Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:27/06/2024

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  the movers damaged my floor, scratched the fridge door, scratched the main door dont want to take responsibility for all the damages bad service took cash no invoice

  Customer Answer

  Date: 02/07/2024

  Hello 

  the service was provided to me on June 22. 2024

• Initial Complaint

  Date:20/09/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I ordered moving services from Lions Gate Movers for September 15 at 9 am. Moving 1 bedroom apartment from ********* to ***************. The initial estimate was $133,5/hr, plus 30 min travel time. ***** the owner has confirmed that time starts from the moment they started the move. At ********* location there is a loading zone that has access from different street that address, so I sent a text message night prior the move with drop in location pin. ***** has responded, and it seems he acknowledged the message. On the day of the move, movers called me and started asking about the location for loading zone, they had not received my instructions from *****. And it took them 30 min to find a loading zone. When we asked what time start the click, they said that we still have to pay for the 30 min that they spent to find a loading zone, as they were already in the area and charged us for this time. The location drop in was sent the night prior to them, this was their mistake, I believe they came unprepared. I want to ask BBB to help me ** **** ** adjustment of the bill. At the day of the move I have tried to confront them, as they also were slow, *****- lead mover said that I need to pay right now, and they will keep the rest of the boxes ******** ** * ***** **** * ****** ** ******** ***** *** ***** ***** ***** ** **** **** ** * ** *** ** ****** ** **** *** ** ********** ** *** ** *** ***** The total work time with driving was 3 hours + 30 min travel charge, they charged us for 4 hr and 15 min. Total cost $570, I am looking for the compensation of the 30 min that they were not working, and were driving to find the loading zone.

  Business Response

  Date: 04/10/2023

  Steven here. Yes there was instructions sent about the loading zone, and they mistakenly hadn't been passed along. When I was initially asked when we start the clock I had said from when we arrive at 9:00, as we get the truck set and do a walkthrough with the customer. However, it took us about 15-20 minutes to get set in the loading zone (which was admittedly out of the way), and after we had discussed it and I confirmed with ***** that instructions had been sent, I had adjusted our timing so as to not charge the customer unfairly.
  
  I thought things were moving off of the truck smoothly and steadily, but at around 12:30pm I recieved a call while down on the truck that things seemed to be moving too slowly. I reassured ***** that I was moving things as quickly as they could be, and even invited her to come down to check the truck out. There were only two of us, and 3.75 hours labour including a half hour drive from their start point to the offload is not slow for this kind of move. 
  
  She came down to me shortly after, stating only then that she had an appointment at 1pm, and began to raise her voice and act in a manner that made me feel as though she was possibly going to make an issue over payment at the end of the job. I asked her to try to calm herself and warned her that yelling and disrespectful behaviour were not tolerable, and that I was feeling as though she was going to make said issues over payment. When she continued, as I do in those very rare instances, I said I would estimate the time to the end of the job, go over bill with her now, and we could secure payment before finishing with the last few boxes. When she continued to yell and make a scene at that point, I did make mention that if she was holding my attention to her instead of letting me continue to work, it was only going to prolong the bill as we were on the clock (the 15 minutes she made mention of).
  
  Shortly after, her partner, ******, came down and was very pleasant. I sorted out the bill with her, and she was very apologetic over *****'s behaviour. She paid $470 (my estimate minus their $100 deposit). We finished up at 1:15, and the bill was only written up as charged from 9:30-1:15 plus the half an hour of travel, which is intended to cover getting to the job, and back to the yard with the truck after the yard, 15 minutes each way. **** hours of labour plus .5 hours travel (which normally would have been 1 hour based on the load up location in East Vancouver). We also didn't charge for any fuel or materials, and at a discounted rate of $133.50/hr (down from $ 148.50/hr) the total came to a fair $567.38 plus tax. Again, they only paid my final estimate of $570 total.
  
