Mord in Winnipeg

Recently moved into my current location, to find that the fridge that came with the place wasn't working properly, the defrosting unit wasn't defrosting and the buildup was preventing the fridge from operating. After a few quick searches online, I came across VL Appliance Repair and called them up. They immediately had me booked next-day to investigate the problem, and heard me out when I talked about the things I felt were wrong with the unit. When the serviceman arrived, not only did they diagnose the problem, they cleaned the coils and the drain pipe (that I didn't even know the fridge had, let alone that it was removable.) and a decision was made to replace the heater that was obviously not working and the thermostat. During this process I also asked about other parts, the serviceman was forthright in saying that the parts in question (the paddle for the ice machine) were unavailable unless I replaced the whole icemaking unit due to the paddle part being discontinued. At the end of that, the total butcher's bill was going to be $386.70 to replace the thermostat and defroster coil that was damaged beyond all repair. After a little over a week's time for the parts to come in (from Jan 16th to Jan 24th) I was told to get the fridge prepped for operation, unplugging it and leaving everything I could sensibly leave outside to keep cold during the winter months. During the repair, I asked the serviceman even more questions, talking about old versus new appliances, and other things regarding future maintenance and options for the aging machine that is called my refrigerator. And once again I was met with the same, well-informed responses to the various minutia and concerns I have. During the install, due to the now significant decrease of ice, the serviceman was able to diagnose that the thermostat did not need to be replaced alongside the heating unit after all. To my surprise they took the cost of it right off the final bill, charging me only for the service and the install of the heater. (hence the difference between what I finally paid above, and what was mentioned in the first quote.) I generally do not like the idea of giving full stars for anything, as often-times I've seen bad-actors create a whole lot of full star reviews, but I have to say, VL Appliance Repair earned full marks with me, so much so I even gave the serviceman a $30 tip after all was said and done, and I generally don't agree with "Tipping Culture" by and large in the service industry. VL Appliance Repair earned the score above with me, no subterfuge, no games, just straight, honest answers, knowledgeable staff, good service, and no games, false promises, and part-gouging.

Alright, so I decided to go with these guys because their quoted time didn't seem completely out to lunch and the price was reasonable... That was my first mistake. So the two movers arrive on site to move a one bedroom apartment, what took Globe (3 movers) less than an hour, took these two an hour and a half, not ideal, but not the worst thing in the world. What was the worst part about it is that one of the two movers stayed at the truck about 1/3 of the time, probably to arrange boxes I told myself, and everything got into the truck in about an hour and a half. Started at 9:00 AM, ended loading at 10:30 AM This is where things go totally awry. Travel Time: about half an hour, we start up at 11:00 AM We arrive, and one of the movers begins to complain outright that there are stairs, despite being invoiced for said stairs when I made the quote, reminded GetMovers about said stairs when they texted me about the job and organized the invoice, then reminded them once again about a week before the move when checking in to make sure that everything was good to go. So a bit of bellyaching isn't a problem... until the bellyaching mover disappears for most of the move, leaving his partner to haul up the tiniest items they can for the next four hours. About an hour or two after they start hauling items in, the bellyaching mover comes up and starts to demand that I pay for the move, this of course goes without saying that they haven't even moved all of my items into the unit. Of course as they have the rest of my stuff, I have to pay the price, they quoted to their dispatch that it would take them another two and a half hours to finish up, so they billed me accordingly. At this point, with the one guy taking tiny items by hand up the stairs, not even using the dollies they brought with them, I was quite frustrated, but the cherry on this ridiculous sundae was after the payment was done, they started putting items wherever they could, completely ignored where I told them from the outset to put the big items and if I hadn't demanded they move the items to where I told them they needed to be, they would have run outta there like a bandit. Now, to keep this in mind, I mentioned Globe earlier, the items these two were moving... Globe's three-man team moved from one apartment to another in two hours, to be fair there were elevators at both locations, but I can't imagine Globe having taken more than an extra hour to do the job with the stairs in the way. So, to keep score, and to be fair: It took Globe an hour to load and drive to the new apartment. It took GetMovers two hours to do the same load to a new apartment. What burned me the most is during the unload, they literally had one mover just sitting in the truck while the other was hauling up small items like laundry baskets and the like, and the bellyaching mover only showed up when a box required two people to lift it, otherwise he was MIA. And when I spoke to GetMovers about this... they had the nerve to claim they didn't know about the stairs... I told them three times about it, never hid there being stairs in the move, and wasn't trying to play coy and avoid the stairs surcharge (which I assumed was so that they would bring stairs specific equipment, no it's just a tax.) So now I'm being the vocal angry customer as they not only wasted my time, fleeced me while my stuff was still loaded, and dared to insult my intelligence by making it sound like I had hidden important information from them so it was my fault the movers took so long.