Royal Van Lines, Inc.

This was a nightmare. First the movers did not arrive until 9:30 at night and could not complete the move. I had to catch a plane at 5:30 am. Arrangement had to be made to have people open the house. Then they forgot things. Calls to advise Royal Vanlines that items had been left behind were not returned! finally I found the drivers telephone numbers and called them myself.
Arrival Calgary. Arrangements made for delivery for Friday. Wednesday told they can not deliver. Very rude when I advised them I had arranged this two weeks ago. They refused to accommodate my confirmed date.
Furniture arrived on Monday. First thing worker did was put a hole in my newly painted wall(s). Most boxes were smashed, ripped, open, in horrid condition. Half my china was broken! as well as some antique pieces that were heirlooms. Frame for bed broken such that it can not be fixed. Frame on 2nd bed scratched and marked and as its a metal bed it can not be fixed. Missing legs to coffee table. Chrome side table's bottom smashed in. Missing lampshade for large modern lamp. Glass on art work smashed. Not just broken but smashed to bits even though extremely well packed. I had moved from Calgary to Halifax 15 months previously, packed myself , and NO broken items!!
Then to top it all off, I was charged more on my visa than I signed for. Calls to customer service before and after the arrival of goods were NEVER responded to. Finally I got smart and called the finance department and finally got the GM "Brock". No help given around the arrival of goods, the problem with furniture left behind and I expect not a good response to claim for broken goods. I would never recommend this company to anyone. The goods were not cared for, in fact were damaged. The customer service did not exist and there was no accountability from the GM when contacted. I could do pictures but they would look just like the pictures on another review.

My employer relocated me from Toronto to Vancouver and while searching for a moving company (an experience that I wasn't really comfortable with in the first place), I was assured by Emma, the Sales Representative, that my items will arrive before the 4th. Let me tell you my story/nightmare... the movers were on time and did manage to get my items from both locations (Mississauga and Toronto) in 11 hours, and there were no racks for my clothes, which made them crumpled and requiring dry-cleaning. When I asked the movers when should my items arrive because I was told that they would be shipped out the next day, they laughed and said that that won't happen and admitted that they have only been employed with the company for 2 months and 6 months... makes you feel REAL comfortable knowing these are the ones responsible for your posessions. I arrived early in Vancouver to paint my new place so that the walls would be dried before my items were scheduled to arrive. After a delay of 3 days, I called the RVL office and no one had any answers for me.
Finally after reaching Emma and being openly upset about my items not arriving, she got defensive and started shrieking about delays are expected, increases in labour costs, etc. Pretty much not respecting my anguish or distress.
My employer paid for my relocation and I thought that going with a smaller company than a larger one was a better idea, now I have egg on my face.
When my items arrives, they lost my mattress and at least 8 items were damaged, which included fiine art pieces. When I called for a status update in regards to my missing mattress and items being damaged, no one at the time was taking any form of accountability or responsibility, all I received was "Not my problem, it's out of my hands, etc". It was an experience that made me of being sick to my stomach that a company could be so dismissive of you and your posessions. I will advise that you pay more and get better service with a larger moving company with a 24-hour service department (where time zones are not an issue) and where it won't take a month or more for someone to handle your claim.
After writing my initial review more than a week ago, Brock contacted me and within 36 hours my mattress was found a delivered a week ago. I have to admit that I though when I heard "You will be on the top priority list, etc" that I thought it was not true, but he proved me wrong.
Even though I am thankful for Brock's efforts, I did not hear anything about one more missing item (the board for my bed) and my damaged items. I am sure they will get back to me, but in regards to the response time from my initial complaint to obtaining my mattress, I decided to move my initial rating from a 0 to a 2.

We booked this company to move from Halifax, NS to Waterdown, ON. This is our third interprovincial move, and by far this was the most disastrous! The movers showed up 6 hours early and started putting things in boxes arbitrarily. I had arranged with the company through Emma, the sales representative I dealt with, that I would be charged $35/hour plus materials for whatever I wanted packed. All I asked to have packed was our glassware. Instead, a number of items were thrown in boxes, as well as the glassware. Also, they didn't have the necessary materials with them, so went to the convenience store down the street and took a stack of free local newspapers. This is what our stuff was wrapped in. They also boxed up our 40" LCD TV. At the end of all this, we found out that instead of $35/hr, we were charged $1200 - a "partial packing" fee!! This covered three movers, who packed our glassware and two additional boxes (who took all of 2 hours to do this). So how they came to $1200 is beyond me.

