Moving broker sued over use of Mayflower name in alleged consumer scam

A South Florida moving broker is scamming unwitting customers by infringing on the trademark of longtime national hauler Mayflower Transit LLC, a federal lawsuit alleges.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach, accuses Mayflower Relocation Services LLC of damaging Mayflower Transit’s goodwill by committing deceptive acts that have been subject of numerous complaints to consumer protection agencies.

The complaints accuse Mayflower Relocation Services of providing lowball estimates and subcontracting interstate move jobs to unknown third-party companies that hold customers’ goods in undisclosed locations and demand thousands of dollars for their return.

The South Florida company “is part of a fraudulent network of so-called ‘chameleon’ movers, which broker freight to others, and are known for holding freight hostage for additional fees or other scams,” the suit states.

“The company’s prominent use of the term ‘Mayflower’ in connection with [promised] services identical to those offered by Mayflower has resulted in widespread consumer confusion and will continue to do so unless relief is provided by this Court,” it says.

Headquartered in Fenton, Missouri, Mayflower Transit is a nearly century-old company that operates across the United States with a fleet of more than 1,500 trailers and nearly 1,200 tractors. The company it’s suing, by contrast, has no trucks, according to a federal database of interstate movers.

Mayflower Relocation Services officials did not return a phone message left with one of its call center agents on Wednesday or respond to an email sent to an address on the company’s website.

Allegations in the suit are similar to civil complaints filed against dozens of South Florida moving brokers over recent years and recounted by customers in interviews with the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

In those previous complaints, customers were enticed by professional-looking websites that promise to take care of every detail of a planned move. Customers say they didn’t realize what they had gotten into until they were in their empty new homes wondering why their belongings failed to arrive, and why the compa

nies they paid no longer answered their calls.

Several complaints about Mayflower Relocation Services to the consumer advocacy website Moverescue.com, operated by Mayflower Transit’s parent company UniGroup, C.A., are cited in the suit:

„ A consumer who hired the company for a move from Washington to New York said a subcontractor demanded an additional $2,500 to deliver their goods from a storage facility.

„ A senior in a wheelchair who paid more than $6,000 said the movers made a “partial delivery, dumped in the middle of the main floor.”

„ An estimated price of $9,100 was increased to nearly $20,000 for a move from Oregon to Missouri. Despite paying $14,000, the consumer’s belongings still had not arrived after more than three months.

In addition, the lawsuit mentions several news stories posted across the country about a Colorado-based customer who thought he was hiring Mayflower Transit to store valuable possessions until he could find a new home in Florida, the suit states. By the time he found a new home, he learned that his goods had been auctioned by a storage company in Boise, Idaho. Among the items he lost were a guitar worth more than $3,000, family photo albums and his late parents’ ashes, the suit states.

Florida’s Division of Corporations website states that Mayflower Relocation Services was incorporated in March 2021, listing a West Palm Beach business center as its principal address. Gavin L. Cain of Boynton Beach is listed as the company’s authorized member.

Its website, movewithmayflower.com, promises “innovative and creative moving, storage, commercial warehousing and transportation solutions” and to work with customers “to ensure a seamless moving day” and “most importantly, eliminate all those horrid surprises.”

The Better Business Bureau’s website gives the company an F rating for failing to respond to 26 complaints. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s mover database lists 22 complaints against the company in 2021 and 20 so far in 2022. Thirty of the 42 complaints alleged deceptive business practices.

The lawsuit claims that the company’s “intentional and knowing infringement” of the Mayflower trademark causes confusion among consumers “as to [the] Defendant’s affiliation, connection, or association” with Mayflower Transit.

The suit seeks monetary damages and an injunction barring further use of the Mayflower trademark.

Mayflower Transit’s suit follows a January federal court ruling ordering a Hollywood-based moving broker to pay $13 million for doing business under a name deceptively similar to that of international hauler NorthStar Moving Company.

Protecting consumers from questionable practices by moving brokers has been a focus of numerous state- and federal-level investigations and lawsuits in recent years. Before signing contracts or sending deposits, consumers are urged to search for complaints about companies on the FMCSA’s mover database at fmcsa.dot.gov/protectyour-move or the Better Business Bureau’s website at bbb.org.