Tender Touch Moving & Storage

We needed to relocate us and our stuff in February 2011. Much googling, Homestars & BBB cross-referencing, and whittling down to a short list of companies - one representing each of the major trucking lines since all long-distance moves end up using one of them! We were eventually choosing between two companies, each with almost identical ratings (including BBB), and Tender Touch was the cheaper by almost 20%.

The treatment of our goods, for which Tender Touch in Markham deserve the lion's share of praise, was superb. Of over 9,000lbs of assorted items, we had a grand total of 1 broken desk and a couple of misaligned brakes on our bikes. The desk they warned us up-front would not likely survive (it was a very light, cheap Ikea item). Not even a single glass or dish was busted.

We did pack our own boxes, and were sure to use plenty of paper etc. but we were still stunned when after trekking from Markham to Vancouver (via Montreal!) in temps from +25 to -21C (we left an electronic thermometer in one of the boxes), being reloaded onto a small truck for delivery to our downtown apartment that we ended up just losing that desk. The bikes were due a service anyway.

Both crews (Markham and Vancouver) were uniformed, prompt, efficient and friendly. Runners were laid everywhere, so no problems with cleanup.

The only issues we had were on the admin side - we did have to initiate all the contacts, rather than receiving updates without asking even when the truck was obviously going to be late (due to being diverted to Montreal for a pickup).

We did receive compensation for each of the 3 days it was late, which would have been enough for a modest hotel room each night so we can't complain too much.

The office staff member doing all of the quotes never managed to actually get us a completely-correct quote despite asking three times - each time she fixed one error, she put back a different one. Eventually we gave up asking once the numbers were all correct, and just called the driver ourselves to correct the apartment number.

It's possible that our other short-listed competitor would have provided better service on the admin front - their pitch guy who came to quote really pushed on service & accuracy rather than cost. But spending an extra hour making a few calls & emails was well-worth the almost $2000 difference in price to me. If you demand perfection at all stages, are having your move paid for by your company or don't care about best price, you might find a better option - but when we next move in Vancouver we will absolutely be calling Tender Touch!