The mover did not fulfill his part of the contract. How should we handle this from here?
My brother hired a mover to move his furniture from storage to his new apartment. This is someone we have used at least 5-6 times in the past 5 years, between my husband and I and my brother. We found his business card on a bulletin board in an apartment complex. I don’t know if he’s licensed, but he operates as a sole proprietor under his business name.
When you call to schedule a move he will ask all the specifics such as how many items, what they are, where they will be moved, etc. He will quote you a price and ask for a 50% deposit, which he is usually anxious to collect that day – even it if means driving to your job. However, he told my brother that since he’d been such a loyal customer, he wouldn’t require a deposit.
A couple of days later he called my brother and wanted to collect the deposit. My brother agreed and figured since he asked for it he would go ahead and secure his appointment. The total cost of the move was to be 0. My brother gave him in cash so the balance left was .
When my brother got home and looked at the paperwork, it had the move date as 09/13/09 at 9 a.m. My brother scheduled the move for 09/05/09 at 9 a.m., so he couldn’t understand why the paperwork said otherwise. He called the mover who tried to play it off and convince him that he thought it was the following weekend. They got it all panned out and my brother ended up pushing the time out to 10 a.m.
Saturday, my brother asked me to drop him off at the storage unit (he doesn’t drive). I dropped him off at 9:30 a.m. That gave him enough time to get the storage unit opened and grab some breakfast before the movers arrived. 10:30 a.m. came, no movers. My brother called him and he said he’d gotten tied up with another job. Supposedly they had more boxes than they’d initially said.
My brother called him every hour on the hour. He got the same excuse and the mover told him he was on his way several times. My husband and I were on our way to a funeral. We went out to eat afterwards and I spoke to my brother around 3 p.m. The mover still hadn’t arrived. We went to pick him up and when we got there it was 3:35 p.m. My brother had been waiting on him for 5 ½ hours at that point.
My brother kept calling the mover – the mover didn’t seem to think it was necessary to communicate with him first. He finally called back around 3:40 p.m. and told my brother he was near the storage unit. My brother told him we’d picked him up and he was on his way to sign the lease at his apartment before the office closed.
The mover called back at least 3 or 4 times wanting to know where my brother was. He didn’t want to wait on him. By the time we got back to the storage unit it was 4:45 p.m. and the Property Manager said the mover had just left. My brother tried contacting him a dozen times and got no answer. I called from my cell phone and got no answer.
My brother was able to reach the mover late that evening. Again, he had to call him back. He said he was sorry and asked my brother not to be mad at him. He said he only gets to see his daughter 3 times a month and he had to get home to her. My brother asked if he could move him the next day (Sunday). He said no, but he could do it Monday. My brother didn’t have much of a choice at that point.
He agreed to Monday at 9 a.m. The mover called him around 7:45 a.m. to tell him as soon as his movers arrived they would be on their way to the storage unit (not committing to the original 9 a.m. timeframe) My brother asked if he could stop by my house (where he was staying) to pickup some items he’d been storing there. The mover told him it would be extra. My brother asked why it would be extra, especially since he waited on him for almost 6 hours on Saturday.
The mover basically told him he didn’t care that he’d waited. He told him he’d wait on him to return from signing his lease for about 25 minutes. He was giving my brother an ultimatum and in other words told him to accept what he was offering or accept nothing at all – mind you my brother still owed a balance of . My brother became irate when he told him he didn’t care that he’d burned his entire Saturday waiting on him.
Then I, who was in the background, became irate and the mover told him to tell me to shut my mouth. I got on the phone. It turned into a battle because he had also ruined my plans for Saturday as well. I had my husband look this guy up on the internet on Saturday and we found some information. I told him I knew where he lived, so he either needed to refund my brother his deposit or do something to compensate him for not coming through with his part of the bargain.
He refused. He said he didn’t have to come to my house to pickup anything and he wouldn’t refund the money. I told my brother he didn’t have to accept that from him. He has a receipt, he was late, and all he needs to do is take him to court. That’s when the mover told me he did
That’s when the mover told me he didn’t care and that he likes to go to court. I removed myself from the situation because I was livid.
My brother, desperate to recoup his deposit, was still willing to let this man move him. Finally, the call ended. The mover called back about an hour later and asked my brother if he still wanted him to move him. My brother told him that at that point he wanted his deposit back.
He found some movers that did it yesterday. They charged 0 plus extra to remove several glass items. My brother had to pay for an extra two days for his storage unit. Would it be worth is while to sue this mover to get his deposit back and the other money he had to pay to get the new movers? What is he entitled to?
I also need to add that when my brother confronted him about having to wait for almost 6 hours, he told him to look at his paperwork ... that it said the timeframe was between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. That was when he was to arrive. The paperwork said no such thing.
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Your brothers only option on getting a return of his deposit is to take him to small claims court. He would probably have about a 50/50 chance of winning his case because his original paperwork had the wrong date on it. All the information that was exchanged between the two on the phone isn’t going to mean much. It sounds like this guy would most likely just lie and say there was no such schedule. Also, even if your brother wins, it is hard to actually get the money back, especially if he owns his own business because you would have a hard time garnishing the owners wages.
Good Luck.
It’s not even worth the wasted energy, time and the lousy $80.00. On principle, the guy should have just returned the money. He’s not a nice person or a good business person. I’d chalk it up as a loss, and I’m sorry that happened to all of you. A few years from now you’ll laugh at it (and him if you run into him in the future). People like that aren’t worth it.
You need to do a BRIEF synopsis of what you want to say…. not a novel..too much to read… no help here