Umovefree review: Bogus Claim 22

Sigma Proposed Response:
One of my employees brought this posting to my attention this morning and I immediately began researching the issue. My name is Nick Barber and I am the President & CEO of the company in your complaint.

First and foremost, I encourage you to contact me directly so that I may further investigate your complaint and find a resolution that you feel is fair and adequate. I would contact you directly to address your concerns but I have been unable to locate any customer in our system that matches the situation you outlined above. I personally want to address your complaint and that’s why I’m offering my direct contact info. We are extremely sensitive to our customer’s needs, and I am confident that any complaints you have can be resolved to your satisfaction.
Direct Office: 214-614- (Five, Four, Two, Two)
Email: Nick.Barber (at) SigmaRel0cation.com
…Please forgive the encrypted phone/email…I’m trying to prevent my contact info from ending up on some list…

Although occasionally a customer may incur additional move costs associated with a larger than typical inventory, the fees you mentioned in your posting ($250) are SUBSTANTIALLY more than typical. On that note, I had our Move Manager research our records this morning in hopes of identifying/contacting you. She pulled the Additional Client Cost on every move that incurred an additional fee during 2008 and 2009 and we were unable to locate even one that was that high. Consequently, if you did indeed incur additional costs that substantial it’s important for me to investigate how that could have happened and why it’s not in our system. In response to your complaint, I also think it’s only fair for me to elaborate on exactly who we are and what we do.

• We are an Apartment Locating company that helps renters find an apartment based on their specific rental criteria. We service every major market in Texas.
• Our apartment finding service is free and we work with nearly every apartment in Texas.
• Clients can search for apartments on our website and are also provided personal assistance from a licensed agent that specializes in rental properties in their desired market
• We refer customers to the property, and if the customer leases at that property then the property pays us a referral commission
• This is a standard business model in Texas (Apartment Locators) but most apartment locating companies offer the free apartment finding service and nothing more...we actually go one step further and actually share a portion of that referral commission with our client in the form of a Free Move Offer or Cash Rebate
• In summary, we help you find an apartment for free, hopefully saving you time and money by finding the best possible deal, and then we even provide a free move or cash rebate offer in addition to the free apartment finding service
• There are indeed qualifications of the service that apply. For example, in order to qualify for the full Free Move Offer or full $200 Rebate your rental rate must be at least $650…anything less than that gets a $100 Rebate or $100 Move Credit.
• Obviously we must have limits on what we can and cannot move in order to ensure that the cost of the move never exceeds our total revenue on the transaction (the referral commission). This is simply to ensure we don’t help someone find an apartment and then lose money when we pay for their move. However, these limits are fair and reasonable and do not affect over 90% of our customers. The “move limits” are intended to provide the overwhelming majority of our customers a free move. That’s our business model and it ensures customers tell friends and family about the valuable service that helps you find an apartment for free and then even pays for a move or gives you a $200 Rebate.
• Even if a client’s inventory exceeds our limits (again, not typically the case), then the client is given an exact price for the “Additional Cost” and they can choose to either pay the additional cost or (instead) cancel the move, hire their own movers, and take the $200 Rebate instead.
• Most clients get a completely free move…but if (for example) they are moving from a large house to a smaller apartment, and they do have “additional costs”, these costs are relatively minor (typically less than $30) and the overall service saves customers hundreds of dollars as compared to hiring their own movers.
• A few “copy cat” competitors are out there…but we meet or beat every free move offer and rebate offer…and we are by far the largest and most reputable company that offers this service.
• With all of that said, the absolute worst case scenario would be that client receives free apartment search assistance, chooses not to take the move, and instead receives a free check for either $100 or $200 (depending on their rental amount).

Our service is free, but that doesn’t discount just how serious I am about ensuring a positive customer experience. That’s why I would like to talk to you directly and find out exactly what happened.

I think it’s also fair to point out that we are by far the largest company in the state that offers this service and we have a great track record with our customers. We help thousands of renters find a new apartment each month for free…and every one of them receives either a free move or rebate. We have outstanding ratings with all major regulatory organizations and we use only professional, bonded and insured moving companies.

