Tippet Richardson

I moved with Tippet Richardson in Toronto and the experience was great! Mike came to do the quote and offered many tips on packing and moving. He is a true professional and put me at ease right away. The movers showed up on time and moved me in record speed with nothing broken. They were very courteous. They even moved some existing furniture that was in the house for me (extra service). They were able to get large furniture up a very narrow staircase without any damage to the wainscoting on the walls. I recommend Tippet Richardson for a stress free move experience from beginning to end

If you are considering using Tippet-Richardson’s services, I highly recommend you reconsider.

About sixteen years ago we left Canada to live and work overseas in Hong Kong. Housing there is very expensive so we would downsize, and put the bulk of our belongings in storage. These consisted of bulkier furniture items, and also items not essential to day-to-day living, but highly valued, such as heirlooms, a vast professional quality photo collection, from over twelve years of adventure traveling in remote areas in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and other . We contracted Tippet-Richardson to store our belongings, in their “modern, climate controlled storage facilities”. At the time we didn’t know how long we’d live abroad, but as it turned out, these items remained in storage for about fifteen and a half years, amassing a storage bill of over $20,000 plus taxes, plus the moving in to storage cost (over $1,000).

When we bought a new house in Canada we arranged a delivery of our items in storage. When the day came 2 out of 3 palettes were delivered. I was told by the crew that the other one hadn’t been found. It was really more than one third that we were missing, because some items delivered were parts of furniture, whose other parts were missing (eg. disassembled beds and tables).

The delivery crew and other people at the company all told me different stories. The crew said this happened all the time, senior management said it was extremely rare. Some said it would be found in a month, others said it might take six. A year later, it had still not been found. They say they have 2,000 vaults to search and claim to have searched 1,000 in the year since the non-delivery. Even if they have really searched that many, that is only about 3-4 a day.

We have now been offered compensation totaling $12,500. Consider that we have paid them over $20,000, for a service they have failed to perform as contracted. Consider the average value of the a palette (to a palette and a half) of belongings. Would you consider this offer fair? Do you want to take a chance that this will happen to you?

You can see on this site that we are not the only ones who have had very negative experiences. I suggest you avoid this risk and use a company whose customers are satisfied.

I have revised my ranking of TR. I have always said that things can go wrong...but it is what is done after to satisfy the customer that is what makes sense. After some discussions TR has finally reduced the price on my move and offered some concessions...it means that my concerns were heard and that I feel better about this now.. I would still suggest anyone who uses them requests a very experienced crew...but at least they fixed what they broke and reduced the price...so I feel better about them.
The issues below are still relevant though..they happened, but at least they finally heard me.

I had used TR three times previously without any issue at all. This time, although I asked for an experienced crew, I got a horrible crew, who, except for one guy, didn't seem to care about my things. They broke, dropped items...luckily my curio wasn't smashed as they "forgot" to remove one of the glass shelves. When I heard one of the guys drop a piece of furniture on the elevator and I told him to be more careful he said "oh it's ok, it's wrapped"
It took them 14 hours from start to finish to move me 13 KM.
When I used them the last time and I moved into my place, I had double the amount I had this time...so no excuses for the length of time except for a bad crew.
Also, when they brought the wardrobes for my clothes -- they were filthy, with garbage in the bottom of them -- I made them go and get new ones as I wasn't going to put my clothes into such filth.

I don't know what has happened to TR in the last couple of years..as it was only two years ago that I moved last and they were great.

Both my husband and I were very impressed by the care the movers took in moving each item. They were constanly working and very professional. Kevin lead the team very well and we will definitely pass your name along. What a great moving experience.
Marnee & Mike Da Ponte

This has been a truly unpleasant experience. They rushed my stuff into their van, packed it poorly into a container then left it sitting for weeks. It took forever to deliver. They damaged my stuff by not packing or wrapping it properly . Now I am being ignored by their insurance company and they are not replying to calls. Rotten experience.