  I wanted to go over this with her at the end of the job and clear the air, showing her the discounts and charges, but she had decided to lock herself in another room and let ****** do all of the interacting, so there was no opportunity.
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/10/2023

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

   

  The company has charged us $570, where we paid $133.5 for hour if work. Doing the math 
  We paid for 4.24. Steve has not acknowledged us that we are paying only from 9:30, and our bill was adjusted. This was my understanding of the charge:

  9am-10am $133.5 -1 hr

  10am -11 am $133.5 -1 hr

  11 am -12 pm $133.5- 1 hr

  12 pm -1 pm $102.75 - 45 min

  + 30 min travel - 66.75

  Total 3.75 hr of work and 0.5 travel time =4.24

  * ** *** ** **** **** ***** ****** ** ****** ** *********** *** ******** ** ** *** *** **** * *** ** ******* **** ** ******* *** ************** ********* ******* *** ***** ********

  Just to correct his story: 

  first: I didn't call Steve at 12:30 pm, I did come downstairs at around 1 pm to tell him that his colleague need help upstairs, and they need to try to finish moving by 1 pm.

  Secondly: I asked Steve 2 questions, maybe my way was too expressive for him, also we were on a busy street, so higher voice is normal. He immediately accuse me that I am snapping on him, and he doesn't like it and he feels that we will not pay, he started to calculate the bill. I was totally silent at all this time. Then he said that he will keep our boxes hostage till he get pay, and if I will not hurry he would add additional 15 min. Nobody was yelling on him, he just was continuing his comments all the way that I was going from the truck on the street to the entrance of the building. He was intermediating me. ** **** ******* **** **** **** *** **** ** *** ******* ****** **********

  Thirdly: I had to left at 1 pm to be on time for the move out inspection at 1:30 pm in *********, so I gave money to my partner ****** to complete the payment and I left, so I didn't lock myself.

   

  I would love to see a copy of the receipt that they have for our service, as our copy was list by my partner during the moving.

   

   

  Sincerely,
  
  *************************

  Business Response

  Date: 02/11/2023

  Steven here again. I'm going to try to be as detailed as possible here for the sake of putting this to rest. I won't be responding again.
  
  There was no intent to attack *****'s character in my last response, I was merely stating the events as they happened from my standing. She was generally either stan-offish, nonpresent, or in a state where there was a lot of agression coming from her, and I genreally chalked it up to stress over moving. I do see stress in people in this industry all the time, and I am aware that it affects people differently. There is a point, though, where a persons actions and attitude towards the workers becomes unacceptable, and she had definitely reached that point. I don't very often see it come to a place where payment has to be secured before a job finishes, and truth be told I have only ever had to do so one other time in all of the moves I've done and out of all of the people I've dealt with over the years. If she had approached things in a less hostile manner, there would not have been a problem in that regard.
  
  It honestly feels at this point, with her comments stating this was her first experience with movers and that we've "confirmed all the rumors and stories," that she came into it expecting things to go badly, and that that likely informed her choices in how she was acting and presenting herself. While I realize that the communication mistake made at the beginning of the day wasn't a great foot forward, there was nothing wrong with the work done for the rest of the day, and had she given me half a chance, I would have talked her through how we intended to make that right. The problem in the end was her own hostility and unwillingness to even attempt to communicate, let alone be reasonable.
  
  Regarding *****'s corrections: She claims she didn't call me at 12:30, but I have the incoming call log to prove that she did. It's attached and outlined further below. The street also wasn't particularly loud, and we were both inside and outside the building, and on the opposite side of a five-ton truck from the traffic to speak. She wasn't just talking loudly, there was hostile energy behind it. I can tell the difference. I also don't just "hold possesions hostage" for no reason as she would like to claim. Furthermore, why would I accuse somebody of snapping at me if they weren't? It makes no sense to tell someone who is calm and collected and positive in their output to calm themselves and stop yelling so we can discuss things and work through the problem. I also was obligated to mention that we were on a the clock and that continuing on like she was would only add time to the bill. I would be being irresponsible not to. I didn't want to charge her more than was necessary to get the job done, but we do get paid by the hour and if she wanted to spend our time keeping me from offloading the truck to berate me, then that time was going to be charged for it. It wasn't a threat that if she didn't pay now I would charge her more, it was a warning that if we continued to waste time that things would take longer, causing the job to run on (which she was already taking issue with) and a byproduct of that was going to be a longer bill time. I knew she wouldn't be happy about being charged for said time, so things had to continue to move along, and I had already tried reasoning with her on every other level I could think of to tone down the attitude she was giving me and keep the job on track.
  
  ***** claims in her last response that she had to leave to go to a meeting, but ****** said she was in the other room and didn't want to talk to anyone. I am only going on the information that was given to me at the time on the day. Either way, she wasn't making herself available to go over the bill or to allow me to explain the time charged at the end of the job. I wanted to talk to her about the adjusted start time and break down the invoice for her, but I can't do so when she's gone. I've also recently attempted to call *****, to reach out and try to talk this through, but she wasn't picking up. I also called ******, who spoke to me pleasantly, but refused to talk about the day at all.
  
