Across Canada Van Lines

Don't even call them, i called them to move my staff ( kitchen 2 bed rooms and salon ) from Montreal to Edmonton, 1st time the said 1100$, and u pay 100 $ deposit, i accept the offer and i paid the 100$, they told me it is refunded anytime after, the 2nd day i called to confirm the address and asked for the exact price they told me 850$, 3 days just 3 days later i sent them reply email and i asked to cancel my shipment i got no respond i call them in the day 7 they told we cant give u back your money it is a week old, so i called my credit card company, to get back my money dont trust them and dont pay any deposit, and be sure they tell u 1000 they will charge you 3000.

I really don't understand the negative reviews. I recently moved a small storage unit from Vancouver to Kitchener Ont and everything went beyond my expectations. They quoted me a price which was about $500 cheaper in the end! Which, by the way, was waaaaay cheaper than other companies quoted me! So price wise I couldn't be happier. The move I had worries about because I wasn't there in Vancouver for the pick up so I spoke to the owner of the storage unit to see how the move went. He said Across Canada Van Lines were fast and very professional! I was told an estimate of when my stuff was going to arrive plus the final price and they were on time with the estimate. They said they could even hold my belongings up to five weeks if needed. They came a few days later and the deliver guys were cool about the fact that I didn't have their money yet (oops) and I had to go to the bank. They waited patiently and once they had the money the move was very quick and friendly! Thanks to all I spoke to at Across Canada! You made a stressful move very easy!!!!

I strongly recommended to anyone reading this to run as far away from this company as you can.. I have had endless stress for the last 21 days trying to get my belongings back. It all began on feb 10th when they picked up our stuff in Hinton. The movers were alright there was no problem there. I was supposed to get a call in a few days to let me know when my stuff would arrive in Winnipeg. They told me 2-4 days, so I assumed about a week and packed for that. The week following I heard nothing from them so I called and left a message, no one called back. I called a few more times and got ahold of someone who told me he didn't know when my stuff was going to come yet but they would call me near the end of the week to let me know. He told me my shipment weight 4000lbs!!!!! This is a joke. We sold all of our furniture prior to moving. We had the following items: a bedframe, bed and box spring, a tv stand and a tv, an ottoman, small futon, work tool box with tools, some tires, and boxes for a one bedroom apartment.... That's it!!! They quoted us $1050. And charged $3050!!!!! This is just the begging of the story. I never did receive a call that week even though I called 2 more times to get the same answer "the driver will call you the day before". So finally my bf called very upset of Friday and was gaurenteed a call on Monday. No call Monday, on Tuesday I sent a email and called again. I was told the owner was to busy to respond but I could leave a message and he will call back... Nope no call back. I called everyday and nothing till Thursday and apprently they could only give me 10% off. That's it, they said they were doing me a favor because the owner said to only give 5%. My things were now suppose to come on Saturday March 1st between 4pm and 6pm... Then they had mechanical problems..,. They didn't come till 10pm and were done moving our things at 1:30am. They were also subcontracter as someone else had mentioned. Turns out they got my stuf from Calgary, which I know when they picked it up it went to a warehouse in Edmonton. This might explain to extensive damage to almost all my things. I was also told that the trailers and warehouse would be heated, they 100% weren't since I had things burst that wouldn't burst unless they were subject to our -45 weathers, and most definable wouldn't burst if they arrived here after 2-4 days.
There customer service was the worst part. I was told on the phone when I was just asking to speak to an owner that the owner told them to take my things to Toronto, when not once in any way did I mention or even insinuate that I was not going to pay. I am so flabbergasted by the audacity and ignorance of this company.

I recently used Across Canada Van Lines to move my belongings from Ontario to BC.

I'll start with the good points. They seemed to handle my goods with care. I am still unpacking, but most of the boxes showed up with no obvious signs of damage.

It took a little longer than predicted for the shipment to arrive, but my understanding is that's the norm for the industry. They said it would take two weeks, and it took 17 days. That's fairly close.

Unfortunately there were several negative points to the experience:

1) LOST ITEM

One box did not arrive and is still missing. They are searching for it. I do not believe the loss was the result of any foul play, as there were other items which looked more obviously valuable and arrived just fine. If they ever find the missing box I will update this review.

2) OVER-REPORTED WEIGHT

In the end it turned out they significantly over-charged me. In retrospect there were steps I could have taken to prevent this.

I scaled most (but not all) of my items before sending them, so I had a ballpark sense of total weight. The driver who picked up my items said they would proceed to a government scale and contact me the next day with the weight. They never contacted me. After three phone calls to ACVL over the following two days, I finally reached the subcontractor who did the pickup, and he gave me their number for the weight. It seemed a lot higher than I expected, and I contacted ACVL to request a re-scaling. They offered to simply round down to the nearest 1000 lbs, which was a significant discount. I felt the number was still high, but didn't have the time to drive down to be physically present for a re-scaling in Vancouver, and agreed to the compromise. When the items arrived, I weighed the rest and found ACVL was in fact off by over 2000 lbs.

I can understand some small discrepancy due to slight inaccuracies in scales, but this was way too far off to be dismissed or blamed on my scale or "weighing technique". Note I was never provided any paperwork from their end regarding scaled weight.

I've since searched online and found others who reported being similarly overcharged by this company (i.e. cases where an official re-scaling was done at the customer's expense and the weight was found to be more than a thousand pounds lighter than ACVL originally claimed), as well as a notice on the BBB.org website that alleges other consumers have encountered similar discrepancies regarding weight / charges. ACVL says the negative reviews are from competitors but I would be skeptical of that claim.

My biggest piece of piece of advice if you choose to use this moving company: Weigh all your belongings before pickup, and insist on a re-scaling if you have even the slightest suspicion that the weight they report to you is incorrect.

3) TEMPERATURE

Before contracting with ACVL I asked whether my goods would be kept for long periods of time at sub-freezing temperatures. They told me they use heated shipping containers.

This turned out to be outright untrue. I embedded two temperature tracking devices in my shipment (iButton Thermochrons) and the goods were below freezing for nearly the entire duration, and reached temperatures of -20°C:

4) USE OF SUBCONTRACTORS

One other minor point, they were misleading about use of subcontractors. They told me several times that they use their own staff and equipment at the pickup and delivery points. However the folks who picked up the goods admitted they were a subcontractor, and the ones who dropped off the items showed up in a van with a different company's name on it. I'm not sure why they wouldn't just be straightforward about this.

RECOMMENDATION

I strongly recommend using a different company. Do what I should have done and contact the BBB before you decide. I have another shipment to send in a few months and will be using a different company.

David was wonderful, Moving guys were great. the company charged me for double the actual weight of my stuff. I brought the truck to a scale house before my stuff was unloaded, then again after my things were offloaded. problem being that you have to pay before they will unload.so I payed double for the actual weight, and that was more than double the estimate I got from David. still missing 4 boxes and a ladder as well.

My move was from Vancouver to Toronto and I was more than satisfied with the service provided by Across Canada Van Lines. The staff was very helpful and experienced. From the moment they arrived everything was done so neatly and efficiently I did not feel I had to worry about any of my personal items. The movers were very kind and polite and very professional. The sales member, David, who initially helped me with my estimation was more than helpful. I received information and call backs promptly and did not have to track any information down. All the information from my estimation to the arrival date were accurate. This made my experience much less stressful and I would definitely use them again in the future. I highly recommend this company to anyone making a move whether it be local or long distance. Thank you Across Canada Van Lines!

Hilda Z