DMA from Markham

We moved about a month ago from our townhouse to our new home, just 5 minutes away. I picked GTA Movers randomly from a phone book search as they did not look so expensive. I figured that moving only requied a couple of strong men with common sense. I spoke to Max, the supervisor to arrange everything. He was very professional and knew what questions to ask and gave us recommendations on the size of the truck, number of men, etc. He quoted me an estimate of $450 to $500. Since we had a lot of time between the closing of our homes, we were able to move a lot of small things ourselves. So all we had left on moving day were a few pieces of heavy items, like beds, dresser drawers, curio cabinets, etc. When I told Max that we just had a small two-bedroom townhouse and provided him with a detailed list of all our furnishings, room by room, he figured it could be done in 4-5 hours. On moving day, we had two moving men who barely spoke English. That wasn't a problem; but every time they picked up a piece of furniture, they spent lot of time deliberating on how to move the item. They were so slow, it was unbearable. For example, instead of placing a number of items on the hydralic lift, they placed them one-by-one. In addition, they could not stack the truck properly, so one man kept arranging and rearranging everything. They did not bring enough moving blankets to cover everything. They did not bring enough bungee cords to tie things down. After about 4 hours, our brother-in-law came over with his sons to help. He had moved many times, and could not believe how incompetent these two men were in the way they stacked the truck and at the ridiculously slow pace that they moved. It ended up that the men in our family moved most of the furniture once we arrived at the new house, much faster that the movers could even empty the truck. In the end, the move took 9.5 hours (compared to our parents who also moved with the same size home whose move took only 2.5 hours). At the time of billing, we advised Max of what happened and he said that he would not charge us for overtime. Stupid us, we agreed to pay the amount of nearly double of what we estimated only because we wanted the people out of our house. Max told us that the movers were experienced and very cautious, so as not to break anything. A few weeks later, my wife revisited the issue with Max in hopes of getting a reimbursement or discount of some sort since our parents were moving too. He heard her complaint and she resent my email indicating his time & cost estimate. Max told her that he would review everything and for her to call him again the next day. The next day, my wife called the company, only for it to be answered without identifying themselves as GTA Moving Services. A man pretending to be Max took my call. When she identified herself, he didn't know who she was and why she was calling. When she described the situation again, this man realized she was the person who complained to Max a day earlier. He basically said that they were not going to do anything for us. The man further insulted my wife to say "you sound like someone who thinks they know everything about moving". She responded a-matter-of-factly that yes, in her line of work, she has aided (not physically) in the moves of many bank branches. So he asked her why she bothered to call a moving company if she knew so much about moving. She then described herself as a 4'11" petite person. Clearly, this company does care about customer loyalty or the protection of their reputation.