Ultimate Choice Movers

From beginning to end we were not disappointed in Ultimate Movers. The office staff always were polite and assisted us with all our questions and concerns. The movers were terrific. They wrapped all our furniture and nothing got damaged. The movers came a day in advance and packed up our whole house which was a 4-bedroom home. Awesome job!! We would highly recommend this company to you for future use. Regards, Josh

The booking process was great: they were flexible with pick-up locations, they provided moving materials (packing paper, boxes, tape, labels, etc.), and their pricing seemed more than fair to me. Most of the people working at their call centre are quite knowledgeable and helpful - one of the individuals that I was forced to deal with did not speak English very well and seemed new to the company so was a bit difficult to deal with.

On moving day, of the three people that came, Keith was by far the hardest working and most helpful. Another, Chad, was quite good as well. The third individual seemed like he didn't want to be there and didn't do much to hide that fact (which is fine, since I don't always want to be at work and he did not seem 100% health-wise - but it certainly isn't something I as a customer want to deal with).

Overall, they were efficient, friendly, and a pleasure to deal with (very honest with the time spent, and didn't try to tag us with things like fuel surcharges, extra costs for an extra pickup, etc.).

I would recommend them so long as you confirm with them before-hand that they can get an experienced crew in there.

Ultimate Movers did a move for us and put our things in storage for 1 week while we waited on our house to get finished. These people are professionals from top to bottom. Michelle allowed us to keep the blankets on our belongings while in storage at no charge.....THANKS! She also gave us FREE storage for the week. This helped us our a lot. Everything arrived back in good order except for a small mark on our side table which Michelle had fixed right away at no charge to us. This is a very honest moving company and I would be happy tell others that are moving the same. It is very hard to find a trustworthy reliable moving company but rest assure Ultimate Movers will not let you down. Thank you to all the crew that helped us!

Thank you to a fantastic crew that assisted us with our pack & move requirements. A great pack job done by great workers. Professionalism is surely seen through the work of the packers. The movers also were great. They wrapped all our sofa's and bed's in plastic and all our furniture was wrapped in blankets. They even used covers to keep our floor clean and from getting scratched. We would be thrilled to tell others of our experience with Ultimate Movers. Send a big thank you to all that was involved.

We are glad to have chosen Ultimate Movers to assist with our move. We were not disappointed in anyway with the service we received. Keith came and gave us a free estimation which fell within the amount quoted. Phyllis answered our many questions with ease. The crew took great pride in their work. We would not hesitate in recommending Ultimate Movers to anyone we know is moving.

Thank you for a job well done. Everything went as planned and the crew was a pleasure to deal with. Kept us laughing the whole day! All our items were protected and arrived with no damage. We will recommend your company to anyone we know is moving. Once again thanks.

ORIGINAL REVIEW - rating 6/10
(originally published Nov 23, 2009) - also, see Addendum below (Dec 10, 2009)

Overall, we were not that happy with our move experience with Ultimate Choice. We were really optimistic about choosing them given their great Homestars.ca review (9.6 when we moved), but unfortunately our expectations were not met.

Working with Michelle and Keith, the owners of the company, was great. Keith came by to do the in-home estimate and was kind and professional. Michelle had a great phone manner and was always courteous and prompt.

However, the move experience was a different story altogether.

Time issues:
The movers arrived an hour late. We tried our best to help them out, moving and dismantling things on our own, and bringing things from the basement and top floors to the ground floor so it would be easier for them to load the truck. Despite the estimate of 8 hours and one trip, the move still took close to nine hours, despite our efforts to help - and also required two trips. This surprised us as we had actually gotten rid of some of the things that had been counted in the estimate.

Mud tracked into house:
The movers did not come with shoe-covers despite the rainy day, telling us that they had to be pre-ordered in advance. If this is the case, then perhaps company policy should be changed - it is clear that if there is rain (and, sometimes, when it is dry), mud and dirt will be tracked into the house, so why not be prepared for this? It seems silly to have the customer have to “pre-order” shoe-covers for the movers. Unfortunately, as was expected, they did track a fair bit of mud onto our carpets, especially after it started raining that day.

