Royal Transport, LLC

JEL Moving Disaster.

During the period May 20-23, 2018 Royal Transport, LLC moved our household goods from Las Cruces, NM to San Antonio, TX. At the time of the move, the company was headquartered in Concordia, KS but the actual movers came out of Florida. (The LLC appears to be part of Royal Transport and Storage located in Hallandale Beach, FL.) The following details our horrible moving experience with this company:

1. The moving crew showed up with expectation that our moving job was a “small” one. This happened despite the fact that I worked out the moving estimate with the Royal Transport, LLC Operations Manager and he stated to me that our moving job was considered a “major” one that would entail a truck dedicated only to our moving job (i.e., the truck would pick up at our Las Cruces residence and drive directly to San Antonio). Somewhere there was miscommunication in between the estimator and the actual movers. The mover showed up with only three (3) workers and the supervisor was anticipating picking up other loads before arriving in San Antonio.

2. The mover showed up late on the date (May 20, 2018) that was agreed upon to begin the packing and loading. The estimator and dispatch personnel knew that we had a small window to pack and load our goods before our buyers would take over the home late in the day May 21, 2018. However, the mover showed up at about 2:30 PM on May 20th and had only a few hours to pack and load that day.

3. The mover showed up late the next morning (after 9:30 AM) to begin work for that day again knowing that the loading had to be completed by the end of the day. As a result, the job did not get completed that day and had to be carried over to the next day (May 22nd). Our home buyers were extremely upset and were threatening to sue us. The only saving grace was that the buyers’ goods had not yet arrived from their previous home location.

4. Despite the verbal promise to complete the job before noon the next day (May 22nd), the mover did not leave the house until late afternoon of that day. This was verified by our Las Cruces realtor. My wife and I had to leave the home before the mover had completed the loading because we had to be at our new location (San Antonio) by a certain date to sign papers on our newly purchased home.

5. The mover left several items behind when they loaded the truck. Examples are carpet underpad (in the claim), several cordless phones and various kitchen pots and pans.

6. The movers severely damaged a wall in the kitchen of the house during the loadout of furniture. This occurred after the house had been taken over by the buyers and I had to give the buyers a $500.00 cash settlement to avoid litigation.

7. We were not informed by anyone in Royal Transport, LLC (including its associates or subcontractors) prior to the arrival of the movers that we had to pay the movers in “cash” (or post office money order) at the completion of the job. We were informed of this late in the packing and loading process when most of our goods had already been loaded into the truck. This gave us a very small amount of time to put the payment together before our goods arrived in San Antonio.

8. Many of the items packed by the mover were poorly packed with little regard to potential damage and the mover did not label the boxes to help facilitate the unpacking and placement of items in the new home. Fortunately, my wife and I packed most of the highly breakable items before the movers showed up. Our unpacking and the placement of items in the new home was significantly slowed by the lack of box labeling.

9. Although we have no documents or other data to prove it, my wife and I to have suspicions that the volume of actual goods to be moved was artificially “inflated” to increase our cost and add to the mover’s profits. This is based on the fact that the end cost of the project was over 50% higher than the original estimate provided by Royal Transport, LLC and also based on multiple false statements and lies that were voiced to us by the Moving Services personnel.

10. This mover used the "cubic feet" method to calculate the load rather than the "weight method" which we understand is now illegal.

11. Because several items were damaged during the move, I submitted a damage claim to the Royal Transport Claims Dept. in California. This claim was submitted on June 20, 2018. After several weeks, the Claims Dept. replied with a damage claim settlement of less than the actual damage. (We expected this because we opted for the "cheaper" insurance option in the contract). I signed the settlement form and sent it back to the Claims Dept. with the promise that Royal Transport would issue a claim check within 10-14 days. We did not receive the check until last week (approx. Oct. 10) and this was only after several reminder phone calls and an ultimatum letter!

It is our hope that many consumers will read this post and be forewarned not to do business with this moving company.