Royal Relocation Systems

27 november 2019, 13:11

"South Coast Van Lines" aka "Royal Relocation"

You have to come up with new company names when enough people talk about what a despicable company you run.

-5 stars. -all the stars in the sky.

This is without a doubt the most horrific experience I've ever had. The absolute worst company you could ever dream of doing business with.

When the movers showed up they went through, looked at everything, identified a few additional charges (minor), and then started working. When they got through about 45 minutes I was told that my quote was going to go from $2,600 to $4,580 because of some furniture wrapping that I didn't take care of myself. It was not mentioned beforehand, and I felt genuinely worried if I didn't agree to it, but I made it 100% clear that I refused to pay even a penny more for any additional charge that they could possibly come up with. The guy told me that under no circumstance would I be charged for anything else in addition.

It's been 2 weeks and first of all, the company almost never answers the phone if I don't call from a different number than my own. I'm now being told that I have to pay $100 for a COI that I told them upfront was required by my building. The COI costs them absolutely nothing to obtain from their insurance company. I also required them to include the shuttle costs or potential additional fees in my original quote, but now I'm being told that I need to pay an additional shuttle fee because the one in the quote was "only for pickup". I have a very clear email record of the quote and me making it clear to the rep (Kim) that I wanted those fees included in said quote.

The guy who called me today (from a DIFFERENT moving company) told me that if I didn't want to pay it all, I wasn't going to get my stuff. I explained my original quote and he said he didn't care, and the next thing he said was "Well, do you want all your stuff or not? We can leave it on the street for you if you'd prefer that" and then it was "you can get your own truck and just come pick it up from a storage unit in a different state." The shuttle quote they originally gave me was $200, and now it's magically $670 if I want to have my stuff delivered.

Kim told me that it was South Coast Van Lines that handled everything. She was never upfront and honest about the fact that they were a broker.

Don't be fooled by Kim for one second. She was wonderful when we first spoke and she swore to me that they were an honest and reputable moving company. Joke's on me for believing her.

No idea who "Katia" is, but she's the rudest and most dishonest person I've dealt with throughout this whole fiasco. "READ YOUR CONTRACT!" "IT'S IN YOUR CONTRACT!" -- yeah, well, F**K YOUR CONTRACT, Katia. I didn't agree to work with a scam artist in my contract.

I've already filed complaints with the BBB and the FSCMA. I'll be filing a police report shortly just to protect myself. I don't know if they know this or not, but extortion is illegal. Bribery is illegal. Threatening people and telling them they are going to keep your things is ILLEGAL.

I would have been better off carrying my belongings from California to New York.

Do yourself a favor and don't even think about using this company. I am going to be posting reviews on every website I can possibly find.

10 october 2017, 17:39

This is my first negative review, but I feel obligated to share and save others from the misery we went through.  This was not just the worst moving experience of my life (and I've moved 10+ times), but the WORST customer experience of all time.  I do not understand how these kinds of companies can keep their licenses.Here are the highlights of their fraudulent practices, although the full story could fill many pages:a)  Guaranteed a "not to exceed" $2,500 price for our move from NY to Florida.  They said they didn't have anyone available for an in-home estimate, but would honor the price if the items were exactly as I described over the phone.  The items were slightly LESS, and it still came out to almost 2x the quoted price.  Of course, once all your stuff is loaded and you are on a timetable, you have no ability to negotiate with movers who have your stuff.b) Rather than commit to a move-in date, gave us only a 3-day window with 12 hours notice (outrageous if you are moving to a decent sized building).  OF COURSE they missed the window, causing us more than $1,000 in wasted rent in our new place and an angry condo board.c) Refuse to honor damages to the tune of ~$5,000 - this is the MOST outrageous claim.  The day of the move, they showed up 3 hours late and we were at risk of not being able to move out in time, a huge problem since we had to leave NY that evening.  The movers refused to begin packing until I signed paperwork on the bill of ladling inconsistent with our agreement, including that the insurance would be at replacement value instead of 60 cents per pound.  We agreed to sign just to kick off the process, but then received WRITTEN confirmation from our sales representative, Anthony Russo, stating that we were insured at replacement cost.  I even made him state in the case of the specific example of our large flat-screen that if it were damaged they would pay us replacement and not just 60 cents of the weight.  He agreed and we had the documentation to prove it.  After months of forcing us to go through very annoying paperwork, dealing with us only through snail mail, and forcing us to keep lots of damaged items in our apartment where we had no space (ruined dining room table, 50" plasma TV with a cracked screen, broken lamps, etc.), they sent us a letter arguing they had no obligations to pay us, even though the damages were CLEARLY their fault, i.e. the dining table was never even covered in a blanket for the entire month of storage and transportation, the TV arrived with a crack which made the repair more costly than buying a new one, etc..  In the end, they cost us more than the full service movers I'd worked with in the past, and caused us so much anguish that I would have been OK even paying a premium.

