Canadian Reliable Vanlines

1) The movers came over 20 min late around 11:20AM on July 25th, 2019, took 10 min to look around and tried to bill us for their transportation time it took to get to our address saying this is company policy. I'm sorry but I have been around the business long enough to know that a move starts when the workers show up on the site ready to work, not for their drive to work! 2) The workers came tired, kept taking smoke breaks, and were wasting time at every opportunity they had. They said that they started at 6AM and that this was their second move as the reasons why they were so tired. Once again, this is not our problem, we are paying $140/hour for work, not to send us tired workers who don't have the energy to do the job! 3) The workers used strong packing tape by hand on almost everything including to close drawers and hold shelves together etc. I only use packing tape for boxes so I asked why they are using packing tape, they said it works great and is faster that way. 4) They packed the truck unprofessionally so that we couldn't fit our small two person row house contents in a single truck. They promised us that it would be faster just to come back for a quick 2nd trip to grab the lawn mover and a few other items than to try to squeeze them in one load. 5) The distance between the two houses is about a 10 min drive, 15 min max in traffic. They took almost an hour to get there. Now I understand that they have to stop to eat dinner between the locations but we are not paying them 45 min to eat lunch. When I used to work as a mover, I would pack sandwiches and eat them during the drive between the addresses not to waste any customer's time! At this point we got upset and made them aware of our frustrations. For their 45 min lunch and 20 min late arrival, they argued about their company policy to pay for transport time etc. but admitted some fault and agreed to deduct a half hour off the total bill (half of the time they wasted not working) 6) They quoted us just 3 hours for the unload (because we had my two friends helping now) until 8:30pm, we paid $1438.60 on top of our $200 deposit. 7) Around 7:00pm, they were barely moving and what look like purposely stalling. We offered them cold water all day and did our best to try to keep them motivated. They purposely stalled so that the last 40 min was just cleanup of their mats and truck, have a smoke etc. and they refused to go back for 2nd load as they had promised! 8) So on top of all the money we paid, we had to rent a small U-haul Truck to go back for the lawnmower etc. to finish the job this unreliable company could not do. 9) On top of the extremely poor moving experience, as we were unpacking our furniture and items over the days, we also noticed that the packing tape the movers used was not peeling off the furniture properly. The packing tape has done permanent damage to our very expensive armoir, shelves and desk etc.

Several emails with pics of the tape permanent damage to the furniture remain unanswered.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1638

The subject says everything.

DON’T HIRE THEM!!

Last friday was our scheduled moving day and we got some surprises.

The company contracted by Reliable Van Lines didn’t comply with what with previously talked about.

We tried to call the head office several times but we never got an answer.

The third party company said they spoke to Reliable Van Lines… So, at that point we didn’t know if he was lying or they were avoiding our calls.

First of all, big lack of customer service; The guy from the third party company was rude, not polite for a second, not professional, didn’t know what he was doing, couldn’t give me any additional informations and more.

He wanted to charged us 200$ for our one set of stairs. A price that wasn’t discuss before.

We live in a small 3 story building that has large staircase to move around and from there it’s a short walk to our appartement.

He said he had to repack everything (backpacks, bed frame etc, who was already wrapped at its maximum). Like BACKPACKS REALLY? We even left extra blankets and wrapping plastic. We have pictures to prove our good packing and to be honest we believe he simply wanted to make extra money on

Our back and we are far from being happy.

After several conversation with him, asking him to give us an estimate and not providing any, we asked him to leave.

He spoked to us like we were stupid, like it was our fault. (This is just the beginning.)

When Reliable Van Lines and I spoke, it was never mentioned that they were hiring another moving company to do the job.

It was never mentioned there's going to be an extra fee for one set of stairs.

It was never mentioned a bed frame needed to be in a box? Funny enough I was told it was totally fine just being wrapped up with plastic wrapping. Anyway, we discuss on how we packed prior and they said it was find.

Well guess what everyone? It definitely wasn’t. (Keep reading, the story gets better and better.)

All of this wasn’t about money at all.

If the guy from the third party explained himself correctly, have been polite and gave us a good customer service, I wouldn’t be writing this at the moment.

But again, he didn’t deliver AT ALL.

After all this, we kept on calling the head company: Reliable Van Lines. We sent emails, no replies. We finally managed to contact Matthew (the sale’s guy), he said

To call back during the week to speak with Steve. So we did.

With Steve it was a for sure « No you’re not getting your money back . ». He got all work up and of course my partner was too. We were so frustrated with how everything went. We wanted our money back but Steve wouldn’t want to corporate. Him and my partner got into what I believe to be some reasonable arguments on our ends but still we were the bad guys. Steve hang up. I then called back. He was already really furious with the previous conversation (same on our end), but all I wanted is to explained exactly everything that happened on the suppose day of the move. While I was explaining, he put me on speaker phone, started on purpose another conversation with a colleague, talking badly about us for me to hear. I confronted him saying: « Hello, I’m trying to have a serious conversation with you? How disrespectful and unprofessional this is? » He said he did it on purpose. He had something to say to everything I was mentioning. Again, like it was our fault and the movers were angels. He then explained to me that they are not obligated to give us any information about the fact that were hiring other moving companies to do the job. He also said that they’re not reachable during long week-ends (Well, why are they making bookings then? Why their third party company said to us that they just previously talked to them? None sense right?). He then started to explain to me what a Stat Holiday is. Like I was born yesterday! Then, he was explaining how his company works by hiring third party companies. « I’m not stupid, I know what it means, I’m just saying it was never mentioned and written on our contract. » I said. Steve then responded: «  I’m not saying you’re stupid but you might have some psychological issues. ». At that point, having him saying all that and not wanting to corporate, even if we kept on trying, we knew he wouldn’t want to reimburse us at all. We then finish the conversation and FOR NOW, it’s the end of it. We know we aren’t exaggerating. We have many witnesses that can prove the whole stories. This fight is just the beginning. Please save your time and book somewhere else. It’s not worth the money.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1150

