My experience with this company is the polar opposite of the 'testimonials'.
It's surprising and unfortunate, considering I based my choice of moving companies on reviews from "http://homestars.com/ab/edmonton/moving-storage". This company was one of the top 3; so the unprofessional and slow, slow, slow moving employees really surprised me.
[Also, we received a phone call yesterday, from a 'live person' representing this company, who asked us about the quality of our moving experience.
We mentioned that we were unhappy, and had complaints about the staff, and she told us to complain on the website and promptly hung up.]
Really, really, unprofessional staff here folks!!
3 men showed up on the appointed time (roughly) last Saturday, and got things sorted out with their truck for 20 minutes or so, before coming to the door. The supervisor introduced himself to my wife, and got a tour of the house and all the stuff that needed to be moved.
Of the 3 men, two looked to be fairly fit and healthy, but one looked like an elderly, sick and cachectic. As some time passed, it was evident that he was sick (perhaps a flu) as well ... to our surprise he was able to assist with the moving of some of the heavier furniture, but it seemed to take a toll on him, and he had to rest inside of their truck a couple of times. He was constantly wiping his nose, etc. throughout the day, contaminating everything that he was touching.
It's not cool to send someone who's physically ill to someone's house to touch all their belongings.
It's not cool that this person asks for some whiskey later on in the day either.
It's not okay that they disassemble furniture, and later don't want to put it back together again. They get paid by the hour right? (They seemed to be aware of the hourly fee, because they managed to pad their time up to 10 hours.)
There was an armoire that the supervisor said they had to take the top off of to get it out of our basement. Once it was at the new house, he didn't want to screw the top back onto it. Thankfully there was one guy who seemed to have a better work ethic, and he put the top back on for us.
(Funny thing is, I never had to take the top off the armoire when I put it in the basement a few years back. We didn't change the height of the ceilings or dimensions of the stairway leading out of the basement to the main floor. I also moved it down by myself!)
They took 10 hours to move us 2 city blocks away. That seemed like a horribly excessive amount of time. The supervisor mentioned that it was because our house was a bi-level and it just takes a lot of time to move stuff down stairs. Hmm. I moved myself 3 times in the last 3 years, and got a lot more done in a shorter period of time.
They refused to take my 50" inch plasma TV off of the wall in the bedroom, because it represented a possible risk to their well-being. ???
They aren't movers? They aren't used to TV's hanging on a bracket on the wall in homes? I ended up taking the TV off the wall by myself, while the ill employee watched; assuming that great risk and responsibly all onto myself.
They did move our piano for us though. They got it to the new house, but couldn't get it up the 8 stairs to the main floor.
They needed my help to move it up the stairs, which isn't in itself the problem. The problem was that they stated they were going to refund us the $150 moving fee for the piano and just leave it where it was if I didn't help. We could then hire piano movers at our convenience to get it up the stairs. (So we'd just have a piano wedged in the front door of the new house for a couple of days while we hired someone else to finish the move?)
The supervisor kept talking about how precise and methodical they were, how professional they were, how they took great care not to damage peoples belongings.
Well they managed to scratch quite a few pieces of furniture, and to completely break my daughters Ikea desk? Don't brag about it if you can't deliver!
They also refused to move our small barbecue to the new house? They wouldn't drive it 2 city blocks because there was a propane tank in the BBQ. We offered to take the propane tank out, but they managed to leave the BBQ behind at the old house anyway.
They also had insufficient tarp to cover the carpeting in the old house, so there was tons of mud and wet snow throughout the home that needed to be steam cleaned out.
So, would we use this company again? No way ... not for free, not under any circumstance.
Avoid these guys completely.