A Whitby woman contacted Speakers Corner after failing to get answers from the moving company she hired to track down items she had collected.

Jolette Samuels says she hired Torex Moving to deliver furniture and other items to be sent from her home in Whitby to her sister’s home in Alberta.

“My sister moved to Calgary a year ago. A better life. Better for children. She has two little twins, a single mother who takes care of everything.

Her sister had to leave in a hurry to start a new job.

“One of those things where you pack everything in your car and head west. She must have left the big items here that I stored at my house,” Samuels said.

Last September, Samuels decided to send everything to him.

“A lot of objects, the beds of his two children, their mattresses. These are their things, tables and chairs for them.

She hired a company called Torex Moving, which she has used successfully in the past. They agreed on a price, signed a contract and she showed us receipts showing she had paid over $2,100. In mid-September, a team from Torex came to her house, packed up her things and left.

“The owner told me he would have to hand it over to a third party to do the shipping and it would all be sent to the freight center in Calgary,” she told us. “He told me I would get a tracking number soon, but that was several weeks ago.”

Samuels says Torex has been giving him a hard time for several weeks. The owner initially said an illness caused delays, then shared text messages to show he was in contact with a third-party shipping company to get the cargo to Alberta.

Samuels investigated.

“I decided to let me call the company because you have now shown me proof. I called the company and they said, ‘No, we don’t have any record of this,'” she said. “All I want you to do is finish the job.” I have young nephews who don’t have a bed.

She contacted Speakers Corner and we tried to contact Torex, but our calls went unanswered. We then submitted a quote request and received a call within minutes.

We asked the landlord by phone about Samuel’s case, but he wouldn’t comment, instead telling us to email him the details of the move.

We sent him copies of the contract, the quote and the receipt for the funds sent to his account.

“Due to urgent family circumstances, I had to leave the country urgently,” he told us in response to our email. “Our team technically could not carry out the project without my presence. I plan to return soon.

He added that he had not violated any terms of the contract.

“If the customer wishes to terminate the contractual relationship, this is of course his right.”

But he did not answer our question about where Samuel’s cargo is currently located. He sent what he claimed was proof that he was in contact with a third-party shipping company. We called this company and they told us that Torex received a quote a month ago and was supposed to drop off in mid-October, but they never showed up. They also claim their follow-up calls to Torex were not returned.

Samuels reported the company to the Better Business Bureau which is investigating. Because this is a contract issue, police will not investigate, but they plan to file a complaint in small claims court.

“I don’t know where my stuff is. If I knew where my things were, I’d go get them myself. I was going to rent a second moving truck to bring it back here,” she said. “Just give me my stuff.”

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