Moving? If Hiring A Mover, Avoid Metropolitan Movers And Shuttle Moving North York

Last Updated on: 21st January 2022, 02:59 pm

So yeah…about that Metro Movers mowdown we keep promising. Here it comes. Hope you like long stories…ah who am I kidding? You must like ’em, you keep coming back here, don’t ya?

So you’re probably wondering why the heck we hired movers anyway. Well, for a combination of reasons. Most of the people we would have asked to move us were either injured or occupied. Plus, we didn’t have a lot of time to mess around…we had to do it over a weekend, that’s all we’d get.

My sister had had movers, and had a really good experience. They were super efficient, good with her stuff, and nice. Sure it was a bit more expensive, but it was worth every penny. So we decided considering our time constraints, and the number of injured folk in our families, we’d go movers.

My dad had heard about some movers that were recommended on the Holmes on Homes show. I thought he had said the name of their company was Guelph Movers, so out to Google I went, and found them right away. If only I had checked again, I would have discovered the company he said was Guelph Moving, not Guelph Movers. And so began our road to disaster.

When I called the number, I found out they were not Guelph Movers, but Metropolitan Movers. They said they had a network of moving crews. But their machine said they had won several consumer choice awards, which at the time I thought fit with dad’s whole Holmes on Homes thing. “Phew,” I thought, “I’ve got the right people.”

We called another moving company, and it seemed like they were going to nickel and dime us for every little thing we might have needed. Plus, their hourly rate was a lot higher than Metro Movers. So, thinking this place came recommended, *gulp*, I went ahead and booked the move. What a fail of a decision that was.

So let’s see. What all went wrong? Perhaps a better question to ask is what didn’t go wrong? Hmmm…they eventually found our new home, and most of our stuff wasn’t broken…but what was broken, oh me oh my.

First off, they arrived at Guelph a half hour late. This isn’t good when we have an elevator booking only from noon until 2:30 at this new place. And this new place is a huuuge building, so if you miss your booking, someone else will be moving after you. Then you will be screwed.

I don’t know what these guys were doing, but they took a coon’s age to move our stuff out of our Guelph house…and they didn’t have to pack any of it. After starting at 9:30, they took until almost 2 p.m. to just get it all into the truck. Once, my dad came down and saw one guy just randomly sweeping the truck. Another time, we saw one guy just sitting and smoking. Sure they’re entitled to a break, but considering how long everything took, I think there was a whole lot of smokin’/sweepin’ goin’ on.

When they finally hit the road, they took nearly 2 hours to drive from Guelph to Kitchener. We clocked the distance. Between old home and new home is 31.3 kilometres. That’s 19 miles give or take. What in the name of all that’s holy could make you take 2 hours to travel that distance…even in crazy rush hour traffic…which there wasn’t?

When we asked them about it, they said the truck had to move slow and their phone, which was their GPS, went dead. If you’re a mover, and you do all your work on the road, wouldn’t you have a goddamn car charger? Especially since your GPS is what keeps you from, um, getting lost?

Not too much later, the one guy who had been doing most of the talking said, “I have bad news. Your TV. It’s broken.” Mom said “Ha ha ha, very funny…” at which point he said “Not joking.” He proceeded to bring the broken TV upstairs so we could take pictures of it. And yes, it was broken.

Photo of our broken TV
The shit…it happens. But you won’t be watching it on this.
See the jagged pattern in the middle of the screen? That, that be the broken! I hope that picture illustrates the broken…but if it doesn’t, we have 2 more.

We were not amused. They had taken two hours to get between our places, totally missing our service elevator booking, and now our TV was broken. We had moved all the computers over the night before, but we had left the TV…since we had hired movers after all. The TV was heavy, and they could move it better than us. And now the TV was broken.

When we asked what they were going to do about it, their response was they would go on Kijiji to look for the same TV, and it might take a week or two. Really? You break something and the way you handle it is go on Kijiji? Really? You think you’ll find the same one in a week or 2?

After seeing that we were still not happy, they said “The shit, it happened.” Yeah. Their attitude twoards our stuff is “shit happens?” Wow. And these are the same guys who said to us at the beginning of this move, “That’s why you hired professional movers.” This isn’t seeming too professional.

Although those are our big problems with these guys, that’s not all.

  • We saw them dragging our nice pillowtop matress down the hall. It wasn’t wrapped or anything. Just drag drag drag. This probably means that’s the way they carried it through the parking lot.
  • two of our four kitchen canisters were broken.
  • They took things apart in such a haphazard way that they lost the bolts to them, and tried to sub in bolts from their truck…that weren’t the right size.
  • wheels from things just fell off and they just threw them in random bins. We couldn’t find one of the wheels off one of our bed frames. Where was it? In a bin full of bathroom contents.
  • Things that didn’t have dents when they left Guelph were quite dented and rough-looking upon arrival in Kitchener.
  • Our dresser had one of its little feet broken off it that keeps it level.
  • Other people who saw them moving our stuff said we wouldn’t have liked what they saw.

