I was nervous picking out a moving company for my long distant move from the Lower Mainland to Victoria. In the end I selected Cloverdale Moving. Initially I was hesitant after booking them as when I had questions, I didn't get a call back promptly for a business. Their machine always picked up and Selma would eventually call back or I'd have to call again the next day.
This move was quoted by weight, not time. I was quoted for an average one bedroom apartment. I knew I didn't have an average one bedroom apartment and told them this, but still nobody made a visit to do a more accurate quote.
August 1, 2017 on my moving day, Angelo and his partner arrived on schedule which was great. Both guys were very nice and friendly. It alarmed me that a very large piece of furniture would be moved out on a dolly by one guy. Even smaller items like my coffee table was placed upside down on a dolly with several other items stacked all over it and then wheeled out by one guy. Although this may seem very efficient, I realized at the time that because time is not being billed, they moved extremely quickly, which was very rough on all my belongings. My entire very large one bedroom was loaded up in less than an hour. I was stunned.
My entire life belongings were now in their care until August 3rd, sitting on their truck with the possibility that everything would be moved off that truck into a locker if that truck was needed for another move. The truck was weighed at a weigh station after they loaded it. The price came in at almost twice the average one bedroom apartment. Surprise surprise. I expected it would happen, but not that much. I was told I could pay with my Visa, then upon arriving to load my stuff, was told I had to pay cash. This was over a $2,000 move. I called the next day to quote my email and they relented and allowed the visa.
Angelo, his wife and young son showed up on August 3rd to unload my belongings. His partner was not available that day which really surprised me. I didn't think I paid to have a young boy unload my stuff. He was a very nice boy and very helpful. Angelo's wife was strong and very nice too. Great family. The first thing I noticed was my mattress and box spring were now strapped to the tailgate of the truck instead of being inside as they were when the truck left Burnaby. The biggest problem was that the mattress was on the outside of the box spring with a tie down strap digging into the middle of the mattress, so it was hanging over the strap causing the mattress be damaged. My bed was fairly new, so this upset me. There was some obvious juggling around to accommodate another persons belongings in the same truck.
After Angelo and his family left, my partner and I unwrapped things. The mattress definitely suffered, most wood furniture items had small scrapes and scratches and my brand new $4,000 leather sofa was damaged in a very small but critical area on the arm. The sofa was wrapped by a friend of mine with 4 moving blankets and then completely shrink wrapped. He does this for a living and did an awesome job on it.
I called Angelo to let him know about the damage to my sofa. He said it probably wasn't packed properly, so that would be the cause of the damage. The area of damage was covered by a blanket and now ripped shrink wrap. It was very apparent it had been dragged/dropped on the ground. The damage was like a carpet burn that scuffed the leather and tore 2 stitches on the arm. Making a claim was not an option as the deductible was ridiculously high. I hired a leather repair person to fix the broken stitches and Angelo did pay for that.
All in all even though the guys were nice, the cost was double the estimated price and they damaged so many items. Aside from the bed and sofa, most were small scuffs and dents.
I would not use this company again. I just moved again yesterday and used another company and had a much better experience.
