**Boston to Toronto: Humboldt, Rainbow, etc.

[cambos2008]

Great Site! I'm moving from Boston to Toronto in the summer. 2 bedroom Apt.. Anyone have any recommendations what company to use? BTW I used BigFoot moving 2yrs ago for Boston to Boston move, they were great, but I don't think they go to Canada. Thanks.

[MusicMom]

Any local agent of a major van lines can take you to Canada. Check out United Van Lines, Allied, Atlas, Mayflower, North American, etc. Get an in-home estimate from a company rep.

[cambos2008]

Thanks. I am a little confused, Do I have to be at the border when my stuff clear or can the company do it on their own?

[Fred0844]

The major carriers are customs bonded which allows them to bring you goods to a customs office at destination, in your case it would be in Mississauga or Brampton (most of the drivers do not go to Mississauga).
You meet the driver there and clear customs. Only the owner of the goods can clear them,.

[move2009]

Hi, Could you find a reliable mover to canada? We have to move from Princeton, NJ to Mississauga by next week at a short notice, on our own. I have a visual inspection scheduled by Allied but would be great to have other quotes as well. I'll appreciate the advice/help. Thanks!

[cambos2008]

Here are some details of my move from Boston to Toronto:

I get three estimates from three big players (on the advice from some people on this forum). I called Rainbow (North American Vanlines), BTI (Mayflower) and Humboldt (United vanlines). I called them on a Friday all within 10 minutes of each other to come give me an estimate for a 2+ bedroom. All quotes included then packing at the place of origin.

BTI gave me an appointment for the following Wednesday, the guy came down, was very professional, BTW all three had either a PC tablet or a palm were they entered the estimate, he mainly was going on about how great their insurance is…. Answered most of my questions (I had a lot of them), wasn’t very warm. IOW couldn’t care less if he got the job or not. He emailed me the GNTE at about $9000 for about 10000lb. I was ok with the way he presented it, very honest, but the price seemed a bit high.

Humboldt gave me an appointment for the following Friday, but called a day before to reschedule for the next Tuesday (a week and half after I called). The guy who came was Hal, a very easy going extremely patient and a very nice guy. He was very forthcoming explaining every step of the process. He to emailed me a quote the next day which came out about the same a BTI, yet I felt very good about their service and costumer service.

Rainbow gave me an appointment the very next business day (Monday). Jim was the guy who came. First going on about how great NAVL are and showing all the papers the back it up, it was very impressive. He also detailed the exact process of what will take place (although after the move not everything he said was exactly correct). He was able to give me a quote on the spot which came out much lower then the first two, $7800 for 9000lb.

Being that $$ was a factor, I decided to go with Rainbow. Well here we go.

The customer service wasn’t that great, communication was terrible. My emails to them went at times for days unanswered until I picked up a phone and got to speak to someone. They told that the ETA would be a 13 day window and when the driver loads my stuff form my APT he will have the exact date for me and all the papers needed for me to cross the border in order to go to the clearing house (Bonding warehouse). First they outsourced my packing to another company, three pple came two of them were ok, the third was just dumping everything into a box.

When loading day came, I found out that they don’t have a date set yet for delivery so they will store my stuff until they could fit me in, still promising the same 13 day window of delivery. The driver had no Idea that my stuff were going to Canada and hence had no idea about the border procedure either. BTW they outsourced him to. This is all while communicating with them wasn’t very easy, every time a problem came up, it was we that had to call they never bothered calling us.

To make a long story short NAVL outsourced our stuff to some small company, and our things came 4 days later them promised on their contract. Our final weight was 9900lb.

If I would to it all over again I would use Humboldt, after I told him about NAVL, he told me how much he could come down, but couldn’t’ match NAVL, yet he called several times just to see how things are going. I already recommended him to a couple of friends and family.

[lakerjock]

Sounds like our horror story with Rainbow. They outsourced our move without telling us. Guys showed up with a truck that was dented with a big hole on the top (of course it was scheduled to rain later in the day). Were supposed to send 2 guys the day before to pack, sent one who didn't finish the job as he had an appointment. We paid for full packing, but we finished the job. They were supposed to send three guys the next day, two showed up 1.5 hours late. Of course we only could reserve the elevator for 4 hours (which is what the estimator said it would take for the move), and they took 6.5 hours taking a number of smoke breaks. Then we had a 4-9 day window that they gave us. Our stuff showed up OVER 20 days later. We had to stay with my parents, then in a hotel waiting. Of course we had packed enough clothes for about 10 days....imagine 20 days without any of your stuff. All the while the communication with Rainbow was horrible. They rarely responded to our calls, never could tell us when it would arrive, etc. In addition, the guys they outsourced the move to damaged much of our belongings. I literally saw them throw some of our stuff down the stairs - they were too lazy to carry it down. Avoid RAINBOW. By the way, they ended up sending our stuff with another carrier from another state, and those guys were awesome with the delivery (and also mentioned how bad Rainbow is).