Metropolitan Movers

They quoted us 3.5 hours and $800. They took 10 hours and charged $2400. For a one bedroom apartment and a 2 min drive down the street. Given all the standing around, I have to believe their business model is based on deliberate delays to scam people.

Here’s the full story:

They sent three men to move a 700 square feet one bedroom apartment to a two bedroom literally down the street. All they had to do was move the furniture. We had moved most of the boxes ourselves the day before specifically to save money and make their job easy.

One guy wrapped everything, even a fabric box of towels while the other two stood around in their truck. At $180/hour I expect professionals, yet none of them seemed to know what they were doing.

I even made 8 trips with my wagon to bring things over myself because it was taking so long. And every time I'd get back (40 min round trip walking) nothing had changed. The same stuff was still sitting in the hallway and not on the truck while two men were standing around. My husband was carrying things up the stairs himself because they were standing around. When I went back that night to give a final look at the old place, boxes had been left behind that I then had to move myself.

Our building manager came to complain multiple times about how slow they were because they had the elevator out of service for six hours (they are only allowed it for two hours).

They disappeared for an hour to "get coffee." We were charged for that.

They took ten hours to move a one bedroom apartment down the street! My husband and I have moved ourselves before in only a couple hours but hired movers for convenience. They were nothing but an inconvenience! They wasted our entire day and we did the majority of work ourselves.

No call or email or invoice from the owner to discuss the charges or get the okay to bill for 3X their quote. $2400 for a one bedroom apartment and the manager didn't question that!!! This in itself is unacceptable.

Based on how slow they were moving, I have to believe they intentionally slowed down so they could over charge us. I will be reporting them to the Better Business Bureau.

Oh, and they didn't stabilize the China cabinet when they left it in our new apartment and it fell and nearly crushed me later that day. If it has been my daughter, she could be dead.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2400

I would NOT recommend using them. I just had a nightmare of a move last night. Not only were they 2 hours late, but they left a massive scratch on my bedroom flooring due to mishandling of furniture.. and because I didn't spend an extra $200 on their insurance they aren't liable. It's going to be difficult for me to love my new home when it's literally the first thing I'll see when I get up every morning. Their services also didn't come cheap. I paid $740 for 3 hours (3 movers).

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $740

I highly recommend this moving company. Right from the first phone call until the movers finished their work, I was pleased with everyone I had contact with.

The reminder call the day before was helpful as was the question about wardrobe boxes as I had forgotten to request these. The “wake up” call an hour before arrival is a great idea.

The gentlemen who arrived were friendly and efficient. They were courteous and polite. They did an excellent job moving us from one city to the next.

I have no hesitation to recommend this company.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $450

By far the WORST experience I've ever had with a moving company. They damaged our floors, our walls and our fridge and refused to acknowledge it. They told me on the phone they have "a good reputation and fantastic movers"..funny how since a week before our move, they did my friend's and damaged his fridge as well. I will NEVER hire them again. Blatantly disrespectful, and told me the damages were already there "before any move had occurred" If so, I asked to see pictures and they could not provide me with any. We also had to buy a new fridge! Unnacceptable! Do not hire!

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1200

We had used this Company in 2014 and were impressed with the service. We recently moved into a storage unit . I requested the same crew which I was told they were available and booked. Moving day it was not the same crew which caused disappointment from the get go. They were very hard workers but they lacked stacking skills in the truck and storage unit. They did not take the care that I would expect. My husband was there asking them to stack and sort in a way that made sense but they rushed and just basically dumped everything into storage unit. Very disappointed in the service.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1600

Backstory got moved from Warden and Sheppard to Burlington storage unit by another moving company it took three hours cost $500. These guys were busy so we had to go with different Movers I phoned Hamilton movers and I think they sub it to Metropolitan Movers, they call me the night before and say between 9 and 9:30 a.m. we get down there before 9 and they don't show up until 10:15, they brought a large truck for some reason even though I told them it was a 20 by 10 storage locker and the truck has a lift system on the back so they would stack everything on the lift system and then it would slowly bring everything up to the truck these guys were in no rush whatsoever, but since we were just going from Burlington to Hamilton into our new house I thought there's no way they're going to be more than 3 hours but sure enough the bill ends up being $835 even though another moving company only charge us $500 to go three times the distance with the same amount of stuff . these guys are very slow and don't speak English. It was very stupid and im just glad its over It's just too bad they act like this is how it is, but its not if you want repeat business. 100% don't hire Metropolitan Movers or Hamilton Movers.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $836

