ARC Relocation

I am a government employee who recently moved from NY to CA, and the move was done using ARC’s vendors. I believe we were victims of household goods moving fraud. Below presents our situation, including why we blame ARC in large part.

My husband first posted the substance of this review elsewhere and received the following from an ARC executive: "You will be receiving correspondence within 24 hours from ARC’s legal counsel in regards to your false and defamatory online statement regarding ARC Relocation." I contacted a lawyer who examined what happened and told me he doubted any legal counsel would take ARC's case. Ultimately, I did not hear from any lawyer representing ARC, but ARC did send me several threatening emails trying to get me to delete the review. It is substantive if a company uses legal threats to suppress negative online reviews.

The first problem: The original agreement, in writing, was that the moving company would weigh our household goods twice: first at pickup and then before delivery. After the pickup weight tickets were submitted I complained that they looked to me to be too high (see problem 2 below). At this point the moving company changed course and said they would not weigh at destination. After much complaining on my part (with ARC CC’ed on everything, but offering no assistance), they offered to weigh again, but only if I agreed to pay more if the 2nd weight turned out higher. This was in violation of our original agreement, so I refused. My demand was that the shippers adhere to the original agreement which provided for a 2nd no-strings-attached weighing, but I did not prevail. ARC made no attempt to get the moving company to adhere to the terms of the original agreement. Note that weighing at both pickup and delivery makes it more difficult for a shipper to engage in weight bumping.

The second problem: The company ARC referred us to appears to have bumped the weights. Before moving, I had carefully weighed or obtained weights for every item to be moved and came up with 4558 lbs. The moving company claimed the weight was 5740 lbs. At delivery, I weighed the goods using a certified public scale, documenting the entire process, and found a weight of 4680 lbs. With the help of a moving company we hired out of pocket, we had loaded our stuff directly from ARC's shipper’s truck to our own moving truck which was weighed immediately before and after the loading. We have offered to testify in court (weight bumping is a crime) and provide contact information for the moving company who helped with the 2nd weighing (a total of 5 people who can testify to the legitimacy of our weighing. We also have video and photographic evidence.). ARC’s movers billed by the lb and the extra weight amounted to an additional $900.

ARC has said that because we refused to agree to the (altered) terms for a 2nd weighing, they would do nothing for us. They have not said why they did not hold their company to the original agreement.

If you believe that an umbrella relocation company like ARC will insulate you from fraud, my experience suggests that you have it backwards.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $7000