Long Distance Van Lines

There were so many scratches, dents and gouges to the furniture and many irreplaceable items. This was a very emotional experience. We were concerned we would never see our things again. The movers could speak English but communicated to each other in a foreign language. Before I agreed to have them do the move I had called them about the estimate as another company had estimated the load to be about 100 more CF. Tom, the Manager, told me that any discrepancy in the estimate would be very minor as Mr. Ramos is quite accurate in his estimates. Mr. Ramos further told us that the crew that picked up the goods would also deliver them and that they would remain on that truck. So we contracted them to make the move. When they arrived on May 30th the lead mover took his own inventory and they started loading. At about 3/4 of the way through we were told that we would have 1500 CF and now it was going to cost us nearly $5000.00 instead of the quoted $1938.00. We became very upset and I told them to unload everything at which time the lead man told us that we would have to pay for their time, gas, etc. Although highly upset, we felt trapped and opted to have them make the move. When I questioned the lead man about the inventory he said he knew it was going to be more than originally quoted. I would like to know why we weren't advised of this before they started loading so we could have opted out. I had asked that they not deliver until June 5th as I needed time to get to Myrtle Beach myself. They requested that we make it June 4th and I agreed. They did not arrive as scheduled so I tried repeatedly to contact them. They did not answer the phone and did not return calls even though I left messages. Finally on Monday June 6th I spoke with Tom, the Manager, who informed me that they had a mechanical problem with the truck and were trying to get it repaired ASAP. I asked them to put it on another truck but they insisted that they could not do that. When they kept stalling us I filed my complaint with the BBB and also disputed the charge to my credit card. I was finally put in touch with the driver of the truck who told me that they were picking the truck up from the repair facility and would be delivering our goods on Saturday June 11th. This was later revised to Sunday June 12th. They arrived at approximately 7:00 AM on June 12th. But, not only was it not the same crew, it was not the same truck and it wasn't even the same company. They had reassigned the load to a relocation company from Hackensack, NJ. I could not believe my eyes when they opened the van and I saw how they had loaded our goods. Dressers, end tables, night stands were all upside down even though each had loose items in the drawers, which they were aware of. We have discovered broken, scratched furniture, torn leather on a recliner and several crushed boxes. Our sewing machine is missing as well as the hardware for reassembly of some items. Although we were told prior to contracting Long Distance Van Lines that unpacking and reassembly was all inclusive, Leo, the delivering driver said that they do not do that. So we have a garage full of crushed boxes that we are unpacking and finding all kinds of damage. It appears that our goods were just thrown into this van, probably for spite because we had filed the complaint with the BBB. We feel that the charges should be substantially reduced because of damage and for failure to complete the contract as originally agreed upon. We further feel that this company should be banned from the moving business in order to protect others from being scammed as we feel we were.