A group of angry customers gathered in front of a Calgary moving company Monday to demand the return of their belongings.
The group was made up of complete strangers — with no connection to each other — until now.
“These other people were here just by coincidence,” Christine Chapman told Global News. “With the same problem.”
That problem, according to those in attendance, is the fact they’ve all been stalled by the same moving company Mid-West Moving & Storage Services.
Chapman recently moved from Burnaby, B.C. to Coalhurst, Alta. She said it has been impossible to get any timeline from the moving company as to when her possessions will arrive.
“Every time I called they’d say, ‘Oh it will be there next week,’ and then next week came and they’d say, ‘Oh it will be there next week.'”
Fed up with an empty house, the Chapmans hit the road.
“We drove from Coalhurst to Calgary, two-and-a-half hours, just to get some answers on where our stuff is.”
Raphael Verdugo said his family has had the same response and that’s why he too headed to the company’s office.
“They told us it’s going to be two weeks for our stuff to get out here,” Verdugo said. “They said the worst-case scenario, two-and-a-half weeks. We’re at five weeks right now.”
Verdugo relocated to Calgary in July from Toronto with his wife and three kids. He told Global News his young daughter, who has autism, just can’t understand why her things are not with her.
“The manager said we don’t know when your stuff is coming. You’ll get it when you get it,” he said he was told.
Global News reached out to the company — which also owns Starway Moving and Transport.
Owner Anna Sahi told us the company transports items from east or west, or vice versa, via CP Rail containers. Sahi said the CP strike impacted their business greatly and it was unable to order and receive containers quickly.
Sahi said the company usually does 80 to 100 moves per month, most of them from Ontario but lately its hands have been tied.
“We have been struggling to get enough containers. We have tried to get the private containers as well.
“Just in the past week, we have loaded five containers in Ontario and are now waiting for the arrival in Alberta,” Sahi told Global News in a statement.
She added Mid-West does not benefit from not delivering on its promises as it does not get paid until the delivery is scheduled.
“It’s not like we took their money and are now not delivering the stuff. We are waiting for our payments as well due to the delays,” she added.
Verdugo and the Chapman’s confirmed they only paid a $500 deposit.
Sahi said there is “light at the end of the tunnel” however, and the backlog is “almost gone.” She’s confident the company will be able to deliver all of the pending items to customers within two weeks.
Mid-West acknowledged it knows customers are frustrated and that they’re complaining.
Global News reached out to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) which confirmed it has received “several” complaints about the company and its sister company Starway.
Chapman said she wished she had done more research.
“Unfortunately I didn’t do any online Google searches in terms of reviews,” she said. “And I can kick myself for that now.”
Police showed up to the gathering but Verdugo said the group was told this wasn’t a police matter — rather a civil one. He believes that is one of the main issues.
“This is not the first time this has happened,” he pointed out. “Nobody does anything. There are no repercussions.”