Between their slow loading process, and the slow unloading process because the elevators weren’t available, and the extra 2 hours on the road, it took these two, who we have not so affectionately nicknamed Larry and Curly, 9 and a half hours to move a 2 bedroom apartment. Uh-huh. I’m sure they were enjoying this since they were being paid by the hour.

Then, at the end, they had to call in their hours, and whose cell phone do you suppose they used to make this call to Toronto? That would be mine, since their cell phone was dead as a doornail. They knew we weren’t happy, so then said to the dispatcher “I guess we’ll take the 5% Visa charge off too…”

wait…what? I was never told I would have to pay a 5% visa charge. That was not in the paper I signed in the morning, that was not explained on the phone, and both Steve and I phoned in several times for various reasons. It was never mentioned. Next the guy lied to the dispatcher, saying it took him 45 minutes to drive from point a. to point b. Um nope. I can find references to text messages sent and phone calls made that corresponded with when they left Guelph and when they got to Kitchener, and calls made by Steve to dispatch saying “Um? Our moving crew? With all our stuff? Where is it?” Unless they went through a timewarp, that wasn’t 45 minutes.

The dispatcher told them to take a half-hour off the bill, and when they did, they didn’t recalculate the HST to remove the HST on the half-hour that was deducted. At this point the mover who did most of the talking got really defensive and ugly. I’ll admit my dad was in a foul foul mood, but I think we earned the right to be a bit snarly. At the end, they left without giving us more than a visa slip. No bill, no record of what we signed, no paper showing proof that they wrote down the broken TV model, nothing to speak of. Just a slip with the total.

And then things got really fun. Neither moving crew member would give his full name. The one who did most of the talking kept saying “I’m just an employee.” Well, employees have to be accountable, cough up your name. I suspect that the first names they gave us weren’t even real either. Who talks all day to a guy quite fluently in a language that’s not English, and then can’t think of what his name is or how to pronounce it? Without a word of a lie, when we asked for this fellow’s name, his partner said “His her name is…um…sounds like Fell-lix.” Yeah. Uh-huh. Real believable. We even said “Um, you mean Felix?” at which point he sputtered, “Yes, Felix! Yes!”

I don’t know if these guys have a strange sense of humor, but their jokes sure didn’t seem funny. At one point, the one guy said to Steve, “Sir, you have nice stuff…but you have too much of it.” Later, one of them said “Usually our customers pay for our lunch.” This was after they la-dee-daed their way to Kitchener and had broken our TV. If all this stuff hadn’t happened, I would have thought they were joking. Now they sounded like a couple of whiners. You’re movers. Move! I’m not paying for your lunch after you spent 2 goddamn hours on the road for no reason.

One more little tidbit that I should write here that will become very important later. Steve’s sister called us at one point hearing about our disaster move and asked who we had hired. When we said, she said “Oh, those guys. I’ve seen their trucks around town.” When we told dad that, he said “She wouldn’t have seen these guys’ truck, it had no logo.” Buh?

And that was just moving day. Like the cheery fellow says in those infomercials we see so often, “But wait! There’s more!” I’d split it here, but I want this to be in one solid mass.

Feeling quite guilty for failing to do my research on these fellows since I was in such a panic to get things rolling, I decided to do a wee bit of research, to see if I could have discovered problems and prevented this whole disaster. At first, things appeared to be showing me that no, research wouldn’t have been helpful. They had an extremely high rating on homestars.com, a site that my sister had used to pick her movers, who were quite good. Then, I looked at the reviews. I don’t usually bother with reviews because they’re either too vague or look like they’re written by the company. You often don’t get much good information, just opinions on the extreme ends of the spectrum. But these reviews…oh lord. They looked a. fake, b. badly written, and c. written by the same person. Don’t believe me? Have a gander at the Metropolitan Movers review page on Homestars. Or, here are a couple served up right here.

Metropolitan Movers is the number one moving company for me. I already used these movers 3 times and they never made any disappointment at my part. They just come on time, started their job right away after few conversation with us. Their moving men are fantastic they don’t want much time to be wasted.
They packed all my things in a most secure way and It was fast and efficient. It was a positive experience with them I was very impressed by their service it was a definitely fine, smooth move an effortless and stress free move. If I got plans of moving my stuff again I would definitely use them again without any doubt at all. They have all my trust and I feel so comfortable with them they were friendly, approachable and they were the most affordable moving company that I have used ever. If I am going to compare their work from the other moving companies they were the best among others. My loyalty is on you guys. I will definitely recommend you company any of my friends and even to my boss.

