over billing by movers

[goodills5]

What is the name of your state? Virginia
When a deal was reached, on a not to exceed limit of $2500.00, with a moving company to store our things for approx. 60 days we were faxed a quote of $1778.20. When our things were delivered the price had changed to almost $5000.00.
There was no contract, just the faxed quote for $1778.20. The are now threatening to take us to court. Am I safe from being sued or is the faxed document binding and editable?

 

[djohnson]

No one is ever safe from being sued. lol

Have you contacted them? What did they say? Is there an itemization of why they have charged more? Was your part exactly as described? It could be something making the price go up or it could be an error on their part but you are going to know until you ask and we can't advice (other than to say you owe it) with out knowing why the difference and what is it for. Please let us know that and you will more more answers and more informative answers. Thanks

 

[goodills5]

overbilled by movers

Yes we talked to them. When we moved one company handled it for my husbands new company and they dealt with two other companies. One for the packing and one for the moving and the storage. My husbands new company was responsible for the moving part. Greenwood, SC to Newport News, VA. They paid it in full. Our things were to be stored in Wilmington, NC, part way in between the two. The extra expense they are saying is delivering it from NC to VA which was covered in the expense paid by Catalina. We were faxed a quote for storage and that was what we were to pay. Somewhere between NC and VA the companies messed up on the estimate. We have a letter saying, "That type of charge cannot be quoted" and, from a man in NC "we were not informed or aware that this was a guaranteed price or we would have challenged at time of pickup and charges must be paid by customer prior to release of shipment" which I am told is illegal because they were my belongings. Can some one tell me more about the statute of Frauds. A friend who is a JAG lawyer said that if the charge will be over $500 you need to supply a contract which we did not receive. Just a hanwritten fax

 

[djohnson]

Have you contacted your husbands company to see if you can get a copy of what they paid for? The difference may should have been included in that amount or they may have double billed. I do not know anything legal that you can do in this circumstance. If as you state the fax quote is for staorage and the difference is for hauling then it's the hauling fee in question and not a misquote at all. You said that your husbands company was suppose to pay for that amount so I think the logical next step would be to his company.

 

[goodills5]

Mover overbilling

It's funny that you mention my husband's company. The extra amount was actually sent to them first. They also, though, had a not to exceed limit and refused to pay. According to them they paid for all of the packing, and the delivery from South Carolina to Virginia, not just North Carolina. So yes, it seems like it would be double billing since they are saying that the extra that they did not tell us about in our quote is a delivery charge.

 

[djohnson]

However you state that they pay for it up to a certain limit. There fore you are being billed with the difference. The quote you have is storage and not delivery. His company pays up to a certain amount. Therefore you either have to stay with in that amount or be charged the difference. It's beginning to sound more and more like you are going to responsible.