I would have rated them minus 5 if I could. If you care about your healthy mental state, your furniture, your money avoid them at all costs. A move from Ottawa to Calgary in July 2020 - what to start with?...

1. They offer lower quotes compared to other companies to get you on hook. But rest assured they will charge you extra after "their" scale. In our case our stuff surprisingly added 1000 pounds compared to our 2 years ago move with the same things/furniture.

2. They never showed up in time, neither for pickup, nor for delivery. For delivery - they came the day after the time/day booked by themselves. For pick up - despite confirmed time by 5PM, no one showed up or bothered to call; all our calls to find out what was happening were going to voicemail. Imagine your state when you have a full house of personal staff, your move is booked for the next day and new renters are moving in the next day. Eventually they bothered to call at 10PM and showed up at midnight, thus breaking the night before the big move.

3. Many furniture items came in broken. Plus everything had a heavy cigarette smoke smell that took weeks to minimize. As per their instructions filed a claim for damaged items and guess what? Despite multiple followups by phone/emails we never got a reply from them re the claim (not speaking of any refund, but ANY reply).

That is if not to mention an absolutely poor customer service and unfriendly attitude when dealing with you. The company such as Canadian Reliable Vanlines should not even be on the market. Not believing a word from a few positive reviews here and doubting they're real.

As said 2 yrs before this move we had made another move, with a different company and that was a great experience (the company had mostly positive reviews on this website). So make a good research people and don't get fooled by their low quotes, as eventually you'll end up paying much more that the highest quotes given by other companies, plus broken furniture and lots of stress.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2135

Arrived a day early for the pickup when something happened to the originally scheduled truck, but that's far better than not arriving at all. Gave me 2 hours notice and I was ready in 90 minutes.

When I received the invoice there was over 500 lbs extra from the scales and therefore $700+ on top of original estimate. I had weighed everything in advance to keep it under 1,000 lbs. A reweigh would have been a pain as I was already in Orlando the reweigh would be in Ontario. Then I was informed that there would be no 30 days free storage in Orlando as promised. Things were not looking good.

I got hold of Matthew who was very reasonable and we negotiated $400+ off the extra weight and I accepted early delivery.

Everything arrived in decent shape. Drivers at both ends were very pleasant.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $2190

When I booked with Canadian Reliable Vanlines I was told that our stuff would be picked up and sent to us within a span of 5-10 business days and than on the pick up date I confirmed with the movers that it would arrive in 5-10 days. On the day before it was supposed to arrive I called to confirm that it was arriving the next day. This is when I was told that it would be another week because it was 5-10 business days from date of DEPARTURE not PICK-UP. I was never told this when I went with them, and I definitely did not receive an email or phone call saying that it had departed. To top it all off the salesmen that I was talking to to try and sort this HUGE miscommunication out was nothing but rude, unhelpful and unprofessional who ended hanging up on me.

Please do yourself a favour and go with another moving company but them. They are frauds and liars and will say whatever the can to make a deal.

By far the worst customer service I have ever received.

Move size: Studio Service cost: $1000

I hired these guys for my moms move to Florida back in September. Because the property was still in the building process we had to store her stuff. Daniel and Greg were really skilled at what they do. They managed to have a 75 year old woman (which you could imagine what she’s collected through the years.) packed up and loaded within the same day. We got our goods a few weeks ago and are overall satisfied with the service we got. Im usually not one for making reviews but when Mark asked me to upload a review on how they did I didn't hesitate. Thanks again!

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $6100

I would like to start off thanking Mark and the movers. From the first contact I had with Mark he was nothing but helpful, he made sure to inform me of everything and was respectful and kept in touch throughout the entire process and made everything a whole bunch easier for me. Everything was done very professionally and couldn’t have gone any better it was a great experience to move with Canadian Reliable Vanlines.

Thank you again to Mark and the movers !!

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2200

MARK was given multiple pictures of the pickup of a single item, its description. The location of the description as well as any other pertinent details to avoid any mistakes as well as to properly quote. Although his quote was NOT the cheapest I mistakenly went with his as he confirmed many many times that this would not be a problem.. The pickup was a disaster and the shippers came back empty handed and left myself and the shipping location empty handed and wasted ALL of our time. I am now being blamed for not setting this up properly and am being billed for wasting the pickup location companies time. I have yet to receive a return on my deposit. I will be sending the CANDIAN RELIABLE VANLINES an invoice for this disaster.

Move size: Office Move Service cost: $750