I actually used to work for James Wheeler - the owner/director of CityMove. I worked for him for about 2 years at Citymove. Both as a removalist and sometimes in the office.
We parted ways because we could not see eye to eye.
I have had SO MANY phone calls from angry and upset people. People who have had their belongings broken or destroyed, and also people who have had removal days shifted on them willy-nilly - this applies almost exclusively to interstate moves.
They are not so bad on the local front, but i would not deal with these guys if you have a tight schedule for an interstate move.
They pay their phone consultants on a commission system - one that encourages everyone to just make a sale and deal with the fall-out later (or not deal with it at all).
If/when you do experience grief, the idea is to tire out the customer until they will not pursue the matter any more. Regardless of any legal threats. They figure that you would rather cut your $2000 loss than pursue legal action for $5K plus.
This is the modus oporandi. This is how Citymove does business..
Someone in an earlier post wrote that Citymove is an online broker. This is exactly what the business model is. They push and treat everyone like crap - their removalists, their consultants AND their customers.
Removalists are recruited by putting up crude signs in backpacker hotels in St Kilda, Bondi and the Cross.
Dealing with CityMove is very Hit-and-Miss. You May get a really good team who is professional, or you May get a team of absolute amateurs - your call, your stuff.
I personally would not take the risk. I would hire a truck weeks in advance and get a bunch of mate over to help on the day.
At the end of the day, I see James as a dynamic businessman and was amazed at seeing the dollars rolling through his doors, I just couldnt be a part of his shonky ethics and being part of the lie-machine that is CityMove. Too many honest and hard-working people being burnt.
Sorry. Not for me. Good luck Wheeler.
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I booked a Citymove removal well in advance. I was told at time of booking that the first time slot would garuntee them to be on time because there were no jobs before hand. I was then convinced to upgrade to 3 men instead of 2, at considerably extra cost as it would make my job faster therefore cheaper as I had 1 flight of stairs at the unload. I thought this unusual but decided to pay a higher hourly rate in the hope of more effect service.
The day of the move I recieved a phone call (which I was charged $2.00 for) to inform me that the truck was running late due to bad traffic - early Saturday morning traffic! Later I was informed there was no discount for being late as advertised because they called in advance.
The truck eventually arrived not quite an hour late the driver and his cohorts happily sipping takeaway coffees with out the slightest indifference to the delay.
The driver then 'signed' me on to commence my job at 8.20am - heres the first trick, they round up/down to the nearest half hour so 8.20 somehow becomes 8.00 and at the end they manage to finish precisly at a time that incurrs another 1/2 hour - very clever as they bill you an extra hour for nothing. they then add an extra 1/2 travel time.
They have a wrapping service that garuntees your belongings if they damge them - the catch is you must request it to be wrapped and it costs alot to wrap it. I have an antique table and chair set which is quite precious so i asked them to wrap it and told them this was the the most precious item to be moved. They didnt wrap it and ended up gouging a massive chuck out of my table and completely destryoing 2 chairs. When I complained they told me the table wasnt wrapped therefore not covered by thier garuntee. They then offered me a 30min discount as a compromise (an extra 30min they falsely added on)
The move was painfully slow I had a one bedroom unit with one flight of chairs it took over 5hrs (but they tried to bill 6.5hrs) my last move only 8 months early was from 3 flights of stairs with 2 men and took 2hrs. The whole time only one or two of the men were working not three. They were leaving most of the work to a nice but very small chap who was a traveller and seemed very new and very inexperinced not to mention not very capabable - I felt very sorry for this poor fellow. At one stage i asked where the other two were and was told they were 'packing' the truck. When I went to check I found one of them sitting on the pavement while the other had wondered off to buy food. They then seemd to take turns skulking off to eat the food whenver i wasnt there.
I have a ute and loaded pot plants and othe items hard to stack. When the driver found out he then began trying to offload as much as possible to my ute - perhaps to avoid the work?
They damaged the foyer of the building which I lost bond over as well as damaging a wall in the main bedroom and smashed a light fitting. They told me to email thier head office about it to make a claim and otherwise seemed completely unconcerned. All coreespondance was ignored for 5 weeks until - after hounding them continuilsy I spoke to a horibly rude and offensive 'James' who was apparently the 'Director'. His demenour, manner and blatent dishonesty was a very accurate representation of the service provided by his staff. It was very clear that the amount of bond I lost was not worth fighting for with this individual - not even an appology was offered.
I was moving within the same suburb it takes less than 10 minutes to get from one place to the other. I waited 40 min for them to show up at the unload. When I asked them they said they had to stop for fuel. When I questioned this they became aggressive and bad tempered.
The unload was so slow I began to move the gear myself as the move was taking forever. This actually seemed to make them slow down even more - almost as if they were glad to let someone else do the work but still wanted to stretch out the time.
