Consumer Law, Warranties Moving Company threats and unauthorized charge

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My husband and I hired a moving company for a local move from a house to an apartment. The move also included some items going to their warehouse for storage in August 2012 and it has been a nightmare from that day until now. I checked with several companies before selecting them and I told the guy on the phone exactly what I had in my house, #of bedrooms, heavy items, etc.I even asked him if he needed to come to my house and see everything before giving an estimate. He said no, he could give me the estimate, no problem. On the day of the move, 4 guys came, they arrived late and worked until around 8 or 9 that night and still didn't finish. 2 of them were arguing throughout the day because one was telling the other what to do, etc. very tense in my home, several smoke breaks, they didn't come prepared to do an inventory sheet and we didn't know we had to request it because we are a military family and with government moves, it was standard practice. I had a home office in my home and they broke my desk when we weren't in the room and didn't say anything about it, we walked in and discovered it. Many other things happen, but I'm trying to keep this short. Because the movers from day 1 didn't get everything done, some new movers had to come the next day to finish. Well, after completion, the moving co. Calls to tell me I owe them more money because it was more hours than the estimate, more movers coming the next day, another truck, and more shipping supplies. I told him I didn't owe him anything because it is their fault that they did not plan the move properly. If he had come to my house, he would have known how many shipping materials, hours, men, etc. more time was wasted because they had to go get a second truck and that is not my fault. In addition, we agreed to a storage fee of $100 per month. I admit that a few times we got behind on the storage bill because we had 6 months this year where one of us was not working so I paid them off and on. They called me and said they were raising the storage cost to $350 per month and we would need to pay that for the current month. I barked about no advance notice and wondered if they could legally increase the rent by that much, so they gave me 30 more days prior to the start of that. I told them that I would work to catch up the storage and they decided to charge my bank card for $500 without my authorization, my bank accepted it and my account was overdrawn by $200. I called them and told them I did not authorize him to take money out of my account. He told me that I owed them money for storage and that if I disputed the charge, he would auction my storage. Several times they threatened me when I tried to work out payment arrangements. So, I cancelled my bank card and started paying them in cash. Now we are authorized for the government to move our items from the current moving company to a professional company where everything will be stored until we purchase our home in May. I caught up my storage and they told me they would release everything to me. Then when I called to give them the date for pick up, they said I can't get my items out of the warehouse without paying their movers $70 per hour to get the stuff out. I complained because at no point when they said they would release my stuff to me or threatened me and told me I had 5 days to get my stuff out, nothing was ever said about mandatory pay to their movers. Later that day or the next day, they call back to say I owe $636 for the original move and that I had to pay that plus 2 weeks this month for storage. In total assuming 3 hours for his movers today, it's going to cost us $1,050. I fully intend to sue them but I'm trying to figure out what I'm entitled to. Am I correct in saying that his company should eat the additional cost from the original move because they didn't plan correctly, not my fault. I still have to file a claim for damages for my broken items. What can I do about them charging my bank card unauthorized, my negative bank balance? Can they legally increase rent 300%? And what about the emotional stress they put me through with all of the threats? Do I just take them to small claims court or is this large enough for an actual lawsuit? Also, please note that our original contract does have a provision for them to charge additional money for a move if there were more hours etc, but again it's their fault. Regarding the storage, I never signed any written agreement, nothing stating that they can charge my card when they feel like it. They sent me an email after they charged my card saying that I agree to pay and not contest the charges, I did not sign it..please help

 

[army judge]

You should contact the military agency in charge of your relocation (PCS).

Transportation will tell you how to remedy this. In fact, they will see to it being remedied.

I'm surprised you've not done so before now.