Pickfords

In October of 2016 my wife and I purchased a property in Tenerife with a view to retiring there in October 2017. We engaged Pickfords to deliver 6 (tea chest size) boxes of personal items to be delivered while we were there the last week in January. They took the consignment (and the money ) at the beginning of November. The 2nd week of our stay we spent around the apartment waiting for the telephone to ring to tell us when the delivery was to be made. We sent a few emails to confirm delivery was on schedule and were assured everything was going as planned but could not be advised of the delivery date. On the morning of Friday 3rd February we were assured over the phone that delivery was scheduled for that day and were told they would ring back with an a.m or p.m slot. At 2 p.m my wife rang to enquire where the delivery was, to be told the boxes were held up in customs! .
"Since when "
"Since they arrived in the country last Monday"
" Why didn't you ring to tell us?"
" The contact numbers (we gave them 3) were not local so the agent wouldn't ring them"
On the morning of our flight out to Tenerife we emailed Pickfords baggage adviser to tell him the mobile number we could be contacted on whilst abroad. He replied and said he would update the details. Did he confirm with the local agent? I don't think so.
My wife then discovered that the delay was caused by the lack of a passport number on the documentation. That would be my fault and I will hold my hands up to that ,but until I read the small print I wasn't aware that it would be needed . At no point after submission was I made aware of this . I can only assume that the documentation is NOT checked as a matter of course. I had emailed Pickfords with our NEI numbers as soon as we arrived and obtained them, so why did he not tell us then.
Anyway we were one working day (Monday) from flying home. The adviser then inferred to my wife that he had suggested all along that we should have a plan B in readiness. Never had this been suggested to me although he stated to my wife that it was mentioned numerous times .I think I would have remembered that !
"A plan B like what?"
"Another delivery address or someone to let in the delivery"
"We have just moved in and don't know anybody , how could we possibly go door knocking and ask someone to accept a delivery and hold for 4 months."
Why would we need plan B if as is stated on their website , Pickfords are "reliable". If they had suggested I needed a plan B I would have taken my business elsewhere.
As luck would have it we met our new next door neighbor , a very nice gentleman who offered to look after our key and let in the delivery. We informed TNT of his number, which they acknowledged.
What did we have to lose.?
Both Pickfords and TNT after having their ears assaulted verbally both promised to do their best to try to get the delivery made on the Monday.
Tuesday came around and we flew back to the UK. When we got home there was an email from TNT customer services saying that our NEI number was required before the consignment could be released - Yes you remember the number we emailed to the Pickfords baggage adviser the previous week.
Wednesday late p.m TNT emailed to say they would confirm delivery via email and contact the neighbor on the number supplied.
So here we are Monday 13th February ,boxes should have arrived w/c 24 January. No sign of the boxes, no communication from either company since last Wednesday despite the fact that I emailed them both this morning.
Needless to say when we move over there with our housefull of belongings, Pickfords will not be in the starting line-up.

Service cost: £414

I had to loose both my relocation baggage,because Pickfords.

I choose pickfords for my cargo partner.

I spoke to executive and choose door to door pickup and drop (United kingdom to India, Bangalore).

I paid approximately 330 pounds for two boxes for transfers and I had clearly mentioned it as relocation to India and I am entitled to take 1000 pounds worth personal used items.

After few days I get a call from Pickford saying that I need to pay Indian customs in Delhi which is 250 pounds. then when I checked the reason these Pickford guys has sent the items as Courier not as Relocation baggage.

Because of these paper work mistake pickford screwed my baggage, and now I have two options to pay the 250 pounds and take baggage or say I don't need it.

I had to say I don't need it. because everything were used clothes and books.

So now I had pay Pickfords 320 pounds for no work and loose my belongings. If consulted no proper response and says as per the Indian customs I need to pay it.

Not a right company to choose . And on top of that they will be having tie with up other vendors to deliver baggage . You will ending up in talking multiple vendors without any solution.

Finally I have to sacrifice my baggage and money.

