A Calgary homeowner is frustrated after several of her items were damaged during a move, and the moving company allegedly gave her the runaround.
Heather Marriam said the final straw was when she found what looked like footsteps on the side of her broken desk.
“There are a couple of overlapping footprints,” Marriam said. “They stood on top of it.”
Marriam hired Calgary company Two Small Men With Big Hearts Moving Co. to move her belongings on February 14, 2019. She chose to use them because her family had a good experience with them a few years back.
She said the move went fine until she later saw some damage on several of her items. She said not only was her desk destroyed, but the hinges on another desk drawer were also snapped, a plastic tote and her shredder were both cracked and her wall was dinged.
Marriam filed a claim for compensation for a few of the items with the moving company but said it was difficult to get them to address any of her concerns.
“It turned into a six-week nightmare of me trying to get them to acknowledge what happened.”
Global News reached out to Two Small Men With Big Hearts.
In a statement, a spokesperson initially told us: “We are not sure how the footprint happened to come on the desk, we received a picture of this after the claim was settled and we have since replaced the desk at full replacement cost.”
Marriam disputed that and said the company only agreed to pay her $0.60 per pound for the items that were damaged or missing — which is standard for many moving companies.
The company also pointed to a list of items excluded from coverage. Those include lamps, glass, and furniture made of particle or pressboard, which her desk was made of.
Marriam said the list provided to her at the start of the move didn’t include many of the items not covered.
She also said she wished she’d been more aware during the actual move.
“Maybe one of us should have been down at the truck to make sure they weren’t doing something, or they were doing things properly.”
The Better Business Bureau serving Southern Alberta and East Kootenay told Global News the moving company has had four complaints filed against them from 2016-2019 — three were answered and one was resolved.
Two Small Men tells Global news: “We are an accredited BBB member with an A-rating, however are not perfect but do strive to rectify each situation to the best of our abilities.”
The company added that over the last three years it has done approximately 10,000 moves in the Calgary region and again has only had four complaints in that same time period.
After Global News brought Marriam’s complaint forward to the moving company, it decided to pay for her damaged desk in full and also issued an apology.
She said while she’s satisfied with that, the frustration remains.
“I really didn’t care about the money,” she added. “I just wanted the company to say something like ‘I’m sorry that’s how your move went. That’s not how we do business.'”
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