SAINT LOUIS, Mo. — Unless your job calls for it, there's a good chance you don't have a lot of experience moving across state lines. For some people, it's a once-in-a-lifetime situation.
Billy Bowers decided it was time to leave his home in Atlanta to retire near Mobile, Alabama. He called Gold Standard Moving, a company based in Florida, and got a quote for about $7,000. He said he had to fill out a lot of paperwork including detailed descriptions of what was in each room of his house.
Nonetheless, when moving day came, Gold Standard Moving did not show up at his house. Bowers says a man claiming to be from Road to Load Best Movers showed up, which is a moving company based in St. Louis.
"My nightmare began the day that Road to Load showed up at my house to move," said Bowers.
Bowers claims the man arrived on a late Sunday afternoon, a day before the Bowers family had to be out of their house. Bowers said the man immediately told him he needed to pay more for the move.
"He charged us an extra $5,000, demanded cash or a certified check before he would even start," said Bowers. Bowers said he went to the bank to get a certified check but because the driver wouldn't give an address, the bank would not create a certified check. Bowers had to pull out cash.
Bowers said he had no choice to pay the money, though he did have the wits to pay the driver half upfront and half upon arrival. It still did not get Bowers all of his belongings.
Bowers, who has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair, said the man was memorable because he towered over him at roughly 6'7" and 300 pounds. The driver of the moving truck also spoke in a thick accent and told Bowers he was from Albania. Bowers said the driver was also memorable because there was an explosive exchange between him and two other workers. The workers told Bowers the truck was being loaded to look fuller than it actually was and got upset with the driver, who then fired them on the spot. Bowers said he had to beg his realtor to find local help once the driver had no workers to load the truck.
Road to Load is now linked to potentially hundreds of complaints through its relationship with Gold Standard Moving.
The Missouri Attorney General's office says around 30 consumers complaints have been made against Road to Load Best Movers. They are looking into the complaints.
Florida's attorney general Ashley Moody told WSVN in Miami she had been looking into at least 137 complaints against Gold Standard Moving in 2021, the broker often tied to the St. Louis moving company. The US Department of Transportation received 319 federal complaints about Gold Standard in 2021 and 33 more in 2022. Road to Load Best Movers received 18 standalone federal complaints with the US Department of Transportation and one complaint so far in 2022. The Better Business Bureau has also logged more than a dozen complaints about Road to Load.
AARP said these 'hostage loads' have spiked in recent years, nearly tripling since 2017, up from 364 to more than 932 in 2021.
The Better Business Bureau of St. Louis is now warning consumers to take caution when using Road to Load and has given the company an F rating.
"One consumer actually even had their goods auctioned off because they did not realize that their possessions were in a storage unit," said Sarah Wetzel, director of communications with the BBB of Eastern and Southwest Missouri and Southern Illinois. "They were eventually sold off."
The organization's best advice is to watch out for anyone who claims to be a moving broker, these are companies that will not do the move themselves but hire out. Whether they're a scam or just bad at their jobs, the outcomes are often the same. Complaints range from bait and switch tactics to missing items, to not getting someone on the phone for customer service when things go bad.
BBB investigators have attempted to talk to a representative from Road to Load, the company has yet to respond. The company's address leads to a home inside a residential neighborhood in South County. When the I-Team knocked on the door, a man came to the front of the house but quickly shut the door.
Bowers said ultimately the truck showed up at his new home in Alabama, but many items were broken or left at his former house. Bowers was most disappointed about receiving a broken dining room table that had been in the family for many years. He also felt desperate when his special bed could not be put together because the movers had lost some parts.
"I begged this fella, 'Please put my bed together,'" Bowers recalled. "After a six-hour trip from Atlanta, sitting in a wheelchair, I was very fatigued. I was very disappointed, and I couldn't imagine that one human being could do this to another."
For Bowers, it wasn't really about getting a gold standard move. Hundreds of customers are wondering if these companies have any standards at all.
"I know that I'll probably never get my money back," said Bowers. "But if I can stop one family from going through what I did, we'll be fine."
The Better Business Bureau and AARP have advice on picking good movers including research. You can check BBB.org to see a profile of the business, and you can also search a company and its complaints through the U.S. Department of Transportation. The BBB also released a study in June 2020 to help people learn about moving scams.
Other tips: be wary of movers who don’t make an on-site inspection of your goods and give an estimate over the phone or by email. Try to get three written in-home estimates. Avoid movers who demand cash or a large deposit, and be careful if a company's website doesn't list address information or information about the registration or insurance. Also, be aware of any company that shows up in a rental truck instead of a company-branded vehicle.
The AARP has a Fraud Watch Network Hotline: 1-877-908-3360 and a Scam Tracking Map.