[capt_slow]

My rotten bit of luck that after landlord issues, I run into problems with the moving company.

After some shopping around, I contracted with Atlas to move my things to CA. The estimate was for 2300lbs of stuff. We packed everything into boxes ourselves and weighed each on a bathroom scale. Weights for larger pieces of IKEA furniture were taken from the online catalog. The grand total: 2368 lbs.

Today, I'm told that delivery is the next day and the final weight was 2880lbs, or 512lbs over our measured weight! I immediately fired back at Atlas and asked for a reweigh and that is what's going to happen tomorrow.

Per Atlas procedure, I will be meeting the truck at a weigh station to get the loaded weight, then follow it back home to unload, then follow it again to the weigh station to get the unloaded weight.

I'm struggling to see how my shipment can grow 500+lbs, so I wanted to see if I'm getting scammed.

[dreamingat30fps]

Dunno but if I had to weigh everything in my house on a bathroom scale and ikea catalog I wouldn't doubt I could be off 500lbs+.

Then again they could be scamming you, guess you'll find out tomorrow.

[atinybug]

Stuff like mattresses and sofas (if they're cloth) can easily gain ~50 pounds after a few years of use. All the dead skin cells you shed off, plus dust, and whatever else that's microscopic that you probably don't really want to know about because it's really disgusting gets trapped inside and add weight. Yes I know 50 lbs seems like a lot for dust, but it really does happen.

So if you went by Ikea's catalog weight for those items, you could be off a couple hundred pounds depending on how many of them you have.

[PINeely]

The weigh, unload and then reweigh will be pretty concrete. Just pay for the weight difference between the load and the unload. That way both parties know exactly what they've got and nobody gets fleeced.

512 lb does seem like a lot though. Check to make sure that the movers don't have a flat charge rolled into that or anything.

[P1]

I wonder if the bathroom scale was the most accurate way to weigh all your belongings. That must have take a long time. Would you just hold the box, stand on the scale and deduct your own weight from the number on the display?

[smithf80]

Yeah I don't think the bathroom scale was the best way to weigh things, considering the scale in my downstairs bathroom and upstairs one is a few lbs difference (I'm lighter on the downstairs one so I usually go with that).

Over the course of a bunch of items I'm sure that a few hundred pounds could be made or lost, again depending on the amount of stuff you weighed.

[Joekerr]

Couple points to watch out for:

How long of a drive between the weigh station and home? Will you account for the fuel burnt by the truck between there and back again as it will be lighter then and you'll effectively be paying for fuel burnt.

You should also probably not let the movers go to the washroom...taking a dump would make them a few pounds lighter too. Or voiding their bladders...

Make sure everyone that was in the truck at initial weigh in is still in the truck at the weigh out...that's 200 lbs easy if you miss one person.

[capt_slow]

I agree the bathroom scale is not the best device to get a accurate weight, but I guess it was better than nothing. I was looking for a ballpark weight figure that could let me catch some larger discrepancies like this.

This digital scale had a pretty low activation threshold of about 20lbs and was flat surfaced, so I was able to weigh pretty much everything except for my desk, and for that I assumed 250lbs. It was a little easier when all my little trinkets were consolidated into larger and heavier moving boxes. After each box was packed, I weighed it and tracked it in spreadsheet.

Atlas themselves tag each shipped item with a sequential number, and I cross-referenced each item with my recorded weight. All 71 pieces they took I had personally weighed.

[capt_slow]

Originally Posted by Joekerr

Couple points to watch out for:

How long of a drive between the weigh station and home? Will you account for the fuel burnt by the truck between there and back again as it will be lighter then and you'll effectively be paying for fuel burnt.

You should also probably not let the movers go to the washroom...taking a dump would make them a few pounds lighter too. Or voiding their bladders...

Make sure everyone that was in the truck at initial weigh in is still in the truck at the weigh out...that's 200 lbs easy if you miss one person.

The max distance is 25 miles. I was told by Atlas that fuel burnt would be included in the weight and was "just the way the business works".

LOL at the bathroom, but I will make sure a correct headcount is used at both measurements. There were 3 movers, so if you split the 512 lbs across all three you get an average weight person.

[Rotorocious]

how much would the extra weight cost you?

[Taskmaster]

Originally Posted by Rotorocious

how much would the extra weight cost you?

It's not the money, it's the principle.

