Dorm storage company ‘cheated’ college students, city lawsuit alleges

A moving and storage company popular with NYU students has been hit by a massive lawsuit by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs. Dorm2Dorm is accused of knowingly deceiving customers. He has been charged with at least 1,200 violations of consumer protection law.

Last August, WSN discovered that Dorm2The hostel delayed delivery, damaged items, and failed to return items to several NYU students.

After listening to complaints and interviewing several customers, the New York City Department of Consumer and Employee Protection is urging the company to reimburse customers, pay civil penalties, and stop falsely advertising services it doesn’t provide.

“[Dorm2Dorm] misleads vulnerable college students with false advertising about the services provided, ”the complaint filed as part of the lawsuit says. “As a result, many college students – and their parents/suppliers – have been exploited and in trouble, forced to deal with more complexities rather than simple and integrated two-in-one moving and storage services. The defendant tricked them into buying.”

Dorm2Dorm offers storage and delivery services for college students while they are on summer break or studying away from home. It promises to provide secure storage and scheduled delivery and release of items. It also advertises a “high-end” pricing package that promises a delivery window of 90 minutes, as opposed to the three hours offered to customers who choose the basic “economy” package. Handcarts, invoices, and pickup and room service are also available as part of the Elite package, which costs more per item per month.

“In practice, all this is not true,” the complaint says. Dorm2Dorm did not respond to requests for comment.

Last summer, CAS sophomore Sebastian Prats-Fernandez kept his belongings at the company and was scheduled to be delivered to the Palladium Dormitory on August 27, where he will live during the school year. On the day of the birth, he expected to be reunited with his four boxes of belongings, including a sentimental letter from his mother. Instead, he heard radio silence from Dorm2Dorm, apart from one vague text message from the company’s CEO: Jonathan Hotchandani.

He said he was forced to stay near his dorm for a few days after the scheduled drop-off time because he didn’t want to miss out on an unannounced arrival, which he heard was happening to other students.

At the time, the move to NYU was in full swing, with thousands of students returning to campus for the fall semester. The university assigned each student entry time slots, each only a couple of hours long, to ease the process. Many students who have used Dorm2Dorm have scheduled delivery times around these time windows, but some have been disappointed when their items were returned late, damaged, or not returned at all.

[Read more: Dorm storage company loses, damages NYU students’ belongings]

While waiting for his belongings, Prats-Fernandez was concerned about the fate of his letter, which he called “emotionally important” and “one of a kind”. He eventually reunited with his belongings four days later, on August 31 – at the wrong address – and said the experience left him feeling like he had been scammed. He said he felt the lawsuit was justified because of the stress he and many others were under at the time.

However, Prats-Fernandez found a bright side in an unpleasant situation – the truck driver with the company tried to explain the situation to him and even bought him a sandwich for having to wait.

“It shows how many of these problems stem from the greed of top management.” Prats-Fernandez said. “As far as I remember, he was able to explain to me what was happening was that it was a workers’ strike because of poor working conditions. He also specifically called his boss an “asshole” which sealed my deal.”

His mother, Lisa Fernandez-Rosselli, recalled how stressed they were at the time. She said her son was lucky, despite the fact that the boxes were returned “pretty dented” as some of his friends didn’t get their stuff at all. In the future, her family won’t be using another storage company, she said, and instead they’ll prefer to store Prats-Fernandez’s belongings in their own storage facility or at their home in Puerto Rico.

Fernandez-Rosselli also said that Dorm2Dorm charged customers a monthly fee in the fall, which she took on with her credit card company. It took more than five months for the credit card company to process the complaint because they were also unable to contact Dorm2Dorm, Fernandez-Rosselli said.

“I feel terrible for every student who had to go through this, as well as for their parents,” said Fernandez-Rosselli. “Many of us were not there to help, we all paid big money for this service. We had no choice but to simply replace the elements. It was a terrible situation for all the families who chose this service.”

The city agency that filed the lawsuit reviewed 19 consumer complaints and became aware of more than 65 before concluding that Dorm2Dorm was “permanently unable” to deliver the advertised services. It also turned out that students from other schools, including Columbia University, had similar experiences with the company.

The lawsuit was filed in the New York Supreme Court by Vilda Vera Mayuga, Commissioner of the Department of Consumer and Worker Welfare, who works to protect workers and consumers in the city by licensing businesses, enforcing consumer protection laws and the workplace, handling complaints related to employment and providing appropriate resources and education to New Yorkers.

The lawsuit also clarifies that Dorm2Dorm is not legally certified to provide moving services in New York because it is not registered with the state Department of Transportation. Vehicles that are business-related and weigh more than the departmental limit must have a USDOT number, an identification number similar to a license plate. They are also required to submit documents confirming the availability of insurance, and adhere to a number of safety rules. In its complaint, the DCWP alleges that Dorm2Dorm did not comply with these requirements.

According to the lawsuit, the 25% “instant discount” offered by Dorm2Dorm is also misleading, claiming that the offer is labor-intensive and does not offer a discount on services compared to the price listed online. According to the complaint, Dorm2Dorm “hides the actual cost of its services and encourages young consumers to purchase the product on a discount basis that is not instantaneous.”

The Dorm2Dorm website is no longer available, but as of December it said the company was founded in 2005 and operates in six states and Washington, DC. She advertised that she had served over 42,000 students and stocked almost 200,000 boxes. Three phone numbers were listed, two of which had the last four digits omitted along with the message “soon”. The third number was listed in full with the message “Text string only, NO PHONE CALLS ACCEPTED”.

During a fall move to NYU on August 27 last year, some residents and their parents received a text message signed by Hotchandani, the company’s CEO. The texts cited “an acute shortage of staff” in New York as the reason for the delays and asked customers to ignore previously confirmed delivery times. Later that day, he sent a second text message.

“I want to sincerely apologize for the delay in shipping your items,” the post reads. “My employees refuse to go out into the city at such a late evening. I’ll send a truck into town by noon tomorrow. They will contact you to arrange a delivery time directly with you tomorrow.”

Hotchandani did not respond to requests for comment.

Diane Castro and her daughter Sophia Herzog, a sophomore at the Tisch School of the Arts, decided to use Dorm2Dorm to store their belongings while the student spent the summer at home in California. The Duke kept seven boxes with the company, and although they were all eventually returned to her, the mother-daughter couple waited for several days, constantly trying to contact Dorm2Dorm. Castro said she was grateful that the city took the initiative to file a lawsuit.

“It is inconceivable to me that a company could behave in such a blatantly unprofessional manner without remorse,” Castro said. “I really respect how [the city] took action against this despicable company, which lacks integrity and must be held accountable for its actions. I’m still waiting for a refund!”

Castro and her daughter decided to rent a warehouse in Manhattan to store their surplus items during the school year and summer. They have the keys to the device and can access it at any time, and they said they are grateful for the peace of mind it has brought them.

“I lived in New York many years ago, and although I’m back in Los Angeles, my love for New York never wavers,” Castro said. “The courage to treat college students and their parents with zero respect, no empathy, and no consideration for the consequences of their actions in an already stressful time could not go unnoticed.”

Contact Abby Wilson by phone [email protected]