1st Move International

Where to start… They offer great customer service until they have packed your stuff and possess all the power over your stuff.

The guys who came to pack our stuff on the moving day wasn’t aware that we had booked them to pack the stuff. Even though we had it in writing from the company and confirmed it over the phone the day prior. It was pure luck that I had extra bags and boxes to pack the remaining stuff in, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to pack everything on that day.

We received a quote to pay £5K and they billed us more than double, £12K (!). They said it would take 2, maximum of 4 weeks, we received our stuff after 7 weeks. They deliver everything curb side, which essentially means they dump the stuff in front of your house and leave. The pallets they use are so massive that they won’t fit in an American standard sized lift.

I would not recommend them to anyone. It would have been a lot cheaper and quicker for us to rent an entire container with the additional services then to go with 1st move.

When I summarised our experience and chased an eta for our stuff, they didn’t even give one apologetic sentence.. Which just shows that they don’t care about the customer service one bit, once they have received their money. They also pretended to send us links to review them on Tripadvisor, however we never received the links. Which is a massive red flag and explains why Tripadvisor have 4.5 stars, while Yelp has 1 star and Google have 3.8 stars. Very dodgy!

The only positive part was that our stuff did arrive in a good condition which of course is a huge relief… But your belongings are better off with a different company, hence my one star.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: £12000

We received our items today and that was actually a rather quick process, still stressful and full of nonsense. Like putting your items on a crate no one can move- then you pay them to provide a freight service once stateside for 1,000 for a 1.5 hour journey. But then thE company provided to us couldn’t even deliver since we didn’t have a forklift. We paid £9,000 for our items to be moved from Uk to Houston. What we discovered after opening is appalling and honestly we are still considering pursuing our legal options. We paid extra for their “professional” wrapping. What a joke. Our furniture had been all destroyed, antique and vintage furniture with the entire frames shattered. It honestly looks like they played Futbol with our items. These companies are so dodgy, I’m glad we have proof of their bs and email chain to see this through.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $11000

I'm not sure why there are so many bad reviews on this one particular review site. Checking TrustPilot there are plenty of positive comments there.

Anyway, we used 1st Move to ship our stuff from Liverpool to Canada. My experience with them has been top notch

in spite of the insanely negative comments found here.

Professional throughout. Fab packing. Nothing was missing or damaged like others here claimed and the cost for the service was always clear.

It's odd that this particular site only gets 1 review a year for these guys and it's always 1 star. If I were you, I wouldn't use this as your only source for reviews and check some other third party sites first.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: £5000

This company seemed responsive and cheap. See attached pdf conversations. We were moving 1 m2 from UK to Singapore.

We agreed to have our goods shipped a bit earlier to catch an earlier boat. Turns out that boat was cancelled and everything was delayed by weeks.

Then: this is not in the pdf, but turns out that 'unloading' from boat and local handling is NOT included in the price!! So we ended up paying a good extra 500$ for them to unload our boxes from the pallet and bring to our home (20min drive from harbour).

Avoid this company.

Service cost: £900

The Good:

1st Move International was good in engaging me and letting me know of what the steps are and responsing quickly for scheduling the collection day and how it would all work out. This was helpful as it helped me plan quickly and get collection done. They told me they are faster than others as they do 2 weekly shipment and I was told I will receive my package around 6 weeks time (I received it after 3 months, this was OK though as it was during pandemic time and a lot was not going smoothly).

The Bad:

The service is only for curbside in my case as 1st Move International wanted to charge me about $1,000 for bringing boxes upstairs (12 steps).

Collection took place and I have got told I will be notify once the collection is shipped from the UK. Every two weeks they would say yours has been delayed. Once they claimed it is shipped but few days later they said actually it was not the case and it's still pending. From this point onwards no more happy client servicing from 1st Move International where asking them where my package is was a burden for them to respond to on every call I had with UK.

Later I found out they will contract out to a chain of companies to do the final delivery (this was not made clear at all from the begining). This meant that once package got to US 1st Move International asked me to no longer contact them directly and go through this other contractor company (DGS Logistics) which I had made no research as I was unaware this is who does the final move, but oh that wasn't the company which did the final move I found out later. After more delays for package to be shipped from east coast to west coast I have receive some of the shipment.

The Ugly:

Package was delivered with a different wrapping (missing 1st Move International's trademark) and looked compromised even looking from outside and wrapped as it was no longer in cubic shape. Once it was unwrapped I found many boxes opened and many other missing. After hours and hours of search for belonging it was clear that indeed all the most valuables for myself and my partner were all gone.

I have contacted both DGS Logistics and 1st Move International immediatley with pictures of initial package and all the damaged boxes to ask about the missing items. This is where the waste of many more months of ping pong between chain contractors and 1st Move International started, and spoiler alert didn't get to anywhere but deep disappointment. I must add that the interest from both companies on solwing or carying to followup about this case was the lowest of value for them. They could not care less as both told me "Your best chance is to claim for insurance and move on and don't waste your time or ours". In one ocassion the 1st Move International person said "You are lucky you got something, usually when it gets compromised they take it all. Once we shipped someone a piano and many stuff nothing arrived to the guy". Clearly communicating "how valuable some of the sentimental things I shipped were to me and I would like to get to the buttom of who stole it" from my side was a no goer with such service.

