Disappointed Winnipeggers urge caution when hiring a moving company
CBC
As the busy moving season starts to ramp up, a group of Winnipeggers is warning those looking to hire a mover to be careful after they lost hundreds of dollars to a moving company that didn't show up.
CBC News has heard from eight customers of Buff Moving and Storage who say they scheduled the company to help them move, paid a deposit but received no services.
"It was just a horrible, horrible situation," said Kelly Pereux, who lost $1,000 when the company backed out of moving him at the last minute.
Pereux says he hired Buff Moving, which is owned by Jeffrey Watson, to move him to Calgary from Winnipeg earlier this year.
He had used the company in the past for small jobs and Watson had offered him a good deal for the move that would have saved him thousands.
The move, scheduled for late January, was supposed to cost $4,800, and Watson asked Pereux for a $300 deposit to cover upfront expenses.
Pereux says Watson later asked for a further $300 to cover additional expenses and then another $400, saying he wanted to make it "a nice round number."
Pereux hesitated, but gave him the money — $1,000 in total as a deposit — because he said he wanted to give Watson a chance to do a larger move.
When it got closer to moving day, Pereux says he stopped hearing from Watson. Eventually, he says, Watson told him the move wasn't "going to work."
"And I am just like, 'What the hell?' Then give me my money back and then I'm going to rebook somewhere else," he said of his reaction to Watson's response.
Pereux says he went into panic mode and was forced to hire new movers — at a much higher cost — at the last minute.
Pereux is among several people CBC contacted who hired Buff Moving based on their own prior positive outcomes using the company or friends and family who had good experiences.
The moves of the eight customers who spoke with CBC News were scheduled to happen between November 2021 and March of this year.
Only one says she had her deposit refunded.
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