for $1200) and my goods in a trailer behind my truck.
The deposit had not been refunded after two weeks so I called a couple of times and eventually spoke to Courtney in Accounting. She said she would look into it. The next day Courtney left a message that I needed to talk to a move supervisor. I called back and spoke with Tom(?) and explained the situation. He said Jason had left the company and never took the move off the scheduling board. The manager was very apologetic and promised the deposit would be refunded immediately. And it was! The next day Courtney made the refund and even emailed me a copy of the refund receipt.
Maybe Jason was a bad egg salesperson. Maybe the company is okay, probably okay for local moves. But for any future interstate moves, I'll do my homework and stick with companies that own or directly contract their own trucks.
