Gorilla Movers were 2.5 hours late, did not provide promised supplies, added a surprise fee to the bill. I booked Gorilla Movers for Tuesday August 20th, 2013 for 1pm. My husband spoke with the representative, Sue, at length, and she provided us with a detailed quote and reservation email outlining all charges, fees and hourly rates: 3 movers, $119/hour, 10% fuel charge, $150 truck fee and an estimate of 6 hours for a total of $1073.95. In addition, this email contained a list of supplies promised by Sue to be on hand in the movers' truck upon arrival including: shrink wrap and wardrobe boxes. Sue made a special note on the reservation for our request of 4 wardrobe boxes. Further to that, I asked Sue via email if mattress bags were included or available. Sue assured me the size and number I required would also be on the truck and available for extra charge ($7.99 for queen, $8.49 for king). I have all of these emails, which I can forward on request. On the day of the move I received a phone call from someone at Elite Movers shortly before 1pm saying that they were partnered with and/or contracted by Gorilla Movers for our move, and that they were running one hour late and would be at our location by 2pm. At 1:20pm I received a phone call from the driver of our moving truck stating that he was just leaving Waterloo and to expect them in another hour, to an hour and 20 minutes. The movers did not arrive until 3:30pm, 2 and a half hours late. The movers did not have any wardrobe boxes, shrink wrap or mattress bags in the truck, and claimed they had never been told to bring any. My husband called Sue because we needed the wardrobe boxes, having specifically not bought any as we were assured the movers would bring them. Sue told him "there was nothing she could do about that" and that we would have to find some other way to transport our clothes. We ended up having to throw our clothes last minute into a box. Our furniture was never shrink wrapped as promised, and our mattresses went straight onto the dirty truck instead of into bags to keep them clean. These are things we could have bought ourselves and didn't for the sole reason that we were told they would be provided. These advertised and promised services and products were some of the reasons we decided to book Gorilla Movers. Sue did not offer any kind of price reduction or refund for the lack of promised supplies or the 2 and a half hour lateness of the movers. At the end of the move, which concluded at 10:30pm, for a total of 7 hours, the driver presented us with a bill for $1675, which amounts to an extra $600 on top of the quoted price ($1073.95 for 6 hours) for only one more hour of work. The driver said there was a $350 travel time charge. We were never informed of this charge and we showed the driver the email confirmation from Sue, which he agreed did not state this fee. The driver phoned a man named Hilton, the owner of Elite Movers, who then spoke to my husband. In the end we had to pay $1350, essentially paying the movers for 8 hours of work rather than the 7 hours it took from start to finish. And again, we were never offered compensation of any kind for the 2.5 hour tardiness, lack of wardrobe boxes, shrink wrap or mattress bags. We are very unhappy with the customer service provided by Sue, as we feel our moving reservation was contracted out to Elite Movers without regard to what we had discussed about price, wardrobe boxes, mattress bags, shrink wrap, and importantly, starting time. Sue did not take responsibility for the lacking resources or late arrival of the movers. This all made for an incredibly stressful and frustrating move.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $1,300.00
