Hey everyone,
I'm off to bed, but thought I'd tell you I got someone fired. He deserved it, and this wasn't the first incident, apparently, but it still feels sort of bad. Here is the letter of complaint that I sent in, resulting in the guy's termination. We still haven't resolved the issue of payment. I think it may end up being pretty messy, but I'm sticking to my guns.

Gabrielle

To Whom it May Concern,
I am writing to express my disappointment in the professionalism of the team of movers that came to my home over the weekend. I do not know if they are direct employees of Capital Moving, but even if they are subcontractors, I believe you should know about what happened.
I received a call on Saturday afternoon from Capital Moving confirming the appointment I had for movers to come to my house between 8:00 and 10:00 AM the next morning. I confirmed, and asked for the movers to come as early as possible. The next morning no one came or called until nearly 10:00 AM, and then a call came from Shaul Ben-Shalom (I believe the team leader) asking for directions from Miami. I was distressed that he had not even left Miami yet. The team did not arrive at my house until 12:30 PM.
During the course of the move I tried to be helpful and accommodating, buying pizzas for lunch and then going to McDonalds to get each of them meals a few hours later, as well as helping with the packing as best I could.
However, a couple of hours into the move, a disagreement arose between Mr. Ben-Shalom and one or two of the men working with him. I gathered that the disagreement was whether or not they would be continuing on to do a second job after they were done at my home. The disagreement escalated into very loud shouting and threats from one man to another. I was extremely uncomfortable and almost called the police to come intervene. Finally the fight broke up and the men returned to work.
After the fight, at two separate times, one of the men approached to me complaining about Mr. Ben-Shalom and trying to defend his position to me. Later on Mr. Ben-Shalom also approached me to complain about how the men were not listening to him or doing what he told them to do. He told me, "Normally on a big job like this I will ask the client for a very big tip, but because of the argument I'm not going to ask you for one penny." I appreciated his indirect apology, but was still upset by the unprofessionalism demonstrated by all of them.
Twice more arguments broke out amongst the men, but happily none so violent as the first.
During the course of the move, a computer desk broke as the men loaded it into the truck. Ben-Shalom told me that they could not be responsible for items constructed with particleboard. However this desk was quite new and in very good condition. It is difficult to see how it could have broken had it been handled with reasonable care.
After the furniture and boxes has been moved out of my house I went through each room to be sure everything had been removed. I was very disappointed to find several deep gauges and scrapes on the walls in two of the bedrooms, three locations on the wall along the stairway, as well as in the ceiling above the stairway. The damage will require patching with plaster and then repainting.
As the men were loading the last of the boxes and furniture in the van, Mr. Ben-Shalom went over the inventory lists with me. He told me that the estimate I received from Capital Moving was based on a load of 985 cubic feet, but the actual size of the load was more than 2000 cubic feet, and therefore the total cost of the job would be more than double what was estimated—from $3500 to $7800. I find this very hard to believe since I received not one, but two different estimates from Capital Moving, and the estimates matched each other to within $300. A representative personally inspected all of the items in our home that were to be moved and completed the first estimate from Capital Moving. The second estimate was by phone where I described verbally all of the items in each room that needed to be moved. I can understand how a phone estimate might be slightly off, but I cannot accept that someone with experience in moving could come to my home, see everything that needed to be moved, and then underestimate the volume necessary by more than 50%. I absolutely would not have chosen Capital Moving had I anticipated that the actual costs would be more than double the estimate. In fact, the value of all of the items in the home is almost certainly far less than $7800! I had 3 other moving companies come to my home to give me estimates. None of them even came close to what Mr. Ben-Shalom told me was the actual cost of the move. The lowest quote I received was for $2800, and the highest was $5200. I decided to go with Capital Moving because I was impressed with the professionalism of the gentleman who came to my home, and the assurances he gave me that I would be happy with the service rendered. I do not know if the estimators purposely underestimated the cost of this move simply to secure my business, or if Mr. Ben-Shalom and his men did a poor job in efficiently packing the boxes and truck. I find either scenario to be totally unacceptable. I can't help but wonder if Mr. Ben-Shalom tried to increase the apparent volume of the load because he knew that my husband's company is paying for the move, and he thought that perhaps he wouldn't get any complaints. The fact is that my husband's company is paying for the move, but our moving expenses are capped at a certain amount, and any increase over that amount will come from our pocket.
As Mr. Ben-Shalom finished going over the papers with me, he then asked me about a tip. I was a bit taken aback because he has said he would not ask for a tip due to the behavior of he and his men. However, I felt quite pressured to give a tip as Mr. Ben-Shalom told me he and his guys are paid only by their hourly wage and through tips, and that it was just "not right" (his words) for clients to give small tips. I called my husband (he was in Texas while I supervised the move on my own in Florida), and we agreed to give them a modest tip, 10% of the original estimate, as opposed to 10% of the newly revised cost, which was what Mr. Ben-Shalom suggested. My husband asked to speak with Mr. Ben-Shalom, but immediately Mr. Ben-Shalom got very aggressive with my husband on the phone, accused me of complaining to my husband that he had "demanded a tip" (Mr. Ben-Shalom did not actually demand a tip but strongly insinuated to me that one was expected). After a short exchange, Mr. Ben-Shalom hung up on my husband. My husband was so upset by the exchange that he called me back shortly thereafter to make sure that I was ok. He was going to call the police if I did not assure him that I was not in danger.
I never felt personally endangered, but I did feel manipulated and I did fear for my belongings already packed in the truck. I worried strongly (and still worry) that the men would damage our furniture if they were not satisfied with the amount of the tip I gave to them. I did give them a tip-- $200 to Ben-Shalom directly (which he asked for), and $100 made out to cash (which I assume he divided among the 3 other men). Late that night, after 11 PM in fact, I received a phone call. I rarely receive phone calls that late and picked up my phone worried there was an emergency. It was a call from a check-cashing establishment asking to verify that I had written a $200 check to Mr. Ben-Shalom. I told the employee that I did write the check, but that I was very uncomfortable with the situation and that I might put a stop-order on the check. I asked her not to tell Mr. Ben-Shalom that I asked her not to cash the check because I feared for the well-being of my belongings. Immediately thereafter I received two phone calls from Mr. Ben-Shalom which I did not answer. I felt it was extremely inappropriate for him to be calling me so late, and I feared another aggressive exchange with him. I planned to put a stop-order on the check today after I returned home from the airport (I flew back to Texas today). However he had already cashed the check somewhere else.
My final complaint was that the men failed to pack several items that were in the garage. There were several piles of empty boxes and other materials piled in the garage, and as I cleared those out of the way to put them in the trash, I found several items including parts to my weight-lifting set, 2 rugs, 3 backdrops from my photography studio, a decorative trash can, and a front-door wreath. I packed a few of these things in a box to take home with me on the plane, but the other items I had to leave behind because I did not have enough room in the box or my luggage to pack them all.
I feel that the issues that came up during this move are serious enough to warrant this letter of complaint. I am also requesting Capital Moving to honor its original estimate for the cost of the job. Whether the discrepancy is due to the inexperience of the estimator who came to my home, or the poor loading job of the movers, the problem ultimately is the responsibility of Capital Moving. I hope you will value the reputation of your company by honoring the original estimate (I can provide you a copy of the first estimate we received from the Capital Moving representative who visited our home if necessary), as well as discuss these complaints with Mr. Ben-Shalom so that other clients are not subjected to the unpleasant experience that I endured.
Thank you for taking this seriously and addressing my concerns.
Sincerely,
Gabrielle Turner