I think I lost approximately 600 pounds ,because of lack of knowledge with these employees.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: £320

Quite inadequate. No telephone number or address given to contact insurance company. The contact is via a handling agent only with an e-mail address and a foreign base. One is better off buying and insurance from a separate agent. Pickford's don't take any responsibility for loss or damage but pass you off to the e-mail address of the handling agent. Proof of value for goods damaged or lost rest solely with the customer. If you are 'looking for something extra' as advertised don't go to Pickford's.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: £2747

I was always dubious about Pickfords, I had been told that they were expensive. But I thought I would give them a chance. I could then compare them with the other company we had a quote from. My initial concerns were justified. Their representative turned up to give our quote, we told him what we needed and showed him around the house. We have a large house but the majority of our furniture had been sold. We are moving into a 4 bed house, the furniture we have left was equivalent to this. The rep was adamant his quote would be better than the one we already had. So we are moving from North Wales to South Wales with furniture for a 4 bed house. The quote arrived over £6500. We nearly dropped through the floor. We left a review on trust pilot, obviously not happy. Pickfords responded, rang me, and tried to justify their quote. They couldn’t answer me when I pointed out that the other quote we had was £3900 less than their quote for exactly the same job.. Their price was totally over inflated.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: £6548

OK nice guys came and worked hard and packed up my property. Nice guys came and worked hard and unpacked it at my new property.

But for 6 weeks in between Pickfords were meant to store my property for me. Somewhere in that chain, I've lost at least one box.

I can identify many kitchen items that I no longer have valued at at least £400.

This is after paying them over £2000 for removals and storage.

Pickfords investigated, couldn't find it and cited a clause in my insurance saying those items weren't covered.

I packed this box and didn't take a photo so there's really nothing I can do about it.

Pickfords, upon citing the clause said 'I know this may be disappointing, but sorry'.

I replied saying I'm not disappointed I'm angry. I'm happy for Insurance to cover accidents but not their incompetence.

Anyone, including companies, can make mistakes, but it's how they remedy them show's if they're worth dealing with.

I will never deal with Pickfords again and suggest anyone else be cautious.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: £2500

Worse Removal Company Ever

If I could rate lower than one star I would. The removal took place over 3 days at the end of April/start of May 2021 in Peterborough. I want to state first of all that Pickfords do not employ their own staff. They subcontract this out to other removals companies. Therefore on our removal day we got three staff from 3 different removal companies with 3 different ways of doing things. All in their 20s and no life experience with no care or attention. All of the clothes where thrown into the boxes from room regardless of what was in the room with no care. The removals manager was non existent throughout the whole process constantly passing the buck onto the removal team staff on the day. Damage was done to our American style fridge and kitchen sideboard unit which together is worth £2000. All we have been offered is £400 compensation from spending nearly £4000 on the removal itself over 3 days due to it being a large removal of a family of 7. The whole point of of removal was to help us and relieve any stress but instead Pickfords caused more stress and has been one of the worse experiences I have ever been through with any company. The stuff in my garage was thrown with no organisation, attention or care taken. Senior management do not want to no and in the end stop communicating with you. 4 Staff where disciplined but for what went wrong for us especially I had a severe back disability and I was expecting 5 star luxury service to help me and my family move. Very upsetting and Pickfords are a disgrace of a company.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: £4000

I used Pickfords to move from Manchester to Lincolnshire and paid for one of their top packages and insurance to ensure all went smoothly. Unfortunately while the team doing the move were pleasant and the day itself went fine, everything after that was a disaster. Some items were broken - now noting i had taken out the insurance i wasnt concerned until i had to deal with the office team. Barrier after barrier was put up - 3 months later they still hadnt paid out a less than £200 claim (noting i had paid thousands for the move) and every person blamed someone else. Cut to 4 months later, they are STILL ignoring me, not returning calls and emails - including management. Eventually after a lot of running and chasing on my side i finally get the money from the claim. At this point, i raise a complaint but senior management decide (5 months later, after more ignoring emails and calls) that as they did eventually pay the claim, the matter is closed and they didnt feel a gesture of good will was due - well i disagree. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS FIRM, IF ANYTHING GOES WRONG THEY DONT WANT TO DEAL WITH IT AND WILL DO EVERYTHING NOT TO PAY OUT AND WILL TRY TO WEAR YOU DOWN. There are plenty of other companies out there, use someone else.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: £2726

We chose Pickfords to do our move to another country. During the packing everything went smooth and they did a nice job. The trouble started during delivery. On the delivery week, they ask you to fill a form where you can choose if you want your items, unboxed or not, we chose unbox everything. Unfortunately, when they delivered our things, everything was left in boxes, they did not even care about unwrapping them. A huge piece of furniture was left standing in the middle of my dining room, a wooden box sealed with nails was also left there, furniture that was disassembled during the move by them, was not assembled back. A huge mess. Besides that, since the delivery took place, more than a month ago, they still have to deliver our dining table. They simply did not even try to deliver saying it was too heavy and they needed more people. They knew how heavy it was and how many people they needed because they removed from my house. We even ask how is the cost of hiring more people’s to deliver it, which was not obligation, since we already paid for it. No answer. I have been emailing Dominic almost daily, and he always says he is asking his team to take care of it asap, and nothing happens. This is extremely frustrating, and I never been in a situation like that, even though we moved abroad a couple times. Dominic told me he would give me an update by today, but ai just email him, and got an out of office message.

