Armishaws Removals

This was without question one of the most stressful and upsetting experiences we have ever had — and that is entirely down to Armishaws.

We were moving from a large nine-bedroom house into two smaller properties ( a very expensive move ), with items also going into storage. It was a complex move, yes — but that is exactly why you hire professionals. Instead of making things easier, they made an already difficult situation unbearable.

On the week itself, they refused to move one of our sofas because it was “not on their list.” This was never raised beforehand and left us scrambling to sort it out ourselves in the middle of moving day.

Completely unacceptable and utterly unprofessional.

The tone throughout was confrontational and unhelpful. Rather than problem-solving, we were met with arguments. The stress they created reduced us both to tears. No one going through a house move should be treated that way.

And it didn’t stop there.

The storage process was just as frustrating. We had to send 18 emails just to access our own belongings, and each access came with a £150 charge. When we finally arranged to attend, no proper time was given — we were simply told someone would “come and open up arguing that we had a time slot - which they had omitted to give to us! ” The whole system felt obstructive and unnecessarily difficult.

In the end, we paid another company to remove our furniture from their storage purely so we would not have to deal with them any longer. That says everything.

Do not be fooled by the smart branding, glossy website or impressive lorries. What matters in a move is professionalism, flexibility, leadership and basic decency. In our experience, those were seriously lacking.

I’m sure they will suggest we were “difficult.” We weren’t. It was a complicated move — and they made it far worse than it ever needed to be.

If you are already stressed about moving, this is the last company you want involved.

Its taken me along time to write this as i still find the wholeexperience so upsetting .. I have moved since with no issues , there are decent companies out there - this just isnt one of them !!

Im not a difficult person but when faced with an obstructive company its very hard to keep your sanity

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: £6000

We recently used Armishaws for our move from the UK to Montpellier in France. Everything arrived on time and was unloaded swiftly and efficiently. We would certainly use Armishaws again. Your sales colleagues might be interested to know that you were competitively priced, but most of all, your survey of the amount of goods we had was much more exact. The other two companies included a much bigger margin for error which made them significantly more expensive. Thanks to the whole team for extremely courteous and efficient service.

Service cost: £1000

Moved within Wokingham (near Reading) on Dec 6th, 2016.
We had previously used Rainbow Removals of Wokingham a few years previously. When we went back, we found out they had been acquired by Armishaws. Nonetheless, we thought it likely that they'd be the same people - we were partly right, the same removal crew, but everything else had changed. We paid for packing and removal. About week before our move, our move date had to fall back by about a week. We lost a large chunk of our deposit and our packing service. During this discussion, the customer service was very poor and very rude, despite it being chain related and not a choice on our part. On the move day itself, the removal crew were good, polite and helpful. We got keys about 2:30pm, which is quite a normal time on move day. Half way though unloading, head office called to say that we'd have to pay waiting time (as I recall, asking for a fee of about £150+) on the spot (there was no times written in the contract) - we challenged this and the crew said if this wasn't paid they would be told to stop the move. So we felt we had little choice, as it was getting dark and begrudgingly paid. The move completed and we had a damaged bookcase. When I wrote to claim for damage, we were sent a cheque for a derisory £40 and told they we had waived damage insurance cover. This won't come near to cover the damage that had been caused to the item of furniture.

My wife managed the removals aspect of the move and didn't read the small print (she trusted them to be fair with good and reasonable customer services) - but also did not have the deposit cancellation clause explained to her, nor the insurance cover when she signed the contract. Having read the contract retrospectively, the contract is not a reasonable or fair contract. we seriously considered taking legal action but thought this would be throwing good money after bad.

I would not use this company again - unreasonable & rude, poor customer service. Lots of reviews on here about poor service. I will leave this same review on Trust Pilot and see if it is published (as in complete contrast to this site, they all seem overwhelming positive on there..).

I would not use this company again and strongly advise anyone else to avoid them and take careful note of these reviews. without a doubt, one of the worst companies I have ever dealt with.

Service cost: £3000

The office continually rushed the packers over the phone, therefore our goods were packed very poorly. On arrival, we had 2 unpackers for a job that had 5 people initially packing, therefore they were even more rushed and a considerable amount of damage was done. The senior management were unprofessional, rude and aggressive when handling our claim. Apparently damaging goods when moving house is not a breach of contract! As long as they pack, collect and deliver it doesn't seem to matter what condition the goods arrive in! We claimed just over £500 for repairs and they paid out £191, pitiful!!