[Rotorocious]

Originally Posted by TheAxiom

It's not the money, it's the principle.

Ya, I get that..but I still want to know how much

[P1]

Originally Posted by TheAxiom

It's not the money, it's the principle.

Not really. If it the moving company said they clocked it in at an extra 500 pounds but they wouldn't charge him for it, he wouldn't be starting a post about it. Right?

[capt_slow]

Originally Posted by P1et

Not really. If it the moving company said they clocked it in at an extra 500 pounds but they wouldn't charge him for it, he wouldn't be starting a post about it. Right?

I certainly wouldn't be complaining as much, but I'll still be curious where the 500-ish lbs came from.

To answer the question, the extra weight comes to about $0.75/lb.

[Maestro]

Did you ask for the scale ticket of the teir weight of the truck before they came and pickup and the final scale ticket after the loaded up. 500 lbs could be fuel weight.

I moved a number of time and usually let them do the estimate on the weight since if they get it wrong they pay the difference. I found that most moving estimators under estimated our weight one time almost 5000 lbs.

Also, I know of surprise they were charging by the pound, they usaully do this for cross state lines with in the same state weight is not usually a feight cost factor, they only weight to make sure they do not exceed the trucks max weight.

[capt_slow]

Originally Posted by Maestro

Did you ask for the scale ticket of the teir weight of the truck before they come and pickup and the final scale ticket after the loaded up. 500 lbs could be fuel weight.

I moved a number of time and usually let them do the estimate on the weight since if they get it wrong they pay the difference. I found that most moving estimators under estimated our weight one time almost 5000 lbs.

Nope I did not. The Atlas agent checked and rechecked the first weigh.

I thought the customer was always liable for differences in weight. I been through two relocations and both times that was the case.

[Maestro]

Originally Posted by capt_slow

Nope I did not. The Atlas agent checked and rechecked the first weigh.

I thought the customer was always liable for differences in weight. I been through two relocations and both times that was the case.

It depend on how you negotiate the move. I seen moving companies do it both ways. I have done fix price moves, when they come in and do the entire end to end move including boxing up and usually they will provide you a fix price estimate and if they get it wrong it is on them. Like I said, I seen estimates being off as much as 5000lb and they ate the costs and it was a cross country move and they have to pay on a per lb bases when they hit the scales. Inter state they usually are not paying on a per lb bases. They usually quote you time and materials.

When I saw your thread I was thinking you ran into one of the scams where the low ball you on the price and then load up your stuff and refuse to deliver unless you pay more. I had a guy working for me who cheaped out on his move and the moving company held his stuff for ransom. He lucked out since the move was across state line and he call the State police about it and they were very interested and when the mover showed up the and demand $5000 more in cash or they would not unload the police step in threaten to arrest them if they did no own up to the original quote. By the way the told him the same thing the weight was too low on their quote and a number of other things, but the quote never said it was subject to being weighted and such.

[Taskmaster]

Originally Posted by P1et

Not really. If it the moving company said they clocked it in at an extra 500 pounds but they wouldn't charge him for it, he wouldn't be starting a post about it. Right?

Don't tell me how to live my life.

[grimlock]

Originally Posted by P1et

Not really. If it the moving company said they clocked it in at an extra 500 pounds but they wouldn't charge him for it, he wouldn't be starting a post about it. Right?

Originally Posted by TheAxiom

Don't tell me how to live my life.

can't tell if serious.. really can't tell, shit.


20% off is a lot - you know how much you weigh right? check if it's massively miscalibrated - otherwise you're using the scale incorrectly and it's not catching the full weight. Final result is they're padding the number, which is the most likely scenario.

[capt_slow]

The reweigh came in at 2200lbs! Or 167lbs less than what I had weighed!

I met the truck at a local weigh station and took the heavy weight of 52160lbs. Also asked that all occupants in the truck get off.

Went back home to offload my belongings and Atlas HQ charged my CC, since this sort of thing is COD.

Went back to the same weigh station, everyone got off, and took the empty weight. The truck was 49940lbs.

The driver kept the reweigh ticket, and I took a photo of it with my phone. I also have photocopies of the previous weight tickets and they do indeed show 2880lbs.

Now I'm working to get the correct amount refunded back to my CC. Tomorrow's battle.

[bimmette]

Haha, good job!

[Billup]

Nice detective work.