Movers’ Ads Don’t Deliver the Goods
Moving is never fun. But Carol Erickson figured she’d picked the right firm for the job.
She found Transworld Van Lines in the U.S. Postal Service Mover’s Guide, a booklet distributed at all 38,000 post offices. Erickson, 80, who moved in July from Santa Cruz to Washington to be near her daughter, was a believer in the adage “buyer beware.” But she figured that because Transworld was “associated with the Postal Service, they must be all right.”
When the crew pulled up on moving day, they were not in the gleaming semi-trailer with the Transworld logo that she saw in an ad in the Mover’s Guide -- but in a rented Ryder truck.
It was Erickson’s first, but not worst, surprise.
Unknown to Erickson, Transworld had logged a truckload of complaints. The company wound up shunting her possessions to two other moving companies, whose employees were abusive and refused to tell her their names, she said. It took weeks for Erickson to get her things, she added, because she resisted a demand to pay double the Transworld estimate of $1,588.
Living out of a suitcase, Erickson held out as long as she could, but with her possessions -- including vital medications -- held hostage, she capitulated. When she finally recovered her property, Erickson recalled, she found many of her nicest things had been damaged, and the companies refused to process damage claims.
Transworld did not respond to questions about individual complaints, saying that it usually subcontracts the actual moves with other companies and cannot account for their actions.
Erickson’s story differs only in the particulars from hundreds of similar complaints. Even its leading trade group -- the American Moving and Storage Assn. -- acknowledges that the interstate moving industry is rife with shady operators.
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Little Recourse
Irate victims quickly find that they have almost no recourse, because regulatory oversight is virtually nonexistent, and it’s next to impossible to bring a successful claim in court.
It’s one thing when authorities leave victims to fend for themselves. But it’s another, Erickson said, when the government gives operators such as Transworld a promotional boost.
“I didn’t think the post office would be sponsoring someone who would take advantage of vulnerable people,” she said.
James Balderamma, a Florida activist who runs a Web site devoted to moving scams, said the Postal Service had failed to appreciate the extent of the industry’s problems.
It’s “further proof that something drastic needs to be done,” Balderamma said. “Even the legitimate movers are complaining that the rogue movers are stealing their business and destroying their industry, piece by piece.”
The situation reflects a regulatory Catch-22, in which authority over interstate movers rests with the federal government, essentially tying the hands of the states. But the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, a branch of the Transportation Department, concedes that it makes little effort to go after rogue movers. Agency officials say they can’t afford to divert staff from their main mission: reducing deaths and injuries from truck and bus crashes.
Although the safety administration advises victims to go to court, lawsuits usually are futile because the cost of suing exceeds the damages that could be won. That’s because under federal law, interstate carriers are liable, at most, for the value of lost or damaged goods.
Despite congressional hearings and a blistering report last year by the General Accounting Office, the situation has remained unchanged.
Caught in the crossfire, the Postal Service contractor that publishes the Mover’s Guide, Imagitas Inc., recently canceled agreements with Transworld -- which soon went out of business. Imagitas then contracted with a second company, Nationwide Relocation Services Inc., but canceled that deal too after consumer complaints about the firm.
The Postal Service and Imagitas say they won’t be accepting more ads from movers anytime soon.
“Despite its obvious relevance to people who are moving, we are no longer ... seeking advertisers for this category,” said Sue Brennan, a Postal Service spokeswoman. “Should there be a favorable change in the regulatory environment that would provide consumers ... with a more effective method of evaluating moving companies, we would consider opening the category up again.”
Under its Postal Service contract, Imagitas produces the Mover’s Guide and a companion Web site that provide change-of-address forms along with ads and tips on moving. After recovering its costs, Imagitas splits ad revenue with the Postal Service.
Published three times a year, the Mover’s Guide has been hailed as a big money-saver for the government, shaving millions from the cost of handling undeliverable mail.
Transworld advertised in the January-April 2002 and May-August 2002 editions of the guide. And the Englewood, Colo.-based firm rode the government’s coattails as hard as it could. Scripts used by Transworld’s telephone sales force stressed an alliance with the Postal Service, Ron Michael, a former company supervisor, told The Times.
Transworld’s Web site described the firm as “the approved vendor of the United States Postal Service.”
“To be affiliated with a government group,” the site said, “one has to have a strong commitment to integrity and service.”