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: £3360

The Company was very poor with communication, our furniture has not been looked after, a new 6ft mattress now has a hole in it, the men who emptied the house were very good with loading, however the furniture was held in store and has been repacked. This has resulted in dirty handprints to mattresses, and divans. A hike in one mattress, and bad scuff's, scratches to Ercol dining chairs. The furniture was delivered a day late. The company failed to communicate the delay, resulting in us contacting the British Removers Association!Overall a NIGHTMARE experience !!

Service cost: £2592

I can honestly say that I have never very experienced customer service quite as bad as that experienced when dealing with Armishaws Removals. In fact, to call their particular brand of 'service' anything other than rude, arrogant and indifferent in equal measure, would be no exaggeration.

From an original moving date of early December we have now been told that we will not receive delivery of our property (currently in storage with them) until February, and that even that is not guaranteed. They have outright lied to us at times and have only once returned a call.

There are deeply unfair clauses in their contract and I would advise anyone to read it over very very carefully. They have extra charges for lots of things, including accessing your own belongings while they store them.Please, do yourself a huge favour and avoid Armishaws and their associates like the plague. Do not make the same mistake as we did and think that the bad reviews you see on here and other places are exaggerated. They are not. There are better and more professional companies out there who are far more deserving of your hard earned cash and will probably treat you and your possessions with far more dignity than these cowboys. Save yourself the hassle and the court case!

Service cost: £3000

This move was a nightmare from start to finish. There was a lot of furniture to move and the many moves we have done in the past have been with companies who sent at least 6 men. Armishaws arrived with 3 on the first day and 2 on the second. Needless to say, they were rushing like madmen to try and make the deadline to move out. The result was many items stuffed into boxes (clothes not even folded or hung, just dropped in) which were often incorrectly, and always inadequately, labelled.
They were late on completing the move due to insufficient staff being deployed. Head Office was no help whatsoever in spite of plaintive calls both from me and the foreman. As chance would have it, the new owners of our house were also, unknown to us at the time, using Armishaws for their move and they had the same problems. This meant they were late arriving but Head Office didn't even have the ability to notice this which could have relieved a lot of the pressure on the day of the move fi we had been told the new owners were delayed.
It is true that our move was changed from one going into storage to a move to an unfurnished house just a few days before the move. However, we asked Armishaws if this was possible and they said they could do it. They did not say they could only do a second rate job which is what it turned out to be.
We followed up with a complaint to which they completely failed to acknowledge any responsibility. We have spent months trying to locate missing items (much of it has had to stay in boxes as we are in smaller, rented accommodation before we move into our own house) and they made a stressful event the most stressful of all our moves.
Do not use this company - they don't care.

Service cost: £3400

I will start off by saying that the guys who actually did the move were great, but the office staff are rude, unhelpful and have the most antiquated processes.
So many issues that I don't know where to start! There were complications in our chain that meant the move would be at very short notice and it was expected to be around a very busy period around a bank holiday. This was made all the more stressful by the fact that there is one person in the whole company who can book a slot but he goes home by about 2.30pm. On the day of exchange we were told he would be there until 3pm, we were ready to exchange just after 2.30, so rang Armishaws to book and he had gone home, so the whole chain had to wait another day. When I mentioned that I was pretty annoyed about this the lady I spoke to complained that I had upset her. We then found out the day before moving that they could not honour the agreement to pack most stuff on the day before, then come back on the moving day for the last bits (i.e our bed, freezer and animal beds/cage). So everything was packed the day before moving and we had to borrow and airbed, then try to cram all the animal beds/cages in our car the next day. The thing I am most annoyed about is that NOT ONCE have we had an apology for their shocking customer service and attitude. I had hoped to sort this out with them directly, but their response to my letter was so rude, not to mention incorrect, that I feel compelled to write a review and warn others. I have since heard similar feedback from other people locally and even the guys that moved us said it was common to get complaints about the office staff.

Service cost: £2500

Don't go near them. They sent an estimator round who gave us a verbal quote. They then sent a written estimate that was a completely different number. When I queried this, firstly they tried to cover up the mistake and then told me they didn't want my business anyway when I called to understand what had happened. Didn't even get as far as actually using them. Came away shaken enough from the way I was spoken to and the basic lack of integrity, courtesy and any form of professionalism. A complete waste of time.