Many smoke breaks:
The team took many cigarette breaks. I understand the need to smoke and the inconvenience of doing so in the rain, however, by smoking either a) in the garage with the door to the house open, or b) in the moving truck where our furniture was, we ended up with cigarette smoke everywhere during the move. Fortunately they were receptive to our requests about this issue.

Wet stuff:
One of our biggest annoyances was that a lot of our furniture and boxes ended up wet - not just covered in a few sprinkles because of the rain, but certain sections or patches were completely drenched. I don’t know how this happened but I suspect that there was a fair amount of water entering the truck somehow, or maybe pooling on the floor of the truck. We had sofa cushions, etc. that ended up quite wet.

Stuff not wrapped:
They took the time to wrap some of the bigger furniture items, such as our sofas and desks. I was pleased that they dismantled the beds and reassembled them at our new home. However, I was surprised that they did not take the time to wrap up our pictures, mirrors, etc. These things were simply carried out into the truck and strapped against the interior wall of the truck. Thankfully these things were not broken. However....

Nicks/scratches:
Unfortunately there many nicks and scratches in our items after the move was completed. There was no major damage to the furniture but we were quite surprised and disappointed, as we unpacked our items over the next few days, about how many new scratches had been introduced to our things from the move.

Movers:
The movers were pleasant enough. One of them seemed somewhat reluctant to work but the other two were both friendly and seemed experienced. They were receptive to our requests.

Security system:
One final note - we used several of the coupons for Ultimate Choice that were offered on Homestars.ca. The free packing kit and 20 free boxes were fantastic and the $50 off coupon was nice as well. However, we also wanted to take advantage of the coupon for the free security system installation, so we informed one of the staff members (Phyllis) of this. Unfortunately, 4 weeks after the move, we have yet to hear from the alarm company.

In summary, we had high hopes for this move experience, which were not met. It's nice that so many other Ultimate Choice customers have had positive experiences with them, but in the end we were not one of their happy customers.

ADDENDUM to review - rating 11/10!
Posted December 10, 2009

After reading our review in Homestars, Michelle from Ultimate Choice contacted us so we could elaborate on our problems with the move. She apologized on the behalf of the movers and the company for our ordeal, and immediately offered to compensate us for our carpet cleaning costs. She also arranged for a furniture detailer to come by, evaluate the damage to any wood furniture, and touch it up. Finally, she sent an upholstery cleaner in to shampoo our sofa and couch. She was, as usual, very professional about everything and I repeat that she has always been a pleasure to work with. We have been working over the last couple of weeks to resolve the issues, arranging an appointment for the furniture detailer to evaluate the damage and a second appointment to touch up the furniture. Michelle and I have communicated several times by telephone and email. I'm happy to say that we have received our cleaning compensation, and our follow-up experiences have been excellent. It's refreshing to see a company take such responsibility for their actions and we were very surprised and impressed with this followup. Well done! I would rate them as 11/10 for their follow-up, and I think they deserve an impressive final rating of 9/10. Thanks Michelle!

Thanks to all that was involved in assisting with my parents move. The readers should know that not only are you people movers you are all compassionate about the elderly. My wife and I were not able to be there during the move. Ultimate Movers sent out a special crew to do a full set up of our parents stuff including making their bed. That took a total load off all of us. I would like to send a big thank you to all that was involved and will surely recommend your company to anyone that we know that is moving. Take care and god bless each and every one of you.

We hired Ultimate Movers to assist us with 2 moves going into 1 home. Although it was a little confusing, Ultimate Movers did it with no problem. Thanks for a great service. We will be moving again in the new year and will call again to hire your service.

Thank you for a great move. We cannot believe how much care your company took with our belongings. They wrapped everything and the items arrived with no damage. I will be sure to use you again and recommend your company.