I can't even begin to tell you how far off page this company is.  Their call center agents answer the phone without introducing themselves, their managers do not call back to resolve issues, and they directly told me something which was not true.  Not to mention that the website for Calgary Movers makes no mention of the fact that it is in fact Metropolitan movers, a company with far worse reviews.  Our move experience started sunday september 15th.  Based on the online reviews, I called the number for 'Calgary Movers'.  Their ph# is 1 (888) 840-9548.  There, I spoke to Melissa, and gave a preliminary summary of the move - that we were trying to sell appliances, so hope not to have any for the move to a house and another address. As I didn't have the other address, I agreed to call back and finish setting it up on monday.  We booked a crew for Sunday, with the understanding that if appliances were still there I would be charged 45$ per appliance and 180$ for moving the piano. I called back monday, gave the other address, advised that the appliances were unsold as yet, that I don't think the piano would sell.  They told me to let them know friday if the appliances and piano were unsold, that they would look at discounting the appliance cost.  We confirmed the appointment for Sunday september 22 at 10am, understanding that if I cancelled they would charge me 100$. Thursday I was contacted by the move coordinator.  He was going to be the one doing the move.  He sent a form contact letter, seeming to think there were two pickup and one drop off location.  I corrected this with him - telling him there was one pickup and two drop off locations. Friday he contacted me again by phone.  He wanted to get an understanding of the size of the move.  I listed off the top of my mind, still no sale for appliances, piano, pool table.  I sent him a list by email.  He asked about stairs, I confirmed stairs on delivery side, as well as on pickup side for some of the items. I received no response to my last email, and assumed they had all the details they needed. Christian, the move coordinator, had arranged to come by at 5pm on saturday (to look at the size of the move) and I was running late, so I sent him a text warning him, asking to postpone to 5:30 -6:00pm. At 5pm saturday night, I was contacted by 'drew' by phone.  He told me they couldn't find the equipment necessary to move our piano the next day, that he had been trying all day to fix this for me, but hadn't come up with a solution.  He apologized for the inconvenience, and said his shift was ending.  He suggested I call in to talk to him Sunday morning. I began calling around, and arranged someone to move the piano that night at 7-8pm for 195$. Christian sent me a text at 6pm saying that he wasn't the one doing my move anymore, that head office would contact me. I texted him back saying that head office had not mentioned any other mover, asking if he had an after hours contact number for them. He replied telling me that he can't do that sort of move, that his knees are shot and he was told it was a normal move at first.  That head office would take care of me. Essentially, though head office told me they didn't have necessary equipment for the move, the truth is that they never told their mover about the appliances etc when booking him, and when he found out he said he couldn't do it. Sunday morning, no movers showed up. I called them again that morning, told them nobody had shown, that I was never informed that my move had been cancelled.  I asked them how they could compensate, that I could schedule a move for wednesday.  They offered to give 5% off the move, discount the hourly wage of four movers to 160$ and waive the cost of moving the appliances. I told them I would call back with a decision. Monday I called back and agreed to book them for 3pm wednesday.  I asked for an email confirming the offer. They sent an email listing no appliances being moved, no  % discount, just three movers at the then agreed upon rate of 130/hr. I called back tuesday repeatdedly, getting incorrect emails a total of three times, and requesting a manager callback. I finally spoke to drew again, who sent me an email listing three appliances moved free (still not correct, as they were aware of four appliances), the 180$ charge for pool table, the hourly rate and 5% discount.  I told him that I had forgotten to list the organ in our original conversation, that prior to sunday they had advised they would charge for it as an appliance.  I asked that they move it without an extra charge as well.  Drew refused, saying they were already doing too much, and told me he had been reviewing call recordings of my conversations with melissa. He implied that the entire situation was my fault. I exploded at him, told him that they were not taking the situation nearly seriously enough, detailed their failings at length, then told him I would probably cancel the move, that I definitely expected no charges from them and hung up.  I called back later to confirm the cancel after I had booked a different company for the move.