Service cost: £3300

PLEASE DON'T EVER DEAL WITH ARMISHAWS. Armishaws do not deserve to be in business. I could write longer reviews than all the other ones on this site and it would never do justice to what a bad company they are. I hope for the sake of anyone moving house they read this and take their business elsewhere. No one deserves to be treated the way armishaws treated us. The sales manager was the worst of them all, to the point of using bad language to me on the phone and putting the phone down on me.He is an awful person. If you so much as try to explain your predicament to him on the phone, he simply talks over you. And he calls himself the sales manager! They took our belongings into storage, and told us they need 14 days notice to release them. We gave them more notice than that, and they told us they were too busy to deliver the goods to us. So we were to move into our house with no contents! They simply dismissed the fact they had said they needed 14 day lead time. I tried literally everything - including sending another company in to collect the goods which they would not allow. In the end, the best they would agree to was that I would go and collect half the goods, at a cost of £600 for them to get 3 crates out of their warehouse to their yard for me to put into my own truck. £600!! Then, the balance, no they couldn't let me collect those, couldn't make time. Best they could do, was bring them on the following Saturday, and because this was the only day they could do, charged me 50% on top of the normal rate. I tried to reason and ask for them to take a view on the costs, but no way. Not interested. Their attitude to customers makes you sick. When their guys turned up on Saturday, I told them I had paid 50% extra for their overtime, and suprise suprise, they told me they were not paid extra for it! So they treat their own staff as poorly as their customers! When you see the other reviews on here, you'll see they are all the same. PLEASE DON'T EVER DEAL WITH ARMISHAWS.

I warned them several times I would put an honest review on here to give them a chance to straighten things out. I gave them so many opportunities just to accept the way they had been and be reasonable. But they don't want to know. I honestly hope they lose business as a result of this review. Not out of spite, but because no-one should ever have to experience their terrible service. Giving 1 star rating is far to much credit. They simply have earned none. They are the most arrogant company I have ever dealt with.

Service cost: £3500

Shocking treatment today from Armishaws Removals (they acquired Rainbow Removals). Unlike Rainbow they do not appear to be at all customer focused and treat customers with complete and utter contempt. All online forum reviews are extremely negative.

Unreasonable, rude, inflexible, expensive, aggressive.

Refuse to release storage items within reasonable period. BAR of no help whatsoever. Forced to take legal action.

Highly recommend Green Brothers Ascot.

Service cost: £1000

I have a young family and a full time job and wanted to make moving as easy as possible for my family. A surveyor came who quoted me what I thought was a good price, I advised we would be needing smaller vehicles as access was restricted (we had been specifically warned this by our seller so I wanted to be clear), he said he was already aware of this in the location we were going to and ticked the 'restricted access' box on the form. He also made a note '7.5tonnes', I now understand that even these are unable to reach the property and 3.5tonnes were required, however, I did not know this. I signed the quote and paid my deposit. On the day of exchange I telephoned to check availability before exchange and then called back after to say that exchange had taken place and to please book us in. That evening I got back from work to find an EMail stating that there was going to be an additional £600 charge for the use of small vehicles and that I was to sign a new quote for them to be able to book me in! I telephoned the next morning the woman who had sent the EMail wouldn't even talk to me and apparently I wouldn't be able to speak to the 'Sales Manager' until 2.30pm! I asked to speak to his manager who basically said that I could not challenge the quote and would have to pay the additional charge but he would 'look into it'. A man from the transport department telephoned at around 4.30pm to ask where exactly I was moving to (I have no idea why he couldn't find out from the information I had already provided - and surely they had checked when they gave me the quote?), I have to say he was very nice but he said he was 85% sure they could do the move with 7.5tonne vehicles. At lunchtime the next day a received an EMail from the Sales manager saying that it had been left to him to inform me that they were unable to use the 7.5tonne vehicles and now their 3.5tonne vehicles were booked up and they would not be able to move me! Again they had not even bothered to telephone me to tell me. I understand that a mistake had been made with the quote but they had not checked (and I was told they cannot check access to each house); given that I had told them about the access from the outset I would think this would be the first thing any professional firm would do! The way the EMails were written were extremely dismissive I was made to feel like a nuisance. There was no customer service evident at all, I was just dismissed because my move didn't fit into the 'standard' bracket. I am left wondering why they have a contract to move military families especially when I see all the other reviews here. I am thankful they did not end up moving us and I only wish I had looked online first. I add my own experience to hope that others do not have to experience similar.

