Notwithstanding a great start to my move (on-time arrival, two enthusiastic movers, mats laid everywhere), it went somewhat downhill from there. When I booked the move I was asked if I had a one-bedroom apartment & I answered yes. Nothing else was asked. When the two movers arrived, they suggested I misrepresented my accommodation. My apartment was on two floors of a house and was about 1800 square feet which, had I been asked, I would definitely have shared. Why would anyone misrepresent the nature of an assignment? To summarize the issues encountered, it took probably twice as long as expected to both load & unload, no wardrobes for my clothes were provided (four wardrobes were supposed to be provided at no charge), not a single piece of upholstered furniture was wrapped in plastic (their list of services includes wrapping all upholstered furniture in plastic), a very expensive large antique mirror was seriously damaged due to lack of adequate wrapping, and pieces of my cherry wood bed frame side rails broke off and did not appear at my destination. There are more issues to share but, suffice to say, I would not use Ultimate Choice Movers again, nor would I recommend them. They came highly recommended but seriously disappointed.
March 14, 2010:
Further to an earlier posting, I am providing photos of the damage sustained to a costly antique mirror as a result of the lack of care in packing from Ultimate Choice Movers. When the mirror was unwrapped at its destination, the head mover guy remarked "had I known the detailed carving was porcelain, I would have crated the mirror." In my view, it is a mover's responsibility to assess the nature of the items being moved and take appropriate measures to ensure the item arrives intact. Consider this a warning to all who are considering hiring a moving company.
I retained the services of Ultimate Choice Movers on a friend's recommendation and had a less than positive experience with them. I provided a review on HomeStars after sending a very detailed email to the company outlining my issues with their services. The email did not receive a reply; however, the review on HomeStars received a very prompt reply:
"......I feel that you have left your review about our company prior to even
speaking with me about your concerns. You put the cart before horse in this
situation. At this point, I do not feel that there is anything left to do."
I am very dismayed by the company's response. I believe it is unacceptable that Ultimate Choice Movers, once they cashed the cheque, does not feel that there is anything left to do.'
- Approximate cost of services:
- $1,200.00
- What could this company do to improve their services?
- Provide on-site estimates or ask more questions regarding the size of your accommodation other than the number of bedrooms (e.g. square footage, number of floors, etc.) so that adequate manpower & supplies are provided for the move.
- Company Response
Helen: we are in receipt of your comments about our company and obviously everyone has a right to their own opinion but we seem to have a difference in opinion in some areas. As potential customers will see, we have excellent reviews about our service because we offer our customers professionalism and quality with every move. You contacted our company on February 5th, 2010 in regards to an upcoming move for the last week of February. When asked how big of move you had, you said a 1-bedroom apartment. In your review on our company you stated yourself you said a 1-bedroom apartment and then continue on to say an 1800 square foot home. You occupied the full home including back yard and basement. This was very misleading to us in quoting you. As signed in our terms and conditions, we do offer in home estimations which were not taken up by you. It states clearly that over the phone estimates are based solely on the information provided by the customer. This has totally no bearing on the service we offered you. When speaking with you the day of your move. I was very concerned that the crew had come to your home with a 24ft truck and not a 16ft truck which was quoted to you and they were still loading 5 hours later. Normally a 1-bedroom takes 4-5/hrs in total with a 16ft truck. The 24ft truck was completely loaded to the back door at the end of your loading. I spoke to you during the loading process with concerns that there was so much items being moved and the truck was not equipped for a large load. You comments to me were: “don’t worry they are doing an excellent job.” I told you that I was concerned since you were a referral to our company and I wanted everything to go well as planned. There was never any call that came to our office requesting an additional crew member. If this was the case, one would have been dispatched immediately. To answer your question stated by you, “Why would anyone misrepresent the nature of an assignment?” People sometimes do this thinking they will save money. As you can see this sometimes causes major chaos. Upon arrival the crew had forgotten to take wardrobes from our facility but managed to cover your clothing in plastic for safe transit. All of your upholstered furniture was covered in plastic (shrink wrap) the day of the move. 2 rolls of shrink wrap goes out on all our trucks the day of moving.
The day of your move, you did not have the walkway cleared or salt put on the walkway leading to your backyard. This caused one of the crew members to slip and fall and pull a muscle in his back.
Now leading up to the delivery, on February 25th, we had a snow storm; we were to offload on King Street during rush hour. You did not make arrangements for the truck to park to offload. The crew would have had to walk 1 block with your furniture to offload your belongings. With the wind gusting and snow falling making the walkways very slippery, we were left no choice but to call off the move for the evening due to safety issues.
With your approval, the driver instructed you that he would return the next morning and call you in transit which he did. Upon delivery, we sent an additional crew member to assist with your offload. No complaints were made to us in regards to your move until we received your review on home stars. If you were so unhappy with the move, why did you give such a generous tip?
I am not sure of where you want me to go with this review. We always appreciate customer’s feedback but unfortunately you did not allow us the opportunity for a resolution. I am very sorry that you feel things didn’t go good with your move.