S & Sons Moving

BUYER BEWARE! This guy was a horror! If you can find someone else, do it. Moving is stressful enough. Add Stefan, the owner of S and Sons Moving, to the mix, and you guarantee yourself the worst move of your life. He presented us with a low ball quote that didn’t represent the real cost of the move and which ballooned on moving day with hidden costs. Over the course of our 4 day move in July, he misled, price– gouged, was rude and insulting to me, wouldn’t honour his liability for damages and walked off with packing materials that we owned. Unfortunately, once your move begins, there is virtually nothing you can do except endure his abuse and wait for it to be over.

These movers are extremely dishonest and take advantage of people’s vulnerability on the day of their move. We had booked S& SONS Moving Company a month in advance. One of the men came to our house advertising their services because they saw our «sold» sign and glanced over the house, quoting us $ 160/​hr for 4 movers with a minimum of 3 hour booking. We insisted that he look properly at all the rooms and he refused and insisted that would be the price and it would only take 3 – 4 hours max to move everything.
On the day of the move, they arrived to our house 4.5 hours late after doing another move and complained of being extremely exhausted and wanting to charge us more because of it. They were very slow and rude. We had organized and packed everything in boxes, tied up furniture and bubble wrapped all glass tables, everything was ready to go.
Upon their arrival we were told we had too many boxes. The manager said they did not want to work until midnight and were very tired so insisted we need to have him work as well, making it 5 movers and charging us $ 190 an hour instead of $ 160. They refused to start any work until we signed their contract and paid them $ 800 upfront instead of the originally agreed upon price of $ 640. The contract had the original amount of $ 640 on it. Amidst all this, they were rude and calling us cheap even after we ordered pizza for them as a courtesy. Their truck broke down for 2.5 hours and the manager wanted to charge us for that time. We told them that was not our problem and that we would not pay for that time.
These movers were practically dumping everything into our new house. After completing the move, they refused to leave our property until we gave them an additional $ 920. This made the total bill $ 1720 and they originally quoted us $ 640.
DO NOT book this company, you will regret it. We will spread the word through twitter, Facebook and better business bureau. We will also be pursuing this matter with a lawyer. This should teach them not to mislead people like they keep doing. Unfortunately, we have only just now seen the many complaints online where people are charged 3 times what they were originally quoted. On the day of your move, you are in a very vulnerable spot and cannot do much as the new home owners are waiting in your driveway to move in. They will probably try to write a response to this but looking at the prior comments, you can see we are not the only ones with this terrible experience.

I used them to help me move business, and they did an amazing job. They quoted me the price and delivered as promised. I was especially impressed with their ability to carry a VERY heavy mahogany desk down a flight a stairs without one scratch! That alone was a great feat. Nadia was great, and would not hesitate to recommend her in the future.

DO NOT HIRE THESE GUYS.
They ripped me off, and epitomized the Bad Mover Experience.
Nadia came, did a full inspection, and gave me a quote of $ 965. This was middle-​of-​the-​road compared to the 2 other quotes we got. We paid $ 100 by Mastercard as a deposit, and they’re to arrive between 10 and 10:30 on the day of the move. We wanted a later move, but agreed to this.
On August 1^st 2008, three guys arrive at 9:25. The head guy wants $ 500 cash before he will begin working (despite the fact a deposit was already paid). With some back and forth about this, we finally agree (where else will we get movers on the day of the move?) they get underway at about 9:40. By 2pm, they’ve loaded the truck but there’s still many items left that they say there’s no room for. Luckily, my parents have come with a trailer so we can actually move it all.
He tells me at this point that he’s going to need $ 700 cash before they unload the truck at the new house, which is more cash than I have and is $ 350 more than the estimate.
I tell them that I don’t have $ 700, I have the rest of the cash for what we agreed to, and if they need more they’ll need to put it on the Mastercard. He says that they can’t process the Mastercard. I tell him I was told that anything we put on the Mastercard would incur a 4% charge, but we should be able to put it all on the Mastercard. He says it’s not possible and gets visibly angry. I tell him that if he needs more cash than the estimate, he’ll have to wait while we try to find someone to lend it. He finally agrees to call Nadia to setup a charge of $ 400 on the Mastercard. He demands to use my cell phone to do so. He takes my phone and my card and goes back to the truck. Approximately 10 minutes later he returns with a slip for me to sign for the $ 400 charge to the Mastercard. At this point it’s now just past 4 o’clock.
They start unloading, putting some stuff in the house. I say that I want the beds and heavy furniture put upstairs, but everything else can go in the dining room & living room to save time. I tell him that I want the 3 heavy basement items (the treadmill, the 180 lb. TV, and the filing cabinet in the basement, but otherwise everything can go in the dining & living room.
Instead of moving the 3 requested items into the basement, they instead put them in the garage and start piling boxes and furniture on them. I ask what’s going on, and am told that they’re only paid until 6, and they don’t feel there’s enough time so they’re just going to unload into the driveway. They haven’t wrapped the mattresses, and are dragging them across the asphalt. The only items they’re bringing into the house are the clothes boxes to unload upstairs (since they own the boxes and want them back).
At this point they stop taking any visible care of the items and start throwing them onto the driveway.
They finish unloading the truck into the driveway at 5:52. He says it’s 6 and they’re done, I tell him it’s actually 5:52 and so he’s got the stuff off faster than he thought they would (I didn’t say that they took their time and didn’t do it carefully and that they still have 8 minutes they could use to move some of the heavy stuff into the house). He complains that they work 8 – 6 and don’t get any thanks for it. He goes to get the paperwork.
He wants me to sign that the truck is empty. There’s a white step ladder that looks like ours, and I ask about it. He says no, they have one just like ours. I say ok, and sign on the paper, writing a note that I’m signing that the truck is empty. It turns out later that that was our step ladder.
He writes on the paper (which he doesn’t give me, saying Nadia will fax it later — she never does) that they started at 8:30 and so the total should come to $ 1341 so I’ll need to pay him another $ 41. I say no, they arrived after 9. One of the «Sons» tells him it was 9:30, so he apologizes, and says «that’s good, then». So, even by his math, he’s overcharged me by $ 69.
By my math: 9:30 (even though he started at 9:40, and wasn’t supposed to start until 10) until 5:52 is 8.5 hours. At $ 110 per hour (what we were quoted) that’s $ 935 plus the $ 85 in charges comes to $ 1020. Plus GST, comes to $ 1071 total. Even in that liberal estimate, they overcharged us by $ 230 (and quit early in the last ½ hour they’re charging us for). In fact, they’ve only done 6.5 hours of moving, due to them starting early (which led to them waiting around doing nothing), and then arguing for more than 30 minutes about the money. So, we’ve paid $ 200 per hour for a job that was quoted at $ 110 per hour, and wasn’t even completed.
I had to call up family and friends to come and help move everything into the house.
Marketplace has a «Bad Movers» episode, and these guys should have been on it.

