Removers and Storers Ltd

To start with only 1 man turned up. No introduction from him. He was on the phone to his colleague who eventually turned up over an hour later. The van was loaded fairly quickly. Then they couldn't get a wardrobe downstairs despite the man who gave the quote saying they'd just take the doors off. I had to partially dismantle the wardrobe. Then a second wardrobe wouldn't go down the stairs so the removal man just stood and shrugged his shoulders. I had to dismantle the second wardrobe completely.
Then when we got to the new house the previous tenant was still loading her van. As I explained to the salesman who gave the quote, this was a mutual exchange so there may be delays.
Upon arrival I told the removal men that there was a delay. I was told I'd have to pay extra, even though I wasn't made aware of any time limitations on the removal. They unloaded the van. Leaving my bikes out in the rain. I was told to put a cross on top of all essential boxes so that I could unload these boxes first. These boxes were totally ignored as being essential, and other boxes were stacked upon them.
My washing machine wasn't reconnected as promised.
To top it all off, upon reading the original quote the salesman had made the comment on the paperwork regarding the fact that on the day he came it was a school day and he questioned why my children weren't at school!!
Completely irrelevant comment and quite frankly none of his business. All in all not a good experience with this company. WOULD NOT RECOMMEND DESPITE SOME GOOD REVIEWS. I can only assume that because it was a Saturday the professional staff were otherwise engaged.

Service cost: £795

In January 4 companies provided quotes to remove the contents of our 3-bedroomed house in Welwyn Garden City into storage and then out again later. As part of this process, the estimator from Removal and Storers made an apparently thorough examination of the house contents including the loft. We chose the company because of their apparent professionalism and competitive cost, agreeing £550 for removal into storage with a further £550 to return the belongings.
To our surprise, only 2 men arrived to do the work on removal day and soon told us that the number of boxes we had would not fit on the lorry they have brought! Head office told them to cram as much on as they could regardless.
With much of the day gone, in desperation, we began to lend a hand too. By 3.30pm the filled lorry departed for storage, leaving behind some shed/ garden contents and all the garage furniture. Nonetheless, R & S attempted to bill us, promising that another lorry would retrieve the remaining material by 5pm. This did not then happen until the following morning, but we paid them the full amount anyway, despite the obvious inconvenience that has been caused. Our belongings were put into storage for approximately 3 months.

We informed R and S well in advance of our final removal date (from storage into our new home) and asked them to send at least 4 men to unload. By lunchtime on the day, a large R & M lorry was ready to unload at the new house. Unfortunately less than a third of our contents were aboard and this did not include the bedding!
The company told us that the rest of our furniture was in a container stored elsewhere (in facilities owned by another company) which couldn’t be accessed for a further 2 days. 2 days later the rest of the contents finally arrived at 3.30pm and 3 men began to unload, with a further 2 men arriving later.
With about two thirds of the furniture and boxes unloaded at around 4.45 pm, we were asked to call the office to make the payment of £550 by card for the final amount. (It was clear that the man in charge at our end had been told to ensure payment was received before the unloading had been completed). This was despite previously agreeing with the office that we could pay by bank transfer following the move, which we had done promptly and in full for the initial move into storage on 31st March and for each of the months of storage.
At this point we indicated that we were unwilling to pay the full amount of £550 for the final move due to the severe inconvenience and delays we had experienced. We were put on the phone to the director, and told him we believed that based on the extremely poor service provided both on the move into storage and the delayed removal out of storage, a reduced fee of £250 was justified. The director, who did however agree that some sort of discount was in order, refused this. He demanded that we should pay £350. When we indicated that we wouldn’t agree to this, the removal crew were instructed by him not to unload any more of our boxes. Even worse, at least one piece of furniture that had already been unloaded was put back into the lorry, wasting further valuable time.
We then attempted to reach a compromise by offering to pay £300, but this too was refused, and we were told that our remaining belongings would be taken back to the depot until we settled for £350. THIS BEHAVIOR, AS WELL AS BEING HIGHLY UNPROFESSIONAL AND UNETHICAL, WAS IN OUR OPINION NOTHING SHORT OF BULLYING AND BLACKMAIL. To take this kind of action part of the way through the unloading on an already lengthily delayed delivery added unnecessarily to the huge amount of stress that the move had already caused us. Given the situation, at around 5.30 pm, we felt that we had no option but to pay the amount demanded, after which the rest of our furniture and boxes were unloaded.
We would like to stress that the removal men themselves, especially on the move out of storage, were hard working, polite and did their best to deal with a difficult situation.
In summary, the blame for the problems we experienced with Removers and Storers can be attributed to the surveyor not properly estimating the quantity of our belongings, poor organization around the storage at the end of March resulting in our belongings being sent to a depot owned by a third party company (which we weren’t told about), lack of reasonable planning in getting our container out of storage (they had two weeks’ notice) and aggressive and unreasonable behaviour from the director in dealing with our wholly understandable request for a price reduction given the poor overall service.
We strongly advise anyone who is looking for a reliable removal company – do not touch Removers and Storers with a bargepole!!

