When you hire a mover, you expect your personal belongings arrive on the date given to you by the company.
For 70-year-old Karen Stricherz who has stage 3 leukemia, the cross-country move from Michigan to the Sun City West community has been nothing short of a nightmare.
Stricherz said she paid close to $1,500 down as a deposit and was told her items would arrive in five days.
After that deadline passed, Stricherz says repeated phone calls to the company are yielding no answers.
She hired the EZ Moving Group based out of Wheeling, Illinois for the big cross country-move. Stricherz said as soon as the movers arrived, she got a bad feeling, as the men asked her to write an extra check for $500 as a tip.
When Stricherz said she could not afford that amount, she was told $300 at the minimum was expected as a tip. She wrote the check.
Nowadays after the deadline to get her items has passed, Stricherz said she has tried to contact the company more than a dozen times, only to be told her items are stored in some warehouse, but no one can tell her where, or when they're expected to arrive in Arizona.
"I've spoken to a James, a Shawn, a Lewis, a Lily, a Jim. First they told me there was no address listed on my order. I told them I have it listed right here on the copy of the paperwork you gave me. They said it's not in their records," Stricherz said.
Then I was told to check with their dispatch. I called them myself and was told they found the order, and it said I would have it in five days. Later they told me it was scheduled to arrive in 14-21 days, but they're saying they don't know where the items are."
She described herself as a strong woman who did not wear her emotions on her sleeve, but this cross-country move has just broken her down.
Stricherz was an accomplished woman who retired after a career as a broadcast engineer for the ABC-TV Network in Los Angeles. She ran audio for "General Hospital," and several live sporting events.
She had four Emmy awards under her belt for video editing and outstanding achievement in her field. Stricherz said she had spent her whole life dealing with professionals.
"Now I feel like a dog that's been beaten. I feel very violated. This is my life, this is my personal stuff that they have. This is really tearing me apart, I really for the first time in my life, helpless. I have never felt, so totally at a loss, I don't know what to do," Stricherz said.
Stricherz said all of her medical records, personalized Christmas decorations she has had for years, her clothes, her TV, and her computer were all packed up in those boxes.
"I came here with just three shirts, a pair of jeans, and my toothbrush," Stricherz said.
ABC15 Arizona attempted to reach out to the EZ Moving Group several times by phone, by email, and via social media. A man returned our call and said he would try to track down what happened to Stricherz' belongings, then hung up on us.
We attempted to call back again several times, only to get a voicemail.
When Stricherz attempted to contact the moving company as our cameras were rolling a man who was identified as a "supervisor" said he needed more time to try to track down her items.
Stricherz told him she had already given them three days. When ABC15 Arizona attempted to talk to the man, he refused to talk to us and hung up the phone.
"I can't sleep at night. I haven't eaten since I arrived which is okay because I can afford not to eat. I'm trying to make a joke here, so I don't cry. I'm sorry, I"m so stressed out," Stricherz said.
ABC15 Arizona will continue to reach out to the company until there is a resolution.
Stricherz plans to contact the Better Business Bureau, and file complaints with Attorney General's offices in several states, along with the U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates cross country moving companies.
We will continue to update this story as soon as we can get some answers.
