Stay away from this company!!!! I did my research, they had excellent reviews on their website and on other sites on the internet so I thought, ok, let's go with them. BAD IDEA!! I have moved A LOT in the last year and my provincial movers weren't able to move me from Ontario to Nova Scotia. So, I chose Centennial Moving. It all started out well, my sales person was very helpful and explained that they charge by weight. I was also informed that Centennial Moving only comes to the East Coast once a month which meant that they would have to pick up my belongings on September 15 to have it out in Halifax between September 25-30. This would have worked out perfectly because we would've been able to unpack over the 2 weeks we were in quarantine. I spoke to my other movers, as I had things in storage at their company, and they said that each storage locker weighs approximately 2000 lbs. I had one and a half storage units so their and my guesstimate was 3000 for the storage lockers and another 1000 lbs for the boxes I had at my apartment as I had little to no furniture (no bedframe, no couch, no chairs, no dining set) I was thinking worst case scenario it would all weigh 4500 lbs for 169 items.
Here is where it starts heading downhill....On September 15, it was confirmed that the movers would be at my storage place between noon and 4pm. I have never had a moving window...the movers arrived at 4:30. I waited in my car for 4 1/2 hours because my storage was an hour away from where I lived. I had to call dispatch twice to find out where they were. Such bad communication!!! With the second phone call I was told that they stopped to get food. I understand that you have to eat BUT YOU WERE ALREADY LATE and absolutely ZERO communication with the customer that was waiting!!!!!!!!
The following day I asked for the weight ticket because I had heard stories about people's belongings "weighing more" so the company can make more money than what they quoted their customers. The weight ticket ended up being a form that the company sent. Where is the real ticket? You can't tell me that COVID is the problem as the weigh station can provide you with a printed copy through the window, or you could take a picture of it and send that. According to my weight ticket, all my things weighed 5650 lbs. Are you kidding me? I had almost NO FURNITURE!!!
To make matters worse, a few days later I get an email five minutes before the sales person left for the day to say that my things were too heavy to go on the September truck to Nova Scotia and would be arriving a month later. What could I do? They had my belongings.
A month goes by, I had to email the company on October 26 to ask the ETA. The dates I was given were between October 23-27 with 24-48 hours notice. I was told that it will be arriving on October 31 and November 2. UGH!!
The dispatch department sent me an email on October 29 to confirm that my delivery would be on October 31 anytime between 9am and 12pm. FINALLY! I sent them back the email confirmation with excitement because the day was finally here!! And this is what I got back:
"Thank you for the confirmation, Sara.
We would like to ask you, is there is any possibility you could pay the final balance with cash or at least a part of it?
The reason for such a request is that our driver's card was temporarily blocked for some reason and he will need cash for regular trip expenses.
Regardless of the payment method, an official receipt will be provided accordingly.
We would be grateful if that will possible on your end, kindly let us know."
What kind of company does that?????!!!! What kind of company asks that from their customers?
The movers in Nova Scotia were AMAZING and very helpful and probably the best part of this whole experience. Most of my belongings arrived unscathed which is a blessing in my eyes. I also noticed that written on the side and back of their truck that they are BBB accreditated but according to the BBB site they have an F rating and are not accreditated. That is false advertising, Centennial Moving.
There is nothing that can make this experience any better. I suggest that if you are considering using them, DON'T! Stay away.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $4,800.00
- Company Response
Dear Sara, we are terribly sorry for the unpleasant experience you had with us. Whilst an apology will regrettably not alter the outcome of your experience on this case, we do extend it with sincerity. We always advise a window, and driver calls always upon the arrival, you could have requested from your agent to give you the call in 1 hour in advance, so you could easily do other assignments until we come. We're sorry for the inconvenience with time frames and lunch break for the movers, the customer prior you just had more items than listed initially so we had to stay a bit longer to finish packing it to the truck. We scale at an MTO weigh station and they do not issue tickets due to the pandemic that do not allow anyone inside of their office. This is why, we collect the information from the weighing and in-print it on our letterhead. So while the truck is scaling, the movers wait outside of the facility and provide the person at the scaling our letterhead, so they can imprint the results from the scale on it and this ticket we provide to the customer. You had more items upon the pick up, which were listed in your initial list, so more items mean more weight. We had a space for East Coast truck up to 4100 lbs. at the moment of booking, but it was more than that and we couldn't fit it in the truck and could send only with the next one, because you had more items than initially listed. The dates agent John provided you was just an ETA at the moment, since we couldn't confirm it in so much time in advance and later on we provided more accurate window. Indeed certain situations might happen and driver got some problems with the Credit Card, we didn't force you to pay in cash, we just asked if that might be a possibility from your side. We're sorry if that sounded forcefully to you, but we didn't mean it. We're sorry with misleading about the BBB, we indeed spoke with them about it in the private correspondence regarding the accreditation several times. We do apologize for everything what happened in this move and are willing to help with any other trip or issue you might encounter later on. Sincerely, Centennial Moving Team.