ReloUK

Our goods from London (8 boxes and a suitcase) were picked up from London on 16 October 2016 but not delivered but over three months later to Queensland in Australia on 19 January 2017.

During that time I exchanged a large number of emails with the company, including its managing director. His responses were always worded slickly and professionally but I felt that the service was neither honest or transparent.

The key issues were:

- Dishonesty regarding pricing of the boxes. I was initially quoted one price for 40 cubic feet, which included eight of my boxes plus one extra box. These were picked up and checked by Relo UK. It wasn't until another week after when they said that they wouldn't load my shipment unless I paid for the extra box (a suitcase which was smaller than the other boxes). They tried to say that adding the suitcase brought the total volume to 40 cubic feet (the managing director said that he had 'personally checked') but this would have been impossible given that the suitcase was about half the size of each of the boxes.

- Lack of transparency regarding an amount of $125 which they oncharged to me from their Australian contractor (Conroy Removals). This amount had quoted to Relo UK by Conroy Removal before I accepted their quote, but it wasn't until after two months of my goods leaving London that Relo UK surprised me by telling me I had to pay this to the Australian subcontractors, trying to say that they were 'mandatory DAFF (quarantine) charges' and therefore excluded under our contract. In fact, after liaising with Conroy Removals, it was clear that these were not quarantine changes but also included Conroy's own administrative fees. Therefore, I ended up having to pay an extra amount to Conroy on behalf of Relo UK to fulfil its own commercial contractual agreement with Conroy.

For both of these issues I was forced to pay the extra amounts because I did not want to cause any delay to my shipment to Australia.

I would not use Relo UK again - in the future I would use a more reputable company which provided upfront, clear information about the total cost to the customer to avoid any surprise charges.

Service cost: £400

You're here reading this review because you put your details into a price comparison website, and you got a bunch of quotes back. The lowest was some company called "Relo UK" that was £100 lower than everyone else. "Wow, that seems like a great deal" you say to yourself. I'm here to tell you: it's not.

Relo UK will demand to repackage all your stuff, and will then fill in your manifest so badly - for example, three entire boxes with generic contents like "computer accessories". When your stuff inevitably goes missing, which it will, their scam insurance company will blame you for not adequately itemizing the manifest that Relo UK filled out for you, and will flat out refuse to pay anything. Your stuff just never existed, and you are a liar.

I lost well over £1,000 of computer gear and expensive electronics, and almost immediately the response from Relo UK was "call the cops, we don't care, LOL". (Paraphrasing.) There's a hole in their shipping chain somewhere, where things just go missing, we don't know how. Couldn't even hazard a guess. But they'll find a way to blame you. Strangely, its never your boxes of old shoes or saucepans that go missing in these types of cases.

The stuff I lost cost well over 1.5x what I paid for the shipping service, and 10x the difference between them and the next cheapest quote I got.

Go with one of those other companies, spend the extra £100 to use a reputable company and save yourself the hassle and don't gamble on losing your most valuable possessions. Don't be greedy and lose thousands trying to save hundreds like I did, trust me.

Oh, and they took 10 weeks instead of the 4-6 weeks they'll quote you. So there's that also.

Service cost: £900

The moving company I engaged to relocate my family from Singapore to the UK partnered with Relo UK to get our stuff to us once it arrived at Southampton.

Relo UK were communicative and helpful, and the delivery men were nice and friendly. But as my wife and I got through all of the unpacking, we realised that we had two valuable pieces missing.

Relo UK were adamant that one of the pieces was delivered since one of the drivers remembered where he put it down in our (small) apartment, and straight-up refused to accept that we didn't have it, effectively accusing us of lying.

They agreed that they didn't deliver the other piece, and had no ideas where it was.

We'd taken out insurance, but this wasn't worth the paper it was written on, in the end. The Singapore removals company offered a gesture of goodwill to compensate in part for the lost items (even though they were lost by Relo UK), and Relo UK did nothing apart from deny everything.

Overall, it was a very frustrating experience, and we were ultimately out of pocket and, most importantly, without two items that we wanted to keep. Based on our experience, I wouldn't engage Relo UK again.

Service cost: £1500

My vehicle was stored with them for several months and during this time new mats were swapped by somebody for dirty worn ones (not a huge monetary loss but significant all the same). They were flatly dismissive about it and never produced any before/after photographs which would have clearly shown what had occurred. I can't help but wonder why. The way many of these companies seem to work is that they just automatically pass the buck to someone, anyone else in the event that things like this happen. Their default position was that I would have to take it up with so and so or so and so. Not good enough. In the case of vehicles I'd advise any potential customer to insist on photographs on receipt and dispatch, otherwise you're likely to be faced with this sort of thing too. Luckily some contractors do take photos and send them on, you just have to ensure that your photographic evidence is complete from end to end. The little paper condition reports are literally not worth the paper..In fairness to them the lady I dealt with mostly was very helpful and seemed knowledgeable and efficient, that's not my issue. As this import was from Australia to the UK, ReloUK were not chosen by me, they were merely the receiving agents. Would I personally choose them or recommend their services? Absolutely not. Dismissive, and indeed threatening in the face of having payment for storage withheld in the vain hope they'd accept liability but of course they wouldn't. Photos would have negated the need for the above dispute entirely.Be advised if you get in a dispute like this with them you WILL be dismissed out of hand. All in all a pretty poor experience.

Service cost: £4000

60 heavy boxes from HK to London - arrived into port on 21 Dec, ReloUK can arrange the delivery to my house on 23 Dec! Incredible! I never expected I could get the shipment before Christmas, and I was impressed by the efficiency and considerations of the team. A big thank you and kudos to the crew that delivered the shipment to our house, they are professional, efficient and very patient with us. The boxes were all very heavy, but they swiftly moved all 60 heavy boxes into the house within 30 mins, and pointed out which box they were carrying so I could make sure nothing was missed. They put the boxes exactly where I wanted them to be, and saved me a lot of time unpacking.

Thank you for all the help in the early winter morning!

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: 53000HKD

From Branksome to Woy Woy

Our goods and chattels arrived yesterday. I wanted to express my appreciation:

a) In responding to my RFQ and phone inquiries promptly and generously

b) to your packers, who were polite and punctual on-site in Branksome

c) The acid test - the goods arrived here safely and in good condition. Your boxes were all very sturdy and very much fit for purpose. The difficult packages - a mirror, two pictures and two music keyboards were equally unscathed, due to some very good packaging. [It was very useful throughout, to have plain white boxes, white tape, and marked with your RELOUK logo, to correctly identify everything.]

d) Finally, after a little nudging, your well-chosen and polite agent in Sydney delivered as promised.

All this despite raging Covid throughout the transaction.

Congratulations to you and your team for a successful service - I hope you all stay well and prosper!

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: £958

I’ve used 3/4 relocation companies over the past 10 years. All goods going to South Africa. ReloUK gave me the best price on this occasion ( I used their groupage option, which is shared container) so I gave them a go. The guys who came around to pack my goods were great, friendly and down to earth. They packed my goods with decent packaging, boxes were strong and the bubble wrap was next level! There’s a layer of fabric in theirs. The goods took a while to get to South Africa but I guess when you’re sending boxes during a pandemic you wouldn’t expect anything less. My goods arrived this morning as promised by their local agents on the ground. There was a box missing however when I emailed the local agent in SouthAfrica they responded quickly telling me they had the box and would courier it on Monday. Overall great price, great service and if it’s a good price you want be expected to wait slightly longer than you’d wait having sent a sole container which works out much more expensive.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: £850