Pacific Moving Canada

Do NOT use this moving company. As a matter of fact, it is probably not the worst in Vancouver, but there is many reasons here for you to not use this company. We used Pacific moving with my boyfriend, and it’s been a terrible experience, generating a significant waste of money. 

Short version : We moved from Vancouver to Montreal, and our furnitures took 2 months and a half to get to Montreal, instead of the 8-14 business days we first agreed on.

Long version :

The first trouble happened with the storage. We prefered Pacific Moving Company over any other company because they offered 2 weeks of free storage. After we paid the deposit, our contact explained to us that even though the storage was free, they had to store our furnitures in Toronto (where the storages are), and loading/unloading the truck would cost an extra 150 $. Therefore, we had to cancel the storage and find another one on our own, less than 2 weeks before our moving. We finally found 1 month of storage for 100 $ in our destination city.
Then, about a week before the moving date, we received a call asking to change the loading day. Everything was already set on our side around the moving date (flight tickets, check-out with the appartment agency, elevator booked, carpet cleaners, an hotel for the night before our flight) If you live in vancouver downtown, no need to explain how tricky it is to book an elevator around the 30th/31st of the month. I tried to visit the Pacific Moving Company office in Davie street (the address I found on the website), but I couldn’t find any office at this address ; only a retirement house, where the concierge told me it has been here forever, never had any moving office, he said. Anyway, I finally managed to reach someone on the phone, and after an argument, we finally managed to stick to the initial moving date.
After few weeks, they finally gave us the final price : in vancouver, they charge you based on the weight (in my previous experiences, it was always based on the volume, and you know the price BEFORE signing anything). Since we found it a bit dodgy (they weight the truck in their own location, you can’t be there to see it), we weighted everything ourselves, and found about 1000lbs. The final weight they ask us to pay for was 1600lbs……. Of course, there is absolutely no way to dispute this difference, but we know it and have to pay for it anyway.
Then, we had to wait for about 2.5 months before getting our stuff back : everytime we tried to get information, we had a different story… the true one seems to be that they want to fully load the truck before moving, so if you move during a quiet period like winter, they can keep your stuff during an entire month somewhere in your last city before their truck get fully load and can leave. I totally understand the need for them to monetize the trip, I just find it very dishonnest, irresponsible and disrespectfull to not tell the truth to their customers, and hide informations to them. There is nothing about this story of moving period that causes delays on their website, and they never talked to us about this on the many emails we shared about the move, whereas they had lots of opportunity to tell us about this fully loading truck story when we asked maybe three times how long would it take to get back our stuff in Montreal. But telling us could have make us choose another company, so of course they never mentionned that. Because of this massive delay, we had to pay 800 extra dollars in an airBnB, then to buy a new bed, kitchen supply, blankets, and any furnitures we needed to live in our new unfurnished appartment while we were waiting on their truck with everything we needed in it.
Finally, once our furniture arrived, after we rented the storage ($100) for nothing, and after we bought pretty much everything, we complained (again) about the poor service we received. Pacific Moving generously offered a discount of $100. But a few hours later, they sent us another e-mail to explain that based on google street view, they saw the stairs of our house (first floor), and would have to charge an extra fee for that… guess how much… $100 ! We complained again about that, and they finally gave up on this one, so we did get our $100 discount, very much deserved.

On the good side of things, almost nothing was damaged, the movers were kind and efficients, and again, almost nothing damaged, which is rare enough to be mentionned.

To conclude, I really think that pacific moving are the least worst movers you can find in Vancouver, but really, what happened to us is really bad ! Try to avoid as much as possible.