Lone Star Moving

I am writing to express my complaints with the Lone Star Moving Company. After many failed attempts to contact the company in order to speak with them directly about the situation, my grievances are as follows:

Lone Star Moving Co did not uphold the professional standards and services that is presented as a guarantee on their website. First off, they were an hour late. They claim to have experienced, professionally trained movers, but two of the three men who showed up were brand new with absolutely no experience and no apparent training. It seemed that the driver was training these guys on the job at the risk and the expense of my furniture and belongings. I specifically asked the company to send me experienced movers able to handle my fragile and delicate furniture, majority of which are expensive glass pieces. Furthermore, the movers lack of common sense and basic moving techniques were appalling. They did not know how to properly use a dolly and recklessly moved dozens of boxes labeled 'fragile'. Consequently, many pieces were damaged, broken, scratched, and/or ruined. The website claims that depending on the job, they will send out the right team of 'experts', however, I was sent unprofessional and unqualified people.

The website claims that all trucks are "fully equipped with dozens of furniture pads, dollies, straps, basic tools, extra packing mats, and other tools of the trade." There were no straps, etc., none, which made moving the glass pieces particularly worrisome. There weren't any packing mats. The men had no 'basic tools' and ended up having to use mine, which is completely unprofessional. One of my most highly priced furniture pieces is my glass table, worth over $17,000. Come to find out, there is an option of crating the piece to ensure safe transportation. This company neither go over any such option with me, nor did they take any particular precautions. My girlfriend had to help the 3 men carry the extremely heavy glass top, which they didn't even pack in a safe spot in the truck.

At about midnight, after hours of seeing the lack of professionalism and work drive of the crew I was sent, I called and had to demand that the manager send out another crew to finish the job. Though the crew was finally dispatched, the manager was not understanding, apologetic or cooperative.

The crew damaged multiple items, including a $1,500 desk. I have attempted countless times to contact the company and left many messages to collect on the supposed insurance that they offer, but I have not had any of my calls or messages returned. I have tried calling from several phone numbers. Seems that they are avoiding responsibility for the numerous damages that they caused. The crew broke a glass frame, didn't inform me but attempted to disguise it. They took no regard for labeled boxes. One of the movers took a box that was specifically labeled 'glass' with arrows directing the up position and flipped it upside down while carrying it inside the house. Needless to say, many items were broken. Many of the walls of both the old house and the brand new home were damaged.

It was obvious that the crew was inexperienced when they could not manage to move the fridge. They neither have any tools to disassemble the doors nor did they know how to do so. Instead, they removed the front door of the old house and then reassembled it incorrectly. Towards the end of the move, 2 of the workers were sleeping in the truck while my 15-year-old son and the driver unloaded a full truck load. Mind you, I am still being charged the full rate though my son is doing half the work at this point. At another point in the move, 2 of the workers were laying down in my house while the clock was ticking.

Items damaged and/or broken are: Glass desk, glass table, entertainment center, leather chair, glass picture frames, file cabinet, large screen TV, large planter pot, countless kitchen glass items (wine glasses, plates, cooking dishes), walls at both locations, door at old location, floor of the office in the new home, and other small decor items.

We fed the movers both breakfast Tacos and pizza for lunch, which was not required of us. There was neither an order in packing the truck nor unloading it. It was of particular concern that the movers were not packing the truck intelligently which took up needless space in the truck and put my items at risk. They put boxes labeled glass and packed them at the bottom of the stack. We took time in advance to label all the boxes according to which room/area they were to be delivered. The movers paid no regard to these labels and dropped the boxes everywhere creating a massive mess.

On-top of the financial burden this has caused me and my family, I have suffered an additional stress mentally that has interrupted my life. Additionally, I would like to verify that this company is running their business legally and abiding by all necessary paperwork. I did not see a TXdot number on the side of their truck, nor do they have it labeled on their website.

Finally after 2 and a half weeks of no response to my numerous phone calls and messages, a mister David ** answered my call from my girlfriend's phone number. He had no recognition of me or my phone messages. After describing my attempts to contact this company, he unapologetically told me the owner, Nathan, would call me the next day. Well, this was 6/14/2010, still he haven't call me.

After providing and confirming a binding contract for $1200 for a 1 bedroom apartment move from Overland Park, KS to West Monroe, LA , the mover showed up nearly 10 hours late, loaded everything and offered to cut me a deal. They claimed that the weight estimate of 3000 felt wrong and that the weight they loaded felt more like 5000 so they'd just call it 4000 and charge me appropriately without weighing it.

Refusing this, they weighed it in and and told me it came out to 10,000 pounds and my binding estimate of $1,200 needed to be amended to nearly $7,000, of which 50% was immediately due, and at nearly 3 am, mind you. Otherwise, they'd keep my stuff, stored at my expense, until I paid the value in full. At best, I can suspect that other people took the driver up on his offer and when I didn't, I inherited their amassed shrinkage between his actual weights and his bargain weights.

A nearly 600% markup occurred in complete violation to the entire concept of a binding estimate. My inventory matched the item list used to generate my estimate with no more than 500 lbs of potential difference but somehow my one bedroom apartment that I was able to pack and unpack solo in less than four hours became 5 tons. Complaints and arguing earned me a 10% discount off the 600% markup and an admonishment that despite how fishy it seemed I'd have to go through their formal dispute program to see any refund of money, a program that gives them nearly four months to respond. I've retained counsel pending their response to my appeal because this sort of behavior is completely inappropriate.

