Tippet Richardson

I moved from the UK to Montreal. My UK shipper subcontracted the Canadian part of the move (basically the container collection from the ship, custom clearance and the delivery to my home) to Tippets. I have twice weekly contacts with Tippets, but after more than four weeks, there is no sign of a delivery, despite their assurance that they would put my container on their first truck to Montreal, and "rush" the delivery. I would recommend to stay clear from Tippets, as they seem very unreliable and utterly disorganized. At the moment, I still don't know if I will ever receive my container.

Our move with Abbeywood Movers:

We selected Abbeywood as our mover based on their internet reputation (especially Homestars) and their home visit to deliver a detailed estimate for our move. We made a mistake. The following events are exactly what happened on the day(s!) of our move.

• The Sales representative came through our home about 2 months before the move and itemized every item we would need moved, including a piano, some glass occasional tables, a glass front china cabinet etc. She was very thorough and we were very clear on what pieces they would move. We moved all lamps, pictures, china, crystal, glassware, breakable kitchenware, the contents of two bathrooms, all electronics, carpets and all interior plants ourselves. And yet the actual move hours were more than 150% of the estimate! And that is after they left some furniture unassembled (a couple of dressers, one bed, and a couple of sofas (one in small pieces).
• The sales rep noted the piano on the estimate and we confirmed two days before the move that we had a piano. The movers were stunned to find a piano and had no “piano kit”. Happily, the piano survived the experience.
• We had two sofas in our basement that were three seats attached to a frame in which the two end seats could recline with footrests. The movers could not get them out in one piece and sought our permission to take the seats off the frame for transport. We signed a waiver to that effect. One of the movers spent the next two hours in the basement trying to take the sofa apart. He got the footrests off, the lever that raises them, and most of the bolts (including the ones he had to cut through fabric to get to). Sadly, the bolts that attached the seat to the frame were still firmly in place. At this point, frustrated, he sought the help of the foreman who quickly sorted out what needed to be done. The second sofa was dismantled quickly and with no damage in about 10 minutes. Too bad about the first one. We were told that this is not their job and we were very fortunate that they even tried. It would have been nice to be told about this by the salesperson that should have noticed that the sofas could not go up the stairs from the basement without taking them apart and to have an alternative other than a) leave them behind or b) have them reduced to rubble. More to come on this.
• We called Abbeywood to complain about how things are going. The sales rep that we dealt with took no responsibility and she put us through to the dispatcher who was not even remotely sympathetic. After all, he had been in this business for 43 years and there are things that are standard that they expect may need to be disassembled (such as beds, dressers and dining tables) but apparently not sofas! Again, it would have been nice to be told that by the sales rep who should have known what is “standard” for them.
• And now we come to our glass occasional tables. For those to be moved, we once again were asked to sign a waiver. The foreman explained that 99.9% of the time there was no problem; he knew how to take care of them. The tables were two sets of three stacking tables. During transit an unsecured metal bar (seems to be part of the truck equipment) fell onto one set of the tables. The top one was smashed, the second one is cracked but usable. But…..the waiver was signed. Too bad. However, I very much doubt that a wood table would have done better (perhaps titanium, but there might still be a scratch). Once again, even though we paid for insurance, Abbeywood has declared that the waiver means we are out of luck.
• So, more fun. The move is running long (well one mover has been making a mess of a sofa and that is time consuming work). Between 2 and 3pm, they are still not loaded, two movers have hurts, and it’s starting to rain. So they advise that the plan will be – they’ll come back the next day to finish loading and finish the job. Good news – we won’t be charged for the extra travel time. They now have our clothing and furniture loaded. So we get to put on very dirty clothes the next morning – happily we did manage a bed for the night. They come the next day to finish loading, however they were in such a hurry to wrap it up, they left many items for us to move ourselves!!! When one of the crew came back to the house to ask my wife to show them the way, she discovered a vacuum cleaner that she had clearly asked them to take. They squeezed that in the cab, but some other items were still in the garage. The crew explained that since instructions had been given to the previous day’s crew, they had no knowledge of our needs.
• The foreman did feel badly (at least so we were told) so indicated that to save us money, they would leave the sofas (one in pretty small pieces, including bags), beds, dressers etc unassembled and he and one of his coworkers will come back to do this service for us on their own time over the weekend. We never saw or heard from him again.

In summary, the Abbeywood moving experience was unsatisfactory on almost every level. Our movers assured us that as things go, ours went pretty well. Abbeywood seems to agree. We have shared this document with them.

