B & T International Movers

Review: My house caught on fire and I had a few things left that I wanted to move into storage until I get a new place to live. I went to a website and received a bunch of quotes. I spoke to [redacted] at B& t International Movers and he quoted me $75.00 per hour special, he told me a minimum of 2 hours, & a 75.00 deposit which would go toward the cost and 75.00 travel time which would be a total of $225.00. I was then told because he couldn't see what I had to move he would give me a larger estimate but if it took less time he would only charge me for the time it took. I agree the driver comes late picks up my stuff takes it to my storage unit then says before he can unload I have to sign the paperwork. When I get the paper work it is for $369.00 which was more than I was quoted, more than estimate, and more than the time it actually took. When I called the office I spoke to a woman named [redacted] who was rude and who told me that what I was quoted wrong and that I had to pay for what the driver said. I said no I was quoted something different over the phone and the email I received was an estimate and [redacted] said I would be charged less if it took less time. [redacted] said again I was quoted wrong, so I asked to speak to [redacted], she said he wasn't there but she would try to get a hold of him. She put me on hold, and comes back saying she couldn't reach him but I have to pay what the driver said. I said no that is not what I was quoted in the beginning and I don't feel I have to pay that when I was told something different and could she try [redacted] again. [redacted] then said she already charged my card and she wasn't going to try [redacted] again and the driver wouldn't release my stuff until I signed the papers saying that I was going to pay $369.00 for an hours worth of work. The driver wouldn't move all my stuff, I had 2 empty fish tanks that I was told would cost extra to move. I have a map pictures of the truck my stuff and storage area as proof of wha.t I am sayingDesired Settlement: I want a refund of the money I paid and to be charged the actual amount of what I was supposed to pay minus the $80.00 that I was quoted would be extra for the fish tanks that they refused to move

Review: I called B&T International Movers to get a quote for my move from MD to PA. They are located in [redacted], MD which is about an hour from our previous residence. When I spoke with them on the phone they stated that we would only be charged for the time that they arrived at our current residence until the time they left our new residence. They emailed me a quote with the understanding that my employer would be paying for the move. My employer called and paid the balance of what B&T stated the move would cost, it was understood that the mileage and time costs would be variable depending if it took them longer on the day of the actual move. The movers showed up to our old residence at 8:20am on the Saturday that we were to move, this was not initially an issue because they said they would arrive between 8-9am. I had asked when I requested the quote if they needed an inventory of boxes, furniture, etc. The person at their headquarters had informed me that the amount of items being moved did not matter as we were paying by the hour and not by the item. Every time I spoke with them on the phone they were very quick to answer my questions and did not have many questions of their own which led me to believe both parties had a clear understanding of what was to be expected the day of the move. The movers were initially surprised that some of our furniture was not wrapped in bubble wrap etc. I explained to them that we were not concerned with protecting these pieces as they were not expensive and we did not want to add an additional expense to have them wrapped individually. The movers had already moved about half of our boxes into their truck when they informed us that they would not be able to move our furniture without wrapping it in their own protective material and this was going to cost us an additional $350+. While I understand that this may be their policy, I wish that someone would have been clearer about this procedure prior to showing up and my residence and packing half of our stuff into the truck especially since they surveyed the entire apartment prior to beginning the move. Then the mover informed me that he projected the move taking 2 hours longer than they original quote, which was for 6 hours, and this was going to double the cost of the move. I explained to him that an additional 2 hours should not double the cost of the move since we were paying $95/hour and had already paid for 6 hours but he insisted that his calculations were correct and that we would also need to pay a 5% convenience fee to use our credit card, 10% charge for fuel and a $20 document preparation fee. I told the mover that these charges should have been included in the quote we received originally as we would have had to pay them either way. He said that the quote they gave us was only for a deposit and not the actual projection of how much the total move would cost. I explained to him again that this move was being paid for by my employer and the purpose of getting a quote is to have a projection of what most of this service was going to cost, which they knew at the time that they took the initial payment and there should be very little variance in the amount we would need to pay on the day of the move. He then told me I would need to take this up with his headquarters and that if we wanted to be moved that day we would need to pay now before they left our old residence. I tried to call the B&T headquarters where I had requested the move and they were of course not open as it was a Saturday. The mover then had someone supposedly from his headquarters call my cell phone from a blocked number to discuss the situation with me. They refused to handle the situation and just kept telling me to talk to the mover that was on location but they did say that my original quote was for 6 hours of packing/unpacking and 2 hours’ drive time (8 hours total)... which is even more time than I was originally told and would have covered our entire move. I then tried to pass the phone to the mover on location so that he would understand from his HQ that we had already paid for the entire move except for the packing materials. At this time the person I was talking to on the phone hung-up on me and I could not call them back because they had called from a blocked number. I tried to explain to the mover what the person from his HQ had said and he then informed me that the reason why we still needed to pay for more time was because we now had to pay for the time it took them to drive from [redacted] to Cockeysville, MD. I told him that when I requested the move that they informed me we would not have to pay for that time but he disagreed and said that by my employer paying for the deposit we had agreed to these terms. He then asked me if we would like him to empty the truck and stop the move. At this point they had all but a few of my belongings in the back of their truck and I did not want to take the chance of them damaging anything as they would not be getting paid if I canceled the move and feared they would not leave cooperatively since the entire experience had been quite stressful. We were forced to pay them the additional $1000+ that they claimed we must pay in order for them to continue with the move and stated that they would stop charging us for time after they unpacked and left our destination. I had him reiterate that we would not be charged for the time it took them to drive from our destination by to their office however that we would be charged by the hour so if they only worked 10 minutes into the next hour we would still be charged for the full hour. We now had to pay from 8am until 4pm even though they didn’t arrive until 8:20am and left the new residence by 3:30pm. They used a blank moving truck with their company name taped to the door and they had no DOT number which made me even more concerned that they were going to damage or steal our belongings. Thankfully they delivered all of our belongings to our destination, we followed their truck closely all the way there and they drove very poorly. I asked the main mover for his business card to give to my employer as I would need to give them proof of the additional costs for the move in order to get reimbursed. He refused to give me any information; he would only give me his first name and no phone number. The 2 other movers who were working with him spoke only Spanish, my finance understands Spanish fairly well and heard them discussing where to stash our expensive stereo equipment while they were moving it so that they could come back for it later. We ended up telling them to put it down and then moving it ourselves.Desired Settlement: This company is clearly trying to scam people and our experience was absolutely horrible. I hope that no one else ever has to have the same experience with them as we did.