Seems like it’s the time of year for people to be moving, and almost every one of them has a horror story to tell. I was reminded of a post about moving that I had read some time ago on Joey deVilla’s blog, the comments on which resulted in him getting some nasty phone calls from the thugs at Quick Boys Moving, when my sister Betty had a slight moving catastrophe last week.
Betty moved 6 doors down the same street in her Toronto neighbourhood, from a 2-storey house to a flat on the 2nd and 3rd floor of another house. She called around for movers who would do a moving job without a truck, which was apparently something that they’re just not programmed to accept, since it really just needed 2 or 3 guys and a couple of dollys to cart the stuff down the sidewalk. Finally, she found Desi Movers, and had two (two!) discussions on the phone with the owner telling him that a) no truck was needed, and b) there’s one flight of stairs at the start, and two at the finish. No problem, he said, quoted her a price, said that there was no minimum number of hours, and said that they’d be there at 8:30 sharp last Monday.
The only thing that arrived at her place at 8:30 sharp on Monday was me with her coffee, and we waited until almost 9:30 for the movers to show up: 2 of them, with one dolly. The movers whipped out a contract for her to sign that a) had a four-hour minimum, although she estimated that three would do it, and b) it was an extra $15 per man per set of stairs. She called the owner, who first had to be convinced that they were not going to use the truck since it was parked practically in front of the new place anyway, and then told her that the guys didn’t want to do the move because she was apparently depriving them of their stairs bonus. Now, she should have had a written contract before starting, and he really should have come out to see the place before giving an estimate, but this is the type of moving-day extortion that is so common that I wasn’t completely surprised when it happened.
She prepaid them for 3 hours, with the agreement that she’d pay more if they went over that time, then we proceeded to have the 3 slowest hours of moving that I have ever seen. Two pre-schoolers with a rickety wagon could have gone faster at some points during the morning. When the couch wouldn’t fit up the stairs at the new place and the landlord (who lives downstairs) was taking the door and part of the door frame off to accommodate it, they mostly just stood around instead of moving the remaining boxes out of the old place and down the sidewalk to the new place. One particularly heavy box was just left at the old place, and a heavy one at the new place was left on the porch until they were prompted several times to carry it up the stairs. At one point, they just stopped going upstairs in the old place, leaving 12-15 boxes up there, then at 12:30 they got in the truck, told Betty that they had another job to be at, and drove off. To say that she was furious would be a serious understatement.
This is not an isolated incident, by any means. When I moved back to Toronto from southern California in 2002, my furniture arrived in a big truck (as you would expect) from Alex Moving and Storage, a North American Van Lines agent in Orange County. The movers, who I think were just tired and cranky from driving all night, decided that they couldn’t park the truck in front of the apartment building (it was common for moving trucks to park there, although technically not legal), and they couldn’t get the truck into the back laneway in spite of all the other trucks of that size that I’d seen get into exactly that same spot. So they drove away with all my furniture, and their local affiliate, Blue Bird Moving, called me to extort an additional $US827.63 from me to offload my furniture to a smaller truck and bring it back the next day — which is more than it cost to have movers move the same load of stuff from that apartment to another one about a year later. That’s after I already paid Alex Moving $US4,500 to get the stuff here in the first place. To top it off, they damaged some leather furniture — furniture that had been shrink-wrapped to guard against just such damage before leaving California and somehow was mysteriously unwrapped somewhere along the way. The insurance adjuster who visited from NAVL said that I would certainly be eligible for compensation since the damage would take a few hundred dollars to repair, but his final report (ever faithful to the company, I suppose) deemed that it was all less than the $100 deductible. One such episode would be bad enough, but to be screwed by the NAVL agent in Orange County, the agent in Toronto, and their insurance company, all on one move, was a bit much.
Then this morning, I saw this post on Feministe about her particular moving hell, and realize that incompetent/unscrupulous moving companies are just part of life everywhere.
{ 20 } Comments
I also had a very bad experience with Desi movers. They showed up on time & were pleasant, but moved VERY slowly (e.g. taking 2 boxes at a time down the elevator instead of filling it) pushing the move into overtime, charging extra for stairs, mileage, etc. It cost me about twice as much as I had been quoted all told.
Me too. Desi movers is a scam. Buggers.
We are planning on suing Desi movers after they blackmailed us into paying them more than originally agreed upon, then took off without moving all our stuff. Send me an email if you’re interested in joining.
The Desi mover is one of cheater company.I had very bad experience them. We are also planing to sue them.Can be to-gether and file the case.
I agree guys… i should have found this website before. I am the latest scam of DESI MOVERS. This is what i paid…. and i paid $1000 for a move from scarborough to brampton…..this is what i paid for….
labour hours(doesnt matter how long it takes they will charge you 4 hrs plus whtever time it takes them to get to your other place and they take their sweet time…. plus they will double that and bill you)
flight charge
travel charge
km charge
heavy item charge…..
man it was the worst experience of all…… i would mind being scammed on ebay….. but this is just bad…… i wanna file a suit aginst them tooo
Desi Movers ripped off my brothers family,E mail me if u have a case against them, or if u wanna plan something out
Desi movers are just plain fraud artists. They quote one thin on the phone, then another when it’s all over. They do not use blankets or covers for your goods on their truck. Could not care less about the damage they do to your goods. They do not have a clue about how to load a truck, what they leave behind , what they damage or anything else for that matter.
Jason and the rest of these guys should be rotting in jail somewherre!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Guys
The same story happened with me on Feb 29th. It seems that these people have made it a habit of scamming people and unless something is done about them , they will continue to do that fearlessly which is a shame.
