Company says customer signed contract requiring full payment before delivery in Ontario-to-P.E.I. move

The moving company accused of withholding a customer’s belongings until she paid in full now says a signed contract required payment before delivery, contradicting initial claims that only half was due up front and that no written agreement existed.

In a recorded interview earlier, an employee at All Canada Van Lines who identified himself as an assistant accounts manager, confirmed the company changed its payment policy after picking up Amber Booth’s items to protect the business. The company now says the employee misspoke and the pay-in-full requirement was in effect from the outset, as the contract shows. The document was shared days after CTV News reported on the woman’s complaint her belongings were being withheld unless she paid the full balance before the job was finished, in her move from Ontario to P.E.I.

“It is important to note that the customer’s belongings were not held hostage at any point,” said a company spokesperson in an email to CTV News.

Booth said she understood she would pay half up front, plus a deposit of about $2,200, with the remainder on delivery in mid-July. At the time of the original report, she told CTV News there was no written contract or emails to share and that communication with the company had been by text. After being shown the document this week, Booth first said she had no record of the contract, then that she forgot she had signed it in early July, prior to the move.

“I’ve made a mess of this unintentionally,” she told CTV News Tuesday night.

In an earlier interview, she said the company was holding items like her service medal from when she was deployed overseas and pictures of her partner’s mom who passed from cancer. Booth said more than two promised delivery dates have fallen through, and while company initially offered 30 days of free storage, fees are accruing while she remains without her furniture.

Booth also said she had complained to the Better Business Bureau. All Canada Van Lines says that complaint has been fully resolved, and no further action is pending.

Consumer advocates say Canadians are vulnerable to disputes if terms are not clear and in writing.

“This is a very unregulated area,” said Geoff White, executive director and general counsel at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. “I mean, I could just go outside with a pickup truck and say, I am a moving company, and I promise to get your stuff from point A to point B for X amount of dollars.”

The Canadian Association of Movers urges customers to get commitments in writing and to hire movers within their directory so they can enforce their code of conduct.