Pickfords

We chose Pickfords to do our move to another country. During the packing everything went smooth and they did a nice job. The trouble started during delivery. On the delivery week, they ask you to fill a form where you can choose if you want your items, unboxed or not, we chose unbox everything. Unfortunately, when they delivered our things, everything was left in boxes, they did not even care about unwrapping them. A huge piece of furniture was left standing in the middle of my dining room, a wooden box sealed with nails was also left there, furniture that was disassembled during the move by them, was not assembled back. A huge mess. Besides that, since the delivery took place, more than a month ago, they still have to deliver our dining table. They simply did not even try to deliver saying it was too heavy and they needed more people. They knew how heavy it was and how many people they needed because they removed from my house. We even ask how is the cost of hiring more people’s to deliver it, which was not obligation, since we already paid for it. No answer. I have been emailing Dominic almost daily, and he always says he is asking his team to take care of it asap, and nothing happens. This is extremely frustrating, and I never been in a situation like that, even though we moved abroad a couple times. Dominic told me he would give me an update by today, but ai just email him, and got an out of office message.

I do not recommend this company to anyone. Extremely untrustworthy.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: £3666

We had chosen Pickfords for our UK to DXB move as we had used them 4 years prior and had an excellent service. We have just had our 40ft container delivered(ontime) and I can not believe how badly packaged our furniture items are. One layer of bubble wrap was used to package a large kitchen dresser, which has therefore arrived damaged. An expensive marble and solid wood dresser was dropped by two packers, I witnessed this and heard it crash to the ground on my driveway. The rest of the team went to assist and when I said stop, there is no point loading it if it's broken they denied dropping it and said it had been 'placed' onto the ground. Well they lied because the item has arrived with severe damage consistent with being dropped. TThe guy who clearly wanted to be somewhere else because it was his birthday and spent most of the time smoking or on his phone did not use a single sheet of paper between any of my plates which were stacked, crystal wine glasses were placed insideceramic mugs, some boxes contained items that were obviously thrown in with large spaces between items, no packaging or thought to maximise space. Unbelievabley an entire large box was opened containing nothing but packing paper. Was this some kind of joke? At the end of the three days, the packers thanked me for looking after them so well, I provided drinks, snacks etc and tipped them well. Despite lying about my dresser being dropped, the guy in charge did a good job packing (Ivan?) But the way my kitchen and utility room were packaged by the other guy is unacceptable, negligent. Even the packers here in Dubai could not believe it and took photographs of damaged items. We paid £10,000 for this service, the least we would expect is that our household contents be treated with some respect.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: £10000

What could have been a stressful day was made easy by the professionalism and expertise of the Pickfords removal team. Calls from Stacey in the office and a visit by Carl my move manager to make sure everything was going smoothly gave me confidence in this company, whilst 6 removal men packaged with care the contents of my 4 bedroomed house to go into storage.
I have yet to purchase my new home however I have full confidence that my furniture will be returned with the same excellent standard of care.
I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Pickfords to anybody who wishes to have their furniture moved with care and without hassle and stress.

Service cost: £1400

We paid for Pickfords to do our removals from Durham city to Scarborough, North Yorkshire on 23rd June 2022. Even though they sent someone round to assess our needs, on the day they did not send enough vans and men. They had to leave some of our things behind until the next day - and I had to ask the new owners of the house if they would be kind enough to put up with this!! When our furniture etc was eventually unloaded at our new home they had destroyed the bed base, a chest of drawers and a metal work bench AND had left loads of garden stuff behind.

We paid over £550 for transit insurance with them - a company they use called Centry - which they reassured us were really good. Well, it transpires that they were miss-leading us completely. After a couple of emails the company wont even respond to any of my emails. We are left here, with damaged things and losses and no one at Pickfords or Centry will even respond to me. We are utterly appalled and I have to warn people not to use this company. They have no customer service - they just want your money at any cost.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: £4025

