Drea from Caledon

Follow up: After the move I contacted the company about the issues that I had with the move. We came to a very suitable agreement and I am happy with their customer service and solution to the problems that I had during the move. Here is my story: . I found trillium online and got a quote for them for a 1 bdrm move (approximately 1000lbs) for $915 (+tax). The moving date for pickup was April 30. The two men showed up at the house within the time frame I was given, made a list of everything that they pack (although less detailed than I had expected). The pickup guy went over the charges again, separating it out into the corresponding categories for cost. He verbally told me that he would estimate the weight around 1700 lbs, and explained that because it was a pickup from Sioux Lookout, there was not a scale nearby for them to do the weight, and that I could contact the head office within the next 2 or so business days to receive my actual weight. I received a phone call from head office (after I had made my trip home) on Friday May 3 to notify me that they would be able to deliver for May 10. I asked here what my total would be, and she quoted me over the phone approximately $2135. I was astounded. I actually didn't have words I was so shocked that my $1000 move had more than doubled in cost. But.... I wanted my stuff back, and since they had already picked up and moved it, I kinda felt like "well, what can I do". I called my visa company to increase the limit on my Visa card so that I could put the total amount on my card. (My card only had a 1200 limit because I had never before had a need to raise it any higher). Visa increased my allowable amount to $2500, so I figured I would be totally covered when the guys arrived Friday morning. Thursday evening I got a call to let me know that the truck would be arriving between 12 and 2 the next afternoon. When the guys showed up Friday (slightly before 12) one of them came to the door, and took my credit card, and proceeded to take a rubbing of the card. He then called what I assume is a credit card check centre. He was originally speaking English, but it seemed that the person on the other end of the line was having trouble understanding. He switched to another language (which I did not recognise) and proceeded to communicate the information on my card. he then had to wait for a response from them (I'm assuming an "ok" that my card had been accepted. It had not. I immediately logged into my online banking and saw that Visa had not in fact completed the credit increase. So I pulled out a 2nd card, explaining to him that I would only have $1000 on the first card, and the remaining $1203 on the other card. He continued to try my first card, and it was again declined. I was baffled. I asked him to try the other card, as I knew it had a full $2000 available on it. He told me that they were both declined. Head office called his phone, and wanted to talk to me. The lady on the other end seemed infuriated that the cards weren't going through and accused me of being un prepared, as well as threatened that if they were not able to get payment, they would leave with my stuff. She stated that if they had to continue standing there waiting for me to sort out my finances, I would be charged a "waiting" fee for the guys' time, she also stated that if they could not collect payment, they would have to leave to continue with other deliveries, and charge me a $200 redelivery fee. I asked her to try again, explaining that I had checked my accounts online and that they were in good standing. She called his phone back approx. 5 minutes or less later, saying that she had tried $200 on both cards, and both were declined, and reiterated the wait time charge saying that their men had been there almost an hour. She also said that she had spoken to her warehouse manager and that the redelivery fee would be $500 (changed from her $200 quote, no more than 5 mins previous). I felt stuck. I had no other cards for her to try. I was sure that it was an issue on their end, but did not want to chance being charged for a waiting fee and redelivery fee, so I told the guys to leave. I immediately got into my car and drove into Alliston. I stopped first at my TD Bank, and got them to print me a copy of my visa account standing, including amount available. The time of this receipt was 12:43pm. It showed that I had available $1050 on my Visa. I then drove to RBC where my MasterCard is. It showed an availability of $2000. (Also printed and signed/dated receipt from them). I then came home and proceeded to call visa and mastercard to see what had gone wrong. Visa informed me that the card had been tried. The first 3 tries were declined because there were insufficient funds. (As I stated before, I hadn't realised at first that Visa hadn't completed my credit increase). There are then 3 more attempts. These three attempts were declined because the person entering information was entering the expiry date incorrectly. Visa told me that they had record of someone entering 04/16 for the expiry date. This does not match either of my cards, nor does it match any block of numbers on either card. MasterCard informed me that the card had not been tried at all. The last record of me using that card (other than payments) was the Walmart in Dryden, weeks before I had even known I would be moving. I then sent an email to Trillium to tell them of what I had found out, and ask them how it was my fault, and why it should be my responsibility to pay an extra $500 redelivery when it was their mistake that caused my card to be declined. I also started discussing it with my parents... and thinking about the total cost. 2200$ for a 1 bedroom, no furnature? How much stuff did I really have? When I calculated backwards... we figured that they were charging me for over 3100 lbs of stuff. I asked in my emails for a receipt of weight. At this point, I was now looking at a move cost totaling $2700+. I also contacted the police to ask them what could be done about the situation. They advised me that it would be a civil matter, and that I would have to take them to court to argue and try to get my money back, after paying. Through the emails, Kate (Trillium) was very adamant about it having been my fault that the Credit cards had been declined. She never addressed the fact that the 2nd provided card was not even tried (even though she had said to me over the phone that they had tried BOTH cards for $200 at one point, and BOTH cards were declined). She said that because they rarely deliver in my area, it could be weeks before I got my stuff, and that the redelivery fee would not be changed from her $500 estimate. Eventually, she did "give in". I still do not know what it was that changed her mind, but she agreed to have them redeliver, without extra charge, and at my proper weigh scale price. I still feel like I've been taken. I now have my stuff, and it appears all to be in good order. I still have an unsettled feeling about the company and how they conduct business. I feel like if I hadn't argued with them, or promptly contacted my banks, I would have ended up paying over $2700 for my stuff back, instead of the actual amount of $1671.10. I also feel like that is way to high for the amount of stuff that I have. I definitely will not be using this company if I ever have my belongings moved again. After the delivery was made, I went to get some of my tools out of the tool box that had been moved. It turns out that they had up-ended the tool box, so now all of my tools are crammed into one side and the drawers are difficult (some I haven't even gotten open yet) to open. Needless to say I will NEVER use this company again, and I will be advising everyone I know of the experience that I had with this company.