Mountain Moving Systems

I decided to use Mountain Movers after reading reviews here and I really wish that I hadn't.

I was moving from a condo in Cobourg (second floor walk-up, one flight of stairs) to a townhouse in Oshawa (2 story, plus a few things in the basement) and the crew showed up relatively on time so I thought that was a good start when they had a long trek to get to where I was. That was where things started to go downhill.

I had stacked and arranged the boxes (about 50) in order of what floor they were going to in my townhouse. I let the crew know and they just started taking boxes randomly anyway. One crew member (nobody ever told me their names) complained about the weight of the boxes and said to me "You should try picking these up". I HAD picked them up when I was packing them, and in fact I ended up taking some of the boxes to the truck myself. In addition, I had worked as a packer for AMJ Campbell for a summer about 10 years ago and I had packed according to the standards I had learned there. One of the crew members told me that "AMJ uses dollies" and I should have packed my boxes lighter - well perhaps you should start using dollies then, I assumed all moving companies did.

There were a few cigarette breaks which I wasn't too happy about. They were also smoking on the truck around my items (fortunately nothing came in smelling of smoke but I found that very unprofessional).

When they arrived in Oshawa at the townhouse, they were met by my boyfriend and he told me that they again complained about the weight of the boxes. I arrived back in town as they were finishing and I immediately went down to their office to make a payment. I had inquired with the driver when he arrived in the morning and asked if I could pay at the office. He said that would be no problem.

I got to the office and tried to find the entrance, walking around the building. I saw a man standing outside smoking and told him that I was there to pay for my move to which he replied "OK?" as though he didn't work there and I apologized and told him that I thought he worked for Mountain. He advised me that he did indeed work for them, and then asked me why I hadn't paid them on site. I said that I had asked the driver and he told me I could pay in the office as I didn't have cash and they don't take cheques. He asked how I wanted to pay and I said debit at which point I was told that they don't take debit, only credit card. I told him that I have a Visa Debit and asked to try it. He walked into the office, STILL SMOKING INSIDE, and tried the machine. As I waited, I noticed an 'Interac accepted here' sign in the window... It turned out that my Visa Debit did not work and I had to take an hour trying to get to a bank to get cash for them in rush hour traffic. When I returned, they were smoking inside again and I had to walk through a haze of cigarette smoke to get a 'receipt' which didn't even indicate the number of hours worked, just said that I had paid them $1,100.

After the move, I noticed a lot of scratches and broken furniture. Yes, my furniture may not be expensive, but that doesn't mean it should be broken by movers. In addition, my notes on each box as to whether it was fragile or should be placed on top were completely ignored - whether due to ignorance or because they were angry at the weight I don't know.

This company was extremely unprofessional and I would highly recommend looking elsewhere for your move. They were less expensive but obviously you get what you pay for.