Hi guys, I am very happy of our output during my move together with my family last week. It was really a good experienced with your company. You really take good care all of my belongings which are really important for me and to my wife. Really, you were great since you are responsible and really know what to do with your job. To the movers who helped me a lot, thank you so much you two are well organize, friendly, and approachable. You are all very professional the way you carry all my things and belongings. I know it, the way they handle their job, they are very careful and always systematic and that is what I need from a moving company. Definitely, you will be one of the best moving companies someday worldwide.

Here’s my favourite…of all.

Claudine Webb from Toronto
I was very happy when I made business with you. It was a very good decision that I made to make you as my official moving company. You never give me any problems and it was my 2nd move using your company. The best thing about you is you are always on time and making your job so perfect, solid and smooth. You always help me to prepare all my stuff and belongings by wrapping and packing and make sure all are safe and ready for move. My wife is very happy with our move and you all are always approachable. Well what I can say is that you are always professional and hardworking. I can always observe that you all are responsible as if you owned the things. Definitely I will recommend you to all of my coworkers and friends.

Ok, sure, some people’s English can be less than stellar. But one fellow’s name is Melvin. Sounds like Melvin perhaps? And…Claudine? But she has a wife? I don’t mean to be closed-minded, I mean there is gay marriage and all…but it seems a little fishy.

But even if Melvin came from some other part of the world and Claudine does in fact have a wife, let’s motor on over to the Guelph Movers testimonials page.

This is my 3rd move but this is the first time that I hired this company. I admit I wasn’t sure about hiring a moving firm again because of the bad experience I had with my previous companies. Now I Thank God that I did avail of their service. This company gave me the most hassle free move ever. My belongings are handled perfectly that they arrived at my new house complete and damage free. The moving men are friendly, uniformed, on time and industrious. The best thing about this company is that their rates are reasonable. Good job! ——Rafael, 42, Guelph

Industrious? Avail of their services? But this feller can’t get his tenses right? Kinda like…those other reviews I mentioned. Hmmm.

Not far down in my googling, I came upon a page full of Better Business Bureau complaints about them. Oh damn it. Damn damn damn it.

The next day, we got a call from a fellow from Metro Movers wanting to ask us a few questions about the service we got. Oh. The poor fellow. He did not like what he heard. Steve said he sounded o so happy until he answered his first question.
Survey fellow (cheerily): How would you rate the service you received? Was it very professional, somewhat professional or less than professional?
Steve: Definitely less than professional.
Pause
Survey fellow (markedly less cheerily): Oh…boy. What…happened?

Steve said his demeaner sounded like someone had dragged him to the centre of town and made him watch as he shot his puppy. Either that or he was a balloon and Steve had just let the air out of him and he was sputtering around on the ground.

The fellow told us to make a formal complaint and told us where to send it. And oh we did.

At first, I was hopeful. The first message I got back, although it looked like it was written by the same people who wrote the testimonials, promised they would investigate what happened, and work to find a resolution, actually the word they used was “resolve.” But anyway they said they would get back to us in 3-5 business days.

The woman whose name was in the email called us, and she sounded like a perfectly fluent speaker of English. Why would someone who seemed to speak perfectly well write an email like the one we got? Hmmm. Are there two people doing her job, one sending the emails and one on the phone?

The one on the phone seemed genuinely appalled about what happened to us. She said that this was not the way they wanted to do business. What she said in that phone call was that the price of the TV would come out of the crew’s pocket, and they would take some time off the bill and fix the HST, and send us a proper bill. She also didn’t think getting a TV through Kijiji was proper, but that was up to the crew manager. She said she would get back in 20 minutes or so with a time frame on when we could expect our TV and a friggin’ bill!

But, the email that was sent between the time she tried to call us and the time Steve got a hold of her was far more stern and unyielding. After detailing the replacement of the TV and taking an hour off the bill, It said the following: “We find the above resolve satisfactory; this offer is firm with no option to contest.”
Excuuuse me? That’s the way you treat people who your moving crew hosed over? Really? And I’m to believe that the person on the phone and the person in the email are the same? For real? They don’t talk/write with the same level of skill, and their messages don’t quite match.

I didn’t like the way this was going, so I called Visa wondering if I could put a stop payment on the charge. They agreed that while the service we got was crap, they couldn’t really put a stop payment since I authorized the charge. They then told me that it came through on my bill as “SHUTTLE MOVING NORTH YORK”. Uh? I didn’t contract with Shuttle Moving, and my visa slip says “Metro Movers.” I even had someone check.

So yeah…about that phone call we were supposed to get re: a time frame? Steve talked to her on November 8. There was not a peep out of the phone, still hasn’t been one, since. The emails flew, though, and things vastly degenerated.

