WARNING - SCAM ALERT - DO NOT HIRE! I just want to be very clear in this review that I am not angry because I didn't get the results I was looking for, but rather for the poor service, lack of communication, and sneaky business practices that this company uses to take advantage of its clients. I hired this PI because I needed to find a vehicle in Vancouver, and Arbor claimed that locating vehicles was their specialty. However, after enduring through this fiasco, it seems like all this company will do to find a vehicle is "surveillance." They are not proactive nor resourceful nor imaginative with their tactics. Also, throughout our entire contract between April 30-July 6, 2015, Arbor Investigations never once provided me with an invoice. I finally got an invoice from them on Aug 31, 2015 after disputing the charges with my credit card company. Moreover, they provided minimal updates throughout the process often times going weeks without an update. I would have to call or email asking for updates. They never told me how much or what exactly was done, which is also reflected in the invoice, so I was left in the dark. They never told me that my retainer was used up and kept charging me even when I specifically told them beforehand not to without my further authorization. When confronted, they hide behind the contract that they make you sign in the beginning, which says they can charge your credit card whenever they want, even if you've emailed them saying not to. I hired this PI on April 30 because I needed to find a vehicle in Vancouver. I was told over the phone by Julie that this is something they specialized in and the cost of finding a vehicle is anywhere from $500-$700. I noticed that they charged $75/hour in surveillance and when asked about this Julie said billing for locating vehicles was different than the surveillance rate. However, in the end, they did charge me the $75/hour rate. So I trusted them and signed a contract for my credit card to be charged the $500 retainer that they needed to start the investigation. I also gave them two addresses the vehicle could be at to help with expediting the process, one of which was the vehicle's current registration address from ICBC. I also asked, via email, for my credit card not to be charged after the $500 was depleted unless specifically authorized by me. I received an update on May 4th saying they had not found anything from surveying the addresses that I provided. Then, two weeks went by without hearing from them, so I called on May 22 and was told that they had no new leads. As I would find out later from the invoice, they had already charged me $1620 by this time. Not once did they even mention what my outstanding bill was. I was under the assumption they were still operating within the retainer. Two more weeks went by without any communication with them, so I called them again on June 8. I was told that I would get a call back, but never did. On June 17 I sent another email to them asking for an update and finally, I received an email from Mike the PI just stating that "[we] are doing a lot of surveillance at the addresses you gave us," but still have no leads. By this time, they had already spent a total of $2,201.25 as I would find out later. At this point I knew I had made the wrong decision in hiring this PI. It seemed like all they were doing was watching the 2 locations that I provided - a total of 28.1 hours of surveillance. After doing some research into this company, I found multiple complaints on this company on the Better Business Bureau regarding their billing and service. (http://www.bbb.org/mbc/business-reviews/investigators/arbor-investigations-in-port-moody-bc-1242461 ). Also find them on Yelp and see their poor reviews here: http://www.yelp.ca/biz/vancouver-private-investigator-vancouver?osq=vancouver+private+investigations CONSUMERS BEWARE!! read more

Arbor Private Investigators Worn out from recent tussles regarding nonexistent customer service from a variety of sources, I tried to let this one sit as much as I could. I lasted five weeks before I went a bit postal...and now it's been two more. I hired Linda at Arbor Investigations in Vancouver on January 27 to begin the search for my father, see original post here). She had talked a good game, tried to make an Ontario connection with me as she was from the west end of Toronto, and sounded perfectly reasonable in our "free phone consultation". My credit card was immediately debited nearly $500 as a retainer, which was the only sign that they had received my e-mailed contract. I thought it was a little odd not to receive acknowledgement of any sort, and this unease grew over the next two weeks. Each day I would find myself checking my inbox obsessively, wondering at any moment whether I would solve the mystery of my father's whereabouts. I finally sent an e-mail tentatively asking what I should expect in terms of communication, as I had no idea how this process worked. There was no response, which should have been my first clue to how this experience would turn out. I followed up with a phone call after another five days, and was told that they typically don't get in touch until there is news to share, but she would ask Linda to follow up with me. I was sent an e-mail (unsigned) later that day acknowledging receipt of my contract materials, and letting me know that it could take up to 30 days for progress to be made. And so I waited. After the 30 days passed with still no word, I sent another e-mail expressing my disappointment and asking where things were at. Is it really rocket science, people? All it takes is a two-minute e-mail or phone call to say look, we've taken these steps, and here's what's next. It's common sense what it would take to make your clients feel even remotely secure that you're actually working for them. This time a woman named Julie e-mailed me back and said they were working on it but hadn't located him, and that she would ask Linda to contact me again with an update. No surprise, no call from Linda. Another week went by and I phoned again, finally reaching this bitch in person. Linda said they had determined that my father had not died in the province of BC, nor did he own property (I had already checked that through a friend prior to all this, and had told them so), nor did he have a telephone in his name. They were now waiting to hear back from another contact about a cable account. This all struck me as pretty lame for five weeks of work. I asked her what was next, and she said if there was no sign of him in BC then they'd move on to other provinces since he could be anywhere, and would likely begin checking in Ontario. She promised they would be in touch as soon as there was any news. After a night to replay this conversation (repeatedly) in my mind, I decided I didn't understand nor trust these people at all. It made no sense that it had taken 5 weeks to find out such minimal information, nor that the next step would be to check a province he'd never lived in as far as I knew. I sent another e-mail asking for an accounting of what had been spent so far, expressing concern about the investigation moving to Ontario as a next step, and saying that I was at the point of wanting to terminate the agreement and request a refund for the remainder of the retainer. I should not have been surprised that again there was no response. I have let two more weeks pass, and not a word. I finally called, went straight into voice mail, and left an emotional message asking for the owner of the agency to be in touch. I followed this up with an e-mail. Not just any e-mail, but one that utilized the exclamation point status I generally try to avoid. read more

YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST NOT USE THIS COMPANY. I agree with the review by Gerri C and dealt with the same people - Linda was very chatty in our initial call when she was explaining what they would do for me. Once they had my $500 deposit my phone calls and emails weren't returned, and after a month I still had no idea what had been done. When I finally got Julie on the phone, she said I had to speak to Linda. When I finally got Linda on the phone, she made up excuses for delays and couldn't confirm what had been done. When I finally received an email after demanding they account for the time and money spent, they said the whole $500 had been used checking for land registry or utility bills in the person's name, and blamed Canadian privacy laws for the inability to help further. Funny this was not a part of our initial conversation. Vancouver PI, Arbor Investigations....don't use them. Scam artists. read more

@Wendy you imply my review is fake or crying wolf, well I can proof what I said.i have the emails, asking for a response, emails from Dec. asking for a accounting of my bill that they refused to give me until end of Jan. I personally think you work for the company or are friends, can you prove you did business with them? I can PROVE what I said. read more

Terrible service..........I hired Arbor and as others have said in these reviews, service was non existant. When I spoke to "Jules" when deciding to hire them or not, she was very professional and seemed knowledgable..............mailed a detailed package to them with my payment...... Once they got my money, they would not speak to me.........placed many phone calls, e-mails, left messages........nothing. Very frustrating.....awful customer service, no satisfaction........got nothing for my $1050. retainer............ DO NOT USE THEM read more

Great company to work with, I hired them over concerns with my daughter, I had previously hired other companies and they were not able to get me results and confirm my suspicions. This company was able to confirm my suspicions and we were able to get my daughter the help she needed, We found this company through of lawyers. They highly recommended them. The only reason I am even writing this review is if had read the previous reviews I would not of hired them and it would have been a mistake. read more