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CB Courier and Delivery Services Review of Citizens Transfer & Storage
Citizens Transfer & Storage

Citizens Transfer & Storage review: Moving scam! 3

Author of the review
12:00 am EST
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

According to the laws of the State of Arizona, (ARS 47-7403. Obligation of warehouseman or carrier to deliver), A. The bailee must deliver the goods to a person entitled under the document who complies with subsections B and C..., unless and to the extent that the bailee establishes any of the following: 2. Damage to or delay, loss or destruction of the goods for which the bailee is not liable, but the burden of establishing negligence in such cases is on the person entitled under the document. Which, to my understanding, means that shipments arriving damaged are to remain in the warehouse of the receiver until such time that the lawful owners of the goods can establish who is responsible.

But the first week of May, 2004, Citizens Transfer & Storage Co., Inc. of Tucson, doing business under DOT #076235 as an agent of Allied Van Lines, received our damaged shipment of household goods. They held our shipment hostage until I paid a company named Overseas Relocation Services in Kent, WA, claiming to be a freight forwarder handling the over-water portion of the move from Hawaii to the Mainland, $8,460.12 plus a $127.00 charge card-use fee. They insisted I paid cash, but lacked any paperwork.

The two Citizens employees who delivered our goods to our new home, (later confirmed over the phone by the vice-president of the company), told us that the shipping crates had not been properly sealed for the over-water voyage from Hawaii, and large items had been stacked on top of smaller ones crushing what was at the bottom. Worse than that, the whole shipment was soaking wet. But even worse than that, everything except for the china, had not been packed but rather stuffed into boxes as if it were refuse. My interpretation of the actions of the Citizens employees, was that this company did not want to be involved, literally dumping our stuff off and getting out of here as fast as they could. But not before charging us an additional $663.97 fee for transport, and having me sign a formerly unsigned bill of lading for which later I would discover a similar bill of lading in which my signature had been forged.

According to the laws of the State of Arizona, (ARS 44-1522. Unlawful practices) A. The act, use or employment by any person of any deception, deceptive act or practice, fraud, false pretense, false promise, misrepresentation, or concealment, suppression or omission of any material fact with intent that others rely upon such concealment, suppression or omission, in connection with the sale or advertisement of any merchandise whether or not any person has in fact been misled, deceived or damaged thereby, is declared to be an unlawful practice. As I understand it, this is a civil offense. They concealed, suppressed and omitted the fact that our goods were damaged.

Because of this, we have spent the past two years living without our household goods, (valued at over $100,000), as they were damaged beyond use, and trying to repair anything that was remotely salvageable. A lot of these items were my fiancé's who had suddenly and unexpectedly passed-away just a few months prior to our move. These mementoes that were destroyed can never be replaced.

I have written numerous letters and made phone calls to all of the companies involved. I have written to the Better Business Bureau, the Dept. of Transportation, the Moving and Storage Association, to Allied Van Lines, the Law Dept. of Sirva, (the parent company of Allied), to Senator John McCain, the Consumer Protection Agencies and Attorney Generals Offices of both States. But to no avail.

Finally, I took a year off from graduate school to research and write my own civil suit, which, at this point, has been brought against the Allied Van Lines agent in Hawaii, HITCO Moving & Storage, and Overseas Relocation Services, who are responsible for the initial damage and the forged document. This despite the fact that Citizen Transfer & Storage was the one who should have initially helped us to get this matter settled from the start. The suit has been submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona in Tucson, Order # CV-06-414-TUC-JCG. But despite having to take this matter this far, the companies are still unwilling to negotiate and pay for any of the damages caused, for destroying the memories of my loved-one, and for making our lives a living Hell for the past two years.

Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

3 comments
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Arthur Whiteside
,
Jun 06, 2008 10:28 am EDT

Letter that I sent to their customer service dpartment:

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter is in reference to a telephone conversation I just had with one of your local affiliate office employees here in the Sierra Vista office - Citizens Transfer & Storage, 467 Kayetan Drive, Sierra Vista, AZ 85635 - who was very curt and unconcerned with my issue. Customer courtesy goes a long way in business, especially when consumers are searching for an establishment who will return their loyalty. The female dispatcher made a promise that her field team would collect the property they left on my premises, but on five occasions they failed to do so. To be concise, I only spoke to her on the last two occasions that I phoned the local office. In our conversation she explained that her dispatch team "would definitely" come to my home on June 5, 2008 to pick up the boxes they left behind when they hurriedly unpacked my items. In their hasty effort to leave at the close of the day I was informed that they would definitely come back on secure the boxes they left behind if I contacted the office within 7 days. That was almost a month ago, and that boxes are posing a health hazard; snakes in Arizona use boxes as a haven to protect themselves from the sun.

If this is the customer satisfaction that will have a bearing on whether you continue to contract with the Armed Forces I don't think you'll be servicing for much longer.

I had a pretty good experience with you company until this point and that representative.

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helenaandmike
Oro Valley, US
Jul 12, 2011 1:09 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

yeah they are pretty nasty, my stuff was not destroyed but late. Then only got 60% of it and the rest is still in some storage place. I am tired of the lies and all the blaming on others. I am so sorry for your loss. No one should go through this. There should be laws against them. If we were late in paying them there would be Penalties for late payment.

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Ross
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May 18, 2008 12:58 pm EDT

First and foremost, Citizens Transfer was only the drayge carrier for final delivery. This shipment originated in Hawaii, not Arizona, So Arizona law DOES NOT APPLY. Also, In this complaint it is stated exactly where the problem lies, with the agent in Hawaii and the agent transporting the goods from Hawaii to Arizona. All Citizens did was deliver what they were contracted to deliver. They did their job and they have absolutely no obligations to this consumer beyond that. The exception would be if their crew actually damaged the furniture, which it is stated above they did not. Read this with a grain of salt.