Century 1 Movers

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. THEY ARE CRIMINALS.
This place only gets one star because I can’t rate it a 0. This is an organization of crooks, and they will do their best to extort you. If you speak with Bell or Momi, run in the opposite direction. Here’s my (long) story:
As a precursor to the story, let me tell you that Century 1 had taken all of my belongings (meaning everything that I own – clothes, furniture, pictures, everything) to a remote location and demanded $ 2375 in cash before they would bring any of it to another location to be picked up. The address that they gave us for their offices is empty. They had taken our things and were holding them for a ransom. I had concluded (up until a week ago when everything was returned at an additional charge) that I would never get my things back, no matter how much money I paid.
It all started about three months ago when I found out that I was moving from Chicago to San Francisco for a promotion, and I started looking for quotes to move all of my BF’s and my furniture out here. I went on the Starving Students website and entered my information for a quote. I was almost immediately contacted by James, a moving broker from Budget.
Together we did a run down of all of my belongings to come up with a quote on the spot. $ 2100 to move cross-​country sounded like a pretty sweet deal to me, as some of the other quotes we had received were in the high $ 4000/​$ 5000 range. In order to get my stuff out to California in time for my lease to start, I had to make certain everything was packed 1.5 days later and had to put down a deposit of $ 763 for the broker. I was also informed that a «guaranteed delivery» charge of $ 540 would be added to the total cost in order to ensure that my belongings would arrive in 7 – 10 days.
I received a call on Friday around 2PM CST from a woman named «Bell,» the relocation consultant from Century 1. She told me that I needed to fax my credit card information to her (I couldn’t do it over the phone), and that it needed to be completed within the next hour because they close at 3PM on Fridays. I had to rush all over the place to find a place whose fax machines were up and running, and as soon as I faxed it, I was told the fax wasn’t clear enough. Already the move was becoming difficult. I pleaded my case and was finally able to give my information over the phone.
Bell told me that my stuff would be moved between the hours of 3pm and 6pm on the following day; I told her to MAKE SURE that this was the case, as our freight elevator in the building was only available till 5:30pm. She assured me this would be the case.
Fast forward to Saturday at 4pm CST: the movers haven’t arrived yet. My boyfriend calls the company and «Momi,» the owner of Century 1, answers. He says he told me that he would ARRIVE between 3pm and 6pm, and that there was no guarantee when the guys would show up. If we wanted to reschedule «it is up to Alex (my fiancée),» but we would be charged an additional $ 175 for the rescheduling (even though it was their fault). The $ 175 was «bargained» down to $ 150 and it was added to my total bill. We rescheduled for Sunday the 19^th at 12pm.
Sunday: In our original contract, it states that «furniture protection, including blankets and padding» would be included in our total cost to move. After all of the stuff is loaded into the truck, the movers come back up to our now empty apartment and offer out another contract. In this contract, an additional $ 675 was added to the bill for wrapping our furniture, and the pound estimate we were originally given for the move was doubled (meaning our quote was also doubled). Alex – not knowing what else to do and after being assured by the guys that we wouldn’t have to pay anything extra until we were weighed – signed the contract.
Monday: On my way in to work on Monday morning, I get a call from Bell telling me I have to pay an additional $ 1000 because of the doubled weight estimate from the movers before they will even weigh it. I argue that they are extorting me for the full cost of the move before their end of the contract is executed. It gets better: they blamed US for the delay, and said that the $ 540 «guaranteed delivery» charge would remain on our total balance. They then called my boss and yelled at them and threatened to auction my stuff if they weren’t paid.
You’re getting the idea, and I’m running out of space to tell the story. What it comes down to is they stole our stuff, put it in storage, threatened to auction it on multiple occasions, kept demanding more and more money and adding more and more fees… By the time all was said and done, nearly 2 months had passed before we got our stuff back, we had spent $ 2400, and none of our stuff was moved (aside from to the warehouse where they were holding it hostage).
One last little gem: the guy who owns it has changed his and the company’s name 4 times in the last year.