These movers are extremely dishonest and take advantage of people’s vulnerability on the day of their move. We had booked S& SONS Moving Company a month in advance. One of the men came to our house advertising their services because they saw our “sold” sign. He glanced over the house, quoting us $160/hr for 4 movers with a minimum of 3 hour booking. We insisted that he look properly at all the rooms and he refused and insisted that would be the price and it would only take 3-4 hours max to move everything.
On the day of the move, they arrived to our house 4.5 hours late after doing another move and complained of being extremely exhausted and wanting to charge us more because of it. They were very slow and rude. We had organized and packed everything in boxes, tied up furniture and bubble wrapped all glass tables, everything was ready to go. Upon their arrival we were told we had too many boxes. The manager said they did not want to work until midnight and were very tired so insisted we need to have him work as well, making it 5 movers and charging us $190 an hour instead of $160. He told my 70 year old father that if he did not agree, they would leave, and he would be stuck doing the whole move my himself. They refused to start any work until we signed their contract and paid them $800 upfront instead of the originally agreed upon price of $640. The contract had the original amount of $640 on it. Amidst all this, they were rude and calling us cheap even after we ordered pizza for them as a courtesy. Their truck broke down for 2.5 hours and the manager wanted to charge us for that time. We told them that was not our problem and that we would not pay for that time. These movers were practically dumping everything into our new house. After completing the move, they refused to leave our property until we gave them an additional $920. This made the total bill $1720 and they originally quoted us $640. Do not book this company, you will regret it. We will spread the word through twitter, Facebook and better business bureau. This should teach them not to mislead people like they keep doing. Unfortunately, we have only just now seen the many complaints online where people are charged 3 times what they were originally quoted. 85% of their online ratings are "would not recommend". On the day of your move, you are in a very vulnerable spot and cannot do much as the new home owners are waiting in your driveway to move in. DO NOT BOOK THIS COMPANY. They will probably write a response to this but looking at the prior comments, you can see we are not the only ones with this terrible experience.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $1,720.00
- Company Response
At the free in home estimate, provided 2 month ahead following recommendation were made: our company to dismantle and pre-pack clients furniture, to make sure the moving day goes smooth and cost effective. ( It is less money to pay for packing crew instead of truck parked and moving crew to dismantle furniture). Sam, the client was at the quote time and booked the move, with plan to call later and provide the deposit. The quote was: 6 hours of actual moving if we ( our packing team) prepares for the move and all is ready for safe transportation. The minimum charge was $640.00+HST for the 3 hours job - this was not the estimated cost, but only the minimum charge. The client has the copy of the estimate left with him and it is very clearly written. Also, the booking was made for 9am to start. Our company called several times to remind for the deposit payment, but client was postponing that payment. Two day before the move, Sam called our office to ask to start the move later in the day, as his lawyer advised he may not get the key to the new place until 5pm and they do not want to pay our moving crew hours of waiting for the key. We advised the client that there are only two options. First is to keep the booking as initially made at 9am to start and that is the only time we will guarantee our moving crew coming to the job on time, specifically at 9am. The second option is: to re-book the move for 2pm or after to start and accept flexibility to have our crew after moving other client from 9am. The client wanted to think about it up until the day before the move and talk to his lawyer. Our office called the client to advise that as there was no deposit paid for so long time and they are concerned with the payment for the waiting time, we are booking a smaller job from 8am and after completing that job our moving crew will go to move him. At the same time we asked the client hoe prepared he is for the move, as he refused to get pre-packing services and we are concerned with combination of: not being prepared for the move in one hand and starting the job late in the other hand. That was explained to the client clearly that it can lead to many complications: specifically if the new owner of his house comes and he is not moved out yet,- can even go as a legal complications. The client insisted on starting the job in the afternoon.
We were absolutely right in our concerns: the client was not packed, dismantled or prepared for the move as we would recommend for safe and effective move. The job was started at 3:30 pm, we advising the client that hiring the 5th men in the situation will only help and speed up the combination of both packing and loading the truck, instead of only loading pre-packed furniture. Instead of 6 hours estimated moving job, it took 9 hours to both pack, dismantle and load/unload the truck. The 3 hours of pre-packing were estimated for different day and client never accepted it, or did the preparation for the move on his own. Our truck did break down and the time for the repair was not charged to the client, in fact the client got $200.00 discount for the inconvenience. In addition to that, the client did not want to pay for the second portion of the move, trying to "make a deal'. Our company provided a quote of: 3 hours pre-packing and 6 hours of moving. The client hired our company with full acceptance of the proposed hours to complete the job and hourly rates for the packing crew and moving crew. The new owners came to the house and were very upset with our client starting the job late in t the day and delaying their move in. He was very apologetic and specified that he was suppose to listen to our advise.
To conclude: it is very upsetting to read false statements, instead of saying Thank you for the moving crew, that finished the job after midnight because of their mind set to safe money ''on all terms'' even affecting badly many other people. It is totally unreasonable to expect to move a 4 bedroom house, especially not prepared for the move, -for 3 hours?!!!
We would strongly advise other service providers to stay away from this family- totally unreasonable, and ready to take advantage of any situation to save money and get a free ride.
With all respect to the client: We answered and gave the picture of what happened prior and during the moving process. We have and are prepared to post and share to interested parties: pictures of totally unpacked piles of clothing and household belongings, that were in customer's mind ''ready for move'', actual copy of the estimate proposal, showing 6 hours of estimated moving job and 3 hours minimum estimated of pre-packing. We can only recommend very important steps for a stress free and cost effective move, but cannot enforce clients to do that. In this case: the client refused the pre-pack services, changed the booking time the day before the move and accepted the fact that we will not guarantee what time our moving crew will come, as we cannot control how fast or slow the first job will take.