I take pride in ensuring every customer receives a valuable and satisfying experience. If we failed to meet your expectations, then it’s my mission to get the details, investigate the facts, and make sure after we talk you are another satisfied customer. That’s my guarantee – contact me directly and I promise that by the end of the phone call you’ll be telling all of your friends and co-workers about your positive experience with our company.

Respectfully,

Nick M Barber

UPDATE:
As of today, we have not received any communication from a client that would match this scenario. Despite our attempts to locate and/or resolve any valid complaints that exist, we’ve been unable to locate any customer that claims this posting as their own. Since my initial response, our team undertook an exhaustive audit of our records in an attempt to locate a move that might (even partially) match the situation outlined above. For the record, we cannot locate a single client record that matches this scenario. As mentioned in my previous posting, the overwhelming majority of our customers receive a completely free move with no out of pocket expense. For those customers that have a ton of furniture and boxes, or perhaps are moving from out of the metro area, additional charges average between $20 and $30. Again, we cannot find a single case in our records where the additional move fees reached $250. This is over the thousands of satisfied customers that we have serviced in the past 6 years. As also mentioned before, any client dissatisfied with additional move costs can/should/would simply receive a $200 rebate check instead of the free move offer. Remember, the move or the rebate is a free reward for our customrs for letting us help them find a new apartment...The entire service costs nothing.

Our organization is the largest and most reputable no cost apartment locating company that offers a free move in the country. We have outstanding ratings with all major regulatory agencies and customer satisfaction is extremely important to us. That is why I responded to this posting personally…I genuinely want to clear up any complaints and/or confusion that might exist. With this said, it seems as if this “mystery complaint” cannot be located or substantiated?

Again, if there is any one of our customers that has a legitimate complaint then that complaint needs to be addressed. We are very reputable industry leader and ethical complaint resolution is extremely important to our organization. However, with no additional information to go on, and based on an exhaustive search of our records, it looks as if this complaint may have been fabricated by a smaller (less reputable) competitor or the equivalent.

If this is not the case, and there is a customer of ours that wants a legitimate complaint addressed, then I appologize in advance. My offer above still stands. I am committed to upholding our valued reputation as the fairest and most valuable way to find a new apartment in the markets we serve!

Respectfully,

Nick M Barber

I also had a horrible experience. The scheduler, Brandy, scheduled my move 3 hours before I asked to be scheduled and never once called me to let me know. Then the movers they "hired" were absolutely awful. They tried to refuse to move my couch out of the apartment, so I (5 foot 110 lb girl) had to help them move it out because they couldn't do it themselves. They also broke my television. Don't try to contact them when you need them, they are impossible to get a hold of after you get past the Realtor stage. Scheduling and Management are ridiculous. I would recommend e-mail. They offered me a $50 gift card to make up for the inconvenience and me having to finish moving my "free move" by myself, but never sent the card! I had to email them back two weeks later asking if they had the wrong email or what, and I received a rather rude email back from the same girl who screwed up my scheduling saying they would send it out that day and nothing more. Not very apologetic for the headache I've gone through. They justify their horrible customer service by claiming they are so busy, so don't use them anytime between May-September.

Respectfully,
Jamie Gonzales

Here is a thread I found that pretty much sums up Umovefree. Say Free Move enough times and it's got to be true, right?
http://www.movingscam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=105817

So you think I'm a competitor eh Nick? I'm not, I'm real but I'm not interested in talking with you. You had your chance when I did business with you and you blew it so I will let people know by placing comments on sites like this and telling anyone who asks me to avoid you and your company.

Most Important – I did not respond to argue or make claims that our company has a flawless record. Every large company occasionally makes mistakes…My goal is simply to state the facts and address each and every legitimate complaint personally so that our customers know that their feedback matters. On that note, I encourage anyone to check out ALL of the major business review websites. We have a great reputation. The common theory in business is that you only hear from customers that had a bad experience…and you rarely hear from customers that had a good experience…but that’s just not the case with our company. We have countless testimonials from customers that received incredible assistance and free move with our service. Are we perfect? No. But I can honestly and factually state that we are by far the largest and most reputable free move apartment finding service in the country…and we have a mountain of customer testimonials to prove it.

