I’m going to be fair, and tell you the pros and cons. Everything started great with Centennial for my move from Calgary to Toronto. I was provided a good quote, and my move coordinator Dave was excellent. He was very responsive, and gave very detailed responses to all my issues. The move was coordinated easily, and was scheduled for 24june21. Note, I heavily underestimated the weight, and the actual weight was substantially more. I was told it would be a big trailer coming which I assume would take my stuff from Calgary to Toronto, with minimal moving between trucks, but when a small truck arrived i knew my stuff would get handled twice as much. We have all travelled on airplanes with boxes, regular boxes packed in a regular way, and as we know these boxes arrive pretty beat up – same concept applies to movers, and this had me a bit worried knowing they would handle my stuff yet again. The crew who came to pick up the furniture were not very professional, but they did their job and didn’t damage anything – but I was expecting more of a professional service from “such a professional” moving company. My stuff was delayed beyond the 4 week estimate, but arrived in 7 weeks – not too bad, and the contract stated there are no guarantees so I cant place blame.
Then our stuff arrived. Very unprofessional movers – no masks, no booties. They had to be asked to put protective covers when taking large items upstairs as to not damage the house. They questioned us on why we used “such big boxes” – doesn’t matter, we don’t need to hear your opinion on how we packed. All the boxes had clear labels as to where they were to go. Yet they would still ask where things went, and huffed and puffed if something has to go upstairs. Also, they placed a bunch of stuff just in the garage instead of where it belonged – must be nice to just do whatever you want to reduce your workload. I had to then move a lot of these heavy boxes myself throughout the house over the next several weeks. And at the end they even asked for a tip…now lets talk about our stuff. Out of 6 pieces of bigger furniture, they broke/lost 3 pieces – that’s 50% of my large items broken or missing! The TV stand was literally crushed (not cheap Ikea stuff), and a custom bench was broken. We had a HUGE king size bed headboard size 8’x5’, which weighed over 200lbs – this was lost and never recovered. How does a moving company loose such a huge piece of furniture? Did they break it and just dump it? Did they decide it was too big and just didn’t care enough to move it? I have moved full family homes over 10 times, and have never broken anything like this, because I used common sense and cared. So we filed a claim on 16Aug, pretty angry that half of my furniture was broken by this super professional moving company who I paid over $7000 to. They responded 2 months later, and stated that I denied additional insurance (which I did, because im a regular person with regular stuff (not garbage), and none if it was super expensive that I needed extra insurance. I also didn’t think any of my stuff was easily breakable), therefore I would be only entitled to the basic insurance payout of 0.60c/lb. Also, there was a $300 deductible (per contract), so they ever so graciously offered me $145 to close the issue, with a stipulation that I cannot post negative reviews anywhere. After losing $3500 worth of stuff, and getting offered $145, it was a slap in my face. So I write this review which cost me $145, to tell you all about my experience. Note, Centennial did in no way breach the contract, so legally I have no recourse. I don’t believe breaking half of someone’s furniture is even remotely acceptable for a professional moving company, regardless of the insurance payouts. For Centennial who I’m sure will respond to this, yes you asked me 3 times if I needed extra insurance, and yes I declined.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $7,000.00
- Company Response
Dear Joe, 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're sorry for the delay, we have a lack of staff members due to the COVID so some jobs have to be rescheduled to the next truck, since we physically don't have time to load it due to the lack of movers. We already spoke with the Toronto team about masks and other protection issues you've listed, thank you so much for pointing this out to us as management so we can evaluate the situation and take the right actions. Sometimes when the movers handle big furniture pieces, it's hard for them to breathe in masks, so they might take it off, but of course, they have to check with the customer first and have a decent space from another person. Unfortunately for both pickups and deliveries when there is no customer and movers have to load/unload by themselves, they put it in one place, they don't have time to read the notes on every box, especially if that's a big move, so we always aks either the customer or assigned person to lead our movers and tell them what to put there. In terms of the boxes size, we're not sure what happened exactly, but in terms of safety all boxes have to be packed all the way to the top, so there's no empty space left, so when we put them in the truck, they're not getting smashed and each box shouldn't weight more than 60 lbs. We apologize for any lost/damaged items, we always try to solve the case in the customers' favor, but we have to compensate based on coverage plan as well, so we did our best to offer the maximum compensation we could in your situation when compensation is for the weight of the item, not its value.