Our Moving Experience

It is exciting to be moving to a new home although the task of moving everything from the existing home is not something most people look forward to. The thought of hiring a moving company is not very comforting either after hearing countless horror stories about movers. But many families have no choice. We had no choice either when we had to move to our new dream home after 35 years of living in the same house.

We decided to take three different quotations to get an idea of the going rates. One of the three companies, Bronte Movers, was recommended by our real estate agent. The quotations from all three companies were very similar. Since Bronte Movers were recommended by our real estate agent, we decided to go with them. Looking at what needed to be moved, their sales agent estimated that it would take nine hours for three men to move everything. He told us that he has been doing it for a long time, and that he has not been wrong before. Just in case, if takes longer, the maximum we would have to pay would be for one more hour--in total for ten hours. He gave us a written quotation for nine hours, with a maximum charge specified, if needed, for one more hour.

We wanted to be well prepared for the moving day. Our new home was only about 30 minutes drive from our old home. We gave some items to Amity, took some items to the dump, and transported most of our breakable items to the new home in our car, making several trips before the moving day. Before the movers arrived on the moving day, all our stuff was packed in boxes, appliances that were going were unplugged, and furniture dismantled.

The movers arrived about 20 minutes late. After taking a tour of the house to see what needs to be moved, they started to load the truck. They seemed friendly enough. After asking several times throughout the morning for pop cans they manged to load most of the stuff by lunch time. We were inside the house checking to see if everything has been taken, when we heard the truck leaving. We went out and asked to wait until we are ready to accompany them. They told us that we do not need to follow them and that they knew where they are going. We noticed during our inspection of the house that they had not taken some of the items which we had specifically asked to load. Nothing could be done at this time as they had already left. We locked the house and left for the new home. We were hoping to see them either on the road or at the new home.

The truck had not arrived when we got to our new home. The truck had left before us, and it was only about half hour's drive. We had not seen it on the highway either. We took a sigh of relief when about two and a half hours later, we saw the truck entering our driveway. We knew then that we would have to pay for that extra hour. They told us that they had stopped for lunch.

Strangely enough, it took them longer to unload the truck than it took them to load it. It was easy to unload as they could extend their ramp straight to our front double doors. We had our share of scratches, dents, spill, and damages. That is something one expects when moving all contents of a house. What bothered me were deliberate and inappropriate actions of the movers. They had opened the cooler, taken out some of the items, opened the containers, and examined the contents inside by smelling them. They had also helped themselves to five of the Five Alive cans from a full sealed case. We did not mind them asking for cold drinks throughout the move (although it was not part of the contract), but helping themselves to drinks for which they were responsible while moving is totally unacceptable.

It was late that evening by the time everything was unloaded. We were looking forward to getting some rest after paying them the amount specified in the contract (nine hours plus one extra hour). We were totally taken aback when they asked us to pay about five hundred dollars more than the agreed amount in the contract. There was absolutely no justification for this, so we refused to pay any more than the amount in the contract. The movers left saying that we would have to sort it out with the owners. They had taken the joy out of the first day of being in our new home.

The matter was sorted out the next day when the owner agreed to accept the contract price but not before investigating why it took this long for his three men to move our stuff. May be he wanted to know if his men were slacking off. Whatever the reason, as far as we are concerned, a contract is a contract. There should not be any questions asked when it was clearly stated in the contract that regardless of the time taken the maximum charge would not exceed one additional hour than the nine hours quoted in the contract. Given the horror stories we have heard about other people's moving experiences, I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky. At least we got our stuff back.