I wrote an email responding to hers re: the “resolve” she was offering. For the most part I was nice, but I had a few questions, like can I have a bill please, and when will this be all wrapped up, and what’s with the charge coming from Shuttle Moving? Suddenly, the emails I was getting were even more unyielding, saying that they reserved the right to subcontract and that I should contact Shuttle Moving for any further questions. Excuuuse me? Just because I asked for clarification didn’t give them the right to just wash their hands of the whole thing. I have my suspicions that if I hadn’t mentioned Shuttle Moving, they wouldn’t have told me to go deal with them. It was like by asking questions, they thought I had somehow given them a way out. Hmmm fishy.

We tried to reach this person who called herself Nicole Millar by phone on Monday the 12 but the voicemail box we got didn’t actually mention her name on it. So I sent another email sounding a little more pissed off, basically saying no, we’re not dealing with Shuttle Moving, we dealt with you, you deal with Shuttle Moving. Just fix it, please.

I’d also done some reading, and this company claimed they had insurance, so I asked why they were nickel and diming over things, why not just put the claim through insurance? The email I got back was rather bizarre.

a. It claimed that insurance wouldn’t cover a broken TV.
B. It claimed I should have known this because I agreed to their terms and conditions when I scheduled the move. Um, I scheduled the move over the phone, never received anything by email and was never told to consult a link to terms and conditions. Also, all they left us was a visa slip. I asked what I was signing and neither the moving people, nor my mom who was there, mentioned any terms and conditions. Only now that we’re going back and forth am I givena link to their terms.

She then told me to refrain from contacting her any further.

So…I had been talking to a lawyer from work. *I* didn’t contact her any further, she did. It was almost amusing watching my lawyer friend flame broil this woman by email. She’s awesome. Then Metro Movers got into rather stupid antics.
A. They claimed that they called us 3 times to get a hold of us, when they called us once and didn’t even let our answering machine pick up or the caller ID finish reading off their number. I have reason to believe this was happening while this 3 attempts email was being sent to the lawyer.
b. they tried to tell the lawyer that they didn’t have their own crews, they’re just a broker. Meanwhile we have another email from them saying they have their own crews but reserve the right to subcontract if their own crews are unavailable.

And finally, when they were trying to totally recant the offer and the lawyer wasn’t having any of it,
c. Ms. Millar told the lawyer to stop talking to her, and this was bordering, no, boarding, on blackmail and harassment. I have to get my words, although incorrect, correct.

In the end, I think our poor lawyer friend was confused into talking to the subcontractor, but they did agree to give us an adjustment to our bill, and they have come through with that. I got a TV from another coworker. My dad fixed the dresser, and we’re going to get new canisters. All things were reassembled. In the end, the remnants of our horrible move are disappearing. But good lord what a royal shmozzle.

I have been amazed by some other big companies being quite kind to us when they hear our story. Visa gave us a break on interest while we wrangled things out of the movers. Rogers, because we didn’t have a TV for nearly 2 weeks, gave us a good will discount on our TV part of our bill. Visa and Rogers, who aren’t usually known for their generosity, were good to us. This was kind of refreshing amid the chaos.

So, here are some lessons we’d like to pass along to anyone else who’s planning a move and wants to get movers.

  • Take it slow. Do a little digging into the movers who you’re choosing. We did a bit of comparison shopping, but not a lot of research, and we’re usually the researching type. But we were in a panic and a hurry, so we paid for it. So even if you don’t have much time, you have time to hit the google for a while.
  • Even better, get more personal references. After we moved, we heard all about the wonderful movers our friends had used. Damn it! *slaps head*
  • bother them more than once to see if their story about pricing changes. We did that, and when things went sideways, that turned out to be the best thing we could have done because we had notes of what they said.
  • If a company tells you something is binding and final, there’s probably more wiggle room there than they’d like to have you believe.
  • and most importantly,

  • Even if Metropolitan Movers, or maybe Shuttle Moving North York, is cheap, there’s a reason they’re cheap. You don’t want them within 10 miles of your TV or other valuables. And I doubt this is the first time their company has received a complaint. Hell, we know it’s not. Look at that BBB page I linked to before.

Ug. I started writing this Wednesday. It’s Friday now. Sure I had work and things to do, but this took a looooong time. See why we didn’t write this sooner? Hopefully it was worth the wait and will save some other poor sap from going through this ordeal.

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63 Comments

    1. I was so happy it let us rate them a 0. My only complaint is that we couldn’t go any lower.

      Now as for Homestars saying they read every review to make sure it’s authentic, I hope for their sake this is a recent development or that they know something about Metropolitan Movers that I don’t. I like to think I’m reasonably good at spotting fakes, and a lot of the reviews on their page sure do look like some fakes.

  1. About your dad being in a mood when this was going on, I kind of wish he hadn’t gone quite so crazy. Some of his lines were great and he was in the right, but I wish he’d gone about things differently or better yet, not said anything at all and let us handle things like we were going to have to anyway. At least it didn’t come back to bite me in the ass. I was afraid that when I started making complaint calls, word would have gotten around about what he’d done and they’d think I was him.