As a move management, home staging and organizing professsional, I need the most efficient and reliable moving companies working on projects with me. A recent local Toronto move for clients was handled by Abbeywood Moving & Storage Inc, of Toronto. The estimator was thorough, polite, on-time & accurate. The crew was efficient, careful, and did an amazing job working in a very awkward space with steep, narrow stairways. Not a mark on anything. A client's move from Toronto to Houston, Texas., including pickup, storage and transporting to the U.S. was handled exactly the same way: Accurate etimate, very competitive rate, no surprises, excellent crew; The client asked for a couple of add-on trasks and the crew worked a longer day to accomodate. Abbeywood Moving & Storage Inc. always provides my clients with the best fees and services possible, making my work much easier. I recommend them to everyone, including my mother. Thanks for a great job Randy Wilson and Abbbeywood!

We chose this moving company because the sales rep that came to our home, who did a detailed itemized quote, stated that they had considerable experience moving and storing pianos. We have a baby grand and wanted to make sure it was handled correctly. Our furniture was being moved into storage for 3 months while a renovation of our new home was taking place.

A week before our move out of our old home I called and spoke to Fred the dispatcher again to confirm that the crew coming to our home knew what they were doing with pianos, and he laughingly told me they would take an ax to the piano and I would not need to worry any more. I guess he does not understand that moving is a stressful experience and his sense of humor may not be appreciated by everyone.

We had booked for 4 movers, 2 and 1/2 men arrived (the half being a trainee who wandered around our house aimlessly not knowing what to do and I had to give him directions to move the furniture onto the truck because no one else was). They were short staffed and the 2 1/2 men were there from 9am, backup arrived very late in the day after repeated calls to their offices, many of the calls were not returned by Randy who apparently owns the company. We had requested clothing boxes to transport our clothes to our new location. They were not on the truck and were brought later that day. Insufficient mattress covers were on the truck so our main bedroom king mattresses were uncovered. The driver was not advised that the furniture was going into storage, so he had to wait for an inventory list and stickers to arrive before he could start the move. After the move we received an invoice for considerably more than we were quoted, about 35% more and contrary to the Consumer Protection Act, which states that they cannot vary a quote by more than 10%. We called the owner and his staff and he said he was very busy but would get back to us, which he eventually did. The bill was adjusted after they realized we were not going to pay their inflated bill. It seems that the representative had under quoted on not only our move but on those of other customers and had since departed the company. Surely Abbeywood Movers would have a method of checking quotes in order to see if they are realistic. That being said the quote did not differ very much from other reputable companies that had quoted at the time.
Prior to us moving into the new home I called and asked to use the wardrobe boxes again and I was refused the use of them, being told I would have to buy them. I declined and made other arrangements, I was not prepared to buy used wardrobe boxes for a one time use. I had already spent several hundred dollars buying boxes from them.
When we were inspecting the bill on the day of the final move into our new home the driver became impatient and intimated that if we did not pay prior to them unloading, that he would close up the truck and drive off. From what we understand from the Consumer Protection Act, you cannot hold a customer’s good ransom for payment. Only after we paid the inflated amount of the quote plus a further 10%, did they begin unloading our goods. The move then went without incident and was done in the expected time frame. The only hiccup was that our 3 piece sofa was not on the truck, it had been placed in another storage pallet and was not loaded with the rest of the furniture, but the receptionist was very helpful in locating it and delivering it to us a few days later.
I would not recommend the company at all, you cannot operate a business where you don't return messages, charge what you like and think people will just pay up in order to get their furniture from storage.

I moved from the UK to Montreal. My UK shipper subcontracted the Canadian part of the move (basically the container collection from the ship, custom clearance and the delivery to my home) to Tippets. I have twice weekly contacts with Tippets, but after more than four weeks, there is no sign of a delivery, despite their assurance that they would put my container on their first truck to Montreal, and "rush" the delivery. I would recommend to stay clear from Tippets, as they seem very unreliable and utterly disorganized. At the moment, I still don't know if I will ever receive my container.

