National Express Relocation

My wife worked diligently over a 6 month period is developing a very accurate listing of our household goods, item by item, with accurate estimates of item sizes, etc.  The final quote was $2600.00 to ship our household goods from Huntsville, AL to Chattanooga, TN (110 miles).  The truck was a 24 foot truck.  Now, keep in mind that my wife completely packed up all of the kitchen and bathroom items, and pictures.

When the driver showed up, he packed everything up and then and only then did he tell my wife that we had more goods than he had expected (a lie).  He then presented the bill of lading to her with a value of $5200.00.  My wife was shocked and he said to her, you have no choice but to sign this because otherwise I will not deliver your household goods.  My wife was so stressed out that she went ahead and signed the Bill of Lading.  The driver then told her that he would not unload the truck unless she paid the $2600.00 balance due, in cash the following morning.

The next morning, when I arrived from overseas travel and learned of what had transpired, I called the manager.  He laughed at me and said that I had no choice but to pay "his man" in cash, as demanded.

We were quoted a price for about two thousand five hundred dollars.  After they loaded the truck halfway they stopped moving and wanted more money.  They asked for it to be paid in cash right then.  They said that we had only purchased half a truck full and we had to pay more for the full truck.  It was on a Sunday, and they could readily recommend where I could find so much cash to pay the extra several thousand, so it seems like this is not the first time they acted this way. They had given us a very cheap quote and misled us.  All of our furniture was brand new in the late nineties when we moved into the house.  It was still in great shape.  They broke a large amount of it and claimed that it was plywood and not covered by any claim.  The furniture was cherry and mahogany; expensive, heavy woods that were definitely not plywood.  They also behaved badly and used profanity in front of my teenage son, which is totally unacceptable to me.  They said that they would arrive at 11:00 in the morning, and instead they arrived at 6 in the evening.  After they loaded the truck, it was of course fairly late.  Then they told us that for their own safety they could not drive at night, but would need to go to sleep and finish in the morning.  We had to stay in a hotel at our own expense that night because our furniture was not unpacked yet.  The next day, they were again two hours late.