On arrival in Ontario, most of the stuff that they had packed (and charged us through the nose for), was broken. This included a lot of glassware and the 40" LCD TV. We also had a number of items that did not show up. After repeated attempts to contact the company I was put in touch with the general manager (Brock). He asked me to submit a claim and go from there. I submitted a claim, including documentation with photos of everything that had happened. After more than six weeks, we have yet to find out the status of that claim. I spoke with Brock this week, who assured me things would be dealt with and have yet to hear anything. The most frustrating part is how it is physically impossible to get anyone on the phone. We have left messages everyday for the last few weeks and still have not even received the courtesy of a phone call back. They got their money, and couldn't care less about any kind of customer satisfaction (or even common courtesy). I am beyond livid with the lack of compassion this company has displayed. I would NEVER recommend this company to anyone.

So far we have paid $7300. We have no idea what the status of our claim is. My advice - do not hire this company, and if you do, do not let them pack a thing! They will overcharge you, and likely do a lousy job.

This company made an already stressful move across the country even worse. First off my move was accidentally cancelled by the office without our knowledge so we waited an entire day for our items to be picked up but no one ever showed. We then called the office on Monday (our pickup was on Saturday and the office was closed) and they had no idea why our move had been cancelled. They rescheduled for the following Saturday. The pickup went fine. We were told that the items would FOR SURE ship out on the 15th. We called to see when our items would arrive and we were informed that our stuff had still not been shipped out (it was the 21st). We called back a week later and our stuff had finally shipped on the 25th. Ten days after they were supposed to. Meanwhile I was in Toronto living in an empty apartment with absolutely nothing but a suitcase to live with. I had to purchase items I already had but were still en route to Toronto because I was without my items two weeks longer than I was originally told I would be. We finally were called on the 4th telling us that our stuff had arrived in TO and that we needed to be there the next day from 1-3 or we would not get our stuff. My mother had to come in from out of town to be there for the movers because I was in school and could not miss my class. The movers did not arrive until five. Upon arrival the movers were quite rude. Told me that they had to charge $150 for the five stairs that they would have to climb (something that was never mentioned in the many phone conversations to the office). We also asked to see the contract as the final price was higher than expected. He refused to let me see it. He did however, force me to sign the inventory list before I even saw my items claiming that it was "policy" and that I would not get my items if I refused. After signing they quickly unpacked. I noticed two items that were missing as well as a microwave that was smashed and a shelf that was dented to the point it would not stand up. I pointed this out to the movers and because they were running late they said "not my problem, call the office". Unfortunately because the movers were late and it took so long for them to unpack, the office was closed. I will be calling tomorrow but having dealt with the office numerous times already and have been quite disappointed with the service they provide I will be surprised if they will do anything at all.

I have never been so disappointed with a service. There are a lot of moving companies out there, I am surprised that they are allowed to get away with such awful service and poor communication. I have to do several more moves in the next few years and I assure you I will never go with this company ever again and I would never recommend this company to my worse enemy.

My husband and I were relocating our family from Nova Scotia to Ontario and needed to be set up before the beginning of the school year. Royal Vanlines was extremely helpful on arranging a quick pick up, and delivery to our new home.We had a few issues with lack of communication between the pick up drivers and myself. But having phoned numerous times over the last week, the issue has been resolved. Thanks to Brock for finally helping me get these issues resolved. Might i also add the delivery guys were fantastic.

