ABYSMAL SERVICE AND TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.

How not to relocate to another country! We have had an emotional move, especially since it was during an already stressful time. We used South African Relocations for our 2 dogs and our home contents. We paid for everything upfront. Once we left, we were assured everything was under control. We arrived in the UK on Nov 30, 2020, having been told our dogs would leave two days after us. We had a friend looking after them and had passed on contact details to all concerned parties. She had little to no communication from the company. The day our dogs were supposed to leave came and went. She was then told, our contact at the company had resigned. We managed to get in direct contact with the owner and we were informed (only then) that the number of animals on flights had been reduced. We were then informed that it would take another 3 weeks and another payment to get them confirmed on a flight. We would have delayed our flight; had we been informed upfront. We had to arrange friends to look after our dogs, moving from one to next over the December Holidays and do vet checks from the UK, which was added stress and of course more money. None of this was outlined in our original agreement, the reality is that we would pay anything to get our dogs across, perhaps they knew that. The next debacle was getting our container, with the endless delays and no clear idea of when or indeed if we would see our belongings again. Understandably, a small portion of the delay was due to lock-down, but expectations was set for the arrival of our goods for the end of January. Staying in temporary accommodation and having to juggle dates moving out, with little to no communication was an absolute nightmare. Constantly chasing for any resemblance of feedback became a daily task, with very little reward. We were so relieved to have our nightmare chapter over with this infuriating company in mid-April when our goods eventually. We immediately began unpacking. Our past experience in moving has lent us to unpack our bedroom and kitchen first. I removed the packaging on our mattress, very easily, only to discover our mattress had suffered water damage. Our extra length, nearly new mattress was in very poor shape and the excitement of finally receiving our worldly possessions was short lived. I took photos and sent the claim in for obvious water damage, as we had paid for insurance. After more lengthy delays and constant follow up, the claim was rejected. SA Relocations reason for rejecting the claim was that mould was not covered by the insurance. The damage to mattress was from water leaking onto the mattress and poor packaging. The brown stain and of course mould testament to the face that the mattress was not wrapped correctly. Our plea's once again fell on deaf ears, with SA Relocations once again neglecting any sort of responsibility or any ownership for the failings in their service. The handling of our move was nothing short of a disaster, with what seems like additional cost after additional cost. The management of the company seem to care very little for their customers and do not take accountability for their mistakes. Moving countries is an expensive exercise, moving countries with SA Relocations even more so.