Use Any Other Company Besides Pickfords

My wife and I recently completed a three year stint in the UK, and upon recently completing our move back to Australia, we can confidently say that our experience with Pickfords was woeful.

For our move from Australia to the UK in 2016, we secured the services of ‘Al**** Pickfords’. They laboured the point that they were a distinct company from Pickfords UK, and I can see now why they were at such pains to do so. As a point of direct comparison, I cannot compliment Al**** Pickfords enough. From the very beginning they were professionalism itself. When the agent showed up, she walked us through the entire process. She showed us the quality of the boxes they were using, which she confidently stated could take 90kg of weight. She helped us strategise about shipping times, so that our items would be away from us for the shortest time possible. She explained carefully their policy concerning pricing. And she even gave us tips regarding the packing process, including putting signs up to help tell the packers what to pack and what to leave. And the packers were fantastic. They wrapped everything so carefully, and stacked them in the boxes so neatly, that I can honestly say that we did not have a single breakage. And not one nick on our furniture. And even when we forgot to pack a carpet, their drivers went out of their way to come and grab it. In summary, they were friendly and supportive during the whole process.

In light of this experience, we had great expectations for Pickfords for our return move. But we could not have been more disappointed. The agent whom we first met was fine; friendly and competent, if unforthcoming with information. It was only because I was so fami**** with the process that I gleaned different pricing arrangements. There was no discussion about the boxes, and no strategizing on shipping times. As a result, we were without our furniture for three months.

But the worst experience came with the packers. They were so immediately unprofessional that, despite expecting movers at a certain time, when they arrived my immediate thought was to ask them to leave, as packers were arriving. There were no uniforms, no welcome, and no discussion regarding the process. They seemed genuinely confused that we had put up signs concerning what to pack and what not to pack.

We then retreated into a room to take care of our cat, but I wish now that I had stood over them like a hawk; something I otherwise hate doing. Their work in packing our items was so sloppy. As examples, regardless of the size of various items, everything got one (and only one) sheet of paper. This was fine for cutlery, but big platters and vases were not even wholly covered. Some boxes had only one or two items in them, so that they rattled around the whole trip. There were items left all over the place that they neglected to pack, not checking the back of cupboards. Some of these I was lucky enough to catch, others we didn’t catch until later. We had to put these in our luggage, taking up precious space, living out of our luggage as we were for three months. And upon being informed of this, they merely threw these items into boxes, without wrapping them!

In the end we learnt that Pickfords didn’t pack this at all, but rather sub-contracted a group called Houltons to do all of this. So when you pay for Pickfords, you don’t even get it!

We were so excited when our items finally arrived, having been living out of luggage for three months. But what was an exciting day could not have been more comprehensively ruined. Practically every box that we opened had damaged items. Every single bit of furniture was scratched, and had its corners smashed in. Box after box we would pick up you could already hear the breakages. All of our wine glass sets, most of which were wedding presents, have now been torn apart, with one or two smashes on each. More of our platters and plates were smashed due to carelessness; again presents from our family and friends. But most telling of all was that there was one box with two items: a 10kg mortar and pestle, and a Royal Doulton cake stand I bought for my wife’s 21st birthday. The pestle, being small, was wrapped and wrapped in the one sheet of paper. The cake stand, not at all. Big surprise: the cake stand was smashed to pieces. How could anyone, let alone professional movers, have not foreseen that happening?

We also moved a lot of books, and we should all know that with minimal care books are basically impossible to damage. It just takes a second ****erally a second!) to stack them semi-carefully. Instead, it was evident that the books had just been picked up by the armful and dropped into the boxes. Some fell sideways, spine down, and so the pages were all bent back by the books piled carelessly on top. This was a reoccurring feature in dozens of these boxes.

Regarding the boxes themselves, unlike the super-tough ones Al**** Pickfords used, these were just your garden variety boxes, like the ones you get form the supermarket. Most of them had actually collapsed under the weight of the things piled on top of them. No wonder everything smashed and got bent and scratched.

The computer and television were packed with slightly more care, being put in their own boxes. But even these boxes were not filled with any other protection. No styrofoam or anything that we got from the Australia-> UK move. It was a miracle these came in unharmed.

Just a brief interlude to say that the guys from Kent, who had the job of unpacking things in Australia, could themselves not have been better. They were so friendly, so energetic, and so sympathetic for all of our breakages. They would comment when some item would come in broken or scratched, and gave us a pat on the back. Top guys all!

To make everything clear: these breakages and scratched occurred, not due to things reasonably expected from an international move, which we could entirely understand. They were down to negligence. Their breaking was not merely a possibility, but an inevitability. Anyone, let alone ‘professional’ movers, could have foreseen that these things would break. They would have broken if they were being moved down the street, let alone overseas. It was a travesty.

We have filed an insurance claim with Pickfords, for a very modest sum. It doesn’t even cover all of the scratches on the furniture, or the breaking up of our glass and plate sets. And it doesn’t even cover any of the pain and suffering from seeing treasured wedding and birthday gifts from friends and family being smashed. Even those books whose pages were not bent completely backwards we didn’t bother claiming. We could have claimed for so much more, but we settled on the modest sum of $2000. They are already building up to rejecting it, and giving us nothing. I do not, however, even see it relevant to go through insurance. These items were not broken due to reasonable expectations of damages associated with moving. They were not even the result of exceptional circumstances, like the whole shipping crate falling over. Instead, they were the inevitable result of out-and-out negligence in the moving process.

Given all this, I cannot but recommend any other company for your international move. Anyone else would have taken more care at any point.

TLDR: Our items arrived broken due to the negligence and incompetence of the movers. They have clearly never packed for a move, domestic/international, professional/personal before.