Trans Canada Movers

The salesman, Don, spoke falsely three times before pickup, telling me that TCM was the company to choose because it was their own men who would be picking up my belongings. On the day of pickup, VIP Moving, a Los Angeles company, arrived at my house.

Don did not make a contract available before the pickup. The contract was given to me by VIP movers after my belongings had been loaded into their truck. The space for the duration of the move was left blank. He was intentionally deceptive when he told me that only TCP employees would be handling my belongings, and by never telling me how long the delivery would take.

My pickup was August 11. On August 14, I sent Don my passport, temporary residency and my declaration of my belongings. On August 16, I sent him my exact address in Edmonton. When I spoke to him August 16, I asked him how long delivery would take, and he told me, “We picked up your shipment today.” He told me that delivery would take two weeks from pickup, and then started rambling on to change the subject. When I interrupted him to ask what he meant by pickup, he became rude and said it would be two weeks from that day, August 16. Shortly after that he hung up on me. Nothing that he told me in that conversation was true.

On around August 29 or August 30, two weeks after the alleged pickup on August 16, I called TCM and asked when my delivery would be. The assistant told me she couldn’t tell me that since my shipment wasn’t in the computer. This was done intentionally by the dispatcher, Emre, so that I wouldn’t find out that in fact, he had instructed his drivers to leave my belongings in the VIP warehouse when they did their pickup on August 16. This was clearly because Emre hadn't sent enough trucks down. So my belongings stayed in Los Angeles for another two weeks.

I left a message for Emre to call me but he never did. I called him and he told me he wasn’t sure what was going on, but that if Don had told me that my stuff was picked up on August 16, then it was picked up on August 16, and I would have it in two to three weeks. He spoke loudly and interrupted me constantly, but told me that I would have my things between Sept. 6 and Sept 8.

I sent Emre several emails asking for information on when my things had been picked up from Los Angeles, when they had crossed the border, and when they had left Vancouver BC for Edmonton. It took three emails and two phone calls for Emre to tell me that my stuff had actually been picked up in Los Angeles on August 25. But this was not true, since he also said that they crossed the border on Sept. 4. It's a three-day drive, not an eleven-day drive. My shipment actually left Los Angeles on Wednesday, Aug. 30, exactly two weeks after it was supposed to, and crossed the border on Sept. 1.

Emre also told me several times that this delay was my fault because they hadn’t had my exact address in Edmonton until after the drivers had left on August 16. This is a ridiculous story, because TCM offers 4 weeks of free storage in their warehouse in Vancouver if you aren’t ready to move in right away. Emre put the blame for his own incompetence as a dispatcher on me.

TCM never once contacted me to tell me delivery would be delayed. I had to contact them repeatedly. TCM did not honor Don's verbal promise that I would have my belongings two weeks after August 16. I finally received delivery on September 11, thirty-one days after pickup for a five-day drive. Two antique tables were significantly damaged and part of the leg of an antique secretary was broken off. An antique lamp marked fragile had a dent in the base.

Emre made a mistake when he didn’t send enough trucks to Los Angeles, but instead of contacting me, instead of hiring an outside firm to bring my shipment timely, he just kept being vague, bullying me when I called, telling me falsehoods and blaming me for the delay. There was never an apology, much less an offer to give me a discount for my inconvenience.

Trans Canada is not a member of the Canadian Association of Movers, and I was told that they get a lot of complaints about the company. Trans Canada is a member of the BBB, but does not live up to BBB accreditation standards.