WWhite...
I am still asking if you can contact me to identify yourself as a real customer and find a fair resolution to your complaint if you have one. As I stated, we don't have a single record in our system with additional move fees that were that high? If you did incur costs like that I would think you would be open to a conversation with the person that could immediately correct any legitimate complaint you have? Or even identify yourself as a real customer? A name that would be in our system? An email address that would be in our system? A confirmation number? Anything that would even prove you are a real customer? Even if you didn't want to allow me the opportunity to address your complaint, it stands to reason that you would want to substantiate your claims?
I am here to address any complaints you have and welcome constructive feedback from anyone that has used our apartment finding and free moving service.
Again, I just want everyone to have access to the facts (good or bad)…I think that's a fair request of anyone attempting to promote a complaint about our service.

brendag83...
Again, I think it’s only fair to give an accurate representation of the opinions that are out there about our service. You searched for a long time to find a website that you assumed would shed a negative light on our company. You skipped over the countless business review sites where customers rave about how we legitimately helped them find a great deal on an apartment (for free) and also provided them a professional free move. With that said, if you read the thread you referenced above you will see that the person "complaining" was a paid moving company owner that has never used our service and doesn’t claim to have ever used our service. He referenced a "friend" that he claimed was upset. But that friend has used our service several times and still does. The "friend" did not complain about the service...she used us again and again to get a free move or $200 rebate? The moving company owner (“complainant”) even confirms she used our service again but somehow tries to salvage a successful “company bash”? It's a very long thread...but read through it and you will also see several more real customers that posted positive reviews of our service on that site. Some that even went back online after using our service to defend us against the bogus complaint. I'm not sure how that thread hurts us at all. I encourage anyone to read it. It’s littered with testimonials…everyone that had actually used our service gave us great reviews in that thread? And that’s the only website you can find that (tries) to discount our service.

I’m open to criticism…but I sincerely ask that those criticisms be honest and factual.

On that note, Jamie Gonzales used her real name and truly was a customer. We are not perfect. We move thousands of renters every month and we dropped the ball on her free move. She posted this complaint before talking to a manager. Our management team ended up replacing her broken tube television with a brand new 32 inch flat panel HD TV. That was the least we could do given her inconveniences and only confirms how committed we are to effective, honest and ethical complaint resolution. At the end of the day Jamie received free assistance from a knowledgeable apartment locator (which she praised in her post) and also got a free move (that admittedly did not go according to her expectations or our own standards). After speaking with our management team Jamie received an additional $50 gift card (as an apology) and a new flat screen TV (as another apology)…An apology that will look great hanging on the wall of the new apartment we helped her find : )
Most people would consider that more than effective (legitimate) complaint resolution.

I'll let Jamie speak for herself but I can assure you her (legitimate) complaint was handled above and beyond her expectations and she has told us she will be using us again the next time she's looking for an apartment.

Make no mistake. I am not discounting any legitimate complaints. Clearly we take complaints seriously…That’s why I have always taken the time to personally respond and resolve any complaints made…and I stand behind the company just like the many customers who have taken the time to post positive reviews online.
Again, I (respectfully) encourage anyone to contact me with ANY legitimate complaint they have (large or small) and I will handle it in accordance with our valued (and well established) reputation.

Regards,

Nick Barber

Hello,

Nick asked me to confirm that my issue was dealt with and we are all squared away. I did indeed receive the $50 gift card and the television. I have Nick's word that next time I decide to use their company that he will personally handle my case to find me a professional moving company and to make sure that it is scheduled on time.

I appreciate Barber and Finney's final response to the issues.

My only warning to those who use this company is that you follow up and double check with all your steps, you should be fine.

Thank you,
Jamie Gonzales

My girlfriend and I talked with several people who had used Umovefree and got very average reveiws so we tried moveforfree.com after seeing them featured on Channel 11. We had no problems and they did what they said, moved us free.

