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Canadian Moving Systems Don't Move With Canadian Moving Systems! They do a terrible job & don't care to make it right Nationwide
*Disclaimer: Normally I would not call a company out like this, but Canadian Moving Systems have claimed that this is the best their company could have done. All of the information below has been reported to the company previously, & yet they stand behind it proudly.
About a year ago, when we made the decision to move from Prince Edward Island on the East coast of Canada, to British Columbia on the West coast of Canada, we decided that since we were doing such a major move that would involve putting our worldly possessions in storage for a few months, we'd use a moving company. We have moved 12 times in our 16 years of marriage, 4 of those being major cross-country moves, & we have always packed & moved all of our stuff ourselves. This time we decided to treat ourselves by having a company do it for us. I contacted 10 different companies asking them to quote me a price which would include shipping my car & 2 motorcycles, packing our 6 bedroom house (including disassembling & reassembling furniture), moving from PEI to BC, & the price of storage for the first month, with additional storage rates (since we had not bought a house in BC, we knew we'd need to store our stuff for 1-6 month). After I received all the quotes, I started with the cheapest company, read reviews, & picked the best deal according to reviews & prices. We ended up choosing Canadian Moving Systems because their prices were reasonable, & the reviews were quite good. If only I had known then what I know now...
All of my interactions with the customer service representative were great. I would be a reference for her if she wants to go to a different company. The problem is that when you have terrible service, having a good customer service rep doesn't always fix things.
The packing crew arrived 5 strong on a mild day in August. They surveyed the scene & set to work. One man spent the whole day just packing the kitchen. He did an awesome job. He should get a raise. The only item broken from the kitchen was my crock-pot. That seemed like a reasonable amount of damage. If only the rest of the house had been packed by the same man...
At the end of the day, it appeared they were preparing to leave. I asked what time they would be returning the next day, & the man in charge informed me they were finished. I had noticed the laundry room closet still had not been packed, so I asked them about that. "Oh, we must have forgotten," he said. While they were quickly packing that I checked & they had also forgotten the cupboard over my desk, the cupboard above the fridge, the rug by the back door, & the drawers with the kitchen linens (which were near the living room). They then asked me to check around the house if there was anything else they had missed. The next day I discovered they had left a guitar, the leaf for our dining table, & six folding chairs which had all been behind doors. Those items then had to be packed in our van across the country. Customer service apologized for the missed items & credited us $157 for our troubles.
Other than the missed items, the day went well as far as I could tell. I felt that customer service did a good job of handling the situation, & she was always very kind & helpful whenever I had to contact her.
When we received our household goods from the company, then the trouble started. We discovered box after box of poorly packed items resulting in breakage which easily could have been prevented.
For any item damaged, since we did not take out additional coverage, they reimbursed us at $0.60 per pound, minus a $450 deductible. It did not matter to them that much of the damage would have been avoided had things been packed properly, or that at $0.60/lb, I couldn't replace many of the items that were broken by their poor packing job.
Part of our contract with the company included furniture reassembly. When our goods came, the moving men told me they were not the people who assemble things, & I'd have to contact head office to have an assembly crew come out, so I did. I was told they would do their best to try to get a crew out, but I should have called them to alert them I'd need furniture assembled (even though it was part of the contract). I was finally told I'd have to wait 4 days before they could send a crew. We eagerly awaited the assembly of our beds, the dining room table, my jewellery cabinet, 8 shelving units, the couch legs, & the desk. They were scheduled to come between 4-6pm. By 5:50pm I started to worry & called the local office, but it was closed for the day, so I contacted head office again. Canadian Moving Systems apparently couldn't get their crew to come back, so they had to hire a local handy-man company instead. After 7 days of waiting, we finally had beds to sleep in, & a table to eat our meals at!
However, the handy-men had some problems assembling a few items. Apparently instead of unscrewing the legs from my jewellery cabinet, the movers had ripped the skirting off, so it could not be fixed without a strong dose of wood glue. The men tried, & tried to put the desk together. Then they tried to put half the desk together, then they said, "the desk wasn't taken apart. They ripped it apart. You can see where they just broke it rather than taking it apart correctly."
I told the customer service representative that we were finding a lot of broken items, her response was, "I am sure we will get this all resolved and make this a positive ending for you and your family." If only that were true!
"Unfortunately I don’t agree with you that there was any negligence on the part of the crew in relation to packing. A lot of the damages that you submitted were exaggerated and I went through the pictures myself. Please keep in mind that the goods were in storage for over 5 months and this can happen during transportation and long term storage. However, based on the photographic evidence submitted I don’t see that there was any negligence on the part of the crew in packing."
The issue with the paintings was instead of wrapping them in bubble wrap individually, they piled 4 paintings together, then wrapped that as one set. Then those paintings would rub up against each other every time they move. I don't believe that wrapping paintings in this way is the proper protocol. If it is, then something definitely needs to change in the company's protocol!
Normally we do wrap painting together to ensure that they are a larger bundle and don’t get lost during transportation. Again normally this does not case any issues or damages.
I am not saying that what happened is right and that this is acceptable, however, without proper coverage there is only so much that we can do.
Company negligence caused an extreme amount of damage. What I keep getting from you & Canadian Moving Systems is that nothing was done wrong, & this is all normal. No apologies, no acceptance of blame. It seems that for your company, this kind of damage in a move is normal. My point of view is that this damage could have been avoided if things were packed properly (which I know, because I have personally packed our items properly in our previous moves) When it's company negligence that causes the damage, shouldn't the company be responsible for it? I think it should be.
Then 3 weeks passed with no reply, so I sent another email stating that I had not heard from her in awhile. She responded:I didn’t receive any emails from you until today. Perhaps it went into junk. I would like to offer a fair resolution but please understand that I am not able to offer you replacement value or the amount that you are requesting. What are you looking for as a resolution?
Nice to know where my emails are going, isn't it? In my final email to the company I laid it out.I would like your company to take responsibility for the damage that they caused to my possessions. I trusted Canadian Moving Systems to pack my items well, knowing they would be shipped across the country & stored for several months. As I have said before, the kitchen boxes were packed extremely well, if the whole house had been packed in such a way I would be very pleased with the job your company did. So far, all I have heard from your end is that my move was a standard move. If that is so, there is a huge discrepancy in how different rooms were packed, & I wonder how many more items would have been broken if the kitchen had been packed to the same standards as the rest of the house. If you look at the photos listed as "Garage Box", that's all one box, & things were all thrown in randomly with nothing wrapped. Why is there even a column on the claim form for "Amount Claimed" if you have no intention of paying any amount other than 'standard liability'? Standard liability is for covering damage that can't be helped. Packing things improperly can be helped, & items would not be damaged. What I'm looking for is an acknowledgement from you that my move was done to the best of your companies ability, & if you stand behind it. If so, I will accept your settlement, but I also feel that I need to let others know that those are your company's standards.She responded a few days later with:Hope that you had a good weekend. Canadian Moving Systems stands by our work and I am happy to re-send the settlement form for you to sign. Once we receive it signed I am happy to arrange payment right away.So there you have it. Canadian Moving Systems is proud of a job well done. However, I would have been better off having a garage sale in PEI. We have definitely learned our lesson. Next time we'll be packing & moving ourselves!