Van Buren Movers, Inc: I Just Have to Vent!

On Friday we hired a moving crew from Van Buren Movers, Inc. and they were scheduled to arrive @ 12pm (noon). The moving company called @ 10am to ask if we were ready for them to come at that time. We already had an appointment @ 10, which is why we scheduled the movers for 12. So my husband told them we were busy, which is why we schedule for 12 and if we finish earlier we will call them, but please plan on arriving @ 12 as originally scheduled and they agreed. He called back @ 11:30 and told them we were ready and they said they went to another job (wtdt@?) and would be there in an hour, meaning 12:30. So my husband wanted to see if another company was available, but I suggested we just wait bc it was only a 30 minute difference, so he agreed. So when 1:30 arrived and they were still not there, my husband called back and the dispatcher told him the movers were on the way. Then, the movers called @ 2:10 and said they were 10 minutes away.
Since we believed the movers were 10 minutes away, my husband left @ 2:15 to go meet them. When I arrived @ the house behind my husband @ 3pm, I was very disturbed to see only his car and not a moving truck? So I called the dispatcher myself. I told him I needed to understand how a customer has a noon appointment but three hours later, there are still no movers. He told me he was "sorry for the inconvenience." Do you know how much of an understatement "inconvenience" is??? It is THREE hours later sir!!! THREE! So he says, "Do you want to argue or do you want to know what happened bc I don't have time to argue." So now I'm just mega confused bc I don't know how me asking him how this happens and telling him that a simple apology is unacceptable as it is 3 hours later means we are arguing?! So I told him I was not arguing (mind you, I NEVER raised my voice talking to him) but I needed to know how this happens. He proceeded to tell me that the movers had two appointments, us @ 12 and another @ 4, but bc the people (who were originally scheduled for 4) were ready @ 10, they called both parties and whoever was ready first is who they go to first. So I ask, "Even though we have appointments?" Then, he said the movers do what they want to do, regardless of the schedule bc they are more focused on the money than the customer. WHO SAYS THAT TO A CUSTOMER???!!!
The dispatcher proceeds to tell me that he will compensate us for our lost time w/ a discount. Oh, I forgot to mention that bc we are renting our house out, the family who was waiting to move in had their moving truck loaded and ready to go @ 3pm bc they thought we would be out by then, and we originally thought the same. Because they were being held up and charged by the hour, we now have to pay for their movers for the extra hours AND we missed our cable installation appointment messing w/ Van Buren.
So when they finally arrive @ 3:30, the two movers say, "Hey, how you doing?" and keep moving. So I'm like....ok? Is no one going to address the lateness??? So I ask him if he knew we had a noon appointment and he says, "nah." So I tell him what the dispatcher said and he says the dispatcher told them to go to the other place first and that the dispatcher is lying. OK, so now the dispatcher blames the movers, the movers blame the dispatcher, and no one is accountable. It was spilled milk @ this point, so I let it go for the moment while they loaded the truck.
Background: My husband wanted to use this moving company bc we'd used them in the past when we moved in together. At that time, they moved my husband's stuff from his downtown condo and my stuff from my Smyrna apartment into our townhome, unloaded everything and put the bed together all within three hours. That was especially great bc they have a three hour minimum charge, but they were able to get two people moved, from different parts of the city, all to one spot in three hours. I tell you all of this to say, it took the dudes on Friday three hours JUST to load the truck from our townhome? They were moving slow on purpose, even after arriving @ 3:30 for a noon appointment. THEN, they ran out of gas and barely, I mean barely, made it to the gas pump across the street. Then got "lost" behind me when following me to the new house, which is seven minutes away. My husband had to go back out and meet them bc they were headed in the total opposite direction. At this point, my super laid-back husband is mega antsy bc his liquor company was sponsoring a party, which was an hour outside of the city, and he still had to get there.
When we finally arrive @ our new place, the older guy pulled me aside and said, "it is our policy to collect the money before we unload the truck." I'm wondering why he is telling me and not my husband? Oh yeah, bc this is some bullshit Lah-Doe (remember when Joe Jackson was on Geraldo's show?) So I told him to talk to my husband about it and he nervously agreed. Although he talked to my husband the whole time, his bitch ass came to me for payment??? Hmmmm. So my husband came in the kitchen to talk to him and he told my husband that he would ONLY charge us for six hours and not charge us for the heavy items. WTF??? There is a charge for heavy items all of a sudden?! Its moving! The majority of the stuff is "heavy" AND you never mentioned a heavy item charge before now, nor were we charged for heavy items the last time we used Van Buren. So we had him call the dispatcher and tell him we need confirmation on the discount bc the movers are saying they can't unload the truck until we pay, but we don't know the final amount bc we need our discount and now the dispatcher is yelling @ ME???
The mover said he was going to call the police bc we were refusing to pay. I told him I would call bc we are not refusing to pay, we need an amount and we are not to be charged for six hours when 3 and 1/2 were spent waiting and another hour was spent on getting gas and getting "lost." So I called the fuzz. They came and asked for both sides of the story. I told her everything then she asked for his side. She also asked him how we were supposed to pay him first if we can not get confirmation from the dispatcher on the discount amount. The officer asked my husband to call the dispatcher again, which he did numerous times, getting no answer. So she made the mover call him and he answered right away and proceeded to LIE and say he confirmed that he would only charge us $70 and hour instead of $75 and not charge us for the heavy items. Oh snap! $5 off!!! WTFever???!!! So the police said that bc they state it is their policy to collect payment first, we have to pay, even though we were never told that and it was no where in writing. In fact, it never came up until we got to the new place. She stated the matter was civil and we would have to take them to court, so we said fine and she was about to leave.
Next, the mover told my husband that we could call tomorrow to get our stuff, but he's not unloading it. So my husband told him he was not leaving w/ our stuff, so the mover ran after the cop car and told her my husband was threatening him. So now she's annoyed and asked for everyone's license. We all gave her our license and she went to run them. My husband and I were standing there laughing @ this point bc we could NOT believe this was actually happening. So all of a sudden, dude comes back and says, "You know what? It's late, all of us are tired, we'll just take the money you have for us." Oh, really? Now that the cops are running licenses you want to come to an agreement? Bet! So they unload the truck and break the kitchen table leg in the process. They said they would repair it and bring it back tomorrow (Monday). I pray that is true. We are still going to court though.....