On a clear and unremarkable November 10 evening, she recalls, four men pulled up in an unmarked white truck for the move. The quote? A little more than $300. They spent 90 minutes loading Levine's belongings into the truck. The bill? A stunning $862.
In the days that followed, Levine says she asked the president of Fair Price, Reuven Shmueli, for an explanation. He responded, she states, by holding her stuff for several days until she forked over even more money. She also says Fair Price workers made harassing calls to her cell phone at least six times during the ordeal. "I got a really bad feeling in my stomach," Levine recalls. "By the time [Shmueli] was done with me, I was hysterical crying. I thought, This guy has got me by my balls."
In the end, she shelled out $1080, almost four times the quoted price.
Shmueli declined to discuss the case in detail. "Nothing is going to be perfect," he comments. And as for the alleged harassment: "I don't remember unkind words."
Indeed in the past two years, more than 100 complaints about the firm have been registered with the state, the Better Business Bureau, and on Websites. Some people say they were lured with friendly service and then overcharged. In a few cases, they were left with damaged goods. In others, they allegedly never saw some of their belongings again. Like Levine, still other customers have complained of harassment, intimidation, and overcharging.
Shmueli insists his company did nothing wrong. "I'm a very honest person," he says.
But this past December 16, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services found Fair Price had violated three state laws — including telling consumers the "carrier is not liable for all items packed by owner." By state statute, carriers are responsible for such items.
Fair Price paid a $3000 fine in settlement and agreed to "immediately cease doing business as an intrastate mover of household goods in Florida." Fair Price closed in December, according to state records.
The story doesn't end there, though. The U.S. Department of Transportation and Florida Attorney General are studying other potential violations at the firm. "This just looked like it was becoming more and more of a consistent complaint," says JoAnn Carrin, communications director for the attorney general's office.
What's more, Fair Price is only one example of a company in an industry so fraught with deceptive practices that the state and federal agencies in charge of stopping them are scrambling just to keep up. "People are definitely being taken advantage of by some rogue companies," says Ian Grossman, director of communications for the Washington, D.C.-based Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a division of the Department of Transportation. He didn't comment specifically about Fair Price.
When asked about the frequency of problems with unscrupulous movers, Miami FBI spokesperson Judith Orihuela says, "We could probably spend the whole squad's [energies] on this."
Movers were making such a killing on unsuspecting consumers that the Miami FBI intervened. In 2003 the feds launched Operation Stow Biz, in which undercover agents sometimes posed as potential customers. In each case, the moving company provided an estimate before loading belongings into trucks. On each occasion, the moving company would later fraudulently inflate the price of the move and thereafter would refuse to deliver the goods until the higher price was paid. In some cases, the inflated price was well over twice the original estimate.
Ultimately the feds indicted 16 moving companies and 74 operators, owners, and employees on charges of fraud and extortion. Of the 46 defendants, 40 were arrested in South Florida. None of them worked for Fair Price.
Fair Price incorporated in January 2003, according to state documents filed with the Florida Department of Consumer Affairs. Complaints began as early as January 2004, says Al Polizzi, vice president of communications of the West Palm Beach-based Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida and the Caribbean. And by the end of that year, seven complaints about the firm had been registered with consumer affairs. That same year, the company shelled out $1500 in fines to the state and consumers. Fair Price has been listed as "unsatisfactory since June of 2005 for unanswered and unresolved complaints," Polizzi says.
Tony Curley hired Fair Price to transfer his belongings from Pompano Beach to San Diego. When the company moved him this past September 26, it was unlicensed and uninsured, according to the FMCSA, the agency also probing complaints about Fair Price. Among Curley's grievances are that Fair Price increased its price from the one originally quoted, changed delivery dates, added cash-only fees, damaged some items, lost others, and ignored him when he tried to reach them.
"This company is obviously very skilled at ripping consumers off," Curley stated in one of his many complaints filed with the Department of Transportation.
In this case, Shmueli simply says he "never broke the law." And when informed the state lists him as uninsured and unlicensed at that date, he says it's a mistake. "Someone wrote it in there," he says.
In response to the dozens of claims of Fair Price wrongdoing, Shmueli wavers. First he says, "I don't owe nobody nothing." Then in the next breath, regarding outstanding complaints and claims, he adds, "Fifty dollars here, a hundred dollars there. I will take care of it one hundred percent."
Shmueli says he closed Fair Price because the moving business is "too stressful."
Shmueli may be out, at least on paper. When New Times first phoned a number attributed to Fair Price listed on the Better Business Bureau's Website (1-800-960-7532), a woman answered, "Capital Moving." We asked if Reuven Shmueli was there. The woman said she did not know who that was.
New Times called a second time and asked if the company was Fair Price. A man said no. When we informed him the number was listed as Fair Price's, he said, "Maybe we bought their [phone] line."
Jennifer Tannenbaum — who, according to state records, became president of Capital Moving this past January 19 — says, "We don't have any association with [Fair Price]."
But Tannenbaum denies she is even currently president of Capital. Tannenbaum says she agreed to list herself as president as only a temporary two-month "favor" to the original Capital president, Nisim Levi (listed as its original president, who served from November 10, 2005, to January 19, 2006), because he knows and trusts her and he was "getting his Social Security fixed."
Tannenbaum says she is now a "regular employee" at Capital. Tannenbaum confirmed Capital purchased the phone lines and rented the warehouse at 1692 NE 205th Terr. from Fair Price because, since Fair Price was going out of business, it was easier for Capital to take over the phone number and address rather than buy a new phone line or move Capital to a new space.
According to Tannenbaum, Capital has now relocated, but she declined to divulge the new address to New Times. She confirmed she once worked as a complaints manager with Fair Price.
Tannenbaum insists Capital has no active business relationship with Fair Price.
Moving firms often manipulate the system by changing a company name or principals, says Cheryl Fountain, a senior consumer complaint analyst for the Florida Division of Consumer Services in Tallahassee. Speaking in generalities, she says this practice confuses customers and can render regulatory agencies impotent.
Disgruntled consumers can contact the Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida at www.bbbsoutheastflorida.org, and the state Division of Consumer Services at www.doacs.state.fl.us/consumer. If the move involves another state, the FMCSA accepts complaints at www.fmcsa.dot.gov. Then there's www.movingscam.com. Fair Price, for example, is named on "The Black List" on that Website, and also has bad reviews on www.badmovers.org and www.thesqueakywheel.com.
Organizations like the Better Business Bureau cannot take sides; they can only inform consumers. "We can give the ammunition for the guns, but we can't fire the guns," Polizzi says. "An ounce of prevention is the only thing we can hope for right now."
