Andrew in Toronto

I used Ellis Moving & Storage to move my belongings from Vancouver to Spain. The main reason I decided to bring things from home versus buying new here in Spain was because of my collection of paintings which I didn't want to part with. We also spoke in detail about the types of each painting (e.g. oil vs water colour, etc.), and I requested that my six most valuable paintings be crated for added protection. When I interviewed Ellis and a couple of other companies, I was very clear that taking care of my art work was the most important part of the move. Flash forward to present day. When my items finally arrived in Spain and I had the chance to open the boxes and check to make sure that they had arrived okay, I was upset to see that for my two most valuable paintings, paint came off each painting onto the plastic wrap that they had wrapped them in. They hadn't bothered to wrap them more carefully to ensure this didn't happen. Note that I have moved these paintings many times myself over the years and never had this happen because I put a layer of cardboard between the front of each painting and the plastic wrap to ensure this didn't happen. And for one other treasured artwork, the plastic completely stuck to the entire surface of the painting! Fortunately it came off without damaging the painting, even though it appears to have left some residue on the surface (which fortunately seems to come off with some gentle wiping). When I emailed my main contact about what had happened, he didn't respond. I then forwarded the same email to him and "cc'ed" the CEO - his brother I believe - to see if I received a response. Still nothing. I find this very unacceptable considering the thousands of dollars I paid to them for their services. To give credit where credit is due, all of my other items arrived safely included my china and crystal glass set. However, the pieces of art that got damaged are worth over $12,000 Cdn. For one of them, it was only a small amount of paint that came off, but there was more damage on the other one. And I was very clear that they were the most important pieces to me. Plus it's hard to understand how professional movers don't know how to properly wrap things like paintings, and also why they completely forgot to crate the key pieces as discussed. So unfortunately I have to give Ellis Moving & Storage a D, especially because ignoring me once I reported the issue to them shows a complete lack of professionalism in my estimation. I would recommend finding another moving company, especially if you're transporting fine art work.