Removal Group

I finally find some time to describe what happened when we decided to move from London to Volos (Greece) at the beginning of 2010. As we have never done a house move before, we thought about scanning the web for offers and then settle with the removal company that seemed to offer the best service overall. To us, the main driver was delivery time, the shorter the better. So, after some web surfing and e-mail quotations, we decided to choose Removal Group
It has been the worst ill-fated decision I have ever made in my life. Keep in mind that none of the companies offered cheap quotes, and price was not really an issue: but keep also in mind that our house removal cost 4,000 GBP, and we did NOT have any furniture to move except 3 small drawer chests and a small library (1 meter by 1 meter more or less). It was all books, clothes, baby toys, kitchen stuff and so on. After the first contacts via e-mail and phone, we fixed the removal date for the 8th of February. We asked for the professional packing service (300 GBP) as we did not have time to pack all our stuff alone. Remember this issue of the professional packing, as it will be a recurrent point in my post. They initially said our stuff would arrive in Greece after 10 days, 2 weeks at worst. Dream on. This is what happened finally, in chronological order:

- We declared a specific volume for the move (15 cubic meters), but after a conversation with the RemovalGroup agent she convinced us to reduce it (based on her experience, 8 cubic meters), but in the end the volume was closer to what we declared at the beginning (13.4 cubic meters), which caused additional delays in the procedure and further payments from our part;

- No professional packing has been done, although we paid for it. The removal team (which consisted only of 2 individuals) arrived having no idea that they had to pack our stuff. Their worksheet reported that they just had to transfer boxes from our house to the lorry. As a result they had to borrow boxes and materials from another company from around the corner which caused additional delays in the procedure. We have been promised that the full packing service would last 2 hours, more or less, but in the end it lasted 6 hours and our stuff was randomly packed with no "professional" attitude. I currently don't have on my PC a picture of how the "professional" packing has been done, but my wife in Greece has taken one in which you can see our daughter's sleeping bag stuffed inside a metallic shoes rack with a shoe on top of it. Not to mention the mix of clothes and kitchen pots, books and baby clothes, shoes and bed sheets. It was a mess;

- During the week following the move, we were never contacted by any of RemovalGroup agents, we were forced to call them to ask for information and updates and during one of these calls we found that we had extra volume that we had to pay for and that was 5 days after the packing day which also caused additional delays in sending the stuff;

- After the stuff was finally sent to Greece and 5 days after the arrival to the deposit of the collaborating Greek company in Athens, we received a phone call from that same company informing us that RemovalGroup has ceased collaboration with their agent in London due to other financial/logistic problems between RemovalGroup and the Greek company: then they denied for days the delivery of our stuff although we had already paid the full amount weeks in advance. The Greek company said we were the unlucky ones that we had to interfere in order to force RemovalGroup to solve the problem with them. Moreover, the Greek company said that we have to pay deposit expenses for a week;

- We have been promised by the RemovalGroup coordinator that our things would be delivered in 10 days: overall more than 5 weeks have passed before we saw our things;3 of our wardrobes and the library arrived in Greece with extended damages. One of them has already been thrown away, the others have been fixed by a carpenter. Fragile things usually get at least bubble-wrapped, and wardrobes and wooden things do have polystyrene protections on the bases or angles to avoid damages. If I know this, surely the movers would have known that in advance, wouldn't they? All our fragile stuff was thinly paper-wrapped with no protection whatsoever. Even the Greek movers were surprised and astonished by the packing, and that says it all (!)

In conclusion the whole service of RemovalGroup has been awful from the beginning till the end (not to mention the e-mails we sent to the coordinator to which she never replied and thus we always had to look for her over the phone in order to try to resolve our issues). Avoid them absolutely! And, as a last point: as I know very well by now some of the people working inside RemovalGroup, it seems to me that some (all?) of the positive reviews the web are manufactured by RemovalGroup themselves (i.e., they are fake).

Service cost: £4000

Thanks for organizing and managing such a big project from the beginning to the completion successfully. I am grateful to you personally and shall also be writing to the management praising the quality of service provided. I have no hesitation to recommend "Removal Group" to many more.

This is only a small note of appreciation. I shall also be writing a formal letter in praise of your work to the management of your company.

Wishing you success for the future,

Sharma.

Service cost: £4250

End of June 2011 I booked with the Removal Group for a part shipping from the UK to Australia. Over the phone I was told my goods would leave the UK in the next 2 weeks after pick up and that it should reach Sydney end of August (10-12 wks). When I called early August to check estimated arrival time of my container it turned out it hadn't even left the UK yet! My contact was apologetic and understanding however nothing could be done and her manager was absolutely appalling! It was quite obvious in the conversation with her manager that he couldn't give a monkey and that it was my problem. As per T&C's there is NO MAX time frame to deliver your goods so be careful as it could take FOREVER!
We are end of Sept and my goods still haven't arrived in Sydney. The latest estimate is end of October.

I wouldn't recommend them at all!

Sorry for the above, but couldn't find Australia in the drop downs so put USA as alternative.

Service cost: £2600

We've just finished our move from the UK, back to the continent, and we've experienced one of the worst situations ever. Moving is always stressful, but this bunch of incompetent guys will make your life miserable.

We decided to use this broker in January 2011, given the rates proposed and having contacted a few other moving companies/brokers. Our first big mistake was to not check the customer reviews on the web before making the decision. There are so many similar stories..


