Trillium Moving and Storage

If I could give zero stars believe me I would. Such a bad experience with this company. Please don’t be fooled when you call the company the calls all go to Ontario and they are very friendly there. I moved from Edmonton area to Vancouver and the service was also good on Edmonton side but somewhere between Edmonton and Vancouver the service became bad and then worst. Few items damaged even though it was properly packed and rapped. My furniture was taken in to one tuck from my old house and then when it came to my new house it had been unloaded and put into a bigger truck. I have no idea what happened between there. They dropped all my items off at the front building door of my condo then leaving me to move everything myself on to an elevator down 3 floors and all the way to the other end of the building. Please please look for another company as you have no idea what is happening with your stuff between load and unload. Also arrived a week later that scheduled

Hiring Trillium Moving and Storage has been one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made.
I requested quotes from a dozen companies online, and Trillium came back with the cheapest quote by quite a stretch. I requested a visual survey, and was told that they do not offer them for smaller shipments, but they would provide an estimate if I give them a detailed list of our belongings. I provided this, and received a quote for $ 1900. I agreed to hire them.
Our goods were collected several months later. Several weeks passed, and I had heard nothing from Trillium. Weeks later, I received a call from the driver saying the shipment would arrive in two days time, and I must have payment of $ 5014 ready to pay on arrival. This was more than $ 3000 higher than the original estimate. I called Kate Roberts (our customer service rep) who told me that the weight was higher than the estimate, so the price would be considerably greater. I asked why I was not told earlier, and she simply said they have no obligation to tell me at any specific time. I told her I could not afford that much, and asked her to return the shipment, but she said she could not do that, and that, if I did not pay, our belongings would be placed in storage, at the cost of $ 175/​month.
I refused to pay, knowing that something illegal was occurring. I contacted the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services, who affirmed to me that this was an illegal act, and that it is against the law in Canada and the US for any company to charge more than 10% higher than an estimate. I told this to Kate, who said that the quote she provided was a non-​binding quote, rather than a binding quote, and the law doesn’t apply to such quotes. I contacted the Ministry again, who said that, under Canadian law, there is no such distinction between binding and non-​binding contacts, and it was clearly an illegal act, and I could easily pursue legal action. I went back and forth with Kate, and she offered to reduce the price to $ 3500. I again refused.
Once I had filed an official complaint, and sent Kate a letter confirming this, I received word that the goods were not being held in storage after all, but were on the way to me in Los Angeles, as she was unable to stop the shipment. She said that she was willing to lower the price again, but not to the original estimate, or to within the 10% window. She said that, because the goods were already on the move, if I refused to pay the driver would now drop my goods somewhere in Los Angeles, and return back to Canada. I had no choice to agree to this, because the legal process would not be completed in time, I needed my shipment, and I didn’t want my goods abandoned in the city. We eventually agreed on a lower price ($ 2880, rather than the original $ 5014, but a great deal higher than the $ 1900 I was quoted), and the goods were delivered.
When the goods arrived, they were stacked so high that the boxes on the bottoms were crushed. There was one man to unload the truck, and he could not lift the goods on his own. He used a dolly to take furniture up the stairs. A dresser had a hunk of wood ripped out of the base when he took the dolly out. His response was «you have to expect that to happen when you use a dolly to move heavy furniture.»
Many goods were damaged, and some items were completely missing. On the inventory form that was made, they had marked every single item on the inventory as «chipped,» «scratched» and «worn» so they would not be held responsible for the damage they would do to the shipment. It’s very unlikely that my insurance claim (which is for over $ 1000 of damages) will be honored.
I can imagine Kate Roberts responding that I’m not providing her side of the story, and that there was more in my shipment than in the original breakdown. While I made every effort to be accurate, it is possible that there were slightly more goods in the shipment than on the survey (although much less than what Trillium claims). Regardless, the problem could have been avoided entirely if Trillium provided the visual survey that I requested. Mostly importantly, if the shipment was truly substantially larger than the estimate given, the time to tell me this information is either at pickup or shortly after, so I have the option of changing my mind about the delivery. It is not ethical to do so once the shipment has already crossed North America so that my belongings are in a position to be held ransom.
The truth is that, regardless of Kate’s arguments, both the Ontario Ministry of Government and Consumer Services in Canada, and the Attorney General’s Office in the United States have told me that hiking the price more than 10% over the estimate is against the law. I will continue to pursue legal action against the company, and will update here if there is any progress.