I won't beat up a smaller competitor. I'm sure they do a decent job at what they do. But we are two very different companies. The biggest difference being the quality of the service our clients receive with their apartment search. We have over five times the apartment locating specialists that really help renters find an apartment based on their exact rental criteria. If you don't want the personalized assistance we have an interactive website that lets you search updated apartment listings yourself. Moveforfree has a website as well...but the accuracy of the listings is far from the same. Try for yourself...run the same apartment search on both websites and you'll see an enormous difference in the quality, accuracy and quantity of listings. Some of the difference is the lack of updating and the rest is because many apartment communities don't work with them and do work with us. More properties chose to work with us because of our established reputation as the most ethical company in the business. These are all facts...not opinions. That's why more renters chose our company to find their new apartment than any other apartment locating company in the state. We are the largest and most reputable.

If you just want a free move at a limited number of apartment communities then moveforfree has a good reputation. But if you want experienced and knowledgeable assistance finding a place to rent...and you want to work with the largest company in the business that works with more properties than any other alternative guaranteed...and you also want a free move...then there's only one option.

Of course, my opinion is clearly not neutral. Just check out all the review websites. The reviews speak for themselves.

I gotta tell you. That post from "Jay" also sounds a little to much like a fake. Really? You happened to have several friends that used umf.com...they gave you "average reviews"...and you happened to catch the infomercial that moveforfree.com paid Channel 11 to run...you found your own place...listed moveforfree.com...and then none of the limitations on their free move offer applied to you so you got a free move...and then you were searching for review sites on moveforfree.com's much larger competitor...and you posted a positive review about them? Sounds interesting...

Fair Enough - But remember, these sites keep your IP address and if you fake a post it can be a really be bad sign about the credibility of your company.

If you have friends that used our service give me some names. I'll contact them and ask what we could do different next time to get a better than "average" review for their friend "Jay". I expect all of our customers to have a far better than average experience.

nick, you're a jerk ... according to you everyone is a liar that posts here. i've never used your company, never talked to anyone who has. i did see the move for free story on ch 11 news and i want you to prove it was a infomercial because to me it was just part of their nightly newscast. so since you're the only one that tells the truth, prove it was an infomercial... give us a salesman name we can contact or ?

as far as ip addresses i guess you're speaking from experience (everyone - see the moving scam site where nick was busted for submitting a post under a different name from his ip)

so why am i posting? i was doing my due diligence, researching apt locators as iwill be moving in the very near future and wanted to see what reviews/complaints i could find about some of the companies but after reading your last response nick, you showed your colors and it's no wonder people complain about your customer service since you're the example your customer service reps follow. oh and no i wont being using your company.

nick, if you really are the biggest, baddest apt locating company in the world or whatever you claim then grow some skin and stop being a whiner and a jerk.

I apologize if my comments came across as rude tbstroble. Sincerely. Just defending my company and the people that work there every day taking care of our customers…probably defending them more than I should have based on your feedback. Point taken.

Not all complaints are liars. There was a legitimate complaint posted here about a TV that was damaged by the moving company we use in Austin. We responded and purchased a new TV. The customer was satisfied. We would do the same for any customer that had a legitimate complaint.

There was only one other complaint and we cannot substantiate it despite a lot of research. The person claims that they used our service and they ended up paying the moving company we used over $250 on move day. We have tried unsuccessfully to locate any record in our system that matches. Again, I am offering to completely refund the money if that person would give me the opportunity by identifying themselves as a real customer that used our service. I've provided my direct contact information to do so. That's not an angry business owner. That's a sincere business owner that wants to make things right if we (or our moving company) made a mistake. I also want to defend the company if the complaint was illegitimate.

Jay's story just sounded convenient. But if it's legit I stand corrected. The other company Jay mentioned is legit...has a solid reputation...but we do work with many more properties and we do have a more inclusive free move offer.

We receive very few complaints...and we take the ones we do receive very seriously. I encourage anyone thinking about using our service (or any other apartment locator) to check around. Visit all the review sites and check out every different company that offers this service. We take care of our customers and your research will show that.

