RE: Moving Company -- Two Small Men With Big Hearts

Story of a move from Toronto to Halifax December 2005

Firstly, if you are reading this prior to booking your mover, congratulate

yourself for being smarter than we were. Secondly, it took me over a month

before I could write this to make sure I could type a sentence without

having swear words in it, yup, it was that bad.

Moved our things (1 bedroom apt worth) from Toronto to Halifax Dec 16th for

storage at a family members for a couple years, as we were moving onto

England on Jan 24 but wanted to keep some of our things instead of selling

everything for next to nothing. Mainly boxes, no furniture, just a bed, no

tv, no dressers, not much stuff at all but things we wanted to have when we

returned to Canada someday.

Called around numerous companies in Toronto to get quotes. This was easy as

we found out most companies have a minimum weight charge of 1000lbs and

there is no way we had near this. So just had to see what the minimum

charge was from TO to Halifax without needing someone to come in and do an

assessment. Heard everything from $800 to $2000 minimum charge, we choose

to go with the above mentioned as some companies couldn't garauntee that our

things would be there by the time we needed. Two Small Men With Big Hearts

were not the cheapest at $1100+ but, they could do it in 5-7 business days,

this was very important because:

We left Toronto December 18th to spend time with family in Halifax until we

left for England on January 24th, again, because some companies were saying

it could take a month to get our stuff there, we decided to spend the extra

couple of hundred $ for the sure thing and receive our things with lots of

time to spare, because we needed to sort through the items again for things

we were taking onto England that didn't fit in our suitcases when we flew to

Hlfx, and most importantly, we had to be there when the things arrived to

place them in my grandmothers attic, understandably, the movers wouldn't

have put the stuff up in the attic and certainatly my Nan of 85 wasn't going

to do it...so we had to be there when it arrived and we had to have these

things before we left for England. Simple.

Ok, here's what happened, sorry but I had to get across the importance of

the time line, I'll try to speed this up.

They took a deposit of $295 from a credit card over the phone the day I

booked and said they would be there 9am on December 16th. Called 11am on

the 16th saying they would be there at 3pm. Good start. 2 guys finally

show up to everything packed up for them, ready to be labeled and put in the

truck, easy job by all accounts. One guy introduced himself while the other

didn't and walked by me and went straight into the bathroom, charming. Not

a big deal, but could have asked. All fine so far except for the

unprofessionalism.

We are home in Nova Scotia, enjoying our time between jobs, figured our

stuff would arrive just before x'mas, it didn't, wasn't too concerned

because of holidays and all. We wanted to visit a friend in Boston over New

Years so we called to check up on it as again, we had to be there when it

arrived and wouldn't have went to Boston if it was coming over the days we

were planning to go. My first experience with the receptionist....., I said

who I was and what I was enquiring about and she said something to the fact

that the guy who does that stuff isn't in, a bit surprised that nobody in

the officed could tell me where our things were, I gave here my contact

details and asked for a call back. No call that day, so the next day I

called, same questions from receptionist, who's calling, what is it in

regards to....one moment...sorry nobody is here...fine, I'll call back.

Later that day I did finally get to speak with Brent who is, how do I say

this....well, I can't say how I feel about Brent. He was nice, told me that

my things were leaving Toronto on Friday, this worked out for us as we could

now go to Boston from Thursday until Monday and expect our things the

following Wednesday or Thursday according to him. I did mention that we

were expecting the items earlier as we were quoted 5-7 business days, but

didn't push as it was still working out for us, he said the truck was late

leaving Toronto but assured us all was fine, he said the driver would call a

day before he arrives. At this time he also said that our things were

weighed and it was over 1500lbs, I nearly choked but he quickly said not too

worry about it, there wouldn't be an extra charge, how nice.

Back from Boston, decided to call Brent in Toronto that Thursday just to say

that we haven't heard from anyone, obviously given the 3rd degree from the

receptionist, Brent took the call, this time I could tell he wasn't happy

that I was enquiring about my possessions, he was rude, for the first time I

explained how important it was to have those things before we left for

England, oh, and we had a trip booked to DR from Jan 10-17 and if it worked

out that the stuff would come then, we were in trouble, didn't think this

Jan 10th deadline would come into play but it did. Thinking that if he

realizes the time issue, he could at least tell me where my things were and

when they would arrive....he yelled, "what do you want me to do, get in a

helicopter and find the truck, screw you"...and he hung up. Right..., I

couldn't believe it, really, I looked at my girlfriend and could hardly get

a word out, I called back, the receptionist, who knows me by now, asked who

I was, what I wanted, and then said that Brent wasn't in, I said I was just

talking to him, she put me through to his voicemail....frustration doesn't

explain the situation, they had our stuff, and now were not going to speak

with us anymore...becuase we wnated to know where our stuff is, this

obviously upsets them, what do you do. I searched the net for a head

office, found a number in Vancouver, who claimed to be head office, that guy

was somewhat sympathetic to the situation and said he would try to help,

after dealing with him for a few days, he was able to get me a number to the

driver who "may" have our things, apologised for Brents behaviour, said he

is stressed, stress? all your possessions in the hands of Two Men with Small

Hearts is stress....writing this is pissing me off again so I'm going to cut

it short, our stuff never arrived by January 10th, we leave for our short

getaway, with nothing else on our mind other than wondering if our things

will ever make it to nova scotia before we have to leave for england, or is

my Grandmother going to get a knock at the door and all our things dropped

off on the doorstep, my parents did finally get hold of the truck driver,

they were told he wasn't planning to be in nova scotia for another 2 weeks,

I received this lovely message into our second day of vacation, some

vacation, the next time I checked my email, my parents said that he called

back the next day and said he would be there Saturday which was January

14th, and he was, at my parents, not my geandmothers, with our stuff, minus

one box, anyway, driver wanted $1500 cash, until my parents showed him bill

of laden for the balance, less the deposit, of $825 or so...and it wasn't

going to be cash, I left a credit card with them. Once we got back from DR,

we then moved our things to where they were actually meant to be.

It is hard to put such frustration in an e-mail but understand that this

company caused more stress for us than can be explained, yes, the stuff did

come, late, very late, and with weeks of thinking it never would come and

nobody to help us.........

Go with the big name movers, at least if something goes wrong, you have a

better chance of getting help, this company should not exist, and I will be

very surprised if it does in the future.

Sean

Now in England, but from Nova Scotia