Magna Thomson: Cape Town to Calgary, Canada.

We immigrated to Canada in October 2023 and this is our experience with Magna Thomson and their agents:

We did extensive research on moving companies and our initial experience with them was good. They sent out an agent (Adele) to do a site visit and estimate of what we wanted to send. We discussed insurance options and then proceeded with a booking form and packing date. We opted to take the full insurance option and specified so in the contract we signed. The packing date was set for 27 September 2023, we had to be out of our house by 30 September and according to Adele, the container would be leaving on 28 September. This was our last good interaction with them.

The morning of 27 September, they phoned us to plan a route for them, as our town got flooded the week prior and they did no research to find out how to get to us on their own. We had to direct them. They arrived, most of the packers in a very dismissive and bad mood. They started packing, which went fine until one of the packers decided to throw open the lid of a 200 year old family heirloom wooden chest. The hinges broke off in an instant. I had warned them prior to packing the chest to be careful and to work slowly. The head packer just shrugged. I made contact with Adele to report this and ask how we should proceed, she told us she can't do anything as we did not take out any insurance. This was utter nonsense, and I had the contract to prove it. She quickly backtracked, admitting she "forgot to add insurance and she stuffed up, but will fix it." They offered us a mere R500 to fix an incredibly rare piece of furniture which was already packed to be shipped the following day (according to them).

We got on our flight in October, with no communication from Magna Thomson or any agents, thinking our stuff was on the way. By end of November, I made contact to say that we have not yet finalised our address and that our cell numbers on record was just temporary, but we will keep them updated. I also asked about an update on the container, only to find out that it did not ship on 28 September as Adele promised, nor has it shipped yet and she had no date further for shipping.

This is where things got more interesting. We were obviously very unhappy and Adele started blaming other people for not keeping us informed. She outright told us she is only there to sign new clients up (so sorry, my job is to bring in the money and to hell with the existing clients and keeping them in the loop/happy). Keeping in mind that they were now in posession of our personal belongings and we had paid upwards of R100 000 at this point. We told her we were not interested in their internal politics and lack of communication, but we expect an update weekly as that is what we paid for.

The updates that was promised, never came through unless I enquired. Eventually by March 2024, we heard that our shipment had arrived in Canada and would be delivered by the end of March. The contract stated the packing company on Canada's sode should unpack everything and remove the packaging. They only unpacked our furniture (made a comment about an old, family heirloom chair being packaged incorrectly, and lo and behold: the leg was broken off completely once it was unwrapped!) This company also just dumped the packaging they were supposed to remove from site, into our complex's dumpster, resulting in full dumpsters for a week.

One chair's leg was broken off, the same chest they broke in SA, had chips out of the wood and the latch was bent completely out of shape, our one persian rug got such bad water damage that it smelled like mildew. We had some more minor damage to other items (chips and scratches), but surprisingly nothing else was too badly damaged.

Then comes the insurance drama. They don't want to pay the full amount for the chair, even though no one in Calgary can fix it (the wood is extinct and the break was so bad that it couldn't be fixed to its prior state), they argued about paying for the carpet until they learnt the cleaning fee would be more than the insurance amount and then suddenly it was fine. Typical insurance drama, nothing we didn't expect. The offer came through with an excess deduction. We. Did. NOT. Choose. Excess. Again, back and forth with contracts to fight for money that was rightfully ours.

Then they couldn't pay it into our Canadian bank ccounts without a ridiculously long list of requirements that our Canadian bank rolled their eyes for since none of it is required to complete the payment.

Anyway, we opted for payment into SA account and will be organising a transfer ourselves instead of having to deal with *********** South Africans.

Magna Thomson and our experience with them may not be the worst anyone has ever had, but it definitely was a terrible experience. We never even received an apology from them. Do not recommend.