MONTREAL – As moving season came to an end, some Montrealers reached out to Global News claiming they were overcharged by a moving company advertising low prices on Kijiji.
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Andrea Gordon and her boyfriend started looking for movers in June.
They found a Kijiji ad that stated an hourly rate starting from $45/hour, plus one hour extra for the cost of travelling and gas.
When her boyfriend called for a quote, he said he was told the whole move would cost $200 – payable up front – but once the truck was loaded, he said things changed.
“Essentially, they told us that if they don’t get the $800 by the time they get to the other side, they were not going to offload our stuff off the truck,” Gordon said.
The scenario is all too familiar according to a West Island family who said they hired the same company to move five pieces of furniture for their son.
“They went in, they wanted the money before upfront, so my son called me,” John Iorio Jr. said.
“I said, ‘yeah just give it to him, give him the $200.’ After that, when they moved all the furniture into the truck, they decided, ‘OK you need to pay us extra.’”
Iorio Jr.’s ex-wife, Marisa Petruzzo, said the employees refused to move the truck or give back furniture until they were paid in cash.
“He had a futon, a mini-fridge and some bedroom furniture – that was it,” she said.
“And they ended up wanting $800 more.”
Petruzzo and her ex-husband said they never got a contract from the company.
Caroline Coppola and Vivek Agrawal insist they also never received a contract from the company after agreeing on $70/hour per mover.
“They loaded everything in the truck and they come up with a bill of $1,100 and they say, ‘pay this or the truck is not moving,’” Agrawal said.
Global News reached out to the moving company.
A representative said they always provide customers with a written contract, there are no hidden fees and they always keep copies to prove that.