Stay away from these people!
I first contacted Luis at Rhino Relocation in July 2020 for relocation from CA to NC. I gave him a full list of items and received an initial estimate of about $3700. On Aug 6th a truck showed up and the driver gave me a new quote of $7500 after looking at my stuff. I obviously sent that truck away and called Rhino Relocation to tell them I want to cancel my move after realizing I was scammed but he would not refund my deposit even though I was assured by Paul, Luis’s manager, that the deposit was refundable. Instead of returning my deposit Luis told me he had another crew to send out assuring those guys are his best crew. It didn’t look like I could get my refund easily so I gave a benefit of doubt about the new crew. That afternoon I received a call from Mike, Move Wisely owner, that his crew will come pick up my belongings in the evening. He called me 3 times that afternoon telling me how much he would really like the job and that he was running late from his previous job. Around 7pm a truck shows up with 3 guys. Mike took a look at my belongings and told me it’s about 950cf plus minus 50cf and that he can fit all my stuff in his truck which he claimed has 1300cf of space available. I should have measured the truck space myself but didn’t because I was running out of time, which I still regret to this date. It took about 3 hours to get to almost full load. I still had stuff left in my house but the truck was running out of space. I had to be selective about what to load because I knew what gets left behind would not make it to NC but Mike complained about me taking time to select what to load in the truck and refused my requests because it was getting late and he wanted to go home after a long day. This guy certainly didn’t sound like the same guy who called me 3 times earlier to make sure I knew he was coming to pick up my belongings. After loading up the truck Mike quotes me $5700 for the job claiming my belongings filled 1300cf of space. Although I felt scammed I was left with no other choice but to pay him half the amount he quoted. It was super tiring week for me and my family and I just wanted to be done with the moving process so I paid him after getting assured that my stuff will be delivered in 2 weeks. One of my room still had stuff and I ended up throwing away all of that stuff because I had to leave in two days and the truck had no more space. I thought my nightmare was over but it was only half of the story.
After arriving in NC we waited for a week before contacting Mike for a status update. He did not give us a clear answer as to when we can expect our belongings delivered. His only response was, “We are getting a truck early next week” every time I was able to get a hold of him. 2 weeks passed by and still no truck and our anxiety grew day by day. My family of 3 was living off of 3 brief cases in an empty house in NC for almost 3 weeks. After I got really frustrated reading so many horrific reviews about Move Wisely (Believe every horror story you come across about Move Wisely as they are probably all true) I attempted to contact Mike numerous times but he stopped responding to my call after he failed to deliver on promised date. The only means of communicating with Mike was via text and nothing was being done. He once responded, “We are doing our best.” I contacted Rhino Relocation to complain about Move Wisely but Luis just kept putting me on hold and waited for me to hang up. I could never get a hold of him, either. He already got his broker fee so I figured he didn’t have any reason to bother with complain.
After a month of wait Mike finally responded to my messages saying our belongings are finally loaded to a truck and will be delivered on Sept 5th. Ryder rental truck showed up on 6th at our front door with our belongings. After they finished unloading we found out 4 items were missing and nearly all of our furniture and appliances had damages or destroyed. The driver, Jose, took off quickly after telling me he would contact Mike to take care of damage claim and missing items and I was never able to reach him again after that day. I didn’t hear from anyone from Move Wisely afterward. I asked them to locate missing items and to take care of damages but only response I got was Mike’s text message, “I’m doing my best.” It’s been more than 2 months since my last contact with Move Wisely and I still have not heard back from them nor was able to reach Mike. Stay away from these people and save yourself a weeks of agonizing and sleepless nights. They will do anything to take possession of your belongings then it is game over after. You will be scammed and overcharged and then find your stuff delivered late, damaged and lost while you are being ignored during and after the entire process. Move Wisely is a fraud.
Victim Location 90680
Total money lost $520
Type of a scam Moving
Contacted Vanity Van Lines to arrange for a move from California to North Carolina. They made arrangements for Move Wisely (Legal name: Z Best Services Inc) to pick up our items from storage in CA on June 9th and move to NC. The contract was for a 1 bedroom apartment (our apartment was 550 sf – very small). Movers took most of the items but left off a sofa and surfboard. Said the space was full and would be an additional $900 for these 2 items. After a lot of back and forth we agreed to leave those behind as the movers convinced the broker they had filled the space. We had paid Vanity the deposit (1/3 of the total) and then they requested we pay the movers with Zelle for better financial tracking the other 1/3rd and then final 3rd to be paid when delivered. On June 17th Vanity notified us our furniture would be delivered on June 26th or 27th. On June 24th I called Vanity to check on status, their phones and emails were all disconnected. I called Move Wisely at the number listed on their website, that had also been disconnected. I then went to Vanity’s website and left a review that this was a scam – Note: All reviews have now been removed from their website. Then I went to their Facebook page and saw the message that they are updating their phone system and send request to [email protected] I received a call within minutes from the owner explaining that the two employees we had been dealing with are no longer with the company and he would look into our move. After reviewing our notes he offered to refund us $150 for the space the sofa and surfboard should have taken up. The $150 will not cover the costs to get the sofa or surfboard from CA to NC – but let’s get on with it an get the furniture and things the movers did take. June 29th Vanity said Move Wisely was experiencing delays due to Covid-19. June 30th contacted Move Wisely, Mike said they are still waiting on a driver. July 4th Vanity said they have a driver and truck that has some space, they can pick up our things from Move Wisely on Monday or Tuesday (July 6th or 7th) (its been sitting in their storage unit since they picked it up from our storage unit on June 9th) and they also have enough room to get the sofa and surfboard. July 7th Vanity said they are unable to get a hold of Move Wisely for the pickup. When we wanted to confirm on the sofa and surfboard he said they never agreed to that and they refunded us already the $150 to cover the mess up. Tuesday July 7th Vanity’s owner Josh, said to give them until Friday, July 10th to investigate. Called Move Wisely, Mike said he was waiting to here from Vanity as they were supposed to pick up our furniture and items. I asked where our stuff was held, the following day I received the address of the storage unit. Week 5 and we still don’t have our items. Below is the picture of the truck fully loaded with a 1 bed apartment – according to the movers. When I looked into moving scams and how to avoid this I found information to verify on the movers. Vanity should have done this as the broker – but Move Wisely does not have current DOT authority and they are NOT authorized to drive out of state.