Family Loses All Their Possessions
When it comes to moving horror stories, truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. You can search on the Internet, and you will find stories of moving scam victims who have suffered the same fate as victims of a tsunami, or a tornado, only their loss was at the hands of man.
The following two horror stories illustrate how moving scams, at their worst, can work to deprive families of all their possessions.
Both stories concern the same ruthless moving company. In the first, recent, tragic event, a family went into bankruptcy and had to sell their house and put all their family possessions into storage. They found a mover who would agree to move their belongings and store them, at a price they could afford. The poor family already had lost their house. Now they must continue to pay rent somewhere, to live, and additionally must pay a storage fee each month, to preserve the safety of their belongings. In the meantime, they are struggling to exist, and hoping for a sunny day in the future when they can redeem all their family holdings. But now, fate takes an even crueler turn.
This is how the story was described on an Internet moving scam web site: “In early December 2008, we received a call from P. Moving Company of East Orange, NJ). They stated to us that they have been storing our property since August of 2008 and that we owed them over $2,800 in storage fees. They also informed us that our former mover (Satisfied, HB whatever) had filed for bankruptcy and that he had intended to abandon our property and that Prime Van Lines had graciously agreed to store all property in their warehouse.
We have been told that we were sent letters notifying us of the change in storage facilities and that the monthly storage fee was going to be increased from $280 a month to $750 per month. Now the family, who had been unable to pay mortgage, is being asked to pay a storage fee close to their mortgage fee, just to maintain control of their former household possessions. The family went to agencies to make complaints, but with no current hope of resolving the problem, and maintaining ownership of their property.
Now listen to another story about this same heartless moving and storage company. A man contracted with an inexpensive moving company to move his belongings.
This company subcontracted the job to the company described above. The company now claimed that the original company didn’t pay them enough to move their goods. So the family’s household goods were placed in the company warehouse, somewhere. The father of the household was very determined, and got a court order forcing the moving company to release his goods. He now hired a new moving company to pick up the belongings. But when they got to the warehouse, the goods were gone. The company now claimed they had been moved to another warehouse. That warehouse was checked, and the items couldn’t be found. The man contacted the FBI, but they could do nothing, because his financial loss is less than 100,000 dollars.
So this family also, have lost all their worldly goods at the hands of the same unscrupulous moving company, and to all intent purposes, nothing can be done to locate and retrieve the belongings.
The family went to agencies to make complaints, but with no current hope of resolving the problem, and maintaining ownership of their property
One way to protect yourself from this type of tragedy is to hire a professional packing company. They will come to your house ahead of moving day, and give you a flat fee estimate of the cost of proper packing and loading of your belongings. Packing Service Inc. is the name to trust in the Packing Service Industry. Packing Service Inc. is dedicated to fighting moving scams They will not only provide you with a packing and moving cost estimate, they will also recommend an honest shipping company that can transport your container to its new location, or place your containers in safe dependable storage for as long as you need. Packing Service Inc. only employs workers who have at least one year experience in the packing and or moving industry. And with a growing number of affiliates, Packing Service can possibly help you on both ends of your move.