    What was it he said about poor workmanship and laying in a ditch? I don’t remember it exactly, but it brought much laughter to an otherwise horrible day.

    Oh, and their reviews totally sound like they were written by the people who write spam. I said that to Carin almost immediately when we started poking around. Complete fakes.

    1. Lemme see if I can do it justice, although it’s even better when you have dad’s hoarse pissed off voice saying it…ahem…”If I did work like that, I’d be laying in a ditch somewhere sucking on a culvert!” Aww dad, I know what you were going for, but lordy. Screaming at the dispatcher and then asking for the head office of the moving company probably ain’t gonna help, and we’d have to make all the calls in the end anyway. I appreciate you looking out for your kid…but oy.

  2. It seems this post is already serving its intended purpose. I was just talking to somebody on Twitter who let me know that it’s already reached at least one sizable network of realtors, and Metro Movers has been listed in their company directory under “must avoid”.

  3. Oh my god!
    When I read this, the only thing I could imagine is a group of men trying to do your move as miserable as possible.

  4. At first they were cheerful even though they made weird jokes. But after they drove around…and missed our elevator booking…and broke the TV…they knew this wasn’t going to go well, so all their happy happy joy joy went out of them…and us too.

    1. I suspect, though obviously I can’t prove it, that they came in planning to stretch the job out and collect a few extra bucks by taking their sweet ass time. Dishonest, but not uncommon. But once things started getting broken and they realized we weren’t so stupid as to believe the Guelph to Kitchener trip could possibly take as long as it took them, it stopped being fun. this would have been made especially clear by our reactions to and questions about everything they said and did. Discover that a group of people can think logically, and suddenly conning them isn’t such a good idea. Once they knew there would be complaints, I imagine their day got a whole lot worse.

  5. I don’t know why, but the broken dresser impressed me more than the t.v.
    I mean, who the *** breaks a dresser?
    Even though it was just one of its feet…

    1. If I was going to break the foot off a dresser, I’d probably do it by sliding it, which you would maybe have to do when you’re positioning it in the truck. That one honestly wouldn’t have surprised or bothered me much at all if it hadn’t been for all the other stuff they had to find more creative and mean ways to bust. If you slide it and it catches something, off comes the foot, or it chips and then isn’t level, whatever the case. It’s small potatoes compared to everything else, but when you put it all together it does go to show how rough they were with things.

  6. I just ran this… moving company through the resources here in Toronto. you dont’ wanna know the ratings they got, or…. lack there of. Both metro moving and shuttle moving north York both have not so awesome ratings here.
    from what I can tell, it’s not metro moving, but there subcontractors, so there subcontractors get hammered, the parent company gets in the behind, as well.
    But frankly, but of them deserve to be put out of business.

  7. I also recently had a bad experience with them and am lobbying homestars.com to take down the obviously fake 10 star reviews. Have you had any success with a formal complaint?

    1. It took getting a lawyer friend involved to get things moving again, but we did eventually get a bill reduction and what seemed to be fair market value for the TV that was broken out of them. Had we not turned up the heat I think we’d still be spinning our wheels and getting nowhere. They were doing their best to break off contact with us, hoping that we’d take whatever they told us to take and go away.

      Good luck with Homestars. I’m amazed they let those reviews through if they actually have a moderation process. The first few I understand, but reading them it took me about 30 seconds to realize something wasn’t right. How do you miss that when you’re paid not to?

  8. I got through to Homestars through twitter. They have a big “This company has suspicious reviews” flag on their homestars page now.

    1. Well done. Was it easy to convince them to take action?

      We’ve done our Homestars bit as well. Carin left a review there after the two of us finished writing this. Gave them the lowest rating the system would allow. Hopefully it catches people’s attention sitting there alongside the overly glowing ones.

  9. Way to go Dan, we’re the only reviews that are visible on the first page of the Homestars reviews. You rock! And….ouch, I feel your pain on the cost of your move with these clowns. Yousers.

    1. It really is something to see. There are the reviews that you and him left, and then a bunch of warnings. Sounds like suspicious?

      I’m glad this is happening. Nobody else needs to be taken by these people.

  10. Oh baby it’s heatin’ up. Homestars is randomly verifying my review, so they say. Oh, and Metro Movers is disputing the facts. Oh? Really? You wanna go there?

    1. No Mickey, you don’t wanna go there. Your invisible T’s and C’s and magic Visa charges are no match for our stack of correspondence and caller ID timestamps, I fear.

      Oh, and how’s about sending us an invoice one of these days? Ya know, like you promised us a month ago.