  I'm attaching the bill (signed on the day by ******) so that there is no confusion on the math. It reads as follows: 9:30-1:15, **** hours charged. 30 minutes of travel time, which is intended to cover getting to the job load-up site from the truck yard in *************** in the morning, and then back to the truck yard after the job is completed. Again, for the distance travelled to the load-up this would have normally been a longer charge, but we stuck to 30 minutes for them. that adds up to **** hours. At a rate of $133.50 per hour (a discounted rate from our ususal $148.50), that comes to $567.38. Again, normally we charge for non-reusable materials used, and for fuel. These charges were waived for this job. With taxes the bill came to $495.75. $470 had already been accepted as early payment, based on my estimation to the end of the job, when ****** came down to give me the money after the altercation with *****. No more money was asked for after the completion of the job to finalize payment of the invoice, and business was considered concluded. I felt it best to let it lie and not give any more reason for issue. I would also like to note that while stopping work was mentioned, I did actually continue to off-load the truck after speaking with *****, without pause. This was despite not having any indiciation that early payment was going to happen, I on;y knew so when ****** came down after the altercation with ***** to try and sort things out and apologize to us.
  
  I looked into my phone bill for the month of September and I've attached a cutout from my phone records that shows calls and times. It outlines the following:
  
  8:59 Arrival call to *****. It turned out she was not on-site.
  9:07 Call to ***** trying to sort out the parking situation after speaking briefly to ****** (she came out the front of the complex when she saw the truck) in person about where to go around the building. There was some confusion on my part.
  9:08/9:09 Call from ****** (on-site) and from ***** (not on-site), neither communicating with one another which added to the confusion. Directions were eventually made more clear at this point. Confirmation was later made that ***** had not passed along the parking information which was the initial cause of the parking confusion.
  
  9:15 Call to ****** to let her know we were parked in the loading zone. (HIGHLIGHTED BLUE) This is when we started the official walkthrough of the job and went over paperwork and logistics, which is part of the billed time normally (I explained this to ****** at the time, saying that we normally start billing when we arrive at 9:00), but as was stated, the clock ended up being pushed forward to 9:30 after confirmation had later been made that the information was sent through to ***** about the loading zone and had not been forwarded.
  
  10:43 Contact around the time we were leaving the load up site.
  11:16 Call to ***** at arrival time at the drop-off. She didn't seem to want to come downstairs to meet us.
  11:17 Call to ****** to arrange getting into the building.
  
  12:27 The call from upstairs initially asking why things were taking so long. **** was accusatory. This was when I invited them to come downstairs to see the progress that had been made. (HIGHLIGHTED YELLOW)
  
  Note that at tthe load up site, there were two of us loading from a flat level home into the truck simultaneously, with about a 50 foot distance from the home to the truck, whereas the off-load was split between floors with an elevator, were I was on the bottom floor with about 30 feet to the door, then there was the elevator itself which had to be loaded, ridden, and off-loaded, and my colleague was moving the upper floor where there was a walk down the hallway which spanned most of the 200 foot building. The off-load was bound to take longer than the load up with the access as it was. That said, the load up time was roughly 1.5 hours and the offload was roughly 2.
  
  13:00 Call to my co-worker asking to bring the elevator back down so that I could come up to finish loading things into the apartment, as the truck was empty. He missed the call, then called me back immediately. (HIGHLIGHTED GREEN)
  
  At this point it took us about 15 minutes to finish up. ****** knows that we were there until 1:15. She confirmed this on the phone with me when we spoke recently.
  
  Long story short, **************** was given a rate at 10% off our regular price, a 30 minute deduction on a 15 minute mistake, free materials, free fuel, and a reduced travel time which is intended to pay workers for time worked, and on top of that treated us like we were only there to ruin her day right from the outset and wasn't around to speak to in the end to even allow me any attempt to smooth things over. She's already gotten a massive deal on a move that, despite her claims and actions on the day, went quickly and rather smoothly. Everything was transported safely, arrived in a few short hours, and was moved into the new place undamaged. Yes a mistake was made at the beginning in communication, but it was a mistake that she wasn't charged for, and conversely, was actually given a further deduction for than was necessary for the inconvenience. No further discounts will be given.