Our move with Abbeywood Movers:

We selected Abbeywood as our mover based on their internet reputation (especially Homestars) and their home visit to deliver a detailed estimate for our move. We made a mistake. The following events are exactly what happened on the day(s!) of our move.

• The Sales representative came through our home about 2 months before the move and itemized every item we would need moved, including a piano, some glass occasional tables, a glass front china cabinet etc. She was very thorough and we were very clear on what pieces they would move. We moved all lamps, pictures, china, crystal, glassware, breakable kitchenware, the contents of two bathrooms, all electronics, carpets and all interior plants ourselves. And yet the actual move hours were more than 150% of the estimate! And that is after they left some furniture unassembled (a couple of dressers, one bed, and a couple of sofas (one in small pieces).
• The sales rep noted the piano on the estimate and we confirmed two days before the move that we had a piano. The movers were stunned to find a piano and had no “piano kit”. Happily, the piano survived the experience.
• We had two sofas in our basement that were three seats attached to a frame in which the two end seats could recline with footrests. The movers could not get them out in one piece and sought our permission to take the seats off the frame for transport. We signed a waiver to that effect. One of the movers spent the next two hours in the basement trying to take the sofa apart. He got the footrests off, the lever that raises them, and most of the bolts (including the ones he had to cut through fabric to get to). Sadly, the bolts that attached the seat to the frame were still firmly in place. At this point, frustrated, he sought the help of the foreman who quickly sorted out what needed to be done. The second sofa was dismantled quickly and with no damage in about 10 minutes. Too bad about the first one. We were told that this is not their job and we were very fortunate that they even tried. It would have been nice to be told about this by the salesperson that should have noticed that the sofas could not go up the stairs from the basement without taking them apart and to have an alternative other than a) leave them behind or b) have them reduced to rubble. More to come on this.
• We called Abbeywood to complain about how things are going. The sales rep that we dealt with took no responsibility and she put us through to the dispatcher who was not even remotely sympathetic. After all, he had been in this business for 43 years and there are things that are standard that they expect may need to be disassembled (such as beds, dressers and dining tables) but apparently not sofas! Again, it would have been nice to be told that by the sales rep who should have known what is “standard” for them.
• And now we come to our glass occasional tables. For those to be moved, we once again were asked to sign a waiver. The foreman explained that 99.9% of the time there was no problem; he knew how to take care of them. The tables were two sets of three stacking tables. During transit an unsecured metal bar (seems to be part of the truck equipment) fell onto one set of the tables. The top one was smashed, the second one is cracked but usable. But…..the waiver was signed. Too bad. However, I very much doubt that a wood table would have done better (perhaps titanium, but there might still be a scratch). Once again, even though we paid for insurance, Abbeywood has declared that the waiver means we are out of luck.
• So, more fun. The move is running long (well one mover has been making a mess of a sofa and that is time consuming work). Between 2 and 3pm, they are still not loaded, two movers have hurts, and it’s starting to rain. So they advise that the plan will be – they’ll come back the next day to finish loading and finish the job. Good news – we won’t be charged for the extra travel time. They now have our clothing and furniture loaded. So we get to put on very dirty clothes the next morning – happily we did manage a bed for the night. They come the next day to finish loading, however they were in such a hurry to wrap it up, they left many items for us to move ourselves!!! When one of the crew came back to the house to ask my wife to show them the way, she discovered a vacuum cleaner that she had clearly asked them to take. They squeezed that in the cab, but some other items were still in the garage. The crew explained that since instructions had been given to the previous day’s crew, they had no knowledge of our needs.
• The foreman did feel badly (at least so we were told) so indicated that to save us money, they would leave the sofas (one in pretty small pieces, including bags), beds, dressers etc unassembled and he and one of his coworkers will come back to do this service for us on their own time over the weekend. We never saw or heard from him again.

In summary, the Abbeywood moving experience was unsatisfactory on almost every level. Our movers assured us that as things go, ours went pretty well. Abbeywood seems to agree. We have shared this document with them.