First, this is just a broker company, and they do not evaluate the volume of the shipment. The estimate given was far too low, and this resulted in a significant increase of the total amount to be paid. Anyway, at the beginning of the process, they seemed to be responsive and helpful. But, once they receive the money, you're screwed. This is when the nightmare starts, as it becomes impossible to get any reliable information or communication from them: Just vague information and lies!
Even for getting the additional amount to be paid, resulting from the initial underestimation, they are not able to add two numbers correctly. We had to do it ourselves several times, and it takes quite a lot of energy to manage these people.
Having our goods in storage, we then decided to inform them more than 6 weeks in advance to plan for a delivery date in early May. After about 10 emails and many phone calls or so, we struggled to receive any clear information about this. Then, after so many attempts, we did manage to have Matthew Liscott on the phone and had his "confirmation": "Yes, this date has been confirmed with the moving company". Being a bit na.

Service cost: £3500

I was given a quote in EUR but my Euro credit card was charged in GBP.
I was informed that a deposit would be taken but the entire amount was debited immediately.
I was not informed of a credit card charge during open discussion regarding payment.
I was told that I had to sign the request from and make a payment within 1 hour to guarantee missing my delivery deadline. The deadline was not respected, despite eventually being assured this by email, after having my initial request for formal confirmation ignored.
I was given terms and conditions only after making payment.
I agreed to reduce my volume in order to have my delivery deadline met, but I was not informed during that conversation that the type of removal service had completely changed.
One email sent to me included a confidential email exchange with another client.
I was told that the quote match I had from a "man with a van" should be avoided to ensure a professional and insured service. However, a man with a van turned up to "collect" my goods. According to Removal Group's pledge - they only use BAR registered companies!
When it became apparent that there was a misunderstanding concernign the type of service offered, a third party called me, insulted me and hung up.
I called Leanne to clarify the issue, but was only insulted further with sarcasm and disinterest. When I asked if it was possible to actually speak myself, I was told that I was talking nonsense just like my concerns regarding the payment. I explained that I did not consider the level of customer service to be acceptable and Leanne told me she was a sales representative and not a customer service agent. According to their web site, you will be assigned a "House Removals Coordinator" to assist with your removal! According to my payment confirmation, my co-ordinator is Leanne Fellows. Her email signature refers to her as "Senior European Relocations Manager". Leanne then told me she needed to close the conversation as she had other customers waiting (we had been speaking for less than 5 minutes). I asked to speak to her manager and she hung up.
I never had any contact whatsoever from Removal Group after this. Neither to inform me of the delay nor to check if my goods had arrived.
I was able to obtain information from a third party intermediary, who informed me that when my good should have been delivered to Spain, they were in fact in London. Apparently, at least 4 separate companies were involved in physically moving goods between intermediary locations.
The company that actually delivered my good to me were not a removal company.
The removal companies involved, at no point in time, had a copy of the inventory that I had given to Removal Group.
My goods arrived 2 weeks later than the deadline, damaged, broken and filthy.

Service cost: €1100

Extremely impressed by level of service and professionalism. The quote arrived extremely quickly and reponses to emails and phone calls very prompt and professional.

We have moved home 5 times (twice abroad) and I only wish we knew about the removal group for all those moves.

Definetley recommend the Removal Group.

PS this move was to Australia not USA! For some reason I don't get the correct option to choose from the drop down box. Please fix this mymovingreviews!

Thanks,

Affy.

Service cost: £2797

THEY ARE AWFUL! The Removal Group picked up our furniture in Italy after giving us a written quote and reconfirming the amount on the day of the move, then wanted 50% more it after they took the goods, even though on the day of the move, told us everything was fine.

When the goods did arrive in the US 3 months later items were broken. We purchased damage insurance before the move from them and now they won't call us back. This company is the biggest nightmare in the world. I would be happy to tell anyone how bad it was. I am in the US at 617-536-0878, ask for Andrew.

Service cost: £3000

This has to be the worst experience I've ever had as an end user of a so called service. I moved from Bristol to Hamburg in 2009. The Removals Group are apparently a shell company that "organises" your move by subcontracting to various large and small removals companies. They were very helpful up until the point I paid them my money, which was around £1500. After that, it was a take it or leave it attitude. I supplied and inventory in advance as requested, which included a six month old flat screen tv, packed in its box. The two men in a white van who picked up my stuff assured me that the paperwork would be completed by them, including signing off the inventory. The move was done on a part load basis which meant it was piled in to an HGV with other customers' stuff for the final delivery. When the HGV arrived, they couldn't get it close to the apartment and caused a road block, much to the annoyance of other residents. As they unpacked my things, I noticed one of the removers carrying an old CRT TV into the building. I said that this is not my TV, where had it come from? He denied any knowledge and when I asked the other remover (who just happened to have been present at the original pick up) he also denied any knowledge. The costly mattress was also damaged by some sort of liquid spill and was filthy. Several fragile items were broken and many items were missing. The sofa had been damaged (springs had been broken in the middle). It was a nightmarish experience and I cannot emphasise enough how much I implore you to avoid this company at all costs. They are fly-by-night cowboy scum.

Service cost: £1500

Excellent service and everything went very well. Delivery was very fast. I was expecting to recieve my belongings in 10 working days. But, everything was delivered in 5 working days. Nothing was missing.

Thanks for Melissa and process went very smooth. Would I use them again? Yes and most probably very soon. The service was excellent and price was the best quote that I could get.

Thanks for your help and make our life easy.

(Germany to Denmark)

J Blaze.

Service cost: £1650