Payment was a horrible process of arguing and haggling as I was hit with a barage hidden charges and fees. They tried to chagre a 5% fuel levy for more than 5km it would have been 2km at best. There were phone charges, a $10.00 credit card fee, I was charged for wrapping I did not request (I had wrapped some items myself with my own wrap - which they refused to believe even though the wrapping was different to thiers). During which time they became so intimidating and threatening I was forced to suggest we call call the police to help settle the matter.
I understand removals is a difficult line of work but I have rarely seen anything quite like this, and I have spent time in some very unsavoury developing countries. The service was to be frank, borderline criminal. It is astounding that a business that operates this way is allowed to exist.
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Citymove have made our moving experience our worst nightmare:
Copy of our complaint letter as below but as we can see from the many other complaint letters, ours is not the first.
Dear Citymove,
This is an official complaint letter which serves to point out the need for your mangers to seriously improve your services to customers, given that our experience was totally NOT worry free nor worthy of any type of referral to potential customers.
In fact we have been 100% DIS-satisfied with the "quality" of service provided by Citymove.
Citymove was hired to move our belongings from Melbourne to Sydney and it has been the worst experience of moving I have ever had such that I would never use Citymove again.
Not only was your service untimely, unprofessional and unsatisfactory, it was not worthy of the money we paid nor the time we wasted dealing with your incompetent staff ( (in particular the person we were dealing with - Ben Kirby) and subcontractor Peter's removalists.
We expected the removalists on Monday 14th January. We were told only 2 days prior whether they could change the date. We said :no", and they said they would get back to us. Not hearing anything, we assumed it was still Monday. Monday morning the removalist called and said it would be the next day. The next day we rang and they said that they had never said Tuesday and that it would be Wednesday. Not only did they change their story but Citymove had the nerve to tell us that we as the customers got it wrong and that the removalists were right. Not only were we stressed and frustrated due to the pressure from the real estate agent telling us to move out..we were assured by the city move staff that they were on to it. After speaking to Ben, he told me he would call me back "15 minutes later" which ended up being over 1 hour and I had to actually call him back to see what was going on. This was very unprofessional to keep a customer in the dark about what was going on and stating he would call back but not doing so.
After having to physically move the furniture out of the apartment into the hallway ourselves, the removalists finally arrived late Wednesday afternoon. The whole experience was becoming a nightmare - We as customers doing the job of the removalists!...Do Citymove really have any idea of what your customers have to go through?
The problem didn't end there..Ben Kirby told us to email any concerns to him, and we are yet (over 2 weeks later) to receive a reply.
We waited for our delivery for up to 7 days after pick up after being told the expected time was 5-7 working days.
Not only did our things not arrive after 7 working days, or even 10 days, but the removalist had told us that it would be delivered on Monday 28th..which of course it wasn't and then when we called them on Tuesday 29th, Mark the manager of Peter's removalists told us that he had never told us this but that it would be Wednesday afternoon. Again, unprofessional behaviour towards customers basically saying that we were lying or didn't hear correctly. We spoke to Ben at Citymove and he said that he would call us back in 15 minutes but the same old story...we never heard back from Ben.
I called Wednesday after having not heard anything from the removalists, but again there was a change of plan and that it would be Friday 1st Feb.
Finally it arrived Friday - 11 painful (working) days and over 2 weeks later.
No one at both Citymove or Peter's removalists had bothered to contact us at any stage along the way to inform us of any changes and the fact that we had to take time off work without pay was extremely distressing.
This whole event has been a disgrace to Citymove for not being able to provide any service whatsoever nor coordinate with the subcontractors properly. There was absolutely no communication nor attempts to inform us about what was going on by Citymove.
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Tuesday 4th December:
I rang to advise of wrapping requirements, and gave credit card details to pay for the wrapping service.
Advised on Tuesday that pick up was to occur the next day, I would get a call an hour before
Pick on Wednesday 5th December:
I got a call from the guys at Peters removals, asking me when the guaranteed delivery day was, which was Saturday 8th Dec.
They asked if I could be there Thursday instead, to which I said no.
I got a call at 12.30pm, they arrived at 1pm with a small truck, and was told that they had to wait for another bigger truck. The small truck had no wrapping facilities.
They said that no-one had told them that wrapping was required, and that our goods would be wrapped at the depot.
I provided 2 plastic wraps, we had paid for 7 on credit card the day before
There were 5 guys assisting with the pack up into the larger truck only
I spoke to Kevin the driver, who told him that he had to be in Sydney on Saturday 8th Dec, so could he meet us Friday 7th Dec at midday in Wangaratta.
I agreed to be in Wangaratta by Friday Midday.