I have already filed a complaint in Better Business Bureau and I would advise you all to do something (put pressure on the authorities) , so that these people are not permitted to operate.Does anyone know wether there is a licensing authority that permits them to operate. We should all make a complaint to them.
Are all you talking about Desi Movers in the Bay Area (San Jose, California) or is it someone else? I contacted this guy from http://www.desimovers.com/ and am planning to move next month within San Jose area. Can any of you suggest whether these guys are good?
No, this is Desi Movers in Toronto. The beginning of the second paragraph of the post states that.
The saga continues, one more victim “me” gets added to the list. It was absolutely horrendous. The movers are rude, slow and so unprofessional. You land up paying for services that they haven’t even provided. The original price ballonned from $44/hr to $180/hr !! Landed up paying a hugely inflated bill. worse, they didnt complete the job and left half way through the job, leaving me high and dry !
If the above people went through what i went through, than i hope you guys are equally eager to do something .. atleast ensure that no one in the future gets cheated the way we have.
For starters, anyone reading this blog…plzzzz do not engage DESI MOVERS…they are apparently going by the name of “DYNAMIC MOVERS” now.
Another victim of desi movers. we are planning to complain to better bussiness berau and to the court. They did not explain the contract before getting it signed. Desi movers harrased during moving asking for money every now and then instead of asking for after the loading was done. we had to go to find out the movers and find them drining coffee. they did not load the truck fully and ran away after unloading without giving us final bill. The worst was, one of the movers verbelly assualted woman. we are even planning to write it up in the news papers and soon we will be contacting the ministry for their robbing, harrasing, assualting and frauds to the public.
Hi…
I also got cheated by Desi movers this sunday ( 31th May) ..I was quoted for $275 and after they loaded the truck,they gave me a bill of $755.
I am also planning to complain and sue them. I have taken the pictures of truck plate no and the unloading of trucks.
My email is “tuteja@hotmail.com”
This is my yesterdays experience with Desi movers. I was told that It will cost $52 per hour and estimated cost would be $250 to $ 300 and then extorted more than $2000 and did not unload also properly .They were so full of themselves that they said even cops won’t do anything as it is a civil case.Let us all get together otherwise these guys are going to be on rampage.
My father and I were taken in by Desi Movers yesterday July 3,2008. Based on a telephone quote and nespaper ad of $40 per hour, my father decided to hire desi movers to move a simple basement apt. The movers arrived 2 hours late and then took 2 hours to pack a truck which was too small to hold the contents of the apt. After packing the truck, albeit improperly and tearing all the couches the driver then had the audacity to sit in the truck and demand payment before starting the engine! I also should mention that he demanded a $500 deposit upon his two hour late arrival. The drive to the new location which was litterally ten minutes away turned into an hour wait because “We got lost” and then they wanted to charge us for the travel time. At the end of it all there was an hour and a half long argument over charges totalling $725. Clearly I disputed these charges until the robbery was adjusted and they graciously dropped some of the charges-that should never have been put on the bill in the first place. They unloaded the truck grudgingly and then half way through the move told my father they had to move the truck to clear the way for other tenants. Needless to say that they must have moved the truck back to their office and went home because they never returned to complete the move! My father and I were left in the loading area (with a one year old in tow) to move the rest of the items (conveniently all the heavy/large things) by ourselves. If anyone reads this, flag this company in your minds so if you ever know someone that is thinking of using Desi Movers tell them to run screaming in the other direction.
I was also ripped off by Desi movers. They got $2500 from me, when the move was only supposed to cost $550. I already FIled a Complaint to BBB, and I want to sue them, but I need enough people to support me with this case. Join together to help me do something about this moving hell company!
Please e-mail me at pompa_haque_20@yahoo.com
IWe were scaammed by Desi Movers too- They arrived late - demanded a $500.00 deposit before loading- moved very slowly,consatntly complaining about how tired they were from their morning job- took many breaks- then when they closed their truck which was not fully loaded , they demanded another $530.00 - or they would take off with our goods- there were all kinds of charges that were never disclosed before at the time of agreement- We were only advised of $50.00/hr- whenwe asked for a fax copy of the agreement -, they said it was not neccessary- anyway weKNOW THAT WERE CHEATED- Not only did they take double the money from us then nthe original quote - at $50.00 hr which is $500.00 but they left after 7hrs instead of ten hours, and left half of our goods at our home that we moved from- We had to rent a truck and get n new crew to help us the next day and pay our landlord for two more days rent- The behaviour that the movers displayed was
frightening - rude and unco-operative and we are disputing the time.
I will add to the details later - PLEASE BE AWARE OF TRICKSTERS _ MY ADVICE TO ALL
HOMEOWNERS THAT ARE PLANNING A MOVE _Thorougly check out the buisness before signign up - Please do not fall prey as we have.
Hi All
We had people hire this company to pick up furniture. They gave them a price
over the phone
said there were no extra(hidden ) charges but when they had loaded the
furniture they told
them there was a $300 deposit and other charges which added up to nearly
$400-more than
twice what was quoted.
Be Warned DO NOT use this company or any company with this telephone/fax #
or Ontario #. Note they do not give there full address.
Dynamic Moving
operated under 1715130 Ontario Inc.
PH 416-455-1274 Fax 416-741-8776
Scarborough
Warn all your friends and family re: this kind of scam.
Hi Pompa and the rest of you all,
I would like to teach this guy(s) a lesson. Let us meet. I work downtown Toronto and live in Scarborough. Suggest a place where we all can meet.
Hi, I used Dynamex. Do the people working for Desi use other names of the company to cheat people? Thanks.
{ 1 } Trackback
[...] Desi Movers - Other Complaints 01 [...]
Post a Comment