After months of every few days sending emails and making calls DGS Logistics claimed after checking picture the package was compromised when being transported to west coast from east coast by this other company they have contract with (name wasn't revealed). They shared pictures of the packages openned and they rewrapped after items taken out from it. I mentioned to them this must be a worrying fact for them that their contractor is stealing goods during transport and goes without saying that it's in both our favour to track this. All I was looking for was a closure to what has happened. They first agreed to follow up. Months passed and then they said "we are not getting much from this contractor do you want to get a lawyer and sue them?". This is appalling to me how both companies thought this is my problem more than it is theirs throughout this painful experience.

To sum up I paid and waited only to see my most valuable being stolen indirectly by the very company I have paid for their service and trusted them.

Finding a Moving company for international move can be difficult specially when you don't have much time to search. I suggest strongly against making any business with 1st Move International and DGS Logistics. You don't move a hundred times around the world and those times you do you want the best service and these guys are far from it.

I have avoided naming individuals from such companies as I believe it's the general management to be blamed than people on the ground.

Current status of my case: 1st Move International and DGS Logistics have stopped answering to my emails and all lost was not cared for to explain what they have found. Perhaps they don't care if the companies they are in contract with steal a bit here and there.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1700

I paid a premium given their 30day delivery promise. Turns out this is just a LIE! Items arrived after almost 90days, the same as any of the cheaper shipping companies. On top of that, as other people have found, their quote doesn't include all the extensive fees charged at ports..these increased the price by almost 50%. Finally even though Tom (sales guy) made it sound like they were a door-to-door service, it turns out they only deliver it to the nearest port! That ended up costing a further $250 to get it from there to my home. Overall a terrible shipping company, that uses fine print to massively increase costs, and get out of the headline 30day delivery that they advertise. Would avoid at all costs.

Service cost: £1400

My shipment was from UK to Canada not to London, it was an international move but wanted to get the word out about this company. "Warning to all" do not use 1st move international! Absolute horror company. They use there own shrink wrapping technique which did nothing but damage and break all items on the outer edge and tops of ALL pallets! Had to throw out almost 50% of furnishings shipped!! 4 Beside tables-broken legs some bent most broken completely off. 2 large pictures in frames snapped in half. All garden furniture-steel frames bent beyond repair. Wooden desk-sturdy wide wooden legs snapped. The list goes on and on all due to the shrink wrapping they use puts so much pressure on the outer edge and top of pallet! They packed it so they items had zero chance not to be damaged. So much pressure that they even bend my bike tire! Thrown away! Cost! There quote was off by 62% when I received my final bill. Ended up having to pay an extra 2800 pounds! The worst company do not use if you want to save your goods from damage! They lied about my quote to destination as well! I had to arrange for it to be collected from customs! Zero communication. Even the loaders who showed up to my door said that the company under quotes so they can get your shipment to the warehouse and after its loaded and packed charge you more than the quote (its based on size of shipment. Nobody came to the house to estimate the size of shipment and cost! Worst company ever!

Service cost: £4000

I was quoted £540 for a shipment of furniture home goods Uk- Dubai The actual bill was £950. This did not include insurance or any expenses at the other end. That was another £450 to arrange customs brokers at the other end. A glass cabinet door was broken from my home to the depot and the rep, Tessa, made several flippant remarks to me about it including the fact that I should be able to get another one made easily enough because Dubai is in the desert and glass is made from sand. I was told that I was aware the door was fragile, which I agreed I did because I concerns about the way it was packed. The paperwork was erractic at best and on several occasions I asked them to send me the paperwork both to me and my husband in Dubai. On one occasion they asked me for copies of the paperwork as it turned out they had sent mine with another consignment. I still have yet to receive this paperwork. As I write my shipment is sat in Jebel Ali in Dubai as customs will not release it without the relevant documentation. Not only that my husband and his delivery driver have been detained by customs in Dubai until the paperwork is forthcoming. I am unable to help as Dubai is 4 hours and 1st move do not open until 9am.

What should have been a smooth transition has become a Christmas nightmare due to the lackadaisical attitude firstmove have towards their clients and their belongings.

Service cost: £1000

DO NOT USE 1st Move International!

International shipment from London, UK to Johannesburg, RSA:

1. Quoted estimate half of actual cost of shipment, despite over-stating quanitity and size of goods in attempt to get realistic quote
2. Shipment was collected 1 hour later than planned, despite calling the previous night to confirm, putting full day of moving out behind schedule
3. Did not have a customs clearance agent partner in South Africa, which they only informed me of once shipment had been collected. Assigned a partner in Durban who never worked with before therefore no idea whether reputable
4. Gave 3 month lead time between sending shipment and arriving in South Africa. Despite this, when I arrived back, we still had no confirmation that my shipment had arrived, despite making almost daily contact with 1st Move to check on status prior to, upon and after arrival home
5. Customs clearance agent eventually advised that as they were based in Durban, they legally could not process customs clearance for me as I was based in Johannesburg. Had to discover this myself, chasing info down, as 1st Move took NO responsibility! Agent assigned knew absolutely nothing of my shipment!
6. Had to find my own customs clearance agent in SA and start the process myself, long after shipment had arrived in JHB, with no help from 1st Move
7. Shipment being held at freight depot, which we had to locate ourselves as 1st Move could/would not, resulting in daily storage charges! Also, threat of auctioning off goods to cover storage charges if customs clearance not received shortly, as this is meant to happen before receiving shipment!
8. Customs clearance agent able to get clearance in 2 days but at further additional and unplanned cost to myself

All of above occurred without any assistance from 1st Move, any acknowledgment of fault in the process, won't accept responsibility for extra costs incurred because of their inefficiency and ignore all emails requesting reimbursement and apology.

A nightmare, DO NOT USE THEM!! They don't know what they're doing.

Service cost: £1300