Having recently moved to La Mirada from Seoul, South Korea last May, Kim faced an odd incident. Although she initially agreed to pay roughly $6,500 to an international moving company for taking her belongings overseas, she was charged with an additional $470 in a checkup fee. The company added that it would only accept cash.
Kim, in an urgent need to retrieve her belongings, promptly made the payment as requested and asked for a receipt. However, the moving company kept delaying on issuing the receipt and eventually began to distance itself from Kim. It was later revealed that Kim was charged a fee that was supposed to have been imposed on another customer.
A month later, the company told Kim that it was an “operational mistake” and that the employee who made the error has been dealt with. Kim was fully refunded.
“I would imagine there are more customers who’ve been victimized by a similar problem,” Kim said. “The time and stress I had to invest into this problem was even bigger.”
Hyun-jeong Park, 30, moved to L.A. from Seoul last month. She worked with another moving company to bring her laundry machine and other furniture. The total amount was roughly $2,000. She also had to make an additional payment of $1,075 to a local moving company that the one in Korea delegated the work to.
A month after moving, Park was contacted by the local company. She was charged with an additional $900 fee because her paperwork was not sufficient.
“I was still waiting for a lot of my belongings and it obviously affected by life since moving,” Park said. “But they charged me with a significant fee without even telling me what kind of paperwork was missing.”
Park chose to contact the moving company in Korea that she initially signed the contract with. The response was shocking. The company told Park that they had made a mistake. Park was only able to retrieve her belongings a month after she arrived in the U.S.
“Living in another country is difficult as is,” Park said. “I almost lost $900 for nothing.”
Experts advised that other moving companies could make the same mistake and that customers should have the contracts in writing in addition to keeping the receipts.
By Sangho Hwang