Service cost: £2400

My experience with Armishaws was initially very good. Hence the one solitary star. We were impressed and comfortable with the representative providing the quote. However in spite of paying a deposit,as we were informedto hold a booking,and keeping in regular contact with them, when the time came to confirm they turned around and told us that it probably was not possible anymore. I was now faced with the prospect of not being able to move on our completion date and therefore had no option other than to contact other companies to see if they could move us. In the end a second company was able to move us on the required date. When I then contacted Armishaws to cancel their booking I was met with verbal abuse, refusal to refund my deposit and threatened with being taken to court. When I then tried to speak with head office, I was subjected to the same verbal abuse, prevented from speaking and told "We will see you in court!!".
In my view this is nothing short of a business that was unable to meet its obligations and therefore reverted to bullying customers who had no option but to secure business elsewhere.
In my view, their behaviour is unprofessional and contradicts all good business codes of ethics.

Service cost: £4200

Moving house is stressful enough without having to deal with this team of amateurs.
I was quoted for a move from the south east to the north which included a drop in Manchester and two in Barnsley. I'd accepted the quoted price and paid the required deposit. No confirmation of payment or removal dates was received from them. After chasing for this confirmation, I eventually received an e-mail saying they were going to increase the quoted price by 28% as it hadn't been costed correctly.
Unprofessional and underhand. This company are not to be trusted.
I wish I'd read everyone else's reviews before contacting them..

Service cost: £2500

I wondered if I had the same company as other reviewers as my experience of Armishaws was completely different. Everyone I have dealt with there has been friendly, polite and helpful. Berni in the office was helpful and cheerful, especially given that we were moving in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic. I think we managed to get moved the day before the government clamped down and stopped removals going ahead. The 3 guys that moved us were courteous and helpful and couldn't do enough for us, that may have been down to the bacon rolls and tea and biscuits I plied them with :-). I really could not fault them or the service they provide and would happily recommend them to anyone.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: £800

Initial contact was OK, mid range price, packed up my stuff and stored it for me. Now some months later I want it delivered to new house but they wont give a date and I've been asking since April. Yes, we've all been in lockdown but they've had 7 weeks to plan for re-opening .. and they havent. They're disgustingly rude on the phone, clueless and aggressive, wont give me a date, wont let me collect my stuff. So I'm paying rent from June for a house I can't move into and they'll continue to expect me to pay for storage even though I don't want it stored. They'll blame CoronaVirus but during 7 weeks of not working you'd imagine, like other businesses, they'd have used that time to work out how to come back and look after their customers. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY especially if you're about to move house now, they can't cope with the business they have and must have an enormous backlog.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: £3000

We would strongly NOT recommend using Armishaws Removals after our move in June 2020 as they made a mistake and refused to acknowledge it, being unhelpful to the point of rudeness and arrogance when we asked them to rectify their mistake and compensate us for extra expense and stress. It turned out to be the worst move experience of our lives. We recommend you read this review, as it might help you avoid the same bad attitude and rudeness.

Their estimator spent an hour or so at our house, being shown everything we wanted Armishaws to move. The pre-Covid-19 quote was reasonable and we accepted it. We were locked down before we could move and had to change dates, but all was fine.

Because of Covid-19, they told us we would have to pack everything except china and glass. They delivered some boxes but no refund was made or even offered on the price of a normal full packing service. Later, we got a call saying Armishaws didn't know that our access was via a single track road….despite their estimator having driven down it and spending around an hour there! Then we had the same conversation about the delivery address, which is also down a narrow lane, but one, which is frequently traversed by large tractors. Despite us giving them measurements and clear pictures of the access, they wouldn't confirm they could deliver, and said if they arrived and couldn't deliver because of the access, then we would have to pay for the van to return to base and repack everything into smaller vans. This would have cost us a fortune. What sort of company doesn't know if it can get to where it is delivering and instead leave it to chance? If they had concerns despite our pictures and measurements (which proved their van COULD access the house, as it did easily on the day), they should have checked it beforehand.