Ok Nick, your apology is accepted, i'll take you at your word that you didn't mean to come across as rude as you did. i'll also side with you in understanding why you would question the post from wwhite although he did say he wasn't interested in conversing since he had given you the chance to make it right when he did business with you. as a person who has spent years in retail i have fielded more than my fair share of complaints from people just like him. those who expect things to go perfect from the minute they enter my store until they leave and if they're not, they don't let a manager know they just complain.

i do think questioning jays post was a bit unfair, it may seem convenient to you but like him, i saw the news story on move for free and that got me online so i didn't make an automatic assumption he was a fake poster as i was kind of in his shoes.

that being said you cleverly avoided my request to prove your credibility. you claimed that news story was an infomercial and while i'm not in the tv business, i've certainly seen informercials and they don't occur during the middle of newscast. so once again i ask you to show how credible are you? post a name we can contact that verifies move for free paid for the news story i saw.

you also avoided the ip issue which again points to credibility. if you're going to "scare" people with statements like "remember, these sites keep your IP address" then you should have disclosed that you were guilty of doing just that by that post you made on the moving scam site under a phony name but from your ip.

now, i'll agree with you, before i read this post i had read many good things about your company and expect that most of those are real customer reviews but in my opinion by throwing out bogus claims of infomercials (unless you can prove otherwise) and scare tactics (getting caught posting bogus posts) you are no better than those you accuse of being frauds.

finally, i repeat my challenge for you to prove your claim and admit to your bogus post. if you can't prove the claim then admit you lied and take your lumps.

Forgive me. I jumped to a conclusion on Jay’s post because it did just sound off to me. I mean, we move a lot of people…but the odds of one renter having personal contact with “several” of our former customers and getting “average reviews” still seems off. But you’re right – I could be absolutely be wrong…and if I am I hope that commenter points it out by letting me know who their friends were that used our service. I’ll call them to find out how we can do better than average next time. I’m (admittedly) a nut when it comes to customer service…and I’m invested in making our customers happy…probably way too invested (as illustrated by the time dedicated to this post).

I realize I’m not neutral…but we have incredible satisfaction ratings. You sound like you checked out the reviews - so you know. If you genuinely doubt the legitimacy of any of those reviews post a comment and say so. The feedback you get will give you all the peace of mind you need. I’m incredibly proud of what we do. We have an amazing group of people that really help renters find incredible deals on apartments. My apartment specialists will work for weeks (months) finding a client the perfect place to rent…We offer this assistance for free and then we also give them a free move or $200 rebate for using our service (twice the rebate of the other company mentioned). Our team works hard to take care of our customers…and if you talk to anyone that has really used our service their feedback should reflect that.

RE: Fake Post on Other Website
The "fake post" you refer to was on another blog type website from four years ago. Very old but absolutely worth addressing. Extremely long thread…but at one point the site Admin pointed out that the post came from the same IP address as my comment and I have no reason not to believe that...I think it's safe to assume it did. But the post did not come from me. That would have been our corporate office IP address and there are well over 75 employees that office from that location all sharing the same T1. Someone on our team thought they were being helpful and ended up being an embarrassment…an embarrassment that really didn’t even need to happen since there were other real customers posting positive reviews of our service. Unfortunately, I didn't see the response (where the admin notices the IP) until over a year later (I’ve since set up web alerts to monitor these sites so I can be more responsive). Once I saw the post I sent out a company-wide email asking who posted the comment…no one stepped up to take the blame (not a giant surprise given how they publicly embarrassed the boss). You can see that one of my managers posted earlier in that thread…I assumed it was him but never hooked him up to a polygraph  While it absolutely was not me, I take full responsibility for anyone that works for me…and since then there’s a new section in the employee handbook that covers “making public statements on behalf of the company”. With all that said, everyone that actually used our service in that thread had positive things to say..and I think that’s the most important thing to note.

RE: Potentially Bogus Complaints
I say “potentially” because I’m still open to the idea that our company could have made a mistake with the first comment. Again, we help a lot of renters and I don’t claim to be perfect – I just claim that if mistakes occur I will work hard to find a resolution that the complainant thinks is fair. But I searched far and wide trying to identify anyone that would match the complaint and I can’t find a thing…and I’ve offered to completely refund anything our moving company charged if that person just identifies themselves as a real customer. Trust me, if one of our moving companies really charged someone $250 in additional fees it should be in our system…and if it’s not I need to know about it and find out what’s going on. I just think if that’s a real customer with a legitimate complaint they would want a check. My offer stands. My direct phone number and email address is included above.

