Move Me Again

I spent months corresponding with Tara prior to my move, asking every question I could think of - I got a quote for my estimated 6,000 lbs of stuff, and she told me that I'd pay 42 cents a pound for anything over 6k. It was clearly stated in their emails that I could follow the truck to a weighing station and see it weighed (the fine print on the contract - which you won't see until your stuff is loaded - says the weigh station has to be within 16 km, and it was).

- My move was schedule for Saturday, July 11 but on the 9th, I received a phone call saying we had to be ready by the next day (July 10). I stayed up most of the night in order to be ready for the movers.
- The movers were supposed to arrive at 4 pm. They arrived at 9:30 p.m. and actually started moving things out of the house at 10 p.m. They finished at 2 p.m., after which followed a 20-minute argument between myself and the head mover.
In my discussion with the mover:
- I said several times (at least 6 times) that I did not want to sign a contract that had a ‘fixed weight’ of 14,000 lbs, more than double what I expected.
- I asked several times to follow him to a scale, as detailed by the company in our email exchanges. He refused to go to a scale.
- I explained that I didn’t have my good glasses and couldn’t read the contract; he said it didn’t matter because I could work everything out with Tara the next day.
- When I insisted on wanting to follow him to a weighing station, he first said that I would be charged $240 for that (which is not mentioned anywhere in my email exchanges with the company; on the contrary, it simply says I can follow the truck). When I agreed to that, he again (angrily) refused to go and said that I could get my things weighed later, that I just had to call Tara the next day in order to arrange it.
- The head mover said that “Head office always does this; they tell clients the wrong thing and then make me be the bad guy.” This leads me to believe that this dishonesty is standard practice for the company.
- His answer to every question was to refer me to Tara, who (the following day) said she had no responsibility once the items were picked up. She referred me to the ‘management team’.
- I sent 3 emails and left 2 voicemails for the management team in the week after our house was emptied. I finally heard back after 7 days; the woman on the phone said I would be held responsible for the flat weight of 14,000 lbs, as I had signed the contract, even though I did it based on false information.
- I explained that I had signed that contract under duress and that the mover had assured me that my things could still be weighed so that I’d pay for the actual weight, not the wildly inflated flat rate.
- I’m a small single mom and was alone in my house with 3 angry men who were all insisting that I sign the contract so that they could get out of there. I felt intimidated and unsafe. They had been moving stuff in 40-degree heat; they were clearly exhausted and fed up. I hadn’t slept in almost 24 hours, after a week of little sleep, so I couldn’t think clearly. My children were crying and wanted to leave. We were in a mosquito-infested area and, because all the doors had been open and it was the middle of the night, we were being devoured by mosquitos. The head mover was swearing and jumping around, slapping at himself. He said he couldn’t leave until I signed and that in any case, I could iron out any details with Tara the following day, so finally, I signed (under protest). Because I couldn’t read the contract, he had to point out each place for me to sign and initial.
- For the next week, the company didn't answer calls or emails, until suddenly they called (from a private number, and they never give their last names). They insist that I have to pay for 14,000 lbs (their estimate, it's never been weighed) and they're threatening to dump our stuff if I don't. All my children's artwork, family photos, and irreplaceable items from my recently-deceased father are in that truck.

I have a lawyer and I'm proceeding with legal action (I'm not the only one) but it's been two weeks and we still don't have our things.