Armishaws Removals

Look elsewhere - this company will let you down, damage your possessions and overcharge you. If you want to know more read this:

We booked Overs of Camberley (owned by Armishaws) to move out into storage and move from storage into our new home. What an absolute disaster of service and company! So many things went wrong. We are out of pocket too.

What started in good faith ended with a nasty, bitter taste and the realisation the Armishaws are a 'take what you can' type company without any care or consideration for their customers. Here are the key issues we faced:

The price quoted originally was wrong; they added 25% onto the storage fee, but only once they had our items locked into their storage unit. So we had to pay for an additional 325 cubic feet of storage. The quote was done by someone visiting our house; they refused any liability and forced us to pay.

We booked our move out of the store, and they couldn't do it for a few weeks after we needed it; we had to pay for more time storage that we didn't need.

We stayed in storage for four months (Jan 21-April 21), and when we booked to move, they increased the onward move price by 42% from the original quote and would not entertain my arranging another removal firm due to COVID restrictions at their warehouse. Again we had to pay over the odds.

Our belongings arrived in April. We noticed the damage when the first item was unloaded, not just scratches but significant damage. Smashed wardrobes, sofas damaged, classic furniture ruined, our children's bed snapped. They even lost the bolts of our son's bed! The list goes on, but the damage totalled £8,000 to replace it all.

Armishaws refused to deal with me; they put me in touch with the 'Removal Claims Service', whose sole job was to reduce the claim. They offered us £1,500

We got nothing back for service; their strategy of 'ignore the customer' worked - I just got tired.

The end result, we have a £8,000 claim on our home insurance.

The moral of the story? DON'T USE THEM!

Please, I really really mean it you can and will find better. I don't wish the emotional hardship we have been through on anyone. Some of our best furniture had to go in the skip, it's really quite sad.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: £6200

We recently used Armishaws for our move from the UK to Montpellier in France. Everything arrived on time and was unloaded swiftly and efficiently. We would certainly use Armishaws again. Your sales colleagues might be interested to know that you were competitively priced, but most of all, your survey of the amount of goods we had was much more exact. The other two companies included a much bigger margin for error which made them significantly more expensive. Thanks to the whole team for extremely courteous and efficient service.

Service cost: £1000

Moved within Wokingham (near Reading) on Dec 6th, 2016.
We had previously used Rainbow Removals of Wokingham a few years previously. When we went back, we found out they had been acquired by Armishaws. Nonetheless, we thought it likely that they'd be the same people - we were partly right, the same removal crew, but everything else had changed. We paid for packing and removal. About week before our move, our move date had to fall back by about a week. We lost a large chunk of our deposit and our packing service. During this discussion, the customer service was very poor and very rude, despite it being chain related and not a choice on our part. On the move day itself, the removal crew were good, polite and helpful. We got keys about 2:30pm, which is quite a normal time on move day. Half way though unloading, head office called to say that we'd have to pay waiting time (as I recall, asking for a fee of about £150+) on the spot (there was no times written in the contract) - we challenged this and the crew said if this wasn't paid they would be told to stop the move. So we felt we had little choice, as it was getting dark and begrudgingly paid. The move completed and we had a damaged bookcase. When I wrote to claim for damage, we were sent a cheque for a derisory £40 and told they we had waived damage insurance cover. This won't come near to cover the damage that had been caused to the item of furniture.

My wife managed the removals aspect of the move and didn't read the small print (she trusted them to be fair with good and reasonable customer services) - but also did not have the deposit cancellation clause explained to her, nor the insurance cover when she signed the contract. Having read the contract retrospectively, the contract is not a reasonable or fair contract. we seriously considered taking legal action but thought this would be throwing good money after bad.

I would not use this company again - unreasonable & rude, poor customer service. Lots of reviews on here about poor service. I will leave this same review on Trust Pilot and see if it is published (as in complete contrast to this site, they all seem overwhelming positive on there..).

I would not use this company again and strongly advise anyone else to avoid them and take careful note of these reviews. without a doubt, one of the worst companies I have ever dealt with.

Service cost: £3000

The office continually rushed the packers over the phone, therefore our goods were packed very poorly. On arrival, we had 2 unpackers for a job that had 5 people initially packing, therefore they were even more rushed and a considerable amount of damage was done. The senior management were unprofessional, rude and aggressive when handling our claim. Apparently damaging goods when moving house is not a breach of contract! As long as they pack, collect and deliver it doesn't seem to matter what condition the goods arrive in! We claimed just over £500 for repairs and they paid out £191, pitiful!!

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: £3360

The Company was very poor with communication, our furniture has not been looked after, a new 6ft mattress now has a hole in it, the men who emptied the house were very good with loading, however the furniture was held in store and has been repacked. This has resulted in dirty handprints to mattresses, and divans. A hike in one mattress, and bad scuff's, scratches to Ercol dining chairs. The furniture was delivered a day late. The company failed to communicate the delay, resulting in us contacting the British Removers Association!Overall a NIGHTMARE experience !!

Service cost: £2592

I can honestly say that I have never very experienced customer service quite as bad as that experienced when dealing with Armishaws Removals. In fact, to call their particular brand of 'service' anything other than rude, arrogant and indifferent in equal measure, would be no exaggeration.

From an original moving date of early December we have now been told that we will not receive delivery of our property (currently in storage with them) until February, and that even that is not guaranteed. They have outright lied to us at times and have only once returned a call.

There are deeply unfair clauses in their contract and I would advise anyone to read it over very very carefully. They have extra charges for lots of things, including accessing your own belongings while they store them.Please, do yourself a huge favour and avoid Armishaws and their associates like the plague. Do not make the same mistake as we did and think that the bad reviews you see on here and other places are exaggerated. They are not. There are better and more professional companies out there who are far more deserving of your hard earned cash and will probably treat you and your possessions with far more dignity than these cowboys. Save yourself the hassle and the court case!

Service cost: £3000

This move was a nightmare from start to finish. There was a lot of furniture to move and the many moves we have done in the past have been with companies who sent at least 6 men. Armishaws arrived with 3 on the first day and 2 on the second. Needless to say, they were rushing like madmen to try and make the deadline to move out. The result was many items stuffed into boxes (clothes not even folded or hung, just dropped in) which were often incorrectly, and always inadequately, labelled.
They were late on completing the move due to insufficient staff being deployed. Head Office was no help whatsoever in spite of plaintive calls both from me and the foreman. As chance would have it, the new owners of our house were also, unknown to us at the time, using Armishaws for their move and they had the same problems. This meant they were late arriving but Head Office didn't even have the ability to notice this which could have relieved a lot of the pressure on the day of the move fi we had been told the new owners were delayed.
It is true that our move was changed from one going into storage to a move to an unfurnished house just a few days before the move. However, we asked Armishaws if this was possible and they said they could do it. They did not say they could only do a second rate job which is what it turned out to be.
We followed up with a complaint to which they completely failed to acknowledge any responsibility. We have spent months trying to locate missing items (much of it has had to stay in boxes as we are in smaller, rented accommodation before we move into our own house) and they made a stressful event the most stressful of all our moves.
Do not use this company - they don't care.

Service cost: £3400