Great Canadian Van Lines

This was probably the worst move I have ever had. We were moving our daughter to Calgary and had arranged with GCVL for a tentative delivery date of Sept 1 with the final date to be confirmed at time of pick up. The contents of her apartment were picked up on Aug 29 and we were given a delivery date of Sept 2 with exact time to be confirmed. The final delivery time was finally changed to Sept 3 between 1 and 2 pm. On Sept 2 we were called by the dispatcher to say he wanted to change the delivery date again to Sept 4 because the truck was coming from Victoria and missed its ferry reservations. I told the dispatcher this was not acceptable as we flew out to Calgary to assist my daughter with the move and this would not give us enough time before our flight back. We were then assured that the truck would be loaded and leave Vancouver on the morning of Sept 3 with delivery likely between 6 and 8 pm that evening. This was confirmed at noon on Sept 3 when the truck was apparently at Hope. We were given the cell number of the driver and attempted to call him several times during the day but got no response. When no one showed up by 9 pm we tried calling the dispatcher but again got no response. The driver phoned soon after to say he was still at least 5 hours away but would deliver the next morning at 8 am. We were originally told the truck left Vancouver at 6:30 am and the drive took about 11 hours, so someone was not giving us the straight goods. We then had to scramble to find a hotel on the Labour Day long weekend which was no easy feat. The next morning we got a call from the driver to say his truck broke down 20 km out of Calgary and he was calling a tow truck - he was not sure when he could deliver. Numerous calls to the dispatcher were made and none were ever returned. In the end a rather sad looking elderly truck from Riverbend Moving arrived via tow truck at 11:45 am. When it finally left, a large puddle of oil remained as the final reminder of our move. We incurred 2 extra nights hotel expenses and extra expenses to change our flight back to Vancouver.

As a follow up to this - Great Canadian offered us compensation to cover most of the cost of the 2 extra nights accomodation in a hotel which we accepted. Other out of pocket costs associated with the delay did not qualify for reimbursement. They assured me that my move was not typical and they get few complaints. All I know is that unfortunately our experience was not positive.