Business ProfileforUniversal Relocations Inc.

In December of 2023, my wife and I bought a house in St Croix, USVI and planned a move there. We hired Universal Relocations to pack and move our household goods from Woodruff, SC to Christiansted, VI. In the process of deciding how many and what size containers we needed, my wife did a video conference with their company rep - she walked around our house and property with her phone and showed the rep by video everything we planned to move. He concluded we needed one 40 ft container at a cost of $24,000, and one 20 ft container for $20,000. I expressed doubt at that time that our goods would fit in those two containers, but was assured that those two containers would be adequate. January 8 & 9, 2024 the packers arrived to pack and wrap the items, and on Jan 10 the 20 ft container arrived at our house. The driver, after numerous attempts and jack-knifes, finally backed the truck along our straight & level driveway up to our garage (damaging the roof shingles in the process) and proceeded to load. The garage contents filled the 20 ft container, and I expressed doubt again that the rest of our goods would fit in one 40 ft container - but was assured that everything would fit (they even said there would be room left over). The next day, the 40 ft arrived, and the same driver refused to back the truck up the drive - we were told they would have to ferry the goods out to the road for an additional $800 (they used our rented U-Haul truck to do this). All the while I kept saying I didn't think things would fit, but was assured there would be room left over. After loading the 40 ft to capacity, there was a pile of our stuff left, and the supervisor told me, "Well, we bit off more than we could chew." I was then told we would need another 20 ft container at a cost of $20,000. We had airline tickets for Jan 13, and had no choice but to pay. I complained to the rep, but was told "That's the way it goes in the moving business." I trusted their expertise, but feel I was scammed.