Thursday 6th December
I received a call from Grice Removals, Albury, saying that they had part of our load in their truck at Albury, and the rest was in the original truck in Melbourne, and that Kevin in the original truck and Grice Removals would meet us in Wangaratta on Saturday 8th December at 7am.
Friday 7th December
6.30pm - received a phone call from Mark at Peters Removals, saying that the driver would call me in about an hour, he was in Melbourne and a couple of hours away.
8.11pm - made a phone call to Kevin the driver to find out how far away he was, and he told me he was picking up his sidekick, was in St Kilda and would see me in 2.5 hours. He also mentioned he was meeting his girl here in Wangaratta and would be having a 'pitstop' here with her?
10.23pm - I called him again, he said he was still the other side (Melbourne side) of Seymour, and would be here in an hour to an hour and a half.
11.19pm - I called Sean Coulton, interstate manager from Citiymove and spoke to him of my concerns
11.47pm - I called Kevin again, he told me he was 55kkm away.
Saturday 8th December
12.38am - I called him again, he was on the Yarrawonga - Wangaratta Road (not on direct route from Melbourne?) and would be here in 10 minutes.
12.55am - he arrived, with no 'sidekick' and with his lady friend in a car following him.
Sean stated he was going to get us re-imbursed .
His lady friend got aggressive towards me when I asked Kevin what had taken so long and she said 'how do you think I feel, I never see him' to which I replied 'well you are his partner, I am a paying client, it has nothing to do with you so get back in your car.'
I assisted Kevin in unloading my gear - 2 x TV's, washing machine, dryer, bed frames, a lounge (unwrapped) - 3 m3.
Kevin signed a statement that he delivered the load at 1am.
6.50am - I received a call from Glen from Grice Removals stating he would be 10km away, and that he had just seen Kevin driving past him in the opposite direction, so he had no-one to assist in unloading the truck. He asked if there was anyone here that could help
7am - he arrived, I unloaded the truck with him, (20 m3) Glen left at 8.30am. Included in this delivery was a sofa unwrapped and a queen sized mattress unwrapped
8.34am - I called Sean , who asked me to put it all in writing
8.55am - I received a call from Mark who apologised; for the late delivery, for requiring my assistance to unload, and asked me to put it all in writing and he would be seeking compensation on my behalf and he would talk to me on Monday.
Outcome
At no point in the changing of times and dates were we asked if the changes were inconvenient?
Why was there no assistance( I became the assistance) to unload both deliveries?
Why were 3 pieces unwrapped when I had requested and paid for the wrapping
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I booked a service on May 15, 2007 at 11:00am. I received a call on that morning asked for delaying it by one hour because the staff had no job in the morning and preferred a later start. I did not object to it. Then the staff came, I was suprised that they drove a rental car, which was quite unprofessional in my opinion. At any time, there was only one man active and you didn't know what the other guy was doing. They took 5 hours to move furniture in my small two bedroom apartment. In my last move with similar distance and the same amount of furniture, it took 3 hours.
The real surprise came when I paid the bill. There were fuel surcharge, kilometer charge, and an additional hour's travel time surcharge (This does not mean the time they took to drive between two sites. It is on top of that). There was even ~$2 mobile call charges because Citymove staff called me twice to confirm the arrival time. One call was because Citymore wanted to change the time of my removal. I ended up paying over $500 for a local move, which is definitely a shock considering the level of service they provided. I used other removalisits like Grace, Ridge Way before. Citymove appears to be the most expensive with the worst service. It is certainly the most dishonest and has the most hidden fees, which it intentionally did not inform customers.
What happened next became more interesting. After I posted a review on July 21st, 2007 at http://www.productreview.com.au/showitem.php?item_id=38550§ion=REVIEWS&next=1, I received a call from a staff, named Martin, of Citymore UK (headquarter?), on Aug 3, saying that he called me because the director of the company saw the review and got angry about the poor reviews on the web by Citymove's customers. He then said what he could do for me to make me withdraw my comments. I replied that all I want was for Citymove to refund all the unreasonable charges. I also pointed out that I was not sure whether I could withdraw a comment already posted on the web. The staff said he cannot make a decision and he must report to his director. He insisted me writting an email to him at martin@citymoveremovals.co.uk. I did it as he requested. I also said in the email that I found there was no way for me to withdraw a comment already posted on this website.
What made me angry was they even did not bother replying my email. I would expect a reasonable person will at least give a reply, especially when he started the process and solicited my email. This experience appears to suggest that 1. Avoid Citymore if you can; 2. Online product review do serve as a useful reference for consumers, and as an alert for companies thinking they can abuse their customers without penalty; 3. Citymove wants to improve their reputation by buying negative comments, NOT improving their services; 4. Citymore is not a reputable company to deal with.
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We had a terrible experience with the removalists Citymove during our recent move from Kogarah NSW to Queensland. Unfortunately we happened upon this site too late to cancel our booking with Citymove.
