MONUMENT, Colo. — For more than three weeks, Jamie Bunting has waited in her empty Monument home for any communication from the company she hired to move her and her husband's furniture.
RoadRunner Moving has their furniture. But most of their money, roughly $14,000, has gone to a self-proclaimed moving broker called Alliance Moving and Storage, based out of Florida.
"Every day we get up and I look at the beautiful view and I try to be positive while I wait for every single thing I own to arrive in my house," Bunting said. "It's all at an unknown location right now."
Bunting said Alliance Moving and Storage promised her that they would be in contact with her from the beginning to the end of her move and that her items would be delivered by early July. She said neither of those things happened.
"They promised 30 days (of) free storage, with unloading and loading at the storage facility, which has not happened. We're now being charged for that," Bunting said. "They advertise 24/7 quality customer service, which they didn't provide."
Now, a class action lawsuit has been filed in Colorado allowing anyone who hired Alliance Moving and Storage to file a formal complaint. The lawsuit seeks to "hold defendants and all those involved accountable for the maximum legal and equitable relief for defrauding the consuming public."
Lawyer Christopher German, who operates a practice out of Denver and helped file the class action suit, said the company has potentially defrauded hundreds of people in Colorado.
"During the summer and spring season, a lot of people are moving. We think there's been a lot of victims, especially in Colorado lately," German said. "These things — you really can't put a dollar amount on. The best we can do is try and get (Alliance) to compensate victims and stop these practices."
German said he hopes to gather a group of plaintiffs to make a strong case in court. The lawsuit alleges "more than 100 putative class members exist and the amount in controversy by any one plaintiff is not less than $25, nor less than $50,000 of the aggregate of all claims."
In May, a 91-year-old woman and her daughter reached out to Denver7 saying they hired Alliance Moving and Storage to deliver belongings. Twenty-six days later, the elderly woman said she has no idea where her belongings are.
A Better Business Bureau Review of Alliance Moving and Storage shows similar complaints.
Denver7 reached out to the owner and manager of Alliance Moving and Storage, Richard Falcone, for comment on Bunting's move and the class action lawsuit. Though he refused to discuss the claims, he did say that the publicity of any alleged malfeasance would not harm his company.
"I make so much money here working with customers and moving 800 to 1,000 families across the country, that I didn't have to worry about that," Falcone said.
While interviewing the Bunting family, Falcone called back. After initially being hostile to both the reporter and the alleged victims, he apologized and promised the Buntings he would fix their situation.
"I'm going to go to the phones right now (to see) where the hell RoadRunner is with your furniture and find out what the hell we're going to do to take care of that. I'm going to find out what I can do to get you guys compensations in there," Falcone said to the frustrated family. "I apologize, folks. I really do. I'm going to get on this right now."
Falcone said he had not heard of the lawsuit or been served legal papers at the time of the phone call.
Contact Denver7 will continue to follow this story and the ongoing class-action lawsuit.
