Reviews

2/10

Our experience with Tender Touch (TT) (TODAY! June 25th) got off on a fine footing but went horribly awry after they loaded their truck with our belongings and made their way from Toronto to Burlington. I am typing this message from the Burlington Travelodge with my 2 sons ages, 4 months and 2 years struggling to get to sleep in hotel playpens. Our stuff hasn't made it to the new house. It's sitting in the truck at a Petro Canada Station in Oakville. Rough timeline (I'm sure their trusty GPS records will tell us otherwise): 1:45pm - TT leaves for B-town with our stuff. One employee says "it takes about 2 hours to get there, right?" "No, not at all," I reply. "It's just under 1 hour." They are slated to stop at my parents' home to pick up 2 bed frames, a double mattress and approximately 6 Rubbermaid bins. They say they should be able to fit it in without having to unload at our new house first. 2:05pm - My husband and I hit the road for Burlington making a stop for baby formula at the Lakeshore and Leslie Shoppers Drug Mart * Note: we leave 20 minutes AFTER they do with a 5 minute stop enroute. Experienced poor traffic around the Ford plant in Oakville. 3:10pm - Arrive at the new house to discover the seller is still moving her crap out (Sucks because we think this means our guys (TT) will have to kill time while they wait for the driveway to clear and this will cost us unnecessary money). We go to my parents' to see how the secondary move is going. 3:45pm -- But guess what? They haven't even arrived at my parents' house yet. (2 HOURS AFTER THEY LEFT OUR PLACE) I call TT and ask for a status report. They say the truck may have been stopped at the scales but they do their best to avoid this. "Maria" says she'll look into it. 4:15pm -- We find out roughly half an hour later that they're stuck in traffic and have been instructed to take the Trafalger Rd. exit. This was peculiar in that we were a good 25 minutes behind them (and FYI: they said they would have their lunch on the road). But fine. Whatever. A bit of a wait. We're in no rush because the seller is still clearing her crap out. But wait. A few minutes later at roughly 4:30pm, Maria calls and tells us the breakline is down/broken and there's leakage. They've had to stop at the Trafalger Rd. exit and wait for a mobile mechanic. We're also told they've "stopped the clock" at this point. 6:00pm --- We get a call from Maria with more bad news. The news that really doesn't impress. The service response even more so. There is a broken part that needs replacing. It can't be replaced for 3 days. It is at this juncture that one would hope client service would be of prime importance. This is a case of lost luggage times 10. A family moving to a new city with 2 children under 2 years old. A day that began at 5am and was hoped would end at 8pm by settling/transitioning the 2 year old into his new bed in his new house, and maybe if we were lucky, a couple of unpacked boxes, including one with pizza in it. But NO. Oh NO. I'm told by Maria that we must wait until tomorrow and hope that another truck would become available to offload the contents (OUR contents) from the broken truck. She tells me they won't even have a sense of availability until noon-ish when she plans to check in with the men who did our move today (Oh yeah--they're booked for OTHER jobs tomorrow). It did not occur to Maria that an instance like this is not an act of god and therefore a "put up and shut up" scenario, but rather an incident of massive inconvenience (arguably caused by insufficient upkeep of their vehicles) that demands much more than a simple apology. Herein exists an opportunity to lessen our inconvenience and in turn, mitigate the damage their reputation could suffer by offering compensation on some modest level---starting with a hotel room perhaps?? But no. I have to go digging for this. "Um, I'll check," Maria says. 30 seconds later she says they'll reimburse us for up to $100. Thanks. So generous for a family of 4. And that's where I'll leave it. Because that's as far as we've got. The Travelodge for $134/night. Check-out of course is at 11am---an hour before we'll get the call from Maria letting us know if our stuff can even be offloaded at all. Stupidly gave them an imprint of my credit card when they arrived this morning. Stupid. Unbelievable day we just had. And it ain't over yet.

Approximate cost of services:
$1,300.00
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Company Response

What sets a good quality company apart from all others it's not how they deal with the day to day situations but rather how well they handle themselves in a crisis.

We always aim for a perfect 10 on every job, that's just who we are, our mindset and how we operate. We are proud to be the best Toronto has to offer. HomeStars mover of the year, A+ Rating with the BBB, Mover of the year with Great Canadian Van lines, and Certified mover with the Canadian Association of Movers.

On a daily basis in running a business you are dealing with many unforeseen factors that you need to meander through from start to finish completing a job it's just like a play. As a member of the audience you think things are flawless but it takes a lot of ongoing and constant effort and tweaking to portray that image. But there are times when situations go beyond anyone’s control, the power goes out in the building and the play is cancelled.