  11. THANK YOU,THANK YOU,THANK YOU,
    THANK YOU, I was about to hire these guys—–THANKyou ,THANK YOU

  12. I so wish i would have seen this site before!!!!

    They were unprofessional and Did not honor the Appointment. We were booked for 2:00pm and after we confirmed the appointment 24 hours prior they called to say they were running late and would be at least an hour behind(3:00pm) We let then know that they needed to be there as we had to be out at 5:00pm. At 3:23 when the truck was still not there I called and was put on Hold saying that they were checking on ETA. At 4:36 over an hour later they disconnected the line that I was holding on. Then received a call 10min or so later form there customer service saying that they needed to cancel because they did not have a truck for us. We then were sent an email stating that we canceled the appointment at 4:57pm. left with no truck and no mover we had to move ourselves with our cars and two cube vans form U-haul

    1. Wow. Sounds like you guys got totally screwed. Hopefully you didn’t have to pay them any money up front or anything like that. It’s still a crappy lesson to learn too late, but at least now you know you’re not alone and can warn everybody you can think of about these terrible companies. Trust me, having to go around and around with these fools to get some money back is less fun than no fun.

  13. Thanks for this post, I called them today for a quote and thought I would do some research on them, then I found this site. Thank god! Have you heard of any actual reliable movers in KW?

    1. I know somebody who had a good experience with AMJ Campbell. We called them when we were looking for quotes, but they came in higher than Metro did. Knowing what we know now, it would have been worth the extra since whatever the extra was it almost certainly still would have been cheaper than the way things ended up.

  14. you should have used moovooz.com, They give you a flat-rate quote from multiple companies instantly at their site.
    All you have do is enter the items you’re moving. They also give a 100% guarantee for their price quotes. I just used them to move in Miami and it was Awesome!

    1. Good lord, what an absolute shitshow. It kind of makes what Carin and I went through, awful and infuriating as it was, seem like a trip to Disney World by comparison.

      Thanks for sharing this. Almost a year on this page still gets loads of hits, and your story is one that people need to see.

  15. This company is HORRIBLE!!!! Please avoid it at ALL costs .. the reviews on the other websites are ALL MADE UP as they all sound the same when u read them carefully. I moved from Toronto to Edmonton and 3 weeks now but still don’t have my stuff … AVOID AT ALL COSTS as these guys are total SCAM ARTISTS!!!!

  16. I feel for you. Maybe you should get in contact with Kelly from B.C. and see if there’s anything you can do. Moving really teaches you how much you truly do value your possessions. When they show up broken, or don’t, you really feel it.

  17. wish we would have seen this before we hired them, moved down one building and
    our stuff was broken along with huge amount money charged, absolutely insane, need to make this public somehow!!!!!

    1. Making it public is easier than you might think. You just shared a tiny bit of your story with us, just like the others here have and like we did with the world. Piling on is a good thing. Tell everyone who will listen. Do you have your own blog? Facebook? Anything? Write about what happened to you anyplace you can. Review them on websites where they have ratings. They got ours taken down, but I doubt they can get everyone. And this here post has been sitting here for over a year now working decently effectively as negative advertising, so it’s not like they really silenced us in a truly meaningful way. If your friends are moving, tell them not to hire these guys. Word of mouth is powerful especially if people trust you.

      Sucks you had to deal with these incompetent scumbags. How did they manage to break everything moving it only one building over? That’s borderline amazing.

      1. Also, if you put up a review on Homestar, make sure you have some print around that has their name on it that shows that you moved with them. The trick they pulled on me was to dispute that they actually moved us. The only visa slip I had just had the amount and Shuttle Moving, which was subcontracted by Metro Movers, but to Homestars, they think I got my fix wrong. So, if you have a bill, if you booked it online, anything at all like that will serve to make your review stick. You poor soul. Moved one building over and still managed to break everything.

  18. And here is my experience…..STAY AWAY FROM METROPOLITAN MOVERS….

    I hired these movers for a very small move of some items to a ground floor storage locker. After working for about an hour they decided to take a 15 minute break which I should not have to pay for. One kid stayed mostly in the truck messing around while the other one moved items. There moved incredibly slow. I was moving items myself and I am a 50 year old worman and I took multiple loads for every one he took!! We left at the same time to my locker and it was almost 100% highway. Somewhere along the way they seemed to disapear for about 40 mintues. The locker is just off the highway and impossible to miss. Once at the locker they acted the same way, dragging their feet and taking breaks, I even caught one kid sitting in the truck cab texting on his phone. After they finished they billed me for 5 hours. I was livid as they were only working for 4 hours. They went over the 4 hr mark by 5 minutes and explained to me that this was their policy. They even had the nerve to ask me for a tip!!!! I asked for my receipt and they said it would be emailed to me. When I left them I called Nicole Adams and asked for my bill to be revised to 4 hrs. She told me she would give me 1/2 hr and send me the receipt. I have just called her for a 3rd time and still no receipt.Nicole texted a receipt to me that I cannot read and has the header cut off. Nicole told me that next time I needed a move to call her directly and she’d give me a better deal than her company could as she had her own 4 trucks on the side??? When I spoke to her last night she asked me to do her a “big favour” and that if anyone from her company called me to just tell them I was too busy to talk. She asked me not to tell them as it would mean a lot of paperwork for her. I simply cannot believe the nerve and complete lack of customer service not to mention respect!!! I still do not know the amount of my final bill!!!
    I should not have to pay for the 15 minute break nor the time they wasted in getting to my locker. They were behind me on the highway and there were no traffic issues. They took an extra 40 minutes after I arrived. Therefore, after getting off the highway they had to have stopped somewhere as the locker is not far off the highway.
    Nicole’s response was that they may have stopped for gas. I told her that would only take a few mintues and was not my problem. They should show up with a full tank ready to go!
    Finally got a receipt after 1 1/2 weeks and it’s from another company A2B movers (another one to avoid)!!!