We used Pickfords to move from London and Cambridge to Auckland.
No serious complaints about the packing of the goods or unpacking on arrival. They forgot to list a few key items e.g. bikes and the hoover on the inventory but we spotted this in time.
However, the container was not sealed properly before it set sail and there was a lot of water damage to most of our book collection, ornaments and our leather sofa which we will have to throw away.
The customer service for managing this issue has been really poor. Its now 2 months since our arrival date and the NZ office are making no progress. I am chasing weekly for an update and apparently ‘staff leaving’ is the excuse I have been given for the lack of response. The UK office aren’t much help either as they simply forward my email to my NZ contact in a ‘cut and paste’ fashion ask for an update. I have been told to hold onto the trashed items for the claim, so we can’t dispose of them and this is dragging on and on. It seems once they have your payment then their interest in resolving problems is low priority. I don’t feel I have much leverage other than the small claims option. What a hassle!

Service cost: £4600

I used Pickfords to move from Manchester to Lincolnshire and paid for one of their top packages and insurance to ensure all went smoothly. Unfortunately while the team doing the move were pleasant and the day itself went fine, everything after that was a disaster. Some items were broken - now noting i had taken out the insurance i wasnt concerned until i had to deal with the office team. Barrier after barrier was put up - 3 months later they still hadnt paid out a less than £200 claim (noting i had paid thousands for the move) and every person blamed someone else. Cut to 4 months later, they are STILL ignoring me, not returning calls and emails - including management. Eventually after a lot of running and chasing on my side i finally get the money from the claim. At this point, i raise a complaint but senior management decide (5 months later, after more ignoring emails and calls) that as they did eventually pay the claim, the matter is closed and they didnt feel a gesture of good will was due - well i disagree. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS FIRM, IF ANYTHING GOES WRONG THEY DONT WANT TO DEAL WITH IT AND WILL DO EVERYTHING NOT TO PAY OUT AND WILL TRY TO WEAR YOU DOWN. There are plenty of other companies out there, use someone else.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: £2726

Moved from UK to USA. UK pickup was efficient, and admin was fine (although there is a lot of paperwork). Goods took a long time in transit, mainly due to container shortages and delays for US customs inspection. However Pickfords US partner, Global Logistics, took a long time to ship goods from New York to Austin Texas after they had cleared customs, and they also gave wrong delivery address to delivery company despite our advising them 3 times that our US address had changed. Local delivery agents (Austin Firefighters) were excellent.

UK pickup 26 January, goods finally delivered to our new home in Austin 5 June.

The major downside for us was Pickfords' insurance. We paid a lot of money (£1019) for cover. We had a few breakages, but when we submitted a claim 10 days after delivery, having taken a few days to unpack everything and not having access to a computer, we were told that our claim was rejected as it was not made within 7 days! Pickfords referred me to the small print in the insurance document. It seems unreasonable to me to expect anyone to remember the terms of a document they signed 5 months previously amid the upheaval of a removal. The very least Pickfords could have done would have been to remind us around the time of delivery that we had only 7 days to submit a claim. This has soured what would otherwise have been a fairly satisfactory removal, and smacks of sharp practice. I would advise anyone to read the small print carefully and I suspect better and cheaper insurance cover is available elsewhere.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: £4344

The move from the initial consultation (by John Turton) through to delivery at the new address ran exceptionally smoothly.
All aspects of the management of our move were handled professionally by Patricia Hunter.
The pick up at our old address was prompt and carefully undertaken and the delivery to the new address was prompt, efficient and professional throughout. John and Geoff were our removal men - courteous and friendly at all times.
It was a good experience, making it as stress-free as possible.

Service cost: £1420

I would like to thank both teams for their professional approach to remove the goods from our house store them and then return due to a flood situation. I never expected teams that would be calm, helpful and nothing was too much trouble. They were sympathetic to our feelings when our house was in a disastrous state and careful when returning the goods not to damage anything. I would also like to thank my personal planner who helped me to organise everything. Barbara PF18046345.01.

Service cost: £3352

The service provided by Pickfords has been outstanding. Our personal move manager has guided us throughout and kept us fully informed. She is friendly, knowledgeable and professional. The move consultant clearly knew what he was doing and gave reassurance. The wrap & pack service was a joy and completely took all the stress away. Both removal men were fantastic. They were polite, respectful and great at their job. Overall, it felt like a team effort with everyone doing their bit to make our move as smooth as possible.

Service cost: £6000