Moving company nightmares: What you need to know before you move (CBC Marketplace)

marketplace is on the move going undercover tracking every step of a long distance move that's our thought sitting there in a movie theater parking lot for an entire weekend that's unbelievable inaccurate quote suspicious weight pretty much went you saw absolutely believe what the price was can you trust your mover how is it you are charging for more than the actual weight in is anything sometimes error this is your market place it's moving day [Music] it's unload and we've got a one-bedroom apartments worth of stuff we're getting ready to send across the country every year nearly three hundred thousand Canadians moved between provinces our move will start at this house in Mississauga Ontario and end at this storage facility in Calgary Alberta 3,400 kilometers away Melissa what can we use to hide this GoPro camera but ours is not your ordinary move we're setting up hidden camera flower cams in tricky logging all of our stuff carefully and that's not all we'll be monitoring along the way we're going to know the journey that all this stuff is going to take and so to be able to track it we've got this a GPS device that will tell us every step of the way where all this stuff actually is and we're going to secretly put it in right there why all the secrecy well many of you tell us your move was a rocky and expensive journey so we want to get to the bottom of what might be going on a move from Edmonton Alberta to Comox BC was about getting a fresh start for one family you know this is like a good stuff Corinne Murphy and her kids are in their new home but it's dinner on the floor tonight their belongings still on route what are you most excited about opening we get our stuff tomorrow Karina doesn't have a lot of cash to spare so packs like long-distance moves are usually charged by weight I decided that I was only going to take the bare minimum of what I wanted and the things that were important to us for the kids the only name she figure she has about a one-bedroom apartment worth of stuff the movers she hires estimate that weighs one to two thousand pounds and they quote 1100 bucks I was excited in him because the quote that gave me was manageable for our budget we still had to pay for rent and first and last month and all that but before Corinne things arrived the movers tell her it's going to cost more I was floored I pretty much went shocked I couldn't believe what the price was the company she hires Atlantic Van Lines claims her move actually weighs in at over 6,000 pounds the new price tag more than 27 hundred dollars in weight charges alone they say pay up or forget about getting your stuff of panicking because I didn't have that money I didn't have beds for the kids nothing I had nothing and I had left them nothing now losing her things is not an option so Corinne turns to a crowdfunding site to raise money and so people click here and they can transfer some money to us to help us out she also writes to marketplace and asked us to investigate and we're just things that you just can't buy and so I knew that I would have to find a way to raise money to get it back and bring it back to us she's not giving up and the prediction inside her fortune cookie might just be the encouragement she needs but it says your hard work will soon pay off is that really funny and I hope it's true what Korean doesn't know is she's not the only one marketplace is talking to and I moved from Toronto to st. Catharines Ontario I moved from Thunder Bay Ontario to st. Catharines Ontario Ottawa Ontario two months in you birthday language British Columbia to Hammond plains Nova go ahead across Canada we speak to over 20 people shocked by the final weight and price of their move the price of my mousse increased almost $1,600 by about $750 by over $2,000 for them something's not adding up it really just seemed shocking that that amount of stuff that I move could weigh quite that much they wouldn't unload the truck until we gave them the money it was just all very aggravating and time-consuming of the whole I was very very stressed by the whole situation Jim Carney hears complaints like this all the time it's gone too far it's absolutely gone too far and as a result the moving industry in general is getting a horrific name for him it's personal he's been in the industry for 40 years started out lifting furniture now sits on the board of the Canadian Association of movers he also runs his own moving company how often is it happens that people get a quote the stuff gets there they get charged way more I've never seen it this bad as it is right now wife is so bad now it's just so easy for anyone to become a mover you don't need a special license all that you simply need is a nice-looking website a phone and a nice sounding voice at the other end of the phone and you're up and running how do you know that the wait they're saying it is actually is that way yeah you really don't you're trusting remover and you're trusting the mover with all your all your possessions all your heirlooms so who are we going to trust with our move okay I think that like others we look for a company by going online quick boat moving from Ontario to Alberta we check out some sites that promise to link you to the right mover and send quotes move size a one-bedroom apartment you tell them what you have they estimate what it weighs and what it will cost to ship ok get quotes lots of movers want our business and we get emails from 16 of them some of the lowest quotes come from the same three companies used by those folks with complaints I hired Atlantic Van Lines to believe online