Duntara Moving and Storage Disreputable Business Practices, Extortion, Blackmail. Fort Lauderdale, Florida

20th of Dec, 2011 by User482899

On the 26th of October, 2011, I executed a contract with Duntara Moving and Storage to have my personal belongings moved from Vicksburg, MS to Midland, TX. I was required to pay a deposit and was given an estimate of the cost to move my stuff that was several thousand dollars less than the major moving companies we had contacted. I provided Duntara with a list of items to be loaded, and informed them that I had a 10' x 20' storage unit full of stuff, plus I wanted my daughter's stuff, for which I provided a list of items, to be picked up from her house. When the date came for our move, the movers were supposed to be at our home between 9:00am and noon. When they did not show up, I called and was told they would be there between 1:00pm and 3:00pm. They finally showed up about 5:30pm, and instead of arriving in an 18 wheeler sized moving van, they showed up in a box truck towing a trailer. Upon greeting the driver and helper, I expressed my concern that their truck and trailer would not be big enough to hold all of my belongings, but they assured me that they could get all of my stuff loaded. They started boxing up items at my home, but did not begin loading until the following morning. They went to my daughter's house and loaded her stuff first. Then went on to the storage unit and loaded that stuff. When they got to my house the truck they had brought was pretty much full. They loaded some of the things from my home, but soon the truck and trailer were completely full and we still had three rooms full of furniture, lawn furniture, outdoors equipment, and a riding lawn mower that would not fit on the truck. When I called Duntara, they told me that they would dispatch an "over flow" truck to get the rest of my stuff loaded. Here is where the trouble began. Duntara said that in order for them to send the "over flow" truck, I needed to sign a new contract and pay more money. I refused because we already had a signed contract and they had dispatched a truck that was too small to load my stuff. I felt that any additional trucking was their responsibility, because they had grossly underestimated my load and had sent an inadequately sized truck to load my belonging's in the first place. The following day, Duntara called and told me that the weight of my load was above their estimated weight and I would owe more money to get my stuff unloaded. When I protested to Duntara that I was being ripped-off, and that we had agreed upon a price, they told me that if I did not pay them more money, they would unload my stuff in Fort Worth at a storage warehouse and charge me an additional $250/day until I gave in to their demands. I had no choice at the time, so I agreed to pay them and have my partial load of belongings delivered.
To me, this is extortion and blackmail. It is my opinion that Duntara intentionally underestimated the volume and weoght of my load, intentionally sent out a truck that was too small to load all of my things, so that they could force me to sign a new contract for more money, then threatened to hold my stuff hostage until I gave in to their demands. My advice to anyone considering a moving company is to stay away from Duntara Moving and Storage.

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