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Growing Complaints
In a recent 18-month period, the Denver/Boulder Better Business Bureau received 96 consumer complaints about Transworld, according to bureau spokeswoman Tami Roeder. “No viable moving company should have this many complaints ... especially that have been unanswered and unresolved,” Roeder said.
Shagra Pier, Transworld’s owner, attributed the complaints to companies that Transworld had contracted with for the moves. “Basically it was, a lot of times, bad choice,” Pier said.
For Tara Roberts, who in April hired Transworld to move her from Texas to Washington after seeing the ad in the Mover’s Guide, the experience was as surreal as it was expensive.
The crew that showed up at her Austin home in a Ryder truck included a foreman and two day laborers with no experience as movers. Roberts and her mother, Donna Vallee, said the men told them they had been heading to a pawn shop to raise some cash when the foreman stopped to ask whether they wanted to make a little money.
Roberts said the men gouged holes in the doors and floors of her home, costing her $1,450 in repairs and lost income from the sale of the house. She said they repacked many things she had already packed -- which seemed odd until she learned they had tacked $943 onto her bill for packing materials.
Although Transworld had given an estimate of $2,422.80, Roberts said she was given a bill for $5,815 and told it must be paid on delivery “or they would put my belongings in storage and I would have to pay storage fees and re-delivery fees as well.”
She managed to borrow enough from her father to ransom her goods. After they were delivered, Roberts said she found that her furniture was damaged, and that a diamond bracelet and $1,000 ring she had packed in a dresser had disappeared.
“I think it’s unbelievable,” Roberts said. But she said a common response from people she told was, “Oh yeah, this happened to so-and-so” as well.
This summer, Imagitas canceled its agreement with Transworld under disputed circumstances.
John Kelley, chief marketing officer for Imagitas, said the contract ended after discussions with Transworld about consumer complaints. “We were not satisfied” with the response, Kelley said.
Pier, Transworld’s owner, had a different account, saying the deal was scrapped because Transworld had defaulted on payments to Imagitas. “The last two months, we were behind,” Pier said.
Pier also said shaky finances, not consumer complaints, prompted him to dissolve Transworld in August.
After dropping Transworld, Imagitas signed up Nationwide Relocation Services, a moving broker based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Nationwide’s ads appeared in the Mover’s Guide edition of September-December 2002, but this deal now has been canceled too.
So far this year, the Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida has received 69 complaints about Nationwide, said Brodie White, the bureau’s president. White said many of the complaints involved Nationwide’s alleged failure to take responsibility for abuses by movers it procured for its customers.
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A Notorious Figure
A background check of Nationwide might have raised concerns.
The company’s operators have included family members and associates of Aldo Disorbo, a notorious figure in the moving industry in South Florida, which government officials say has long been a hotbed of moving scams. Until an amended corporate filing in July, Disorbo was listed in state records as a Nationwide official.
In 1997, Disorbo was banned from the moving industry for three years as part of a settlement of a lawsuit by the state of Florida. He later was sentenced to two months in jail on a contempt charge for violating the ban.
Among other things, authorities said, Disorbo remained involved as a behind-the-scenes operator of at least 10 moving companies, in one case listing his 2-year-old daughter as a vice president.
In an interview with The Times, Nationwide Vice President Milton Campis said the number of complaints against the company was quite low, given that the firm is involved in hundreds of moves each month. And contrary to allegations that it takes no responsibility for its customers once it refers them to moving firms, Campis said Nationwide continues to “hold the customer’s hand” throughout the process.
“We have a great company,” he said. “Are there problems in the moving industry? Yes.” But the way Nationwide handles complaints is “what sets us apart.”
Campis said that after Transworld’s default, Nationwide signed a one-year contract with Imagitas for about $700,000. He maintained that mutual dissatisfaction led to termination of the agreement, though Kelley said consumer complaints led to Nationwide being dropped.
Although Nationwide, as a moving broker, does not own or operate trucks, it was described as a “full service” company in a Mover’s Guide ad, which also featured a photo of a Nationwide truck.
The truck photo, said Campis, was Imagitas’ idea. “They said, ‘Listen, put a truck on there with your name on it, it will look great,” Campis said.
“I’m not aware of that,” Kelley said, “and would be surprised by that.”
