Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act serves two purposes: It protects consumers from financial harm resulting from unfair business practices, and it levels the playing field so that legitimate, law-abiding businesses are not forced to compete with operations that skirt state law. The Consumer Protection Division enforces Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Practices Act, which covers many industries. Recently, we filed a lawsuit against Storage & Moving Services, Inc., doing business as Ryder Moving and Storage, and its owners, Jose Pino, Jodi Socher and Joshua Socher.
We received more than 100 complaints alleging that Ryder Moving and Storage picked up customers’ belongings but never delivered them, collected money for services never provided and refused to pay for damage to customers’ property, among other things. Allegedly, Ryder Moving and Storage enticed consumers to use its moving services based upon misrepresentations that the Hollywood, Fla.-based company was affiliated with the national moving company, Ryder System, Inc., when there is no connection.