Complaint Review: Magnum Moving

On April 28th two employees with Magnum showed up at my old address and I was given a Visa slip to sign before a single box was lifted. It is quite clear that no work would have been done until I had signed this blank bill. Admittedly I should not have done that and, as a result, Visa will do nothing for me, however, my hope is that they will be called to account on some level so that people are at least aware of this company and how others like it operate and won't have to learn the hard way like I did.

The movers showed up at 8:30am and left my new place at 12:30pm give or take about 5 mintues (at least by their estimation--my watch said 12:30pm on the nose). They proceeded to charge me for 5 hours saying that since they had worked a little over 4 hours then I was going to be charged for 5 hours. If I had been aware that I might be charged for an additional 5 minutes then I certainly would not have allowed for the 15 minute coffee break before they were finished loading the van! I think it's perfectly reasonable for movers to have a coffee/cigarette break and I was happy to buy the coffee for them as a common courtesy; but it it was pretty rich that they would then charge me for an extra 5 - 10 minutes after having had a break on my time. This extra hour amounted to an additional $59.99.

At the end of the move, they handed me the Visa bill with the now inflated amount filled in. I asked for an explanation and was handed a yellow post it note showing charges for 5 hours of labour a "T, fee" of $59.99 and a "f. sh" of 5% totalling $17.99. Neither of these two additional costs were mentioned in the initial quote to me (given by an Alex Bron) . The "invoice" was handed to me out the window of the moving truck with the motor running; hardly a situation conducive to getting a full explanation. When I balked at the bill they simply gave me a phone number and a name and they drove away.

I was never given a copy of the contract that I was given to sign (again before anything was moved).To cut a very long story short, I tried to get in touch with them by e-mail and by phone several times with little luck. Though in one e-mail they promised to send me a copy of the contract, I have yet to see it and their website has conveniently disappeared.

I've already contacted the BBB but suprise, surprise, Magnum isn't responding to their queries. While they likely will not operate under that name again, I'm sure they'll pop up, weed-like, under a new alias. Look out for Alex Bron--he seems to be the man in charge.


Isabel
Toronto, Ontario
Canada