This is one of those cases of an event that was beyond out control unfortunately Sara, you Don and your two children were caught in the mist of it.

At the time you wrote your letter it was the end of a very tiring and long frustrating day. You woke up in the morning with plans of being in your new home with your family by the end of the day. The day started off with a thunder storm, the movers hadn't moved out of your new home yet, the our crew got misdirected and stuck in traffic and then there was a break down, plus all the pressures of closing your home and meeting with lawyers it's a lot for any one to handle, many a person would have broken down.

Now that this is behind us I'll go over each step of your move

The 1st part of your move went fine as you indicated this is usually the longest portion and most important of anyone’s move. The crew arrived on time, laid down floor runners, padded all your items and loaded the truck all was well. The plan was to do the 2nd pickup which was close to the final delivery but due to the volume of goods on the 1st pickup the truck ended up being pretty full. It seems there was a miscommunication at this point as to where the movers were heading which was to delivery 1st then to go to your parents around the corner to pickup the balance of the items.

When the our crew leave on location in beaches at 1:48 pm 3 minutes to the exact time you mentioned as indicated on our GPS tracking unit.

The exact time of the break down on Trafalgar in Oakville was 4:01 pm

In between 1:48 pm and 3.48 pm the crew drove to the QEW and went west on the QEW to Burlington but due to an error made an exit on the 427 north and had to go up and turn around, this time was deducted off you final bill. At the time you called me I indicated just as you said they may have been caught in traffic or got pulled into the scale just after the Trafalgar exit. When I contacted the crew they indicated they were in grid lock traffic just before the Trafalgar exit, I told them to get off the highway at Trafalgar and take Speers or another side road to get around the traffic.

At 3:55 crew exited highway and then called back to say there was problem with the brakes. As safety to the public and our staff has to be the 1st concern dispatch advised the driver to pull over right away.

David pulled into the Petro Canada gas station on Trafalgar. He checked the brake fluid level which was low and added fluid and retested the brakes while one of his helpers looked under the truck to see if there was any leaks, it turns out the brakes were leaking from the front line. Dispatch advised for them to clean the hose where the leak was and tape up the hose then retest the line to see if the leak stopped. No luck. At this point I contacted you to advise you of the situation and that a mobile service man was called to see what he could do. You were also advised that the clock had stopped on your moving time when the truck broke down and would only begin again once the truck was mobile. by the time the service man arrived and tried to work on the brakes and checking out what was going on he indicated all the suppliers were closed as it's after 6:00 pm and it may take up to 3 days to get parts. At 8:00 pm I called you back to advise you of the situation.

I advised you I'm authorized to credit you $ 100.00 for a hotel but give me until tomorrow and I'll see what else could be done, I'm sure the company will be very accommodating given the circumstances.

It was discussed with dispatch, operations the best solution to the problem

As the truck had no brakes we couldn't move it. It was determined the best solution was to ask Petro Canada if we could leave it at there 24 service station in good view of the attendant this would safely secure your belongings until we could move them. As the next day was already booked up it was decided that all the crews would be notified in the morning of the situation and they were expected to help out after there job to unload your goods into another truck or several trucks and deliver it to you the following evening. I had mentioned 11:00 am would be the earliest I could advise you as the crew had to get started 1st so they could give me some estimated feed back on how long they thought there moves might be and when they could be done. The following day I called you several times to update you on several crews finishing time. During the day we also received a call from the mobile mechanic and he indicated he could work try and do something with the lines so that the brake line with the leak was disconnected and the other brakes would work. In the evening I advised you I had a crew that was available and would be heading to Oakville to either interline the shipment onto the new truck or drive the truck to your home with the brakes temp repaired. As it turns out we were able to drive the truck to your home the off load started with 3 men and ended with 6.
We only charged for a 3 men crew to off load.

The following day I contacted you and advised you that Tender Touch would pay for 2 nights stay at the hotel one for the night of the break down and the 2nd night so you could have a place to relax until the truck arrived and rest with the kids overnight while our crew met up with your husband. We also advised you that you could have a further $ 50.00 in spending money which you used personal accessories and have credited a total of $ 341.46 on your credit card for the hotel and the $ 50.00 gift. I also credited your move 1 hr for the delay in driving from pickup to delivery.

As your aware your move wasn't paid until the time of delivery the credit card provided at pickup was only for you deposit. All items were delivered the following day with care by our staff, placed in your home as requested and all items reassembled.

We are truly sorry for any inconvenience the breakdown may have caused you. But I hope now that the move is complete, you can see why we have so many 10 rating’s all items were safely delivered into your new home you can see we acted in your best interest at all times and gave you the best service possible under the circumstances.