Able Moving Ltd.

Sept 3rd – Able movers assures of pickup to occur in the afternoon between sometime around noon and three. Truck drivers arrived at 7:00 pm. They were inconsiderate and were generally rude. It should also be mentioned that they were not AbleMovers, instead they were a company named Atlantic2Pacific, a sub-contracted company by AbleMovers to complete long hauls. This had not at any time been explained by AbleMovers. Concern lead to our call on Sept 4.
Sept 4th – Called Able movers to confirm delivery address with movers, as it appeared that they mistakenly thought that the delivery was to be sent to Edmonton not Calgary. Able could provide no method of contact with the driver. Provided a number for Sean (of AbleMoving) to confirm a delivery location however whether or not that message made it to him is unknown as he never returned the call or message. He also never returned my messages that came after (the 5th, 6th and 11th).
Sept 4th to Sept 5th – Attempted to track down Atlantic2Pacific company numbers. All numbers provided by this company were disconnected (no valid number or company address to be found).
Sept 6th – No word from Able, about the company, the truck, or my concerns.
Sept 10th – Phone call placed to AbleMovers. The shipment situation was explained and the person who answered said they had not heard about this shipment before. He explained he understood the difficulty of the situation and apologized profusely and that he would get back to us immediately (our call was never returned).
Sept 11th – Phone call placed to Able Movers. Jasmine answers the call. She is unable to contact Sean and provides no guidance on the issue (Sean is the only one that can help here). Missed call from Jasmine at 12:41 pm (message left). She states in her message that she did not get any answers and will keep trying Sean, she will call again on the 12th to confirm the details of her findings.
Sept 12th No phone call from Jasmine, Sean is not returning calls.
Sept 13th Spoke to Jason (of Able Movers) at approximately 7:15 am (Alberta Time), he states that he was on vacation and will look to get to the bottom of the issue and call back in 10 minutes. After an hour I called back about getting information on this dilemma at 8:15 am. Jasmine answered the phone and stated that Jason has left the office and that she still does not have any information regarding the shipment from Sean, and that she doesn’t know where Jason went.
A call is received from Joel of VanLines (yes if you’re counting that’s now two other companies that I had no idea I would be dealing with) who says that he will only accept $3000.00 on delivery CASH or our parcels and shipment will be dumped at a station and it will be our problem to get them. We have an hour to get the money and then he is headed to Edmonton and we can deal with getting the truck after that.
I immediately called AbleMovers about the situation. Jason claimed “this is not how we do business, and as mentioned, the cost is $2000.00, and does not have to be paid in cash.” Obviously given the history up to this point Im extremely dissatisfied with the circumstance.
Finally we hear from Sean (of ablemoving), who begins to yell at my wife Sarah “We won’t unload until you pay-us.” Sarah was forced into signing the release form where she scratched out the “in good condition notation” as it was sight unseen payment on the parcels. Her only option when Joel arrives with the truck is to sign as they threatened to leave with our goods and it would be up to us to get our belongings (it was heading to Edmonton that same day).
Joel of VanLines (on arrival with the truck) explained his aggravation and why he was rude over the phone. The truck (which had only 2 of the 4 person crew that had originally taken the vehicle from Ontario to Alberta) was found only after he had been looking through way-bills and invoices and found that a truck (our “missing” truck) had been sitting in his yard (in Calgary) for days. He mentioned that his friend/cousin had called him and asked that he “do him this favor and deliver the truck”. When he opened the truck he was appalled stating “I have never seen such a poorly packed truck in all my life, this is the worst I have ever seen. The company is absolutely the worst I have ever seen and I have been doing this for my entire career. I’m not supposed to allow you to come up into the back and take pictures but I’m sure things are damaged.”
The girl in charge of the shipment (was the one that was to tag and categorize the numbers) was missing, parcels were everywhere, and no one was certain of what was whose (they were unloading other peoples furniture into our place). The truck that was given to Joel was a mishmash of peoples things thrown about and required the weigh bill and items listed be counted (twice) and marked off as they were taken since everyones boxes were scattered throughout the trailer
Jason could not be reached at any time during the unloading, he returned no calls. Sean demanded that it was a money order only no if and or buts and that we deal with it. This was in defiance to what Jason assured us was not the case.
Sept 14th
Spoke to Jason of Ablemovers and notified him that I had sent an email depicting the amount of damages (large items) that have been noted to date, but that most of the boxes had not yet been opened (sales@ablemoving.ca). The email also stressed the urgency of resolving this issue as well as the fact that parcels damaged have not yet been totalled (total loss) 8:33am (10:33 am Toronto time).
- Damages included broken bed frame, destroyed futon, broken dishes, broken kitchen ware, broken picture frames, broken dining set and cracked/bent chairs, broken wrought iron wine rack, clothes infested with cock-roaches (which was not the case when the shipment was packaged), the list goes on, and the pictures speak for themselves.
Sept 18th 2013. Spoke with Jason from AbleMovers: he mentioned “I will be honest, I have never seen a case as bad as this before, we will need to begin putting all of these things in writing. I am currently speaking with the owner of the moving company we sub-contracted and we are investigating and replying in full to the detailed email that you had sent before”
Sept 25th 2013. Phoned and asked where Jason was in terms of the negotiation with his companies owner. He replied “we will produce a claim receipt to you via email by this Friday”
- The claim was never delivered on the Friday
- Calls to AbleMovers on Friday and Saturday were not returned
Sept 30th 2013. Jason answered the call, said he was in the middle of a sales meeting and would call back
- Never returned the call
- I called back and was told he had left for the day
October 1st, 2013. Jason answers his cell phone, tells me that he didn’t want to send the offer because it wasn’t going to do anything but infuriate me. Mentioned that the owner is under the position that they are not responsible for the damages and that since extended coverage was not taken they are only required to provide 60 cents on the pound for items damaged.
October 10th, 2013. Jason sends an email with what they are willing to pay for all of the damages. Total amount = 236.00 (this is based on an email where I explicitly stated that I had only just began to tally total damages).
At this point, I pursued my options with my insurance company. Was told that it would be best to wait and negotiate with the company as my policy did not cover parcels “in transit.” A more inclusive and up to date account of damaged parcels was sent on November 28th to AbleMovers, who never returned an answer to the email.
Called on January 6th about not having heard from their company and was told by Jason that his vacation was until January 8th and that he would call me at that time to go over the complaint. He never returned any calls, or additional emails that were sent to the company.
Janurary 14th and still no word from AbleMovers.
Do NOT use this company, they are untrustworthy and will say just about anything to get you off of the phone. I have been promised time and time again from Jason that he will get back to me, and he never does. All of our conversations are based on me calling until I get a hold of someone at the company. They claim to be in good standing with the BBB, this is clearly only due to the fact that more people haven’t gone through the process of filing a formal complaint against them. This company is a complete joke, they breached contract, demanding cash and use third party movers whom they accept no responsibility for. You are better to simply burn your processions then allow this company to move your items. The most upsetting fact isn’t the large items which were damaged but the pictures, and the glassware which were of sentimental value that were destroyed. I moved to Alberta a year prior to my wife moving out and lived in a furnished apartment with a roommate, we moved everything we owned during this move and did our research (expecting that this company would be a good choice). The cost of moving the items, having to come up with 2 grand cash, all in combination with the cost of replacing nearly all the items we paid to move put us into a financial situation that should never have occurred. I urge anyone who reads this to think twice about this joke of a company when it comes to long haul moves.