Removals Company kept leaving my items unattended

[Eva01]

I recently moved all my belongings into storage and the Removals team left the van on the road with the rear shutter open, and all my things inside, to enter my house a few times, with no one watching the van.

They'd also rested a couple of large photo frames against the hedge and a large box of clothes.

This isn't a quiet street, and it's not the safest or nicest area - people have things stolen from their doorsteps all the time.

Surely removals men are a bit more 'clued-up' and streetwise than to leave your belongings inside the van open, for anyone to take?

I had a large amount of boxes and stuff and it just wouldn't have been possible for me to count them all as they went on and off the van, as well as show them where i want things to go.

They did the same at the storage unit, which although probably a lot safer, i still dont think my belongings should have just been left sitting in the entrance with no one watching them? Is this normal??

I guess i wont find out if anything is missing until i move in to my new house in 6 months....?

I’ve never seen one idle removal man standing guard whilst the rest of them hump stuff in and out tbh. It sounds like you were watching the van though, presumably you didn’t spot anyone grabbing items & running off?
I’m not saying thefts never happen but, tbf anyone grabbing anything would be taking their chances that they could shift someone’s household stuff.

A large box of clothes wouldn’t have been easy to walk off with (nor valuable or easy to flog) & large photo frames would have been awkward & easy to break.

People nick doorstep deliveries because they bank on it being valuable, sellable goods. Second hand stuff really isn’t too valuable.

if you want to guard the van, you have to stand there yourself. i have done that in the past. the removals people are all busy lifting furniture.

unless there was an easily visible high value item I don’t think anyone would bother taking their chances with the removal men going back and forth. No one wants to steal boxes of clothes surely

There were boxes of all sorts of different items, and every box was very well labelled for anyone to read. A lot of them were small archive size but some were obviously bigger. Literally no one would have known if someone just grabbed something and kept walking. The idea was that one guy stays in the van and packs it and the other 2 bring the boxes out to him. On a busy road, with lots of people passing, i was really surprised he thought it was ok to leave the van unattended 3 times i know about.

I'm not saying thefts don't happen but I've never seen a removal man stand guard ever

But no one’s going to steal a box labelled “clothes” or “kitchen” but they might steal one labelled “Mac book” so unless you’ve done that I wouldn’t worry

I've moved several times and never seen them watch the van. Also boxes are usually just labelled with the room, I've only had them label with contents once ( and then it was very rough I.e. toys, books etc - DCs weren't too impressed that it took a while to work though the multiple boxes of toys to find their favourites).
Also removal firms are usually insured so if it was something that happened often I imagine they'd make sure someone was watching.

Honestly all 3 of them were in the house discussing how much stuff was left and they were in there for around 15 -20 mins - no one was watching the van. I'm very OCD with labelling, so i label exactly what is in the box as it was going to storage so i needed to know - i labelled it very clearly - ie jewellery, electrical items, GHD's everything. I also sell clothes on ebay so there were large plastic storage boxes full of brand new clothes, some designer. It would take me a while to notice what was missing tbh as there was no time to check things

People also steal absolutely anything, because it's free.... I've had umbrella's stolen FFS - literally from under my nose.. I had a flatmate (not a friend) steal a courier's hoodie which he left behind after he delivered some furniture to me - she put it straight in the washing machine and was wearing it the next day!! i think she was probably going in my room too looking for what she could take. In fact the guy who moved in after me, caught her on his camera going through his stuff!
I'm not exaggerating, you honestly can't trust anyone, and like i said this isn't the nicest area.

YABU - if you are in a bad area and want a watchman, you need to do it yourself.

That is incredibly idiotic to label boxes with what’s in them. You label them with numbers and then have a spreadsheet or document with numbers, which room and what’s in the box.

Omg get over it already

We had this too but what actually made me annoyed was they also left the key in the ignition 😮