Armando Movers Ltd

While the men who moved my furniture did a good job in moving the furniture, they were not at all up front about the price that they would charge to do so. They were already in Markham (having moved furniture for my brother) when we asked if they would move some furniture from his house to the garage of my house (20 min. away). They told us the price would by 90.00/hr. and we agreed. The job took approximately 1 to 1.5 hours and I was expecting to pay 90.00 to 135.00, plus HST. When they presented me with a bill, it was for double that (270.00 plus HST). They then informed me that I was paying for their travel time from Toronto to Markham. They never had mentioned that there was a minimum charge when we originally asked them to move the furniture. When I pointed out the obvious and stated that they had already been paid by my brother for the travel portion of their job and that they were not starting in Toronto, but Markham, they seemed to think that their charge was in accordance to completely normal practice and that I was the one who was unreasonable. They then phoned Armando, to ask for his input, but he was not in the office and on his way home(although I later got the impression that his office is in his home) . When I did finally get in touch with Armando, he made me feel as if I were completely in the wrong, and that they had done everything correctly. He told me what I should do "next time" (as if), but completely failed to take any responsibility for the current situation or doing anything meaningful to remedy it. He also said that our bills should have been combined, in order to save on the travelling time, but this option was never presented to us when we first talked to the movers. When I asked Armando if he could combine the bills after the fact, he stated that it was too late, although when I asked, he never gave a reason as to why it was too late . Finally, he did refund us 50.00 (not nearly what I think is owed to me) - basically to make me go away. I cannot state forcefully enough, that I feel that I was completely scammed by Armando and his employees. Moreover, he did not take any responsibility for the current situation - he placed all the blame on myself. He and his employees were not up front about what the charges would be - I had no way of making an informed decision as to whether I wanted to pay what the final amount would be. Stating that the charges are 90.00/hour might be fine if the job is to take more than three hours, but they knew that it would not take nearly that long and they did not inform me that there was a minimum charge (nor do I see it on their web site). The minimum charge is 3 hours.