review from yelp.com

10 october 2017, 17:39

I was going back and forth on the claim with the business and the BBB. At one point they even claimed that the damages to my furniture were already there. Then a couple of weeks back I received a call from the VP of the company apologizing for my bad experience. He seemed genuinely interested in rsolving the issue and listened to my concerns. He indicated that the claim will be solved promptly on the condition that the bad reviews be removed. Then we came to an agreement that an update will be posted. Anyway, since then I have received a letter indicating that they will settle the claim. (Settlement amount was slighly less than requested. However I'm not concerened about the amount. Just glad that someone heard my conerns).Will provide another update once the check is received.

review from yelp.com

10 october 2017, 17:39

Yuck - hate to complain BUT I'd steer away from these guys. Our shimpent arrived with one item missing - unfortunately it wasn't a box so we didn't notice it in the inventory and signed away our right to recourse. When I contacted the movers they said they'd look in the truck - but defaulted to the "you signed the paper" defense when it didn't turn up. Which is it Royal Relocation Systems - are you looking for our lost item or are you claiming we already have it. Can't be both. ALSO - two boxes arrived soaked through with a weird bluish liquid and that WAS notated on the delivery contract. When I tried to collect the insurance money Royal Relocation Systems owed me I was asked to provide for all damaged items... 1) Original receipts of purchase for all damaged items.2) THREE WRITTEN ESTIMATES per item claimed. (What?)3) An itemized list of damaged items to be NOTARIZED. That's obviously a totally unrealistic burden of proof which fairly negates the cost/benefit value of having the damaged items replaced. Big problems + No fair recourse = complain in a public forum to warn off other possible Royal Relocation Systems prey.

review from yelp.com

10 october 2017, 17:39

We ended up with Royal when we contracted with America's Moving Services who did not tell us that they were only an agent and would sub-contract another company.My impression is that there were codes between the sales agent and the actual lead mover to let them know what price they really expected us to pay. They clearly undercut our estimate just to get our business. Then the lead mover who is actually from Royal Moving, worked us all day to let us know the price would go up. This was after arriving late with a too small truck for a 4 bedroom house, that was clearly rented and covered in graffiti. I knew when he started discussing the authenticity of my designer handbag that we were in a for a snow job. It was totally inappropriate. They finished at 10:30 at night and handed us a bill that was 160% higher than the original estimate. We eventually negotiated the price to about 30% above the original, but I still felt conned. After all of our things were loaded on the truck, at 10:30 PM,  the crew leader met with us to negotiate a new "deal" by which he would give us take it or leave it price as opposed to determining cost by having the truck weighed, as set out in America's Moving's contract. He blatantly told us that, if we accepted his "deal" they would expect a higher tip. The new deal was 160% higher than the original estimate.  We eventually negotiated the price to about 60% above the original, but I still felt conned. We then negotiated them down to 30% above, but the whole thing was clearly a big con. We ordered the full pack and now we are unpacking. They did a horrible job; treating fragile items poorly and over-packing other items in order to sell us more boxes. They actually wrapped tupperware in paper while folding my daughter's artwork. Nothing is organized. Things were just thrown hap hazardly into boxes. Nothing is marked. They didn't even manage to keep things from the same room in one box. Unpacking, I feel my anger rise every day. Here is one trick I learned. They charge you by weight and the number of boxes you use. if they undercut the estimate, they charge you .60 cents per pound for overage that would have been .30 cents had they given me a higher estimate. So the trick is to go with a high estimate and come in under that number rather than have overage. In all, I learned a lot. The biggest lesson learned though, is don't use America's Moving Services.

review from yelp.com