I am writing you to share my horror story with Dynamic Movers. Your name was forwarded to me via another victim and I too would like to put an end to this extortion of innocent people. I will do my best to do what ever I can to help.

On Monday, June 16, 2008 I was going reading through daily paper “24 Hours” and came upon an ad for movers. I called all the ads and decided to go with one in the paper. What I required was a 24 foot truck and 3 moving persons. Jason the person that I spoke to said that he would be able to supply me with this request at $65.00 per hour. From all of the quotes that I was receiving this seemed to be the most fantastic, so I booked their services. Although I never received an official quote as to how much the entire move would cost I said to Jason “so this should be 4 to $500.00 dollars?” He never corrected me to say it would be more.

On Tuesday, June 17 at 6:00 Jason called me to confirm the appointment for the 18th of June 2008 at 8:30 am. I figured that my move should not take longer that three to four hours and at $65.00 per hour that should be $260.00. Knowing that there are always hiccups I went to the bank and withdrew $500.00 to pay for the move.

On Wednesday, June 18, 2008 the movers arrived at 8:50 am. The gentleman who came to the door identified himself as Moses and he seemed to be the one in charge of the move. I showed him what the items were that needed to be moved. He took a look and then he presented me with a contract and said that he would need a deposit of $300.00 to start the move. I went to the money that I took out the day previous and gave him $300.00. He and the other two young men started to load the truck with my belongings. In about twenty to thirty minutes later Moses comes back to me and says that he is going to need a deposit of $500.00. I said to him “I just gave you $ 300.00 I don’t have 200.00 I only have $180.00.”

So he said that he would take it. No in my mind the move is fully paid for. The three men loaded up the truck and were finished at about 11:15 to 11:30 am. Then Moses said to me that I need to pay $520.00 for the deposit. I explained to him that I have already given him $480.00 which is more that the cost of the entire move and I don’t know why he needs $40.00 more. So he tells me that I need to speak to Jason which is his boss. So I call up Jason and explain to him that I have already paid $480.00 which is more than the cost of the entire move I don’t know why he needs $40.00 more? Jason then informs me that it is not $40.00 more but $520.00 in addition to the $480.00 that I have already given him which is required for the deposit. I inform Jason that from the time I started to talk to him on Monday this is the first time that the word deposit has ever been used, not once did he tell me that there would be a deposit and had I known that they were going to need $1,000.00 for a deposit I would never have used their services.

I then walk down the street to my new address which is a 10 minute walk I moved 0.2 kilometers away I went to the superindent’s office and received my key for the new place. I called Moses to find out where he was and he said that he went to another address implying that he was still working but in actual fact they had taken a lunch break. I have no issue with that. They need to eat and it was around the noon hour. When Moses finally shows up at about 12:15 he is insistent that I give him another $520.00 for the move. I am enraged at this point and feel that a fraudulent at is being committed against me or extortion at the time I was not sure which one but I knew that this was not right, so I called the police.

The police officer arrived and said that there was not a lot that he could do as this was a contractual issue. It was only at this point that Moses presented me with an invoice for the move and told me that instead of giving him $520.00 to complete the move that I would need to give him $1,417.50. At this point I am very vulnerable as these people have every possession that I own in the world on their truck, and all that I have are the clothes on my back. So the police officer drove me to the bank to get the money to complete my move.

As I was on the way to the bank I am reviewing the invoice and they had so many false charges on this invoice that it is not funny. They charged me $650.00 in labour $65.00 for ten hours. Traveling costs of $65.00. A stair charge of $300.00 now this was out landish. It is true that I was moving out of a basement apartment however the way that this apartment was designed there was no reason that they would need to go up and down the stairs. One of the movers was in my space and took the boxes and put them on the landing there was another mover outside taking the boxes from the landing and passing them to the third guy who was loading the truck. So the only things that needed to be walked up the stairs were the very large items, which were not many. A heavy item charge of $390.00 I didn’t have many if any heavy items . $45.00 for Kilometers then I don’t know what the previous $65.00 traveling costs was for? Then there was a Miscellaneous charge of $200.00 a box fee charge. Excuse me but you are a moving company there will be boxes to move.

Upon my return from the bank I informed Moses that I was short the funds that he required, however I gave him the $520.00 that he was asking for from before; he took it and still refused to take the items off of the truck because he was holding out for the full amount so I had to call around to friends to see if I could come up with the money. They sat around from after the lunch break at 12:15 until 4:00 pm and did absolutely nothing. I finally received the money and they started unloading the truck and they were not even careful with my belongings they broke one handle off of my chest and broke one off of the same chest. They gouged the side of my computer desk and tried to tell me it was like that prior to the move. I the showed him the fresh sawdust marks and told him that this just happened. They finished dumping the things into my apartment at around 6:00 pm. that evening, so it only took 2 hours to unload.

When they were just about finished Moses informs me that Jason says that I need to pay another $150.00 for overtime fees and if I don’t the three of them will just leave my things outside on the loading dock and I will have to bring them in myself. I told him that I refuse to pay anymore money I have already over paid for this move. Moses tells his workers that they are now off the clock and they don’t need to move anymore of my things. Moses then tells me if I want to have them move in the rest of my things I will need to tip the two movers in order for them to complete the move. I had to get on the truck and move some of the things myself I hurt my back in doing so. The reason why I hired movers was to move my belongings not for me to be on the truck moving my own things.

Is there anything that you can suggest so I can re-coup some of my monies? I am not looking for a free move. I believe that services were rendered so therefore I should pay for that, however not to the tune of $1972.25. – Christopher Brown

Editors Note: This story appeared in The Toronto Star – Click Here To Read and see similar story which aired on City TV – Click Here To View in Quicktime – Click Here To View in Flash Format