We selected TP after chatting with a number of companies. The sales rep was helpful, prompt and well organized and price was mid range. The movers who collected our belongings were careful and efficient. When our belongings were delivered to our new home however, there were numerous items that were damaged / no longer useable (lamps, chairs, sofa) and some boxes had clearly been "repackaged". To date, we have had no success in getting TP to take any responsibility for this damage. Apparently since we did not purchase their top of the line (very expensive) insurance, they're not responsible for breaking our items.

The Abbeywood crew was fabulous to deal with from the telephone sales staff to the 3 man crew that physically completed the move (Sean, Hugh and ?? - sorry I forget). In any case, the 3 guys were clean, respectful, on time and made this a very stress-free process. A downtown, 3 bedroom house was moved to North York in around 6 hours - please note, they add their travel time so it was about 8 hours of charged time - it totalled about $1000 and was accurate to their estimate. There was no extra fees, charges etc., other than the up front mentioned fuel surcharge and mattress bags. The move was just completed today and I have yet to see anything damaged other than a ceiling scuff, which is inevitable. I have a lot of teak furniture & glass/ceramic decor and not one item was scratched or broken.
Just chill, be nice and respectful to the guys - moving doesn't look like easy work. Yes, I tip and have cold drinks available for them - they are entitled to breaks. Let Abeywood do their job and you'll be pleased you chose this company. I am!

Needed help a couple of years ago for a move from a small home to a larger one, so we didn't have too many items and did most of the packing ourselves. Hired Tippett-Richardson on the recommendation of others who had had a positive experience with them. One friend advised against them d/t issues with a University of Toronto Library move some years ago where customer service was very poor and items went missing. Consultant/salesman Mike was very knowledgeable and professional, especially during our first meeting although he was a bit impatient/irritated with us on a couple of occasions afterwards when we called with questions pertaining to payment (ie: when the credit card would be charged the balance, etc.). No untoward issues with credit card charges, though, and we paid exactly what was quoted. Consultant Joy ended up our main contact and was always pleasant and helpful. We were fully informed of exactly what would happen before, during and after our move. Two different "teams" would do our move; the day before, the "packing team" would show up to pack us up, and the next day the "moving team" would come and physically load the truck and take our stuff to the new place. Packing team was interesting. Two young ladies in sweats, sucking on cigarettes arrived (on time, though) in a rusted out old T-R van. They were very personable and did a great job packing even the most awkward of items(they knew what they were doing), except that as time went on it appeared that they took turns trying to keep me distracted with conversation in another room. They weren't too happy working for T-R and complained about other employees, management, etc. One of them said she was going to quit soon after nine years with the company. I kept moving around to keep a close eye on them both which they didn't like very much and was largely successful. Had to leave them both for a few minutes to get something from my car, though. After the move we discovered that a box full of about $15.00 in loose change was missing from one of the dresser drawers (my oversight as we had previously removed all of the valuables from the home and brought them to the new place ourselves). Parking lot surveillance cameras we viewed later showed one of them carrying the change box to the van and placing it under some packing materials. I didn't pursue T-R for this as I figured they probably needed the change more desperately than I did, but was a bit miffed as I'd given one of the packers an old but working propane BBQ we no longer had any use for. A TV remote was also missing from the same dresser (different drawer, again my oversight) but couldn't prove they took it. Otherwise everything was packed very well and there were no casualties. Moving team was great! On time, in uniform, very pleasant and efficient. Handled everything with expertise and care, didn't mind that we were around (out of their way). Within two hours we were unpacking in our new place. Not sure if we'd recommend T-R or use them again but if so, keep an eye on the packing team.

Since i have a lot of new furniture i was really worried at first but the guys took the extra time to make sure everything was protected. Crew was efficient and hardworking.

We downsized from a town house to a 2 bedroom condo. All the furniture, much of it oversized and heavy, had to be moved to the main floor whether it was going in the truck or not. Dan, James and Jeff handled the load with skill and good humour. There were time constraints at the building which were met without feeling pressured. For example with just 10 minutes left the guys wouldn't leave until the dining room table lined up properly under the fixture. They were an hour late starting but more than made up for this in their ability to organize. The job was completed as quoted.

They had prompt response of inquiry call. The timing was perfect, guys were friendly and understanding. great care in handling belongings. would definitely recommend them.it was a very satisfactory experience.

Be warned of the service from T/R aka Lewis movers. After the sales pitch and confirmation and follow-up 2 days prior to confirm the move they were a no show. After calling they admitted they didn't book the move and rushed a crew in late to move our house. Goods went into storage and they put through a charge on my VISA for 2.5 times the quoted storage rate when it was time to move out of storage. Once they have your credit card from the first move they charge at their leisure. The guys themselves were fine on the moving end with some damage but the salesman and president have a serious challenge with respect to customer service.