Classic Bait and Switch
0 Stars
Let it be known that we held off posting this review until after our goods were received for fear of what Atlanntis might do in retaliation.
Atlanntis will entice you in by giving you an low ‘quote’, (which they specifically say is not a quote, and that your final charge will have nothing to do with the number generated from the fill-in-the-blank form that populated it.)
Do not be fooled by this number, it’s just bait.
My mom needed to move her pre-packed items from my sister’s garage in Rural Saskatchewan to Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, B.C.
From B.C. My mom hired Atlanntis movers based on the price quoted online after entering in the quantity of items she had. She has a queen sized bed, small round kitchen table, a small table that’s used as a desk, an office chair, an upholstered accent chair and 16 wooden dining room chairs. That’s ALL she had as furniture and only a small deep freeze for appliances. She had 75 boxes of items. Also, at the time of the quote she added that she has a specialized piece of quilting equipment that consists of a 12 foot long metal table with rollers with a set of legs at each end. The machine part of this setup is boxed and separate from the table. The original quote included this equipment.
After securing a monetary deposit from my Mom, they had her fill in a more detailed list of her belongings. At this time the quote went from approximately $1700 to $4000. The quilting table and its size were confirmed again at this time.
My mom was not able to be present when her items were picked up and loaded from my sisters house. When the company called my sister the day before the move, they claimed that they knew nothing of the quilting machine and table. As well as changed the quote to include a Laz-y-Boy chair (the accent chair), a dining room table (the antique desk table), and stated that it would be an additional $500 to bring the quilting table due to its large size. The price now increased to $7000 based on these few changes (made by Atlanntis). Atlanntis claimed that they HAD to increase the size of truck used to pick up her items due to these last minute changes. This would result in bumping up my moms move into the ‘minimum 9500 lb. ’ category and therefore increase her price.
We understood that the truck would be weighed after her items were loaded and that she would pay ONLY for what she had. This was NOT THE CASE.
This new minimum 9500 lb. minimum meant that she would be paying for 9500 lbs regardless of how heavy the load was.
This all happened approximately 15 hours prior to pickup.
The truck was coming from Ontario and has left days earlier in order to arrive on time. There’s no way they were bringing a larger truck just to accommodate these changes.
They called my mom to discuss the changes after refusing to talk to my sister, who’s home the items were at and with whom they’d been talking to and dealing with for days. While at work, my mom had 15 minutes to decide whether or not she was going to continue with the pickup and pay or cancel everything and make other arrangements and forfeit her deposit.
My mom has limited financial resources but also didn’t know how else the get her things here in the winter. She does not own a vehicle large enough to haul this load on her own and is unable to drive a u-haul truck and/or trailer across western Canada to get it here herself.
She reluctantly agreed to continue with the move because she felt caught between a rock and a hard place with the movers and she needed her items here.
The items were picked up on the evening of Sunday, November 25th and were scheduled to arrive around December 15th. They were always very careful never to give an exact day or time of arrival.
Upset on my mom’s behalf, I called Emily at Atlanntis to get more details on how and why the price has doubled.
Emily explained to me, on the phone, that my sister had made the changes that caused the increase in price. She would not tell us the actual weight of the shipment stating that the load had been moved into the 9500lb minimum category. She said also, that she would email my mom a copy of the paperwork that showed the itemized list that was created at the pickup.
The next day we still had not received the email do I called Emily on my moms behalf because she was at work and unable to call herself. Emily was extremely curt with me on the phone and denied ever having spoken with me! She then stated that she would not be discussing anything to do with my moms move with anyone except my mom.
My mom sent her an email the next day requesting that my sister and I be allowed to speak on her behalf to Atlanntis and also requested a copy of the manifest stating the weight and a detailed list of what was put on the truck. Emily refused both requests, stating that she could not discuss the account with another person/people unless she was requested in writing by my mom (all emails to and from Emily included my and my sister’s emails addresses in the cc, so Emily was communicating with us both via email at that time. ) ,and that she was under no obligation to tell us the weight of moms load so she would not be giving us that information.
My mom requested the whereabouts of her items almost daily from approximately December 10 on. They were unable or refused to tell us an exact location. Around December 22, my mom received a call from the trucking dispatch to see if she would like her items delivered on December 25th or the 26th. We feel that this was a retaliatory move on the part of Atlanntis for all the inquiries we had made. They knew we were into them and their scam.
We were again denied the exact weight of the load and were reminded that not a single item would be removed from the truck until payment was received in full at the address provided for drop off. They had her entire life’s belongs held hostage for an entire month.
As reference, I drove my moms car from the same location that my moms items were stored to Nanaimo on December 8th. And 9th. The entire trip, including an over night in Golden, B.C. Took less than 48 hours.
A considerably smaller truck than what picked up her items, arrived at 7:45 am on Boxing Day with three men to unload it.
They were very nice men and worked fast. The truck was jammed full of my Mom’s belongings and the damage was extensive. I have included pictures showing the condition of several large items. We did not bother with pictures of all the broken dishes and glassware. Boxes were crushed and some damage was even done through the stickers placed on the furniture at time of pickup. This proves the damage occurred after leaving outer possession.
4 large wardrobe-sized boxes, that were not packed by my mom or sister, arrived with several smaller boxes and loose items tossed inside of them. Each of these boxes cost my mom $45! My moms delicate serger sewing machine was at the bottom of one of these large heavy boxes. Other items that were piled into these boxes included glass table tops, delicate antique framed pictures, a metal tool box full of tools, a foot stool, etc. It was also obvious that no blankets or packing were used on or around wooden furniture. Packing tape was wrapped directly onto an antique hutch. See pictures for reference.
Although a numbered checklist was created at the time of loading. No reference to that list was made when delivery occurred. They unload the truck and were gone in 45 minutes. We had no idea if anything had gone missing.
The drivers said they were going to pick up a ‘big load’ that will ‘fill the truck’ after leaving us. They said it was ‘4000 lbs’. If this is true, then we can safely assume that my moms load was at the most, 4000lbs, although it did not fill the truck.
As you can see from the picture of her final bill, all charges were changed at the time of pickup.
According to Atlanntis’ policies they have done nothing wrong. They were sure to include the very fine details that would cover their own asses if/when the clients were in too deep to back out of the move. They bait you with extremely underestimated quotes then continue to increase their prices along the way, being very careful to stay within the parameters of the fine print.
My advice is to avoid this company and all others that pop up from a web search that indicates it will give you several moving quotes at one time. That’s how my mom found Atlanntis.
Our biggest mistake was ignoring the negative reviews that we read about this company. Consider yourself warned.
0 Stars
Let it be known that we held off posting this review until after our goods were received for fear of what Atlanntis might do in retaliation.
Atlanntis will entice you in by giving you an low ‘quote’, (which they specifically say is not a quote, and that your final charge will have nothing to do with the number generated from the fill-in-the-blank form that populated it.)
Do not be fooled by this number, it’s just bait.
My mom needed to move her pre-packed items from my sister’s garage in Rural Saskatchewan to Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, B.C.
From B.C. My mom hired Atlanntis movers based on the price quoted online after entering in the quantity of items she had. She has a queen sized bed, small round kitchen table, a small table that’s used as a desk, an office chair, an upholstered accent chair and 16 wooden dining room chairs. That’s ALL she had as furniture and only a small deep freeze for appliances. She had 75 boxes of...