A woman who moved from Lethbridge, Alta. to Vancouver has lost a fight in which she claimed the moving company said her belongings weighed more than she thought.
Breanna Jackson took Cloverdale Moving Van Lines Inc. to B.C.’s Civil Resolution Tribunal in a small claims suit seeking reimbursement of $1,255. The case stems from a January 2020 written contract between Jackson and the moving company.
Jackson said her goods weighed only about 3,600 pounds and that Cloverdale overcharged her based on an inaccurate weight of 5,931 pounds.
Cloverdale’s owner Angelo Ramaj, however, countered that the truck was weighed empty using public scales and again when full of Jackson’s belongings.
The company said Jackson declined to be present when Cloverdale weighed her items and unreasonably declined its offer to reweigh the items.
Tribunal member David Jiang said evidence showed the truck was weighed at a public truck weighing station in Delta, B.C., with two tickets produced as a result.
Weighed full the vehicle was 28,263 pounds while later and empty, it weighed 22,332 pounds.
“Cloverdale concluded Ms. Jackson’s goods weighed 5,931 pounds based on the difference in weight,” Jiang said.
Cloverdale did not provide all photos of the weigh-ins, Jiang noted; instead, it gave her one weight during a FaceTime call. Jackson did not dispute that.
While she paid the balance owed to receive her items, Jackson was concerned about what she believed was a weight discrepancy.
Jackson then began weighing goods, mostly still in the moving boxes, on a bathroom scale. She did not weigh the furniture, instead calculating weights using figures taken from the furniture retailers’ website.
She arrived at a total of 2,970 pounds and added a 20% contingency weight for a total 3,600 pounds.
“She says the figure of 5,391 pounds, used by Cloverdale, is unexplainably large,” the tribunal's ruling stated.
However, Jiang said Jackson’s refusal of Cloverdale’s offer to re-weigh everything supports the company’s argument that its billed weight was correct.
As such, the tribunal dismissed Jackson’s claim.
