Article contentThe moving company the couple had selected on the recommendation of a friend then picked up their possessions in the first week of May as the couple jettisoned off to enjoy a few weeks of solitude before their moving journey kicked off again in Nova Scotia.Article contentThat’s when Fox first noticed that some things weren’t adding up. Article contentAs the weeks passed, Fox continued to check on the location of the Apple Airtag and grew increasingly anxious that their items had not yet left British Columbia.Article content“I put an Airtag in it and they pick it up May 1,” Fox explained. Article content“It’s May 15, May 20, May long weekend, it hasn’t moved. It’s still in Vancouver. We’re emailing them and we’re like ‘Hey, is it on the way?’ ‘Yes, yes, it will be on the next truck, no worries.’ Then in early June it still hasn’t moved. It’s still in Vancouver. What’s happening?”Article content‘IT’S JUST IMPOSSIBLE. THERE’S NO WAY.’Article content How much do you think all of this stuff weighs? Alexandra Fox says she feels lucky she weighed each individual item before handing it off to the moving company, as they tried to claim her belongings weighed hundreds of pounds more than they actually did. ContributedArticle contentArticle contentAs the duo returned to Newfoundland from their vacation, their possessions were still stuck on the mainland when the moving company sent over the final invoice that the couple was to pay. Article content“We’re not leaving Toronto until you pay your invoice,” Fox said, paraphrasing the email. Article content“I open it up and it said there was 7,900 pounds. Basically, we owed them $8,000 instead of the $5,000 we had budgeted for. At this point, I get really upset and really mad.”Article contentFox, however, said she knew the weight was wrong. Article contentAs a veteran of cross-country moves, Fox had weighed each individual moving box and calculated the total weight of their household belongings at just shy of 5,000 pounds, give or take a few hundred pounds of new items purchased while on vacation.Article content“At this point, I’m on the phone with them and I’m saying we know that it’s not 8,000 pounds,” she said. “It’s just impossible. There’s no way.”Article contentArticle contentNot knowing how to proceed, is was at this point that Fox secured the services of a lawyer who specializes in moving scams and learned the dark truth about the kinds of scams that some moving companies are involved in.Article content“The lawyer was like ‘absolutely not, it’s not 8,000 pounds, you don’t even need to show me the evidence, I know it’s not’,” Fox recalls.Article content“My understanding from his work is in 2018 and 2019, there was a big ring of moving scams based out of Mississauga and he helped take some of them down. There was a bunch of lawsuits against these moving companies and he took a bunch of these companies down, but he said in the last couple of years he’s been seeing an increase in it again. He was getting the sense that these moving companies are picking up this scam again.” Article content‘LAST BIT OF STUFF ARRIVED”Article content When Alexandra Fox and husband Max finally moved into their new home in St. John’s, their items were still in transit, forcing them to live creatively without furniture and other necessities. ContributedArticle contentDespite the threat of a lawsuit, the lawyer was successful in recovering their items, but Fox and her husband now had to figure out how to get their items home again, since their plans to bring everything across on the ferry had been dashed.
St. Johns couple hosting weekend yard sale after falling victim to apparent moving scam
