Perfect Group Limited

My partner and I had a very unhappy experience using Perfect Group, who moved us from London to Devon. Our initial contacts with them were cordial and professional, and although some issues emerged when they were emptying the London house, the real problems became evident when they moved things into the new house.

Both our television and sound system arrived damaged and unusable. It turned out that the former could not be saved and it took a fair bit of negotiation to get a fair settlement from them; I felt they were always trying to pay as little as possible, which created a good deal of extra work for us. Regarding the sound system, after some correspondence, they agreed to collect it and arrange for its repair, after which it was returned in good order but, again, it was not an easy negotiation.

More seriously, the movers made a right hash of moving the contents of my office, and in particular the contents of 3 filing cabinets. I had a specific conversation with them before the move, trying to ensure they had a decent method to keep the files in order, and was assured they did. In the event, however, they emptied the contents of most of the files and gave us the contents as great piles, and the files themselves also in a separate pile. Why they would not keep them together beggars belief; it certainly created a great deal of additional work for us. To add insult to injury the contents of a number of files simply failed to turn up, and the firm refused to acknowledge this, and therefore refused any compensation. The resulting mess has taken days, not hours, of my time to sort out.

I have a collection of works of art on paper and had two planchests of these works to move. I was very clear that they should keep the drawers of the planchests flat. I suggested taking the drawers out and reinserting them in the carcasses in the van but they insisted on carrying the drawers separately. When one of the vans was being unloaded I was dismayed to find the drawers standing vertically on their sides rather than kept flat, contrary to my specific instructions, so I made sure I was with the man who unpacked the drawers and reinserted them in the plan chest. Fortunately, most things were ok, but one important work, printed on a thinnish sheet of paper, had slid to the side of the drawer and was damaged. The lost of value was several thousand pounds, but again Perfect refused to accept liability, saying we had no evidence that the damage was not there before the move. Since we are talking more than 150 works on paper, it would have been a considerable task to photograph and prepare condition notes on each work, and this was never suggested by the firm, who assured me their method of packing and moving would keep everything from damage.

I could go on with specific complaints, but will end by saying that overall the movers were very chaotic and disorganised; several times I offered to help guide them when things were being moved but they insisted they had a process. Result: when they left we had a wall of unpacked boxes (when we had paid to have the boxes unpacked), and it took us a couple of weeks, working full time at it, to bring things back into order.

Not a happy experience; I would stay very clear of this firm.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: £12900