Moving Company Vanished For Days With Our Stuff, Broke Every Promise, And Tried To Charge Fake Fees. Need Legal Direction.

Location: Nevada and Texas. Interstate move.

We just went through hands-down the worst moving experience I’ve ever seen, and now we’re trying to figure out what legal options we realistically have because lawyers are giving us mixed signals.

My family moved from Nevada to Texas last week. We hired a company that we’ll call “company A”. At no point did they tell us the job would be handed off to other companies. We only found out the day of pickup that they subcontracted it to another company (company B), and then at delivery it turned out the load was passed AGAIN to ANOTHER company (company C). So three companies total.

During the quote call, the rep for company A guaranteed us everything would fit, we’d be the only load on the truck, it would be sealed, and delivery would be November 28th. We verified the date multiple times.

Pickup day was a mess. The subcontracted crew had attitude from the second they got there. They suddenly said “only 400 cubic feet” was allotted and started picking and choosing what to take. They told us to get rid of the couch so everything else would fit, so my stepdad got rid of it… and then they STILL only took half our stuff. Then they tried to charge an extra $100 per TV to wrap them (which was never mentioned in the quote). They rushed him through signing paperwork AFTER they’d already loaded half of what they wanted.

Because they refused to take everything they had quoted us for, we had to rent a U-Haul for $1,525 plus $400 in gas and move the rest ourselves. My stepdad has heart stents and multiple back surgeries and still had to carry TVs and heavy stuff himself. It was genuinely dangerous.

Then things got worse. When we got to Texas, we hadn’t heard anything from the movers. We called company A and they suddenly claimed, for the first time ever, that delivery was going to be 7–14 business days and drivers “can’t drive more than 400 miles a day.” NONE of this is in our paperwork. Nothing about any of it was verbally told to us. They promised repeatedly that it would be here the 28th.

We asked where our belongings physically were. The rep straight up REFUSED to tell us. I asked her, “So you’re telling me on a recorded line that you’re refusing to tell us where our legally owned property is while it’s in your possession?” She paused, asked if I was recording, and then hung up on me saying “we do not consent to being recorded.”

Every call after that was stonewalling. They refused supervisors, put us on long silent holds hoping we’d hang up, and kept repeating the same script about 7–14 days. They also claim we “signed something” agreeing to that window but they will NOT email us a copy of whatever they claim we signed. They said they had to “put in a request” and then never sent anything.

Fast forward suddenly on the night of November 29 we get a call from company C saying they’re arriving that day. When the guy showed up, he was in an actual semi, but there was no seal on the trailer at all. Just a cheap padlock. He admitted on video that there was no seal, said “seals are only used for international moves” (which I’m 99% sure is BS), and that our load was mixed with 2 or 3 other families’ belongings. He also admitted there was zero documented chain of custody.

Before unloading, the guy texted my stepdad asking for an extra $125 “waiting fee” if we could bring it but “no big deal” if he couldn’t. Isn’t that extortion?

They also didn’t reassemble our beds even though they said they would. And instead of giving us any delivery paperwork from company C, they made him sign another Bill of Lading from company B that doesn’t mention the 7–14 day window anywhere. He wrote “condition being inspected” under his signature.

The worst part: my stepdad’s insulin was on the truck. He depends on it for his pump system, and them withholding our belongings created an actual medical risk.

We documented EVERYTHING: - photos of the mixed load - video of driver admitting “no seal - video admitting multiple companies touched it - screenshots of attempted waiting-fee extortion - photos of crammed boxes - the Bill of Lading - recordings of reps refusing to say where our belongings were - all texts, receipts, U-Haul costs, etc.

Here’s where we’re stuck now:

We thought this was a slam-dunk case. Misrepresentation, breach of contract, FMCSA violations, DTPA violations, unauthorized subcontracting, attempted extortion, medical endangerment, financial damages, but a few attorneys have already declined, and the Texas Bar referral service told us to consider small claims court (but that caps at $20k and we have way more than that in damages if this goes to civil court).

We’re not sure if we should send a second demand letter, file complaints first, or keep trying attorneys who handle DTPA and FMCSA cases. We still want to settle if possible. We’re not trying to drag this out for years but we feel like we’re getting jerked around and don’t know what our best move is.

What’s the smartest next step? Do we push harder for an attorney, file FMCSA complaints, escalate to the AG, send another demand letter, or what? We just want real legal direction before we screw anything up. I’m very nervous coming to Reddit because I know people can be very judgmental but I don’t know what else to do. I just want to help my family here.