National Moves

Having already paid them £1100, halfway through the move they emailed me to say we had to pay £1100 more, and refused to unload my stuff until I paid the extra. Four big men threatening to take all my wife's and my possessions if we didn't pay, and I had no choice.

The extra was £500 for packaging (a bunch of cardboard boxes and some bubble wrap that could be bought on Amazon for less than £100), and a three-hour 'delay' which was in fact caused by them not recording the fact that I'd told them that we would not be getting the keys to our new home until later that day, so they showed up 3 hours early.

On top of that, during the move they caused over £2000 damage to my furniture, including:

Breaking a clock

Tearing the material of a sofa

Staining an armchair by leaving it outside uncovered under a dripping pipe

Ruining a dresser with scratches because it wasn't packed properly

Breaking a coffee table by dropping it on the concrete

Other examples of their lack of skill and care:

They packed a kettle full of water!

When they arrived I showed them a box that must not be packed, that had the keys for the new owner - yep, they packed it, causing us massive inconvenience.

They knocked over a wooden speaker on the concrete, and luckily it wasn't damaged.

I raised a complaint over a month ago, and haven't had any meaningful response yet. I'll amend this review if/when I get a reply.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: £2200

I experienced a big disservice earlier this month. The move
was originally scheduled for Friday 5th July in the morning, however it did not take place until the next day (Saturday 6th July) due to National Moves' negligence. While they promised me in writing a partial refund, they have not
followed up and do not answer my calls/emails.

On 5th July I was informed by National Move that the move
had to be delayed to 2.30pm. As nobody showed up then I called to be informed that the move needed to be further postponed to 5.30pm. I explicitly asked whether this was 100% guaranteed, otherwise I would have arranged the move with
a different company, and National Moves confirmed. At around 5.30pm, as I did not receive any update, I phoned National Moves again and eventually I was told that the move could no longer happen on 5th July. As no removal companies were
available to take care of my move that late in the day, this has resulted in:
1) inconvenience due to having to arrange for an extra night; 2) unjustified loss of my daily salary due to having taken a day off at work (I am paid only for the day I work).


The delay was apparently due a prior move taking longer than
expected. Yet, this doesn’t justify the scale of the error. National Move should have assessed the problem immediately, concluded that my move could not realistically happen on 5th July and informed me at once instead of dragging the issue on for a whole day. Once the scenario was established to be
challenging, it was indeed unfair from National Moves' side to promise me that the move would have (“certainly” as their customer service told me in the afternoon) happened within the same day.

Service cost: £206

Driver never showed up! Worst experience, avoid!

I had pre-booked a removals team with National moves for 10am on Monday 28th June. I had selected National moves due to what I thought would be good service. The day before move, I was contacted via SMS that it was confirmed for 10am arrival.

I appreciate there was a 1 hour arrival window, but at 11.30 when they still had not shown up - I rang customer service and over the course of the day, I spoke to many customer service representatives - all of which provided no clarification on where my driver was and when I could expect them to arrive, They apparently contacted the driver on many occasions but couldn’t get a hold of him. They also advised they would ring me back with an update, but no one ever rang. I must have called customer service over 10 times throughout the day, and I would have expected them to least provide another driver or provide a solution - all of which they said they couldn’t offer which is inexcusable.

At 6pm I finally got a call from the driver – saying he had just completed the previous job - and said it wasn’t his fault, and that he didn’t have a start time on his job sheet to come to my flat!

In the end I had to book a new removals company on at 6pm and pay double the amount to get an out of hours team with a different company.

Not happy!

Move size: 1 Bedroom Flat Service cost: £400

Absolutely disgusting service beyond anything I could have imagined.

They were over four hours late and arrived with two employees, however only one man helped, leaving me and my friend to do the lion's share of the moving of possessions.

When we arrived at my new home, it became apparent that none of my possessions had been secured in the van at all. When an employee opened the back of the van my possessions fell into the road. The employee had to hold the van shutter door at the back tight to stop the flow. Several pieces of furniture and possessions were damaged in the handling and transit due to this unprofessional lack of care. One of the employees found a discarded shopping trolley and began using it as a means to unprofessionally transfer my possessions into my building.

I used the ‘resolution centre’ to make my complaint but received no reply. I have contacted them via email several times with no reply. I have also called a number of times with no resolution.

I highly recommend using another company. I am yet to receive any contact from National Moves.

Move size: Studio flat Service cost: £324

When you choose to use this company, please video/voice record every word and action by those employees. Because they will promise you offers and deny everything in the end; which might leave you in a mess financially.

Check that your property is securely packed and labelled your way, because theirs is not fit for purpose. I hired them 2 months ago, and I am still missing items. After 2 months, I recently found a missing TV remote control in an unpacked box of kitchen utensils!! I had to replace TV cables as they went missing, some items were damaged; the story goes on.

I recommend using a better company.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: £2519

Me and my partner used National Moves at the beginning of COVID and what a mistake.

Hours late, no masks or gloves (even though we were told they would be fully protected.)

The two individuals who finally turned up were very unprofessional.

We were quoted a price to later be told that we'd agreed to a new completely fabricated price. We simply refused to pay as this was an astronomical fee which was for 'protective packing' which hadn't even been applied properly and costs a few pounds at most.

Even after refusing the new price, they still went ahead and took the payment anyway. Which is technically FRAUD! Still, this doesn't stop this 'company.'

If you look up National Moves on TrustPilot or any other so called 'trusted' review sites, they're littered with fake reviews.

I would strongly advise against using this service.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Flat Service cost: £780

Absolutely disgusting service beyond anything I could have imagined.

They were over four hours late and arrived with two employees, however only one man helped, leaving me and my friend to do the lion's share of the moving of possessions.

When we arrived at my new home, it became apparent that none of my possessions had been secured in the van at all. When an employee opened the back of the van my possessions fell into the road. The employee had to hold the van shutter door at the back tight to stop the flow. Several pieces of furniture and possessions were damaged in the handling and transit due to this unprofessional lack of care. One of the employees found a discarded shopping trolley and began using it as a means to unprofessionally transfer my possessions into my building.

I used the ‘resolution centre’ to make my complaint but received no reply. I have contacted them via email several times with no reply. I have also called a number of times with no resolution.

I am yet to receive any contact from National Moves.

I highly recommend avoiding this company.

Move size: Studio flat Service cost: £324

Adding to the most recent reviews here, I hope this will deter people from having to experience the awful awful service I’ve received from this ‘company’. Every quote prior to having to pay did not include VAT but this was not stated so you’re lured into thinking that’s the total cost. Due to my own error I asked to have the services extended and agreed to pay the extra costs. However from that point it wasn’t ‘anything we can do to help’ but ‘anything we can do to extort’. I was charged a same day call out fee when I requested the movers come back to finish packing (they left in the middle of the day to do another job) even though I was assured they would be with me until the job was completed. They lost items, damaged items and refused to take my calls or answer my email until my next invoice was due (a month later). They offered to replace my scratched shelving unit (that was brand new until they got their hands on it) with a second hand scratched unit that was not a like for like swap and said that was a ‘courtesy’. They lost items that were of sentimental value. The movers complained the whole time about the doing the job they were paid for. There is far too much to say about this company and none of it is positive. I hope and pray this review helps save someone the grief and agro that I’ve had to go through in dealing with them.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: £2500