We had two moves with the Bow Valley Moving Company, our first from our home to a storage unit, and…read morethen, six months later, from the storage unit to our moving van. We spent a great deal of time talking with the company about the process, talking about what we needed, and getting to know the ways they conduct business.
The first move with an experienced team was wonderful, one vintage basket was broken, and we weren't told about it, but other than that, it was a positive experience. We liked the company so much that we recommended them to the people moving into our former home.
The second move was an entirely different experience. Our team showed up late. We asked them to help us stage the order of the boxes and furniture to be placed, which they mostly ignored. We were concerned that our household property wouldn't all be able to be placed on our van, and the staff kept insisting that it would fit. In the process, they stuffed the van full of boxes that we'd asked to be held back. It was a terrible packing job, one with a supervisor who overrode my wishes, and who were responsible for this damage. As a result, the art was shoved into some tight spaces, without adequate protection. We had 2 dozen blankets that I requested to cover fragile items, but still we incurred some losses. We incurred damage to our art and furniture at a cost of $3000.
When we wrote a letter to the owner, he didn't respond for over a month. The owner refused to refund us anything to pay for the damages, stating that because our moving van was "not driven by one of our accredited drivers and was instead loaded into a trailer," they had no responsibility for damages.
When I wrote to the owner that my husband was a trained truck driver, and that we had provided 30 blankets to cover the art, they simply chose not to respond.
I've had some problems with moving companies in the past, they're notorious for not being accountable. But I expected more from this local company, especially after such a positive first experience.
Be aware that the company may not have the staff they need to do the best job, and that they will not be responsible for the damages their actions cause.