Moving - New Agility Contract

[hf128219]

Has anyone moved with 'Agility'?

How did you find the service?

We move in about 6 weeks!

Hi Hf - we are moving in 8 weeks and the whole online booking process was very easy I thought.

The removals bloke came in January - very organised! He said they had to do everything earlier in order to keep the contract or something.

Aren't Agility just doing what M&S used to do, not actually moving people's stuff?

Very easy indeed!

Oh, I see what you are saying re M&S - so they just then contract a removal firm to do the job?

yep - we have Bishop's Move doing our's. Agility are the contractors who have taken over from M&S Shipping.

Have you had your removals person round yet?

The removal comps have to bid for their work (not sure if they had to do that before) - the guy told me it was harder to get the work anyway so they were trying to be very organised or they would miss out of the job.

Thanks vintage. Will be interesting to see who does our job. We have had some good - and some dreadful experiences!

Another question! When does Disturbance Allowance get paid?

Does it just get lumped in with your pay? Or does it get paid separately?

Hmm -your DH will fill out a form I think and give it to RAO (I think).

It's usually paid froim a certain date of the move - usually before the move I thought but sometimes it takes a while for it to come through.

Think it's a separate payment from APC glasgow

DH has applied for it within the 45 day timescale of move. I would just rather have it sooner than later!

Thanks.

DA claim needs to be in by 15th of month to be on that months pay statement.
We found the agility assessor massively underestimated our requirements and we ended up having to get a friend with a van to help move some items

MrsSnaplegs the estimators always under assess as the removal companies now don't get paid enough to make profit from the forces moves so will then say you need us to get a bigger truck, this has happened to us three times now, surprisingly when you say its ok I have a man with a van (not letting on it is DH with an estate car) it suddenly all fits in, they just want to charge you for going over the allowance. Think we should move to the US system of a weight allowance rather than volume.

weird - we didn't have agility do the assessing mrssnaplegs - we had the guy from Bishop's Move. Gosh - I hope they don't underestimate ours - there's no way my new sofa isn't coming!

pimms where do you get your inside info from ???

Luckily I have all the paperwork from the last move and now how many cubic metres we had then!

I think our's came to 62cubic feet - but not sure what the allowance is? Since then, I've bought a new sofa -whoops!

67.92 for a Lt Col.

hmm - well let's hope my decluttering means it won't go over then [runs off to see what other crap bits and pieces I can throw out .

I have been doing a massive ebay session!

the allowance is the same for all ranks now, insider info comes from the nice moving man in the States who worked for M&S but now works for agility and he said the whole system is open to corruption, watch out for them emptying all your clothes out of drawers into boxes and then wrapping the drawers separate to double the amount you have

Can someone shed some light please on moving plants. Moving back to Uk and on given list from removal people it said they wouldnt take any plants. Are they serious?

they are serious, they don't want to be responsible for them dying. If you get nice men though they will tend to throw some in but not all, we ended up with a car full, which was not good for hayfever :(

Actually it will have more to do with the importation of plants and seeds I think. At DEFRA, we had Plant Health sharing our office and you actually need their permission to export plants and seeds back into the UK.

However, when moving from Germany, a friend's removal firm did bring back my hydrangea -although it was almost dead on arrival - but it's now just been replanted into our garden, having the 7rs since Germany in a pot.

When it comes tro it, if you transprt them yourselves, they could take them away at the port.

We moved back from the states just before the changeover to Agility. We had heard all sorts of horror stories of them sending back empty suitcases & storage containers etc thus upping the amounts.

My big piece of advice for moving back over from the USA is to pack as much as you can before the assessor comes round. They don't like it...but they accept it...I had all sorts of things going on to save room...socks in flasks..the kitchen utensils in cooling boxes.

The assessors also generally over estimate, then you have a panic on that half the stuff isn't going to get shipped. We made a pile of what we wouldn't miss too much & would go if there was enough room. In the end we were well under so it all went.

Our packers were fantastic...keep them sweet & they will bend the rules!

Keep them sweet indeed! We once had the removal guys sleep over in our empty house as they still had stuff to pack the next day!

When we left Germany and I had already cleaned the quarter, the removal men asked if they could use the shower as they were going to sleep in the lorry that night.

DH sai dyes but to make sure they leave it clean and tidy.
Next day, I went back after they'd gone, minutes before the march out and checked the bathroom! Water everywhere and oily, grubby handmarks all over the bath and some tiles. I was livid (putting it midly). They were sooooo rude.

I'm worried now about them not packing properly to up the amounts and then charge us.

Will use all empty containers to reduce the chance.