Initially we made our booking with Amanda Reichert of Citymove, and transferred funds into the Citymove account on 9 January. We received no confirmation of booking until 2 February, the Friday before our Monday pick up, and only after several phone calls and speaking with 'Johno' at Citymove.
We expected that Citymove would let us know the delivery time (window) at least a day in advance, as they state on their website. The website also stated that a 'courtesy call' would be made 1hr prior to pick up. We received neither, and so were shocked when the removalists arrived without any warning at 8am.
The fact that the removalists from Peters Removals (the removalists who took care of our Citymove move) asked if they could keep several of the items we did not want to take with us, was not a problem - they loaded these items into their truck along with our other belongings. However, this did become a problem when space ran out a few cubic metres short of the capacity of the truck. Had we not agreed that those tables/chairs could be taken/kept by a removalist from Peters Removals, we would almost certainly have fit the remainder of our belongings in.
We rang Citymove that morning to arrange for our final belongings to be moved. Sean Coulton charged our credit card and said he would ring back with the pick up time/day. We did not hear back from him, and tried several times to reach him over the next 24hrs. Finally 'Johno' at Citymove gave us a pick up time of 1pm - 5pm the following day.
At 4:50pm Citymove had still not shown up. We rang them, and were told they weren't coming that day after all, but could come the following morning. We were upset, as we had business commitments that required we left that evening, and had been expecting their arrival that afternoon. Thankfully we had continued our lease past our removal date, or we would have been in a very tough situation. When we complained about Citymove doing a no-show, Sean Coulton told us that if we didn't like it, we could use someone else. (At this late date, obviously this was not possible). When we persisted he asked "what do you want me to do about it?".
We were appalled by Citymove and their unprofessionalism - particularly from Sean Coulton. His attitude was disgraceful.
We noted that no inventory whatsoever was taken of our belongings at pick up. Nor were they labelled, as is usual in our experience with removalists. Needing an inventory in the event of a claim with our insurance company, we rang Citymove and Peters Removals to ask for one. For 7 days we rang Peters Removals daily asking for this inventory/report, and each time were told that they would fax it through. (They said they took the inventory while our goods were in transit with them. Although no condition report was ever completed). It eventually arrived with our removal truck.
When the goods arrived, a desk, coffee table and dresser had all received substantial damage. We also nearly lost a box - when we saw the removalists discussing a box (which I recognised) and deciding it was not ours (placing it back with the next customer's belongings) I queried it with them. Had we not been watching at that precise moment, we simply would have lost a box of our belongings. This would not have happened had they used labels.
I hope others do their due diligence better than I did before hiring the unprofessional, incompetent and rather shady operators we found Citymove to be.
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Probably easier in point form -
1. End of October 2006 - Discussed moving my 3 bedroom house in one trip and the size truck I would need. Was told 10 tonne @ $75 per 30 mins. Ordered truck. When it arrived it looked small, was told it was indeed 10 tonne. When I disputed my invoice James at Citymove stated that the contractors used their second truck which was 32m3 instead of their usual truck 34m3. I was not told this information or offered a slight discount at the time of the move. Yesterday (31.1.07) I phoned Citymove, without giving them my name, and was told on two separate occsions that their 10 tonne trucks were 50m3 and 100m3. A large difference from the 10 tonne truck they provided for my move.
2. The removalists took 10 hours to complete the job. The previous year I had used Citymove and they took 5 hours in a smaller truck moving practically the same amount of items over the same distance. I ordered the bigger truck for my next move to cover the 7 additional items - pot plants, washing machine, treadmill.
3. I was incorrectly charged an aditional 90 mins and the 5% fuel surcharge levy.
4. Two of my small pot plants were broken and one went missing - the removalists did not tell me this had happened.
5. They offered free mattress wrapping. Any other items that were wrapped were charged at $60. The removalists did not wrap my mattress but they wrapped my television which incurred the charge.
6. I complained to Citymove and was given a discount I felt unreasonable as it was a discount off the incorrect invoice.
7. I took Citymove to the Dept of Fair Trading who could not resolve the issue.
8. Today I had a hearing at the Consumer Tribunal in Sydney and Citymove did not appear. The judge felt that the move should have been completed in 6 hours and not 10. He also felt that the credit card charge of $10 was too high and they should have discussed the size of the 10 tonne truck with me in cubic metres which would have given me a better idea of what truck to order. As I have learnt, the tonnage of a truck does not represent how much room the truck has for items. This was not explained by Citymove at any time. The only time they gave me the cubic metres was when I specifically asked yesterday, prior to the Tribunal Hearing.
My advice when moving is to ask for the cubic metres of a truck, to buy your own bubblewrap (cheaper from Officeworks) and to check their credit card charge, if expensive go with a company who will accept a cheque or have your cash ready.
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