On moving day, the 2 crew guys packing the van told us the estimator had got the estimate wrong and the van wasn’t big enough. They called the office and the estimator turned up at our house and actually told us we must have added things because his estimate couldn't possibly be wrong. We were gobsmacked! It was all our fault, apparently, despite there actually being LESS at the house because we had already hired a Luton van and taken 2 vanloads to the new house ourselves. But he refused to accept this and his visit left a bad taste in the mouth. He didn't suggest a solution or help in any way, leaving us worried and extremely unimpressed.

The van reached our new house easily and parked in our drive. The unloading went well except that we couldn’t unpack all the boxes before the crew had to leave. Once we finally unpacked everything a couple of weeks later we found several broken items in boxes they had packed. NOTE….read the contract small print carefully, as any breakages have to be notified within 7 days of the move. Not easy when we had over 100+ boxes. So that was another few hundred pounds they cost us due to their poor packing or unloading and, of course, they “wouldn't be paying any compensation as we hadn’t notified them within 7 days.”

Due to the estimator’s error, we were forced to hire another van to collect the many items left behind, which cost another several hundred pounds and required considerable physical effort on our part. One of us is over 70, the other over 60. The final straw was that they then charged us even more for loading things into their van that they said were not on their original estimate!

When challenged about all of the above over several emails and letters, they resorted to threatening us with legal action if we didn't pay, and refused all polite requests to resolve the situation amicably. Not nice people.

So, do yourself a favour and use someone else. These folks have no idea of customer service, are unhelpful, arrogant and simply won’t believe what you say….nothing is their fault…it’s all yours. Buyer beware.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: £3596

They are the very worst company I have dealt with in 70 years. As other customers have recorded, they are ignorant, arrogant, beyond belief. They operate under a T&Cs system that is designed to ensure they are never in the wrong! If you challenge anything, as I have (which included stealing some items from my shipment), they will be delighted to see you in Court, because their plan is to be able to charge costs. Perhaps that is the aim. I am a Qualified Quality Management Assessor. and this company Letterhead indicates they are ISO9000 Certified. They have not a clue what standards that Certification requires them to operate, and how they must treat customers. They can be described as fraudulent in attitude. So far as my Court Case is concerned, they actually refuse to provide necessary Data. I am now trying to find out whether they actually are Certified and by whom.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: £2720

Look elsewhere - this company will let you down, damage your possessions and overcharge you. If you want to know more read this:

We booked Overs of Camberley (owned by Armishaws) to move out into storage and move from storage into our new home. What an absolute disaster of service and company! So many things went wrong. We are out of pocket too.

What started in good faith ended with a nasty, bitter taste and the realisation the Armishaws are a 'take what you can' type company without any care or consideration for their customers. Here are the key issues we faced:

The price quoted originally was wrong; they added 25% onto the storage fee, but only once they had our items locked into their storage unit. So we had to pay for an additional 325 cubic feet of storage. The quote was done by someone visiting our house; they refused any liability and forced us to pay.

We booked our move out of the store, and they couldn't do it for a few weeks after we needed it; we had to pay for more time storage that we didn't need.

We stayed in storage for four months (Jan 21-April 21), and when we booked to move, they increased the onward move price by 42% from the original quote and would not entertain my arranging another removal firm due to COVID restrictions at their warehouse. Again we had to pay over the odds.

Our belongings arrived in April. We noticed the damage when the first item was unloaded, not just scratches but significant damage. Smashed wardrobes, sofas damaged, classic furniture ruined, our children's bed snapped. They even lost the bolts of our son's bed! The list goes on, but the damage totalled £8,000 to replace it all.

Armishaws refused to deal with me; they put me in touch with the 'Removal Claims Service', whose sole job was to reduce the claim. They offered us £1,500

We got nothing back for service; their strategy of 'ignore the customer' worked - I just got tired.

The end result, we have a £8,000 claim on our home insurance.

The moral of the story? DON'T USE THEM!

Please, I really really mean it you can and will find better. I don't wish the emotional hardship we have been through on anyone. Some of our best furniture had to go in the skip, it's really quite sad.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: £6200

Do not use this company! Shocking customer service, I had arranged an appointment for 9am after waiting over half an hour I phoned the office to be told the appointment had been changed to 10.30, the guy didn't bother to turn up! what a waste of peoples time. no phone call or any form of communication to me to explain why he didn't turn up. This company need to get their act together and remember it's a very competitive world out there and if they want to continue as a company SHAPE UP!

Service cost: £400