    1. Adams, you say? Very interesting. Our Nicole had the last name of Miller. I still think two different people were playing the role of Nicole, as the emails didn’t match what the phone voice said, nor did the writing styles. Wow, your experience sounds almost the same as ours, right down to the getting lost and loafing around. My dad caught one dude just sorta takin’ a smoke break and listening to the music in the truck once. These arseholes really do have an M.O. Sounds like con-artist?

  19. Oh myy goodness! Incredible article dude! Thank you so much,
    However Iam encountering problems with your RSS.
    I don’t know the reason why I cannot subscribe to it. Is there anyone
    else getting the same RSS issues? Anybody who knows the answer can you kindly respond?
    Thanx!!

  20. Thanks so much for posting this. Almost went with these guys before I started digging deeper and found more negative reviews along with this one. What a mistake that would have been. You have saved me a TONNE of headache.

    1. Glad we could help. Every comment like this almost makes the hundreds of wasted dollars and weeks of wasted time and energy seem worth it…almost. Man, do these guys ever suck so hard. It’s been almost 2 years now and these clowns still make me angry. Happy you found this before it was too late. Good luck with your move and with finding a better company.

    2. I’m glad we could help, and I’m glad you did the research we should have done. Hopefully you’ve found a good mover and your move goes as smoothly as possible.

      1. Hi, I hired them a month ago for a move of 500 pounds of personal goods,and still did not deliver it. I called them this morning and they told me that the weighted everything for about 1900 pounds!!! Does anyone knows how can I make sure they re-weight it or how can I get some legal help??? thanks

  21. DO NOT GO ANYWHERE NEAR THIS COMPANY!!! They are very evidently a scam. I spoke with them this morning to negotiate my move. They quoted me what sounded like a reasonable price and I gave them my credit card to reserve the booking. They verified my card was valid and emailed me a copy of the contract. There were several additional costs in the contract that were not discussed in the original conversation. Then they called me back to inform me that there was a $200.00 cancellation or re-booking fee! A short time later they called me back to inform me that had quoted me the wrong hourly rate and said there would be an increase in the hourly rate of approx. 25%. When I told them I have decided not to do business with them as that was not the fee we had agreed upon, they said “Oh, maybe I can get my supervisor to bring the rate down again.” I told them I still did not want to use their services as in less than an hour they had already screwed me around twice. They then told me they would be charging me the cancellation fee of $200.00!!! This is the same fee they didn’t tell me about until AFTER they sent me a contract and verified my credit card!! This company is not BBB accredited and is not owned by the original owner, who may have provided legitimate and ethical business dealings in the past. When I argued with them they said “We’ve offered you the original hourly rate again, so this is your choice to cancel, therefore we are going to charge the cancellation fee.” I immediately contacted my credit card company to block any further transactions by this company. THIS COMPANY IS A SCAM. If you’re in the greater Kitchener area there are other companies that are reputable and very professional. I would suggest you deal with them, such as Two Men and a Truck or Mike the Mover. Thank goodness this fiasco ended before it even really began because I can only imagine what could have happened on moving day.

    1. Amazing. They’ve now moved on to ripping people off and jerking them around before they’ve moved a single item. I wonder when they started sending out copies of the contract ahead of time. Not that it was worth anything in the end anyway, but we never got that.

      Glad things worked out for you. Hope the credit card company was understanding.