Service cost: £900

Very pleased with the service provided.

The estimator was polite and efficient.

We didn't make it easy for them, with loads of odd bits not packed away in boxes and a long journey too. The guys were very efficient, polite and good-humoured despite the difficult and time-consuming job.

The estimate of vans required was very accurate and the cost was competitive. They called the day before to check all was well.

Thank you!

Service cost: £1500

Extremely late, rude, walked dog mess all over house. Inexperienced staff (first day on the job) wrong lorry, did not cover my items or strap them as promised. Did not take care of my clothes, ruined most of them and £4000 worth of furniture is damaged and some items were stolen. They are not interested in dealing with my complaint, not even one phone call to apologise. I have reported this to the police as a crime and they are looking into the stolen items. Blamed me for everything as I left the property 10 mins early WITH their permission. Shocking experience, awful service.

Service cost: £650

The communication before the move was fantastic, and on the day it started well, but..
When they had loaded the last van we found broken items hidden in the hedge by the side of the road. When we challenged the men they denied any knowledge.
When reassembling some furniture instead of telling us up front about the extensive damage they caused, they chose to hide it from us - cleverly it has to be said - but still the dishonesty hurts.
In fairness some of the men were very polite, if you are lucky enough to get the full time permanent ones, we were unlucky with casual labour (not uniformed) and it would seem he was the issue.
Reported to the company, with photos and nearly two weeks later we are still awaiting a response beyond the 'we'll be in touch in a few days'.

Service cost: £960

I am unable to recommend this company. We read several reviews, but hadn't placed much weight on most of them being from 2015, I wish we had. It appears something has happened to their service and not in a good way. Our agreement, for which we were happy to pay a premium, turned out to be worthless and Removers and Storers say they are not obliged to provide the materials which their surveyor had asked us to pay extra for. Tv's, sofa's, mattresses were not covered as agreed. Clothes were not placed in the 'special' sturdy cardboard hanging wardrobes that had been promised. The 0830 start time for 5 men on day two became a 10am start for 3 men. This meant the pack over-ran and the new buyers were waiting outside as our beloved possessions were hurriedly tossed into the back of the truck. The surveyor said R&S prided themselves on going the extra mile, such as marking all boxes so they'd be placed in the correct rooms at the other end. 'How great!' we thought, it didn't happen, they didn't have a pen. Instead boxes were dumped in the first room they came to at the new house or, as we found later, hidden under a sheet at the back of the garage. Remedy for this farce has not been a strong point either. If the surveyor had told us what service we would actually receive, we would have gone elsewhere of negotiated a far better price. As 100% of the invoice has to be paid upfront, getting a refund for a breach of the agreement has been tough. We are now having to spend even more time communicating through the Consumer Ombudsman. There are plenty of other companies, I would advise you use one of them.

Service cost: £3142

To start on a positive note, the service from the admin side was very good, and the surveyor very thorough and helpful. Also we could not confirm the move until the last minute (just the day before the move) so the company had to hire in two vans, at extra cost to ourselves, in order to fulfill the move. From there things began to go downhill. they arrived half an hour early, Craig, Scott and Lee. Everything was done in such a rush, and they were all finished by 11:30. There was then a long wait, until 3pm, before access could be gained at the other end, a distance of no more than 5 miles. The unload again was done in a terrible rush; we could not keep up with them to check where things were put, and nothing was placed tidily, but in most cases thrown in a heap. Since the move we have discovered quite a few breakages - mostly minor but very annoying. The only evidence that they were here is a scrappy little receipt given to us and the end of the move. Definitely not recommended.

Service cost: £860

DO NOT USE THIS SO CALLED COMPANY. Van was not big enough, ended up having to do five trips in a people carrier to get the last of my stuff to my new home. Got told to F**k off by the driver who later tried to intimidate me and told me I'd see later.
I had two damaged door frames, a broken mirror. I tried to deal with the company on many occasions to no avail I even spoke to the owner Mr Jason Bedding who was rude, tried to call me a liar. I did in the end get an email offering me £150.00 but I'm still waiting, having to involve a moving body called Move Assured to try and pursue what's owing to me. Do not engage with this company, there are much better cheaper ones around. My move was mid October 2016.

Service cost: £1150