Trusting their 5* homestars review, I hired this company but it was a comedy of errors and stupidity the whole ride. I wish I could post security camera footage so you could see what these nicompoops did to my new home and save yourself the heartache.
I received a quote for 4 men for a 6 bedroom house [all of the small items/boxes had been moved it was all furniture to be moved] to move about 70 kms away and the time was 6.5 hours but Robin assured me I would only be charged what was used and that they always "overestimate" to ensure buyers are prepared.
They charge for travel time, we hired them to start Saturday morning [no traffic] and google shows 35 minutes of travel from their site to our house. They CLAIM they left their site at 9:15am but didn't arrive until 10:15am, they spent another 15 minutes "checking their supplies" in the truck. Miraculously none of this "supplies" ever appeared.
I paid for 2 queen mattress covers and a king mattress cover; my husband notices they have put our clean mattress [which luckily had its own cover I'll just have to replace] into the dirty truck and he asks them where the cover is. They look around and pull out a DIRTY PIECE OF PLASTIC [keep in mind they charge you 13 bucks a pop for a cover] and try to put it on. My husband stops them and says it's dirty and we aren't paying for a dirty cover now that the mattress is ALREADY in the van, we have to call the office who claims they won't charge us like that's some great service to us. Whatever, we just want our stuff moved.
My husband leaves ahead of the men once everything is packed up, to open the doors and let them into the new place, I'm going to follow. I discuss with Obi what route we will take and he agrees to my face. I drive around the corner to give them room to leave [at this point all doors are closed and locked, their truck is closed and locked and there is nothing more to do] and they must not have realized I was waiting for them. 15 minutes go by and they FINALLY roll around the corner and then proceed to take a completely different route, tacking an extra 15 minutes necessarily onto the trip. When we arrive, I mention this and they shrug and say, "Sorry. we're here now." as if that's good enough.
Here comes the real fun. The new place has maple hardwood floors. I let them know that I would appreciate it if they were very careful not to scrape them up or dirty the upstairs carpet that was JUST replaced before we moved in. Well I had to HOUND them to take off their shoes before someone FINALLY rolled out a rug and they put a 17 inch gouge [yes, 17 INCHES] about a 1/4 inch deep across my floor dragging the couch instead of lifting it. and it's right in the very center of the living room. They also put a 4 inch gouge by the windows as they dragged the glass table top over it.
Then there's the walls. There are 3 huge chunks of wall missing going up the stairs because they bashed so much into it. This is the worst of it, but there were more dents and bangs than I could count. But they pulled drywall off the staircase they hit it so hard 3 different times.
Finally there's my nice new king sized mattress they decided they wanted to practically fold in half instead of tilting it properly and they busted up so many springs in the middle it has a dent in it now. $1800 mattress completely destroyed by incompetence and laziness.
This is just what they did to my house. They also decided to move a 36x71x33 refrigerator on a 2 wheel dolly because they were too lazy to get the 4 wheeler they accidentally packed behind items. And they almost killed themselves and dropped the fridge in the process. I truly wish you could see the security camera footage.
So you read all that and think, wow, why didn't you call the office? [Brace yourself, this story isn't over. It gets worse.]
Oh, I did call. Multiple times. Each time I was brushed off and told they won't deal with it now, they will deal with it at the end of the move. [and when I called at the end of the move was told I'm wrong about the damage and "there was no evidence of it" and the men claimed they didn't do it! I had video of it!] So I recorded the damage and issues and waited til they were done. Then they have the balls to ask me if I'm satisfied with my move. I list off all my concerns and said, "would you be happy if this was your move?" and they just stared at me dumb founded and then said "We will do better next time, that's our goal." NEXT TIME?! Like, either that means f-you lady because your move doesn't matter we'll do better for the next people or, funnier still, they think we'd consider using them again!
THis is my favourite part, though. After all of this hassle, arguing and damage they give me the bill and tell me I must sign it. They tried to charge me an hour over and above what they did. AND THEY ARGUE WITH ME FOR 15 minutes until I say I'm calling their manager. Suddenly, "Oh, I see what you're saying, you're right, i'll correct it." well, by this time I was seeing red. I refused to sign the paperwork and they aren't allowed to leave until it is signed. I called the office and the extraordinarily unhelpful call centre guy told me the manager is on lunch. I told him to tell the manager we refuse to sign any paperwork until this is rectified. The men then had to sit out there for 75 minutes while the manager either ate his 2 hour lunch or tried to call my bluff. I guess he realized it wasn't a bluff and finally called me back. The manager parroted the same thing as the service call guy saying there was no evidence until I told him I had security camera footage and had recorded videos on my phone as well. Suddenly he was willing to take 15 minutes off the correct time [because they wasted 15 minutes at the old house and took a longer route] and record that he would correct the damage. We signed the paperwork with that noted, but low and behold no one is coming to fix the damage.
I will be contacting visa and fighting the charges. I have enough to take them to small claims court as well.
They took something special, moving into a new, beautiful home, and made it a nightmare. Please, please for your own sake, do not hire these UNprofessionals.