trillion Moving & Storage is there a pattern here we start digging and discover the companies are connected they're all one by the same couple Elena and mer at ball deck they're also directors of armored Van Lines Canadian moving systems and Troy transportation and get this a third of our quotes come from the ball decks various companies sure increases their chance of getting our business we choose Kingsway Van Lines when we tell them about all the stuff that we have they give us a quote of one thousand one hundred and twelve dollars [Music] steal some of these up I hate that darkness Stuart they're coming I'm leaving good luck thank you our stuff is ready to go and just in time the movers have arrived yes so the boxes and the furniture they load up our stuff including the box with the GPS inside our move is on its way the GPS starts tracking exactly where it's going but less than a minute in things seem to stall we go check it out but it's not our equipment that's malfunctioning yep that's our moving truck hood up less than a kilometer away a bumpy start to our cross-country journey back on the west coast Corinne's move is about to arrive thanks to her crowdfunding she's raised the money Atlantic Van Lines says she owes good luck to pay the bank drop inside I'm feeling relieved that I have my stuff the kids are very excited I feel drained emotionally by it I'm really Corinne's finally reunited with her belongings but she still believes she's being ripped off by over a thousand dollars is she right we don't let her unpack just yet that's because we've been waiting for this delivery - as soon as Atlantic Van Lines moves out we move in these movers are with us we've hired them to load all the Corinne's things back up so we can weigh them ourselves we're taking this load to an industrial way station these scales are government certified and check regularly for accuracy the truck was first weighed empty so we can measure how much heavier it is with contents inside where do I sign here Witter okay the weight of currents move 3400 pounds that's nearly half the over 6,000 pounds Atlantic Van Lines says her move weighs thirty four hundred pounds not six thousand he definitely not justified the original price that they gave me have that for the bad redfish none of this had Korean only been charged for ditch weight her cost would have been about $1,600 not over 2,700 I think that this company in particular should be held accountable for what they're doing so we if we can find them just a Shoppers Drug Mart at every address we check no luck and it's another Shoppers Drug Mart looking for answers on your marketplace if you had moving problems talked about them at facebook.com slash CDC marketplace marketplace is on the moon we packed up a one-bedroom apartment worth of belongings and hired moving company Kingsway Van Lines to ship it across the country our GPS is tracking the trip but two days in our things haven't made it very far the truck only traveled about 20 minutes from where we started it spent the weekend here that's our stuff sitting there in a movie theater parking lot for an entire weekend that's just unbelievable when we pick up a small shipment like us we come back here to the warehouse this is a secure facility is secure 24/7 security set nine cameras in the parking lot Jim Carney believes incidents like this give the moving industry a bad name he wants standards we're moving our stuff from Toronto to Calgary still don't have a move way so think that's unusual yes you should have a move wait within 24 hours of the shipment have been haven't been boarded should it ever happen that you aren't finding out what the wait is until moments before deliver it should not happen and and if they're finding out about it at that time and if the wait is far in excess of what they were told then they should witness a rescale so what's Jim think of our rescale of currents move and it was about 3400 pounds not the 6000 they were suggesting what does that say to you well that says that they need to be taken right out of the grade out of the moving business that's just horrible and if they're doing it to her then they're going to be doing it to other consumers as well consumers like odd we don't know that yet what we do know is exactly what our things way yes before we shipped it we brought it here another way station with certified scale Scott Barton is the scale master he records the weight of our truck both unloaded and loaded tickets for both weights are printed directly from the scale it's got okay Dave I do it good so what are we looking at your weight of your contents is 1,400 pounds do the tickets remover to look like this usually they'll always have the name of the company and when they French to take it out you get the date on there mm-hmm you get the time and the weight 1,400 rounds okay Scott okay so much in here take both of these tickets oh yeah you get one copy of it right there you go there you go much free holiday sir okay I'm here one all right I'll get it all right but it's been over a week since Kings weight kicked off our move but we still don't have a way ticket from them what we do have our hands on are these win tickets given to customers of Chilean and Kings way supposedly as proof of what something weighs three different moves over three different days over the course of an entire year but take a closer look all weighed at exactly the same time 749 and 17 seconds [Music] they're saying it exactly 749 and 17 seconds in the morning they weighed this move they weighed this move and they weighed misspoke yeah I can't believe that's just incredible absolutely incredible a mistake or something