One reviewer wrote about the boss man yelling at her that he would leave their stuff outside. Same threat was used on us. Claimed the TV and a lamp were already broken. Same shtick for us. They are listed as accepting credit cards. They do not. When I went to pay with credit he threatened to leave my furnishings in the street. The packing was a shambles. Old broken down boxes stuffed to overflowing then taped over. Two guys showed up when four were agreed upon. I have had many moves. This was far and away the worst. Intimidation and carelessness is not what anyone would ever want from a mover. Stressful enough to move without thiese unprofessional lazy thieves. Job went two hours over because they were two hours late. Stay away.

I would NOT recommend these movers–
They were very slow and inefficient, extremely rude and, expensive and careless with my items. They showed up in flip flops, to move a 1 bedroom apartment .
They were NOT careful– they scraped the paint off my freshly painted walls in two places, cracked the wood at the foot of my sofa, broke my printer. I had packed boxes clearly labeled «fragile» with labels on the top and found the boxes upside down and sentimental pottery broken inside (despite having been wrapped in bubble wrap).
The move took 2 hours longer than they had predicted. This cost me not only more to move but alot of hassle with my building as I was only able to book the elevator for 3 hours, and also had to pay the security guard extra for the additional time.
When I called to complain that they had broken my items, they hung up on me– after I asked them to stop yelling at me. They were incredibly rude with very poor customer service through the whole move.
Inefficient, poor customer service and poor quality movers– I would never recommend S&S Movers

** Someone had brought to my attention that more recent experiences posted here were NOT very positive. Please note, that my fantastic experience was in 2009 so it’s not a recent experience by any stretch. **
I used these guys on the recommendation of a friend who has recommended them to several folks — everyone has had a great experience thus far.
I had a great experience with these movers.
They were all the things you want a mover to be:
— The movers were there on time.
— They were fast.
— They were professional.
— They treated my things with the utmost care and nothing was damaged.
— Upon request they packed a couple of my fragile items for me.
— They put a couple pieces of furniture back together quickly and well (they appreciate a heads up that you will need this service).
An entertaining side note — one of the movers was once in the circus and they pulled off some hilarious feats of strength & agility in moving my things. For instance, although they could have carried my box spring up a slight stairs that would take them slightly out the way they scaled the 10 foot wall of my sunken patio holding the box spring with just one arm (the box spring never touched the wall, railing, or the ground).
They went slightly over their time estimate (by 1 hour) but I think that was partially due to the fact that the condo I moved out of was a townhouse style place with a walk out to a path so they had to park approximately 30−40m away. Moving into my new condo which had a better situation (able to park right near an elevator) was done in about 90 minutes including re-​assembling a couple pieces of furniture.
Their hourly rate was only slightly higher than movers like El Cheapo and given their hit or miss service, I think going with S & Sons Moving was well worth the extra dollars.
(Note: while they are located way out on Lakeshore, I moved from the Annex to the West End — they service the Toronto area!)