  22. OMG…..I could have written the above experience from hell !! If only I had done my research and found your write up 🙁 Unfortunately, I found a site online advertising as “Guelph Movers” and felt compelled to support a local business…which of course we later found out they’re now MM.
    Our move was a nightmare with Metropolitan Movers just one month ago (September, 2015)….and like you, it took 9.5 hours to move us from one end of Guelph to the other!! We too had packed everything ourselves and clearly marked FRAGILE boxes (which any idiot would know would be written on TOP of a box)…didn’t matter – boxes and furniture were thrown on the truck and delivered upside down…no furniture was wrapped so we’re still finding scratches, dents and gouges in everything.
    We couldn’t communicate with either guy – they didn’t have a command of the English language, but oh the comprehension when it came time to pay!! Oh – and they demanded a 12% TIP which was hand printed on the invoice by the driver….after all – he pointed out that they work hard and get sore backs etc. and need to be compensated for such because they do a good job….REALLY?? I had to run out to the truck to retrieve a copy of the invoice – they didn’t give us one!
    They damaged new flooring at the home we moved out of and denied doing it and said ” You’re moving – what do you expect?” Unlike your TV – they hid our damage behind boxes etc. They never told us about the arm they broke off our computer chair – rather they just put it back in place!! A wooden antique corner unit was placed in the corner with numerous boxes piled in front. Upon moving these boxes, we discovered 2 huge gouges at the bottom….like I said – none of the furniture was wrapped or covered with moving blankets 🙁 And of course because they were throwing FRAGILE boxes, fine china dishes have been broken 🙁 not to mention the damage in boxes that were delivered upside down!!
    And we’re missing an item – it’s still to be located according to them, however, common sense says it’s long gone!!
    I too have gone through the email, phone crap to no avail. When I asked what the moving guys had to say concerning my allegations, I was told that the one guy was on vacation in Europe (his home country no doubt). My generous TIP (along with others who fell prey to this TIP demand) probably helped finance his holiday!! How convenient?!?!
    How this company has ever received awards is beyond comprehension!!
    WARNING: STAY CLEAR OF METROPOLITAN MOVERS

    1. Wow. That’s quite the story. I assume from what you wrote that you never got any sort of refund out of them?

      I imagine the only reason they were so forthcoming about our TV is that it was impossible to hide. They weren’t honest about any of the other stuff they wrecked.

  23. Oh god. There is a knot in the pit of my stomach. It’s been 3 years since that clown show, and when the anniversary approaches, I still feel a little sick.

    Your fellas sound a lot like our fellas. I wish I could describe mine.

    If you have that invoice, write them up on Homestars. As it says in the comments, we couldn’t do that because they challenged the fact that they moved us, *coughcough* scumbags *coughcough*. So, since they knew we didn’t have an invoice, they knew we had no receipt that had Metro Movers on it because Shuttle Moving North York. No receipt, no review. Together, we can get the word out further and wider. I’m so sorry we couldn’t save you the misery. I hope, soon, you can stop having to see evidence of the horrible move.

  24. Absolutely nothing from them!
    Forgot to mention – the truck had no name on it whatsoever – I figured they were contracted but MM claims these were they’re regular guys.

    1. Well isn’t that interesting. This no logos on the truck thing must be something they either do now or have always done but not every time. Would love to know what purpose it’s supposed to serve. My guesses are either that they don’t have enough trucks of their own and are forced to rent generic ones from somewhere, or that they do it intentionally so that when the inevitable shitshow begins it’s harder for their victims to sort out who’s responsible for what. My money’s leaning more towards option 2, but they’re such a disorganized collection of incompetent dipshits that it could easily be both.

  25. Hey guys. I would recommend Enbeee Movers. L wil be honest, l work for them, but how else would l know that they are great. The owner is a reat Boss to us and l see the way they deal with their clients. This gu is like a prayerful religouse, church going kind of guy so you know he is honest from within himself. Enbee has about 8 moving trucks, still growing but it won’t be a surprise if they become one of the big shots in a few years to come. l mean it. I am simply a proud employee. Visit http://www.enbeemovers.com for more info or call them at 647 499 6683. Like l said, l work for Enbee part time and seeing all these stories here, l thought this may help.

  26. I agree with this post. Hired this company in Edmonton. Exact same thing happened to me! What a joke.

  27. Steve…we also had a nightmare experience with a company called “Smart Movers”; they also go by the name ‘Perfect Movers’. I suspect that maybe they have many company names and could also be the Shuttle company that you are referring to because our experience was very similar to yours. We even called the police several times during the move but they could not do anything. It was the worst experience we have ever encountered and is truly criminal. I lodged a complaint with Consumer Protection Ontario but it amounted to nothing except more stress in providing a summary of the events. There needs to be proper protection in place for us as consumers. We had also found the company on HomeStars and now I won’t use that site for fear of another disaster. The moving company actually took off with our most expensive belongings overnight and we did not know if we would get anything back. It was like they were holding out for a ransom payment and we had to pay to get our stuff back. We ended up paying about $4000 for the move! Plus we had rented a cube van ourselves and had moved much of the items because the movers sat around a lot. The move brought me to tears and yet there was nothing that we could do. Please be careful about ‘Smart Movers/Perfect Movers’ as they are scam artists.

  28. Metropolitan Movers are the worst movers ever. I wish I had seen this before I hired them. They broke my things, they moved slow, they came with a truck with 7 feet of someone elses things already packed into the back. We couldn’t fit all my stuff in it! And now I’ve been trying to get them to replace my record player for 3 weeks now. I want this company to not exist anymore…they are awful awful people. 🙁

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