Lonestar Moving Services/Relocation Services provided a BINDING ESTIMATE for my interstate move from the Kansas City , Missouri metro area to Seattle, WA. The payment terms were as follows: Payment Terms: Deposit: $100 that is deducted from the total balance. Refundable within 24 hours of reservation. Payment on day of pickup: The customer is responsible for 75% of the total move price. Customer will be paying with Credit card and is aware of the 3.5% administrative fee. Payment on day of delivery: The remaining balance is payable by CASH or POSTAL MONEY ORDER only. All other payment arrangements must be set with the office in advance.

During the moving experience, the driver had an issue with his movers (contractors from GRAEBEL) - it was a dispute over duration and payment for work. The driver was 4 hours late at my house to being loading. His contracted assistance (GRAEBEL Movers) expected to work from 9AM until 6PM. Around 8PM, they began to complain to the driver about how long the truck load would take to complete. They were concerned about timely payment as well. The driver asked me for cash to pay them. Citing my contract terms, I refused to pay cash, as all payment on the day of pickup was contractually agreed as credit card. Regardless of the contract, the driver said that credit card payment would not work - the movers would walk off if they did not receive cash. I told him that he would have to figure it out himself, because I would not pay cash for the pickup.

The driver ended up calling the police to resolve the issue with his movers. After noticing the police at my house, I asked for an explanation. Given that this development with police was the fault of the driver, I called to complain to the dispatch manager. Also, I wanted to be on record with my complaint related to the driver asking for cash in violation of the contract. The dispatch/sales manager, Michael F., told me that because i had expressed concern over the altercation, they (the moving company) were no longer comfortable accepting my contractually agreed upon credit card form of payment and that I would have to pay for all services in cash.

Obviously, I balked at this development and requested a new driver. In order to get a new driver, I was told that I would have to cancel the move and pay to have the load transferred to a new drivers truck. In order to cancel the move and resolve driver issues, I would also have to pay a fee for his time and/or a fee to unload the truck (all in cash). Otherwise they would hold and store my property, and charge me a fee for the storage. This clearly became a case of holding my property hostage at this point.

I called the local police (Lees Summit, MO Police Department) who said that they could do nothing and had no jurisdiction on the matter. After many hours, I agreed under duress to continue with the driver, as the cost of paying for time and labor as nearly the same as the original binding estimate was for $4290 - they estimated that I would have to pay $3950 to unload the truck or change drivers, because the driver owned the truck and would have to unload/reload. I would have to pay that fee to get my belongings back as well. I had several lengthy conversations with the company and they refused to release my property.

During these proceedings I also had issues with several other factors: 1) during the move we noticed that the rear of the truck was not empty, there was a 500 cu ft load. I asked the driver for a weight history. He did not produce the weighing documents until after the police arrived. He had weighed at 6AM, but arrived at my house at 11:45AM. He could not provide any proof establishing where he was during the 5 hour 45 minute interim time period. I complained to the dispatch, and this was another reason for changing the terms and refusing to accept my credit card payment. 2) the company refused to ever produce a copy of their master tariff. 3) the binding estimate was ignored, and they raised the price from $4290 binding estimate to $16,480 on weight.

Following the rule of 7, my 2200 cu ft of cargo should have weighed around 15,400 lbs - instead, they claimed that my cargo weighed over 24000 lbs. Note item 1) there was already a dispute over the trucks weight history and when that cargo was loaded. Now it appeared that we had a legitimate issue with weight. 4) arbitrary breach of contract terms for form of payment, nature of binding estimate, and forced coercion due to holding property hostage.

The only good news is that the movers actually delivered my cargo to my new home in Seattle. The driver was consistently rude and difficult. They would accept cash only and forced us to sign an updated contract (I think this is called a contract of adhesion). Do Not Do Business With This Company! They did break several items and refused to travel to retrieve parts for beds and couches that they lost.

instead of spending $4290, I was forced to pay $12000 cash to receive my property back. The only recourse I have discovered so far is to file a claim with the state attorney general offices - I have now filed claims with the states of Washington and Missouri. Soon I will file with Texas and California as well, as the movers have addresses in each state.

Several attempts to file a claim with Lonestar, Abaco and Baruch Edry (Owner) were refussed or ignored, including one from an attorney. Another breach of contract.

My initial contact was super. I was moving from Dallas to Wisconsin. The man who did the estimate was great. The movers were great. I paid them $300 in tips. But, when my stuff got here the trouble began. My box springs looks like it was drug through a sewer (Beautyrest by Simmons), my tuner and dvd player were missing, 3 boxes of stuff never arrived, my armoire was broken a whole piece was missing, my headboard to my bed was missing (cannot replace it as it was a special item that matched my dressers), one dresser was broken and the other had a piece from the bottom broken off but it arrived, some of the boxes had been in water and were deteriorating badly, one of my stereo speakers still does not work, yet, my guitar made it.

I called the manager at Lone Star who never returned my call. Finally I called the gal I had been talking with in the initiation of the move and she said that I would have to document everything and send it to a company in Florida. She did send me the package to fill out, which I did. The move was on May 31 and by June 29 I had mailed the documents to Florida. No response. There was a phone number, which I called and called and called. No answer. I then tried to call the manager at Lone Star and left a few messages. No answer. When I last called the front desk I was told to call Florida, not Lone Star.

This moving company is holding my household goods hostage. I was the victim of a rogue mover who overcharged and then did not act properly. Copies of contracts were not received, and now they are threatening to auction off my goods. I paid off the contract, and then the company lost the cashier's check--although it was later transacted. They are now asking for approximately $1100, and then I don't know if this will be over. BTW, Lonestar formerly went under such names as US-1 Vanlines and Transit USA.

I am out approximately $2300 for the movers contract and over $4000 for my household goods.