ComplaintsforBig Brothers Moving Services

• Initial Complaint

  10/01/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My wife scheduled a move with Big Brother's Moving in Vancouver from **** ****** *** ********* ** to **** *** **** ********* **, 2-3 months in advance for a National Holiday, Canada Day, July 1st 2021. Three days before the move, she was called to inform her that because it was a holiday, they were going to increase the price by "time and a half" to "pay the guys" and if we didn't want to pay it they wouldn't move us. I called him back and gathered all this first hand from the owner, commented that it seemed like *********. He got defensive and said that if I was going to say stuff like he wasn't going to move us, I backpedalled on the phone to appease him because we needed the movers as we were selling our home and would be in breach of terms of sale. He went on about how he needed to charge time and a half for his guys or he'd be moving us at a loss. My wife had told me the moving quote was $5500.00 so I did the rough math and came to around $8000.00 for time and a half. He then ****** that he never would have quoted less than $6500.00. After a minor discussion I did the rough math on that and came up with a number around $9750.00. He countered with $10,000.00. I told him I needed time to get that kind of money together. I immediately started trying to find a different mover, but as the move was on a National Holiday and the 1st of a month, the closest I was able to come up with was a mover out of Kelowna who said they would have done it for $4300.00 but couldn't guarantee the move because of the short notice and not wanting to leave us stranded if they could not get the staff, so they would not take the job and put us in a worse position. The owner of Big Brother's Moving, Marshal T**, was pestering me for a $2500.00 deposit the entire time I was trying to sort this out. When it all came to an end, they moved us, it was a miserable experience, one of my top 10 worst days of life, and I had to pay $10,500.00 because he said he had to make it work with taxes.

  Business response

  12/01/2022

  To: who it may concern, 

   

  ******* ****** contacted Big Brothers Moving Services on April 9th of 2021 regarding a complex and long distance move. She Was provided with an estimated price of between $5500.00 to $6000.00 which is subject to change due to many factors and one being that the client will fully pack their belongings and be ready to move when our crew arrive to their home. A date was not confirmed and a deposit was not collected as the client was not sure when the sale of their home would be completed. 
  

  3 days before July 1st, the client had requested the move date to be set on a holiday but was immediately advised that holiday rates will apply if we are able to get a crew together to successfully complete their move. 
  

  I Marshal T** spoke with ***** ****** and explained to him that we can not complete the move for the suggested rate especially not on a holiday. We decided not to provide the service as we did not want to disappoint the client and the move would also entail over 2000 kilometres and many man hours to complete on a national holiday. The client had said he would try to secure other movers closer to their home as we are located in North Vancouver B.C but was unsuccessful and therefore called back insisting that we need to help his family and that he accepts a higher rate as he understands that national holidays would not be billed as regular rates. 
  

  our crew travelled from North Vancouver to Armstrong only to find that ****** and his family are not properly packed or ready to move. Our crew started assisting in packing of the customers belongings and loading our moving truck even though the packing services was not included in our initial estimate. Our crew and team did the very best we can for our client on a national holiday with more then 150 man hours to successfully complete the move of their family.
  

  We are truly disappointed to get this complaint as we truly felt that our efforts were appreciated and an agreement was in place regarding a fixed rate. However, we are to resolve the matter to achieve a satisfactory outcome. Thank you 

   

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