RE: “News” Story
Our company has been offered the same type of advertisements that run in the middle of a newscast. The fact that they didn’t mention any other companies that offer the service, and slanted to coverage so heavily in favor of that one company, leads me to believe it was a paid piece. I guess to be fair I can’t prove it unless I call the station and ask…But again, we’ve been offered the same ads on all local stations and I’m about 99% certain that was a stealth ad. Horribly misleading…but it’s actually far more common than most people realize. It’s called “Steal Advertising” and all local stations are running them now…Check out the links below. I have nothing against advertising…but I think pawning it off as a news story is a little misleading.
http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2007/07/stealth-advertising-marketing-creeps-into-the-evening-news.ars
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070711001347.htm
http://www.commercialalert.org/news/archive/2007/07/stealth-advertising-sliding-under-radar-into-tv-newscasts
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/stealth-advertising-counters-tivo-ad-skipping-13669.html

Here’s the deal. Contact me using the information provided above…give us a chance and let us help you find a new apartment…and then come back on this site and let everyone know how it went. Our employees are good at what they do…they will find you an amazing place at an incredible price and do it all for free…you’ll get a free move or $200 check…and you’ll also work with a group of dedicated professionals. Again, I stand behind my people…because they’ve earned it. They are honest, hard working people.

Forgive the lengthy response…you asked for lot and I aim to please.

well Nick you didn't disappoint once again you've tried to skirt the issue with smoke and mirrors. i asked you for two things;

1. prove your accusation the move for free news story that was on ch 11 was an infomercial. instead of saying something like "you're right, i can't prove it, i'm sorry i said it and i take it back", you tried to throw some articles about an advertising technique out and the fact you were contacted about this advertising technique to confuse everyone. that's not proof that's more accusation.

2. admit you posted a bogus post on the moving scam site. your response reveals a bunch about you as a person, instead of saying something like "there was a post from our ip that was bogus, i've set some standards in place and it won't happen again", you threw an employee under the bus. what kind of owner does that? the kind that points fingers at everyone else when things don't go his way. sad Nick, sad.

the way you responded to my two questions has solidified in my mind the type of person you are, one with minimal integrity and morals.

finally, while i forgave you for your rudeness that too speaks of the type of person you really are. as far as your offer to find me an apartment. it is not often i can see behind the curtain as to the type of people i choose to do business with but since you ripped that curtain wide open i'll be damned if i'll let a person like you with a real lack of integrity make money off of me. so THANKS BUT NO THANKS! i know you'll post another rambling reply trying to discredit any negative things i've said but it is now out there for anyone with an open mind to see what kind of person you are ... facts are facts, you couldn't prove your accusation and you threw your employee under the bus to avoid looking bad yourself. i won't respond further, i'll let this and the moving scam posts speak for themselves.

Talk about smoke and mirrors. Read the "Moving Scam post"...everyone that used our service had great things to say?

The question is whether or not our customers (renters that have actually used our service) are happy with the service they got. Our customer reviews/ratings are incredible. There's only one legit complaint in here and the person said it was handled to her satisfaction. She was a reasonable real customer and I treated her the same as I would treat any real customer - I took care of her complaint. I'll glady take care of any customers complaint - the same can't be said of most large companies.

Do research on us and every spin off that is offering a similar service. Compare real reviews from real customers. Anyone that does this research will end up using our service. Not because of some irrelevant conversation about local news story...not because of a blog entry from 4 years ago where our customers did have positive things to say about us...but because we are the largest and most reputable company that offers the service...and because people who have actually used our service had incrediblw things to say about it.

I agree - let this and the other review websites speak for themselves...let our customers speak for themselves.

I used umovefree.com for my apartment search and then move. I wasn't thrilled with the service but I would give them another chance.

First they contract out to other moving companies. The guys that came to move me were in a truck with a different name on the side, not the company I was quoted when I talked to umovefree.com and not the company quoted on the contract. The company quoted on the contract is about 4.5 hours away from me and the guys that came had a local number and location on the side of their truck. There were two guys and the 'main' guy had his son with him. None of the men spoke English and he apparently brought the son to talk with me. His son was about 10 and he was nice, spoke English perfectly and even helped move items that he could move.

