Dear CityMove Brisbane
You completed our move on Friday, 13th November 2015. We booked a 10 ton truck to arrive at 10.30 on Friday.
Your man said he would send an email verifying it. He didn't send any email apart from the dollar saying our credit card was ok. I specifically stated in my initial booking email that I did not want removalists in the afternoon because they would be tired... I even made a joke about it to underline my point.
We then discovered with your email a couple of days before our move that you were only going to send one 4 ton truck at anything up until 5 o’clock in the afternoon. With a bit of arguing with the manager we were then promised that we would have two 4 ton trucks at 10.30am.
I can't begin to comprehend the lies and distortions coming from each and every phone call my wife made to your company from 10.30 am on the day of our move, ie "had a cancellation so truck will be there before 12.00". The lies continued and one 4 ton truck eventually arrived at 13.43. I started my stop watch when they actually arrived. We told the driver that we had been promised two trucks and they were very late. The driver phoned your office and was told that another 4 ton truck was available and did we want to use it. What? Did we want to use it? …… Good grief…. “No.. it’s ok we’re quite happy with the service we have had so far; just send the other truck home; everything is under control here.” Is the Brisbane CityMove real?
It was then I said to the driver and my wife that “we are being conned aren’t we?”.
We should have cancelled the move then and there but at 2 o’clock on a Friday afternoon who you gonna call?
We quickly realised that the youngster was crook. An hour or so later they admitted that he had hurt himself on the previous move. The driver then helped. At around 1600 hours they took off for the 1.4 km drive to our other house so I waited for the new crew to arrive.
Two hours later it was in disbelief that instead of another crew I watched the same crew backing into the driveway. .. We later discovered that those poor buggers had been working since 7.00 in the morning.... Without a break! I wonder what the Health and Safety will have to say about that one?
Is it a head office dictum to use the hydraulic lift at all times even when the furniture could be lifted by a ten year old! Ie I watched the young chap putting a cane chair on the lift, stepping on the lift then I didn't see him again for five minutes.... My daughter said that she was told that he had hurt his back which was why he was so slow.
The men did then seem to take a considerable amount of care with our furniture in the next half hour. I did wonder why it took nearly 5 minutes for every piece of furniture taken inside the truck but (on looking inside the truck) was calmed by the fact that the three of them were engrossed in a discussion which was obviously to do with the logistics with the perfect position in the truck.
It was quite a hot day so I decided to move my chair outside where I could see the back of the truck. The truck filled up much more rapidly afterwards so I am tremendously pleased that they had managed to work out the positioning before I got paranoiac!
At 67 years old I thought I was immune to con men. Bubble wrap at three dollars a metre? Not needed... We have our own. Wow... I take my hat off to CityMove. Driver said that insurance says that “we can't take the display cabinet without bubble wrap as it’s an insurance thing”. Even although we had plenty of our own bubblewrap we were charged $120 for bubble wrap to wrap a glass display cabinet. We were charged another $60 for ordinary wrap to wrap a sideboard. WOULD YOU BELIEVE THEY ACTUALLY UNWRAPPED IT ALL AT THE DESTINATION AND TOOK IT AWAY WITH THEM? $180 to hire wrap for an hour or so. Surely this is theft?
We decided that as the workers were obviously knackered (and as it was 8.30 at night) we didn’t have the heart to tell them to take the sideboard into our bedroom upstairs so told them to just leave it in the garage. Half an hour before paying I felt sorry for the men so I went out to the bottle shop and at 8.30pm bought each worker a large bottle of quite expensive Mexican beer.
The driver presented the cost to my wife at nine o’clock at night. She told him he had to be joking. He said that head office told him he couldn’t leave until he was paid. My 68 year old wife gave him her credit card. It didn’t go through. The driver said again he wouldn’t leave until he was paid.
The standover tactics worked and reluctantly I gave him my credit card to pay the crooked bill. It was now 9.30 at night and although I knew we had been screwed I honestly thought they had completed the move.
The following day I had to hire a van to bring the rest of the stuff from the starting house. Admittedly it only took 1 and a half hours but it cost me another $80 on top of the $835 we were charged to move our furniture 1.4km.
Six months ago we used a company from Capalaba. They moved the same stuff from storage in Capalaba. Stopped on the way to pick up a heap of stuff from our house in Camp Hill then brought it to the rental in Carina Heights. They then went to Mt Gravatt and picked up a houseful of stuff from my daughter’s house to Carina Heights. They charged $900 in total which we actually thought was quite a lot. This is the eleventh move we have made since we got married in Scotland. The fifth move we have used a professional moving company. Your company CityMove turned our move into an absolute nightmare.
In the last eight days I have sent two emails to CityMove asking for enlightenment or at least an apology. You haven’t had the decency to reply of course. I have asked if you would at least give us back the bubblewrap you charged us then stole back. I know I know…. Good luck with that one!
My initial review sent on 14th November 2015 was luckily declined. It was probably a bit emotional which was pointed out by WOMO
CityMove head office replied six days later through the Operations Manager called VB who said they were prepared to refund $90 for the bubble wrap. Cool...how about the eight hundred dollars in hospital fees due to the stress you caused because you had decided to cancel our move of 1.4 km because you had a better move to New South Wales? .... your email back to me incidentally... would you like me to attach your reply about why you thought it acceptable to cancel our booking because you had a better monetary booking to go to New South Wales? Thought not....
Attached is the bill: OK you couldn't give a buggery but trust me.... that is a bill from a business which has worked out how to screw the common man....
Rats..... they're not going to give me the $90 refund now are they?
CITYMOVE BRISBANE... the removal company you can trust.... as long as they haven't found a better paying option to NSW. In that case..... good luck mate.... you'll need all the help you can get.... from anyone else but CItyMove Brisbane.
Good luck.