Top Relocation - Avoid Moving Scam

Read Don't let movers run all over you - Two nightmares offer lessons in how to protect yourself!

Lynda Lenz moved from St. Paul to Nevada, but her furniture didn't. The moving company arrived with some boxes, but where were her dining room set, living room set, office furniture and computer?

"I'm terrified! I was going to retire with that furniture," Lenz told the Watchdog as she pleaded for help. "Where is it?"

Good question.

A frantic Farrah Wanner had the same question when she contacted the Watchdog. She and her husband, Brandon, were newlyweds living in Eden Prairie when he got a new job in Florida.

Their move was supposed to take three days and cost less than $3,000. Six weeks and $8,000 later, the Wanners found their belongings in Kansas City and prevailed upon relatives to pack them in a rental truck and help them drive it to their new home.

These horror stories show what moving can be like when unscrupulous or inept companies are involved. The Watchdog helped the readers solve their problems. But she also found along the way solid advice for people to follow to shield themselves.

It helps enormously to be there while your stuff is going into the truck, for example. Always check out a company's Better Business Bureau report.

Prior to Lenz's move, she paid All My Sons, a local moving and storage company, to put her belongings in its Brooklyn Park warehouse. The company was supposed to take an inventory of her household goods. Bekins Van Lines, which was to move her things to Nevada, could not find such a list, so it made its own of only the things it was loading. No major furniture was on the list.

For weeks, Lenz made do with a couple of lawn chairs at her new home near Las Vegas.

To help Lenz, the Watchdog first contacted All My Sons. The office manager would not explain matters to the Watchdog but said he would call Lenz. He didn't.

The Watchdog then called Bekins Van Lines. Much better luck there: Senior Vice President Scott Ogden got on the job right away and pressured All My Sons.

"We will require them to go through the warehouse, and if we're unable to locate it, we will go through with a claim for it," he promised the Watchdog.

Within a few days, employees at All My Sons had looked harder, and, indeed, the furniture was found.

Even though it has to make a second trip and ship items that may show up later, Bekins will not charge Lenz any extra. If some goods don't show up at all, Bekins will walk Lenz through the claims process, Ogden said.

Bekins, which is a Better Business Bureau member, has a satisfactory rating. All My Sons, of Brooklyn Park, with dozens of complaints on file with the Better Business Bureau, has an unsatisfactory record.

Lenz is getting her things back, but only after a huge hassle. Wanner had the huge hassle and still had to take matters into her own hands.

She started out by going to the Internet to hire a broker, Top Relocation, which, according to the Better Business Bureau, had had some complaints that were shown as resolved. The broker was supposed to find her a reputable mover. Wanner selected a reasonably priced mover called Team Spirit. She signed a $2,350 contract and paid the broker a $550 fee.

The van was several days late picking up the Wanners' belongings — the first of many problems.

The couple had to leave for Florida, so her parents oversaw the loading. They didn't get the paperwork they were supposed to.

The truck was supposed to drive directly to Florida in three days, but instead, weeks went by. The couple's belongings, valued at $32,000 — virtually everything they owned — never showed up, even though the Wanners were told again and again that the delivery would be within the next day or so. The mover used a variety of excuses: The fuel pump broke; the driver was taking time off to be with his wife; the van was sent to Texas, or maybe Utah, to pick up another load.

Wanner made dozens of frantic phone calls to the broker, the mover and the driver. Often, her calls weren't returned, she said.

She turned to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which told her the moving company was unlicensed and uninsured. She filed a felony theft report with the police in Georgia, where the moving company was located.

Wanner was sore from sleeping on a blow-up mattress and frightened that she might never get her things back. The Watchdog talked to the mover and was told the belongings were in St. Louis. But when the items stashed in a storage area there were described to Wanner, she was disheartened to find they weren't hers after all.

Six weeks after her goods were loaded into the moving van, Wanner tracked her belongings to Kansas City. She persuaded police to cut the lock off a storage area there and allow her mother-in-law and two aunts to load it into a rental truck. Wanner and her husband met them in Illinois, then drove the truck back to their Florida home.

The broker refunded the Wanners' fee. But the couple incurred more than $8,000 in expenses, including phone charges, things they had to buy to make up for what was on the truck, such as a bed and clothing, and the cost of moving the goods themselves from Kansas City, Wanner said.

Wanner now volunteers for www.movingscam.com, a Web site that warns people about problem brokers and moving companies.

"It's unbelievable how common this is," she said. "It's just disgusting."