Now what I didn't like. They dented up EVERYTHING they moved..which was not a lot. I had my family help me move boxes and end tables leaving just 10 items for the movers to move. My bed was already taken apart when they got there and the washer and dryer were unhooked and sitting in the living room waiting for them. They had to bring the bed out of the bedroom as well as a desk and they ended up hitting the corner wall with either the bed or desk causing a big chunk of paint to fall off. There are numerous dents and scratches on my bed frame as well as a few spots where they ripped my mattress and box spring. The entertainment center, while beat up before they arrived somehow ended up even more beat up by the time it made it to my new apartment. They also managed to put a HUGE dent in the floor when they brought the washer and dryer into the new apartment.

Now onto the contract I had to sign. The fount was smaller than most contracts making it harder to read but I wasn't going to sign anything without reading it no matter how hard they tried to make it. If they had centered it differently they could have put the contract on the page 4 times and cut the paper saving them money. I had to sign the line that states a household good carriers liability for loss or damage to any shipment is 60 cents per pound per article...Take that how you want to, that very well could be a standard contract in the moving industry. This is the first time I've used a moving company so I don't know what a standard contract should read like. The contract also stated that if I went over my 2.5 hours I would have to pay the movers 22.50 every 15 minutes.

Now onto the drive to the new apartment. I was well aware that I had the men for 2.5 hours and I also knew that moving 10 items was not going to take up the entire 2.5 hours but the men found a way to do just that. The drive from the old apartment to the new apartment was 6 miles. According to mapquest it should take about 15 minutes and on the day they moved me traffic wasn't bad and so it should have taken 15-20 minutes to get to the new apartment. There was also no turns, it was simply one major street that we were on for the entire 6 miles. It took the moving men almost an hour to get to the new apartment. They were following me to the new apartment and they kept their speed under 20 miles an hour the entire time. The normal speed down this road is 45 for the first 3 miles or so and 50 the other few miles. They also made sure to catch every single light, which was about 10 lights. When I tried to speed up to the normal speed or even 5 miles under they just got further behind me, they never tried to keep up with me. In the end that part didn't matter to me because they finished on time and I didn't have to pay them anything extra, but I find it significant enough to mention here so that anyone that uses this service is aware of what they do.

Overall they did what was asked, they moved the heavy items from my old apartment to my new apartment and made sure there was someone there who spoke English so that I could communicate with the men. I was not happy in the least with the condition of my items once they arrived nor was I happy with the dent in the floor and chunk of paint that fell off due to the movers hitting the walls with my furniture. I think the drive there was ridiculous and used just to kill time but since they finished on time I guess that isn't such a big deal. I think next time I might just get my family to help me move everything and use the money from umovefree.com to buy them all dinner as a thank you instead of using the movers.

I just found this site and it makes me a little scared. I have been using UMOVEFREE for a few months. My agent is Tracy P. So far, he has been a delight and very helpful to me. I have founded a place and I am quaified for the free move. My additional charges to the free move is about S105.00. The charges was for my washer/dryer, disassembling/reassembling my bed, and that I am moving to a third floor apartment. When I first talked the moving agent about setting up my move; she was very nice. She email me the cost and information on the Full Value insurance package. I wanted to add one of the insurance package to my move, well I have not heard back from them. I have sent additional emails as a follow up. After reading this site and not getting additonal response for the move agent about the insurance, I am getting scared. I have schedule my move for next week.

Is not a good company i will not tell anyone to use them they never came for me when i called it took 4 hrs to get a call back. then was told that i put another date. i think i know what date i am moveing. and they wanted me to pay 125.00 yea right not. the person that so called help me didnt. will never use them.

then going to say not sure when i will get my 100$ back they owe me .what never agin sorry they need to cloes for good

I didn't request for a move only the rebate because my rent wasn't over $700 to qualify for the move. I have yet to see a rebate or anything look like a rebate. Everytime I call the office I get a stupid recording telling me to call this number or that number and no one picks up. The agent that I was talking to is never in his office or he see my number and just doesn't pick either way no one is returning my calls nor e-mails. Is this company really a scam?

J. Allen:
Hi there, i work in the UMoveFree marketing department we've had some turnover recently and I would hate that to be affecting you. If you still need assistance I would like to help you, please feel free to email me here: http://i.imgur.com/1z3Zf.png