else we don't know but Jim wants more industry oversight when you see example like what you're talking about right now and moves that are going twice and three times the amount that was estimated I think you've got to involve the law any time you can so what's going to happen with our moves our things have made their way through the prairies and are now in Alberta Kings Way tells us they'll be at our storage locker in Calgary by 10:00 a.m. we're there waiting but ten o'clock eleven twelve o'clock goes by by the time they arrive they're 5 hours late so I'm sorry joined you feel like checking things off as they come off pull the pole ok disagreements over wait are nothing new for these guys are you about right really if you get people arguing about the wait a lot yeah we got they have a scale ticket for us to the final weight not the fourteen hundred pounds our scales found they say it's eighteen hundred and ninety nearly a 500 pound difference that's two hundred and fifty bucks the time on the ticket you guessed it seven forty-nine and seventeen seconds as for the day they say our move was weighed funny thing about that the same day we know our truck was in the theater parking lot the mover assures us if anyone's getting ripped off it's not us [Music] but they don't know the jig is already up [Music] time for answers how is it you are charging for more than the actual weight you say sometimes error his is your marketplace what you need to know before entire remover at facebook.com slash CBP market right this is your market class which our investigation into moving companies connected to Elena and Marat Valda has uncovered a trail of customers who believe they were ripped off when we hire them for our marketplace move we get overcharged by nearly 500 pounds so what do the Bulldogs have to say we share our findings and ask for an interview while they'll respond and writing they won't talk on camera but we want answers so we're heading to where they work Atlantic Van Lines contract says the company is in Pickering Ontario but when we show up at the address shut the shoppers yard mark same thing when we look for them at the addresses listed for Kingsway and Trillium and it's another soccer star mark finally we do find an actual office for another of their companies troy transportation yeah no one here either since we can't find them where they work Murat I'm David with CBC marketplace how are you we catch up with Murat buldak while he's out in downtown Toronto why is it the Kings way Trillium and Atlantic have multiple complaints that people get one wait before they move and end up being told is considerably more so you're telling me I'm ripping off people's Aunt Sally I am doing this on purpose by telling you that there are there are instances in which you are charged by more than the actual way why don't you go look at my nice customer that they say this company's awesome I move with them in fact we did reaching out to twenty who left positive reviews only one person responded and she says she reviewed too soon once it was delivered she had a list of complaints to still Murat insists his company is legitimately weighing people's moves but Murat you're telling us that it was weighed at the time it was in the movie theater parking lot but they can be arrow all the times and a true accident can happen yeah younger Stan I didn't want to be a ticket to open yeah it's the office but if the date is wrong yeah that doesn't mean that I didn't scare that stuff look what Brad ultimately here's the issue you're charging your customers will know your name again David comment David common I have to do a post I wish I could not be more alright but I really need to go so I'm gonna let you go I just have one question so are you charging more that you should know my car Nosa okay and I am always with to show my customers okay trust me the Baltics never do explain why the time stamp on four moves are the same what they do say is they stand by their own records treat their customers fairly and that errors in the moving industry happen but those errors can have a high cost for families like Corinne's I'm going to hold them accountable for what they're doing to families what they're doing to lots of people that probably feel like I do that they just wanted to get over with and just be done with it well I'm not done with that I'm going to hold them accountable for what they're doing see us from there oh yes my pistol this is for you for today though Corinne's focused on what's always mattered most building a future without having to give up the past replace yeah thank you kindly it was my parents in the weeks ahead we'll have this story online reviews we all rely on them but are they for real I was fooled by that and then I like to think of myself as an educated consumer we're searching for one of Canada's most popular online reviewers I personally seen numerous people leave 111 pounds during their first meet she sells hundreds of testimonials the problem is they're all fake I'm a certified financial adviser and I'm a designer and I'm a teacher we want to know why she does why do you do so many fake reviews aren't you misleading people I don't even know who you are get away from mic why won't you talk do I [Music]

Channel: CBC News

Views: 2,299,531

Keywords: CBC News, CBCNews, CBC broadcasting media, public broadcasting, news, Canadian News, Canadian Broadcasting Corportation (TV network), CBC News Network, movign companies, moving, move, moves, moving truck, moving scam, cbc marketplace, marketplace, marketplace cbc

Id: IUNsndIL1bg

Length: 22min 26sec (1346 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 13 2017