Moving home is almost always stressful and you certainly won’t thank your removals company for adding to that stress unnecessarily.
Here you’ll find some tips for how to go about selecting a company that won’t cause you subsequent grief.
No Exaggeration
If you don’t think this is a serious issue, just consider some of the following real incident examples:
- The removals company who provided a large van but one that was in such poor condition, the removals team had to literally part-push the vehicle into the house’s drive. After it had loaded, it departed with much engine noise and smoke. Two hours later, the home-owners passed said van broken down on the highway and seemingly on fire, with all their possessions inside.
- One company arrived at 08.00 but with one of the team clearly massively hungover and another still so drunk he could hardly walk.
- Another company apologised for being more than three hours late arriving, due to their driver having ‘got lost’ on the way to the removal address. Their vehicle depot and the driver concerned were based only about a 45-minute drive away.
- Yet another example involved a vehicle that arrived but with the removal team stating they’d forgotten to bring any boxes or packing materials with them.
- One vehicle’s team who, having arrived an hour late, then disappeared for 30 minutes to “get some breakfast”.
These are, of course, extreme examples of total professional incompetence yet they’re important in illustrating just how much trauma can arise on your removals day if you select the wrong removals company.
Getting it right
The good news is that there are some excellent and top-class professional furniture removals companies out there.
The question is, how do you find them? There is, in fact, no magic formula but here are a few good common-sense tips.
- Look for a long-established company. In general, the ‘cowboy’ operators don’t last more than a very few years. If a removals company has been around for a long time, then they’re doing something right.
- Don’t simply go for the cheapest quotation. That ‘one guy and a van’ may be well intentioned and cheap but if something goes wrong, such as a vehicle breakdown, they’ll have no backup available.
- If you can, check the views of previous satisfied customers.
- Look for specialist removals companies. Some freight forwarders and even hauliers offer removals services but that’s often something of an uneasy ‘tack on’ to their normal daily business of handling freight. If you’d prefer your precious items to be handled differently to crates of machinery, use a specialist.
- Ask for guarantees. If the company is late arriving it may well cause you a lot of emotional and logistical pain. Ask them what they’d do to compensate you in this, what they will probably see as, “very unlikely situation”. If they’re vague and evasive, find someone else who won’t be.
A few extra minutes researching the company you’re considering entrusting with your removal just might help spare you being added to the list of “removals from hell” stories in future!