The Consumer
The ongoing saga of an unregulated moving industry and frustrated consumers Is there a viable solution to improve public protection? By Ritika Dubey
M
The Consumer
oving to a small rural community in Nova Scotia from southern Ontario was distressing and expensive for Jenny’s family. In February 2020, the family hired Move Me Again Transportation to coordinate and manage the move of their personal items to the Maritimes. They spent a considerable amount time comparing quotes from various moving companies receiving quotes that ranged from $8,000 to $12,000 and settled for the least expensive estimate of $2,000. Warrillow shared with The Registrar that on moving day, she was hastily rushed into signing documents by the moving truck driver, unknowingly agreeing to a “flat rate.” “Key to their scam was a section about
the flat rate. The driver had checked off a box to say we agreed to pay a flat rate for the move instead of the quoted rate based on the weight,” she said. “But the conversation we had with him was that we wanted him to weigh the contents of the truck and we would pay based on that.” The bill handed to them was now for $6,700, a 108 per cent difference from what they had been quoted. Hundreds of similar cases have surfaced since 2018—when multiple scam companies were charged, but the Crown dropped the charges because of lack of evidence. In 2019, over 600 complaints and multiple inquiries about movers and moving companies, were registered with
28 theregistrar.ca
winter edition 2022
