El Cheapo Movers Ltd.

They quoted $95 + tax to move old fridge out to curb and new fridge from basement to ground floor. Though told well in advance that fridges were to be moved, they gave no hint that pipe connections could be a problem.Sent two very nice guys who were unable to disconnect old fridge from metal pipe. Spent total of 20 minutes. Head office insisted on charging minimum 1-hour rate $95 + tax) for the 20 min. the guys spent accomplishing absolutely nothing. Asked for a break on the bill - - no break given.

Our move was in February 2010. The movers arrived at the end of their time window and set straight to work. Unfortunately, the move took twice as long as I was expecting, and for a number of reasons.

We lived on a one way street in downtown Toronto with moderate traffic at rush-hour traffic. I bought a parking stub for the truck so they could park across the street and avoid a ticket (knowing that El Cheapo policy was that customers handled any parking violations). I then left to pick up my car for the day and when I returned they had moved the truck closer to the building and parked halfway on the sidewalk. As a pulled up, a parking enforcement officer came trundling down the sidewalk and slapped an $80 ticket on the van despite my arguing with him. As a result, the van had to park on the road, but blocked the traffic that had begun to accumulate. They had to move the van six times to allow traffic to get by. This significantly slowed down the move. Not El Cheapo's fault, but made the day longer for sure.

The Lead Hand told me that I should have said I had mainly antique furniture as this has to be wrapped more carefully than non-antique items (thus contributing to longer duration for the move). The lady who booked us never asked if we had antique furniture and I never thought to tell her, but I appreciated the fact that they were trying to be careful rather than rushing to get the job done.

The Lead Hand was extremely professional and worked very hard. Of the two other guys with him, one young guy was clearly new but worked hard, and the other was older and did not work as hard. The older worker preferred to stand around and smoke while the others sweated it out.

The move took almost seven hours and more than double the anticipated time and cost.

I discovered later that they had badly scratched the top of my grandmother's antique dresser. I called then emailed the manager. He offered to 'make a deal': they would pay the parking ticket and I would forget the scratched dresser. I thought this was kind of unprofessional since I didn't feel responsible for the parking ticket. I ended up accepting the 'deal' despite my reservations.

Overall, the move was stressful. My intention in hiring movers was to make this a stress-free day, which it was not. Considering the company as a whole, the Lead Hand's professionalism and hard work of (part) of the team was ultimately offset by the shadiness of the manager's dealings.

I used El cheapo movers on August 3rd to move from a home in Pickering to an apartment. It was the best moving experience of my life. Brad K and Max S are exceptional young men and the best movers. They did an incredible job, were always positive and I had the whole apartment set up by the time they left. I have already recommended them to some friends.

Not only that these guys are punctual, they called in to check if they could come earlier. Due to elevator bookings I had to reject the idea so they came on agreed time. Daren, Eric and Georgie were true professionals and fun to work with. There was no furniture too heavy for them and they even helped me take apart one of the IKEA wardrobes that could not possibly be carried out.

These three guys moved our fully furnished 2 bedroom apartment in 3.5 hours. No travel time, fuel surcharge or other hidden fees were charged. Just plain work time.

All in all, amazing experience. Would recommend to everyone.