I do not recommend this company to anyone. Extremely untrustworthy.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: £3666

Moved from UK to USA. UK pickup was efficient, and admin was fine (although there is a lot of paperwork). Goods took a long time in transit, mainly due to container shortages and delays for US customs inspection. However Pickfords US partner, Global Logistics, took a long time to ship goods from New York to Austin Texas after they had cleared customs, and they also gave wrong delivery address to delivery company despite our advising them 3 times that our US address had changed. Local delivery agents (Austin Firefighters) were excellent.

UK pickup 26 January, goods finally delivered to our new home in Austin 5 June.

The major downside for us was Pickfords' insurance. We paid a lot of money (£1019) for cover. We had a few breakages, but when we submitted a claim 10 days after delivery, having taken a few days to unpack everything and not having access to a computer, we were told that our claim was rejected as it was not made within 7 days! Pickfords referred me to the small print in the insurance document. It seems unreasonable to me to expect anyone to remember the terms of a document they signed 5 months previously amid the upheaval of a removal. The very least Pickfords could have done would have been to remind us around the time of delivery that we had only 7 days to submit a claim. This has soured what would otherwise have been a fairly satisfactory removal, and smacks of sharp practice. I would advise anyone to read the small print carefully and I suspect better and cheaper insurance cover is available elsewhere.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: £4344

Allied Pickfords gave us a quote for moving from New Zealand to Japan.. they did not communicate properly and came back to us after pick up saying we had to pay for extra.. and now in Japan they are telling us that they forgot to tell us that part of the delivery (the piano) was not included.. useless people.. and I am paying almost 10 grands for that poor service (and I am polite).. stay away from them.

(Please note that the delivery and pickup locations proposed on this website do not allow New Zealand and Japan).

Service cost: $10000

We did our third overseas move, this time we chose Pickfords. What a bad decision - only their front-line representatives were nice. the packers obviously did not know what they were doing.they did not pack according to what is required for overseas packing. so much was broken - irreplaceable goods. Finally, they acted against the law when packing liquid chemicals where the bottles' seals were already broken. It had leaked and items were soiled, or otherwise destroyed.
When completing the insurance documents we did not get any help which resulted in us getting only a few broken items replaced.

Service cost: £8500

This is how pickfords removals operate I asked for a quote, i'm single and moving to a 1 bed flat 2 miles away, I said all my stuff is packed stacked and ready to go with easy access at both ends, total move time I estimate 1 and half hours max. I got quoted £800
so lets look at this - that's £400 a mile, I could buy a van and insure and pay 2 people £50ph and still have change. pickfords? pick-pockets more discriptive.
then I questioned this thieving amount and they tried to convince me that it was a bargain. they then said its peak season. i'm sorry but I didn't know we had seasonal removals, they are talking like i'm booking a holiday.  then there is VAT, which I am very aware of and it can't be used as an excuse. then you pay their insurance?? I meen how useless are they and how much damage do they do if they force you to pay insurance, if the have builders erect a scaffold around your house you don't pay their insurance for them, they do
but the real sadness is what if its an old lady who doesn't know better, or some-one with mental issues they can't deal with people properly and agrees to this. PICKFORDS - no morals - no ethics - shamefull.

Service cost: £800

This is how pickfords removals operate I asked for a quote, i'm single and moving to a 1 bed flat 2 miles away, I said all my stuff  is packed stacked and ready to go with easy access at both ends, total move time i  estimate 1 and half hours max. I got quoted £800

so lets look at this - that's £400 a mile, I could buy a van and insure and pay 2 people  £50ph and still have change. pickfords? pick-pockets more discriptive.

then I questioned this thieving amount and they tried to convince me that it was a bargain. they then said its peak season. i'm sorry but I didn't know we had seasonal removals,  they are talking like i'm booking a holiday.  then there is VAT, which I am very aware of  and it can't be used as an excuse. then you pay their insurance?? I mean how useless are  they and how much damage do they do if they force you to pay insurance, if you have  builders erect a scaffold around your house you don't pay their insurance for them,  they do.

but the real sadness is what if its an old lady who doesn't know better, or some-one with  mental issues and they can't deal with people properly and agrees to this. Pickfords - no morals - no ethics - shamefull.

Service cost: £800