Calgary, AB to Halifax, NS move
I used www.canada-movers.ca which initiated a series of emails/phone calls from various van lines offering $/lbs. moving rates. Royal Van Lines came in with a higher $/lbs rate than most ($0.95), but by doing a search of moving company reviews and looking at their average score of about 8/10 on Homestars (It seems to have dropped to 7.5 now) and an A- rating on BBB Business Review, I felt confident that this was the company to go with. I paid a $200 deposit in early June, booking our move for July 27th. At the end of June I emailed Matthew (the sales representative at Royal Van Lines) of the exact destination address. I received nothing back from him. I believe I then called in to confirm the actual destination address. My memory is foggy as to whether I actually spoke to someone or just left a message, but I thought everything was ok. I also asked how long it would take for delivery, I was told 10-15 days, as I was worried that our stuff would arrive before we made it to Halifax as we were driving across the country in our own vehicles.
Leading up to the actual move, I called a few times to confirm everything was going smoothly and to try and get a time of day for our actual pickup. I was told that I would get a call the day before from the actual van line in Calgary that was affiliated with Royal Van Lines (also known as North American Moving). The evening of July 26th, I received a voice mail message saying that I had to call back to confirm that I still needed a pick up on the 27th and that if I didn’t call back, the truck wouldn’t be showing up. The movers showed up around 3 pm on the 27th, I wish I could remember the name of the company in Calgary, but Jay was the crew boss. They were very nice guys and loaded everything up without incident, quickly. They said it would probably take 10-15 days to get across the country as well. I felt good about everything.
A few things to mention about pickup as actually talking with Royal Van Lines regarding what you need to do prior was fairly useless. Essentially, the movers need to see and pack everything. They will arrive with blankets to wrap things in (free of charge), but for loose weird stuff, you will need wardrobe boxes and bags to wrap things up in as trucks and warehouses are very dusty. The trick with this is that you can’t pack the boxes or the movers withdraw any responsibility and will mark anything that you pack on your own as Owner’s risk/Owner Packed/Unknown Condition. The movers will have bags, wardrobe boxes, tape, mirror containers, etc, on hand, but hopefully they have enough (our movers ran out of wardrobe boxes).
I arrived in Halifax on the August long weekend and gave Royal Van Lines a call on August 7th (11 days since pick up) to see how things were progressing and when we would be expecting our shipment to arrive. At this point Royal Van Lines told me that our shipment had not arrived in Ontario yet and that it missed the truck headed to Halifax, thus the estimated time of delivery is the end of August. Since then I’ve been routinely calling Royal Van Lines just for updates.
I called again to see if there was a set date as I figured the address confirmation meant things were actually in motion, but no, our stuff would be shipping soon and should arrive anytime between August 26th and 29th.
August 29th, still no call. So I call Royal Van Lines again and I’m told that I should see my shipment either tonight (29th) or if it gets too late, tomorrow morning. The truck arrived around 7 pm, where we had to pay up front before anything came off the truck. 95% of our items were in good shape.
Royal Van Lines needs to improve their customer service just a bit to make themselves a 10/10. Better communication with regards to packing up, pick-up dates, and delivery would go a long way to appeasing the average customer.

My husband and I moved from Oromocto NB to Winnipeg MB. We had several complications with getting our stuff to us and had to live in our home without our stuff for quite awhile. Finally, after writing a horrible review I got the manager of customer services to contact me. She helped us out in getting our stuff here and a $700.00 discount for being so late. The people that handled us at the Royal Van Lines desks were kind and understanding, but the company definately needs to focus on getting their schedules intact and be on the same page. Customers want their stuff fast and efficiently as well as have good service. You have the good service down, just work on your trucks getting our stuff here when you say.

They scheduled the move from 9-11 and the drivers arrived at 1pm. When I called to complain, customer service was horrible and they basically told me that I should have expected the delay and I can either cancel the move now or just put up with it. I then found this website and left a horrible review, justifiably so, and got a phone call shortly after. The manager basically agreed and reimbursed me with $100 and asked me nicely to remove my review. I decided to edit it to something more positive because the movers were nice and hard working. However, once the loading was completed, I drove to my new house only to find that they had driven to the wrong address which took them 2 hours and it would take another 2 hours for them to drive back. Once the move was completed, it took a full 12 hours instead of the initial 6 hours max. Not only that but they billed me incorrectly and charged me with the deposit again. I had to call up the manager again in order for me to resolve the matter. I hired the movers to ease my stress with the move but it compounded my stress even more. The whole process was time consuming, stressful and had it not been for the manager Steve who was helpful, I would leave this review at 0.