Julie in East york

Rent a Son itself was excellent, particularly Amanda. The estimate was accurate and her communication excellent. They showed up on moving day exactly when they said they would. I wish I could give them five stars. The problem was with the local crew at the Toronto end. While the supervisor was great, there were a couple of gomers who clearly couldn't care less. They managed to shred two large book shelves, something we discovered during unloading in Saskatoon. If I hadn't caught them trying to throw an eighty pound bench on top of the poorly packed load, they would have done that too. Smashing two shelves in to the point of unusability takes some doing. The long distance move was done with North American Van Lines and I'm still not clear if the crew in Toronto was hired by Rent a Son or not. Because we declined NA's exorbitant insurance, they have made us fill out a form for the damage and document it- and then two weeks told us by the way, we'll pay you 60 cents a pound for your wrecked shelves. Rent a Son needs to take some ownership for this as presumably they were involved in the Toronto crew. That choice marred what would otherwise have been a remarkably smooth move considering the distance and bad weather. Unfortunately I'd have to recommend for local moves only, and even then, you're going to need to ask a friend to stand outside and watch the loading process-- something that should not be necessary.

Sewage in the laundry tub led to the miserable discovery that tree roots had completely blocked the sewer pipe four feet inside the house and were intruding steadily in three other places. Malik arrived when he said he would the day after my phone call despite the company being busy with burst pipe repair across the city. We agreed on a price, which was written up carefully and in detail. Five major holes in the basement floor later, all interior pipe was replaced plus a three foot run outside and a backwater valve installed, with the necessary City rebate paperwork handed over and explained in detail. While there were some minor communication issues with the crew, all in all the complexity of the job in a cramped space and old house went well. I appreciated that I could call Malik or the office any time, and both were extremely responsive and professional. Replumbing to code for the laundry appliances and kitchen drain and installation of a new floor drain and hook up of the high efficiency furnace's drain hose were added in to the job, which I appreciated. The cost is still scary, but fair given the sheer amount of work involved. Hire these guys to check the pipes if you're buying a house. It's what we should have done.

This company gets even one star only because its staff answer calls and show up on time. But for the purpose for which we hired them, it gets nothing. After 2 years of major and multiplying groundhogs in our east end Toronto backyard we decided to opt for a company licensed to euthanize, since one had become 6 in one year. Hawkeye claims it’s the only company in the GTA licensed to do this, something we are checking with MNR. They charge $150 for two live traps—and $150 for each subsequent visit, whether the target animal was caught or not. Odd that euthanizing or relocating costs exactly the same as opening a trap. We made it very clear the target animal was a groundhog. On the first visit, the woman did not place the traps over the groundhog runs, which we had been careful to note in order to help trap placement. She set the traps during daylight hours and did not tell us how to unset and reset them for nighttime hours. So naturally, the traps caught first a cat, then a raccoon. They were adamant they were going to charge us for releasing the raccoon, even though it also turned out that their “specially formulated groundhog bait” (a direct quote from the office staff) was actually dog food. After a lengthy argument they agreed not to charge us, and we were taught how to set and unset the trap. Four days of setting and unsetting later, still no groundhog, and we assumed the bait was getting stale. So we went online (I presume this company is unfamiliar with the internet) and in 5 minutes discovered what bait attract groundhogs. We re-baited the traps with complex ingredients like a cucumber and vanilla, moved them to better locations, and within 4 hours had the groundhog. In other words, if we’d bought the trap for less than we paid these twits, we’d be much further ahead. Of course, we’d have to relocate the animal ourselves, which is illegal, but if MNR licenses such enormously incompetent companies to rip people off, dumping a prolific animal up the top end of a ravine well outside the city and letting it fend for itself seems to me a fair trade. Avoid this amateur hour company.

I wish I'd read this site before hiring Greensaver in 2009 to do the energy audit required for a provincial and federal rebate on a new (emergency) high efficiency furnace and window replacement. My partner had had a good experience with their commercial team at her church so we thought we'd go with them. Our experience mirrors exactly what many write here, and I should note that the low scores on this site are consistently about the audit process, which I assume is a different team that the renovations people. Do NOT do your audit with Greensaver. * The guy who came to do the actual inspection was not too interested in detailed questions. This is a major failing on Greensaver's part. They should be hiring people who welcome homeowners' questions. Otherwise, what exactly are we paying them for? A half hour blower test? * Months after the second visit to re-do the blower test and verify the windows, caulking ,etc, we'd heard nothing. I called and was told that because our results were WORSE after the window replacement than before, things would take longer. Nice of them to call us with the test results and tell us our work had somehow made our energy efficient worse. I had questions so was put in contact with Kaitlin, the customer service manager. She is excellent, as others here have noted. * Because she could not give me details of the second blower test she handed me over to the head of that team. As soon as I asked this woman why the results were worse, I got a response so instantly defensive it crossed the line to aggressive. She seemed to think I was accusing her of something. I got the impression she'd heard this from a number of people before. I got no answers whatsoever about either the test or other things we could do, and an earful about "varying conditions" etc. Her attitude was a very convenient way of deflecting reasonable questions. So again-- what exactly did we pay these people for? And how can replacing leaky, old and improperly installed windows,then caulking and using expander foam on the baseboards, and insulating all outlets make the test results worse? I see from this site that many of the reviewers experienced this result, which makes me think there's a serious problem with their testing process. And the refusal to give helpful advice in detail, or to explain the test results, just compounds the problem. Avoid them.