Service cost: $1700

We hired this company after reading good reviews, but now after the fact, have realized that all of those reviews are obviously fake. (Just take a read of the reviews on their website- they are all written with the same poor grammar and same choice adjectives -"perfect").
 
The movers arrived almost 45 minutes late, and did not call to let us know that they would be arriving late. This is NOT a minor thing, especially when you are being charged to book the elevator.
 
The movers were to move the contents of a 750 square foot condo. To save time, I moved ALL of the small boxes and small items out of the condo myself, with friends. There was only 1 couch, 1 bed frame, 1 queen mattress and box, one small dining room table and 4 light chairs, one TV and stand, a desk, and two night tables. Basically the contents of a very minimal 1 bedroom apartment.
 
This move took them 5 HOURS TO COMPLETE. They were obviously stalling- we would often see them standing around the truck, or just waiting in the elevator. We even began moving things ourselves because they were taking so long. They were also extremely careless with items, and I personally witnessed them banging furniture into walls. They didn't the mattress or box spring at all either.
 
At the end, we also asked them to move out a couch (junk removal), from the new place. The paperwork they handed me earlier had a section to mark off for any junk removal that was done, but they crossed that out and asked me for cash to move it.
 
All in all, completely UNPROFESSIONAL, time-wasting company. A simple move was turned into a long, annoying, expensive and upsetting experience.
 
WOULD NEVER USE THEM AGAIN, nor recommend them to anyone.

Service cost: $576

Details of my Moving Experience (North York location experience):
Let me preface by saying, you would do a much better job of moving by yourself than hiring these people. Prior to my move with Metropolitan Movers, I emailed the owner a detailed and thorough list of all my furniture with the dimensions to the best of my ability so I can be quoted most accurately on the cost for my moving job. I was quoted 3-4 hrs max. The job took over 9.5 hrs and yes I was charged for the full 9.5hrs.

Quality of Service:
+From the beginning of the move, the 2 men sent for the job were unprofessional: they kept fighting in front of me, and flirting with the customer. I had to reschedule the elevator with great difficulty since I missed my reserved window, needless to say how frustrating and almost impossible that process was.

+ The owner knew this job was not getting done right and in a timely fashion - he showed up at the scene. The movers showed up to the new condo 3 hours late. The owner mentioned they were newly hired – which explains the lack of quality provided. The unloading process started to drag. Elevators that were reserved for the move started to smell like weed.

+ I had to call family members to come help me with the move as it was getting late.

+ END RESULT: moving day began at 9am and ended way past midnight with close to $2000 of damaged furniture.

Major Mistakes:
+ I was wrongly quoted for this moving job, despite my thorough email with all items to be moved -- a mistake on the owner's part that he needs to take accountability for.
+The hired movers were unprofessional in their behaviour and the way they handled my furniture.
+ The movers broke the following items: the display panel of my TV - I got a third party professional company come to certify that the damages were caused by the movers and that my TV is irreplaceable and cannot be fixed. See attachment for pictures. They broke half of my wine glasses, book shelves, and the legs of my wardrobe so the whole thing collapsed. All of these damages cost me close to $1500 to replace. Proof for all damages can and will be provided in court.
+ Worse of all: the receipt I was given was supposedly the contract. I was lied to, and cheated by the mover – he checked off all the boxes on the bottom that covers Metropolitan Movers from any damages without my consent!!
+ I tried to resolve this with the owner the very next day and was blown away by his lack of cooperation and responsibility for his movers' actions. If you make a mistake you take accountability for it. He stated that he already processed the payment through his insurance and there is nothing he can do about it.
+ I want my money back. I want all damages to be paid for as well, and I will fight for it and more.
+ I also feel like Metropolitan Movers falsely advertise themselves online - what you read on the website in terms of quality of service and accuracy is far from reality and is very misleading.
+ And yes I plan on suing them.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $783

Reliable Move, The movers did a great job. From the sales rep in the office to the workers on the truck everything went smoothly. Great customer service! These guys went beyond my expectations. They showed up on time and they were so pleasant. My furniture was delivered on time and I was very content. I've moved twice in the past and I've never got such great service. This company did everything that every moving company should do. Thank you, I would be more than happy to be a reference for your company.

Service cost: $550