Maclean

We went with Canadian/GTA Honest Movers as we needed a last minute move (2 days notice at the end of first week of December) and they were available for a reasonable price, allowing me to work alongside to speed things up. We were moving from a third floor apartment and a separate location garage. Preparation seemed positive as they checked out the site ahead of time to see if the moving truck would fit in the alley where our garage was, and suggested a smaller truck and additional cube van to make sure everything could be picked up. Day of the move the trucks arrived 45 minutes late with no apology. There were 3 movers present although I had only agreed to pay for 2, which was fine as the 3rd mover said he had a "broken back". He would just be driving but his replacement mover was a small woman and her partner a college student who, it turned out, had a paper due at 4pm so the move had to be done by then or he would leave. I worked alongside them and was amazed at the woman who did most of the heavy lifting that day as the student mover took the path of least resistance saying he "had to do another move tomorrow" and didn't want to tire himself out. I did appreciate that they didn't intend to charge me for stairs at our first moving location as it was just 1 piece. The first location move went fairly well and the team worked quickly, although they got lost and didn't follow my explicit instructions for how to get to the new house, costing about 20 additional minutes of travel time (and my $). The second location got a little more interesting. The second cube truck and driver with the broken back disappeared leaving us with a very tight squeeze for fitting everything in. The male student attempted to pack things as the woman, my wife and I did most of the trips up and down the stairs. At the end the woman had to repack the truck as it wouldn't fit things as the student had done it (again costing more time and $). When we arrived at the final location I was handed the bill (before unloading) which was accurate to the quote I was given over the phone. As things were handed out of the truck I got a call from the manager who I had originally talked to when booking the move and he said that bill was incorrect and that I owed an additional $80. He said that despite the move only taking 6 hours (because I was working my butt off next to the movers) it was really an 8 hour job so we should be billed accordingly. When I questioned the logic of this he threatened to charge me for each flight of stairs climbed as it was technically written in the contract despite our earlier verbal agreement. Finally he said if I didn't pay then he would get his lawyers involved. During this process the woman mover became very angry, possibly with me although I couldn't really tell and actually became worried about my belongings being damaged out of spite so I agreed to pay the new amount. At the end of it all I probably saved some $ compared to other companies (I was quoted $700-800 from others) but worked for 6 hours straight, got two dents in my walls from their mistakes, and some scratches on my wooden furniture from them trying to overpack the truck at the second location. The only saving grace was the female mover who performed a truly heroic service in lifting like a football linebacker. Overall though, a big thumbs down for the "Honest Movers".