Good and bad - Recent experiences of London removals? Aussie Man, Casey’s, others?

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Moving soon, any experiences of London removals? Interested in good and bad. Will be getting packing service too. Only moving 0.5mile in SE London, Greenwich.

Hopeful bump? Had a quote from Aussie for £2500 for all packing materials, packing and the move itself.

Not City Removals. Had an absolutely awful experience with them last year.

We've used these in the past (and regret not using them this time!). A friend was also very pleased with them last year.
www.burkeandwills.co.uk

Thank you @RidingMyBike! Had Casey’s Removals quote now, £2000 for all packing, materials and the move. Would be good to get a third quote. I know it’ll come down to service though for me, I want the peace of mind! Really grateful for you sharing your experience, can I ask what made it awful so I can check for it in T&Cs and so on?

So we used City instead of Burke and Wills last year because, at the time, they were the only ones who said they would let you cancel and rebook without charge if you caught Covid and had to delay the move. The others weren't offering it and recommended we all self-isolated for ten days ahead of the move if we were worried. As it was a multiple day 200 mile move we couldn't risk it.

It's hard to know from the Ts and Cs but with hindsight it should have been a red flag that they quoted 3 days to pack and move, whereas the others were all 4 days. This made them cheaper. We thought their packers were a lot more slapdash. They were also very uncommunicative so packed stuff we'd asked them not to etc. The others included having a basic set up for us over each night, other than one night, but this was made clear whereas it wasn't with City - it turned out they expected to leave late one day, park up at depot, then drive 200 miles starting at 3am, unpack everything and drive 200 miles back again before 5pm. But this was really unclear in the schedule so we had to adjust our plans on the day and go north a lot earlier otherwise we'd have incurred a £400 extra charge!. They unloaded at such speed (into back and front of house simultaneously) it was almost impossible to keep track of what was going where and they didn't ask - they'd simply declare a room 'full' and not put anything else in there. That meant a lot of bedroom furniture ended up in the garage rather than the second floor bedroom, which was full of boxes that needed to be elsewhere. It was complete chaos to sort out!

Really appreciate you taking the time to reply @RidingMyBike, I’ve not used removals before. That sounds like exactly what you want to pay to avoid! We are only moving half a mile so I’m hoping that’s quite low risk…

Can recommend Harradines. Used them twice, excellent both times.

Another Harradines recommendation. Used them this February.
They were so professional, efficient and kind.
I got quotes from Caseys, James, Roberts and Denny and Harradines. They weren't the cheapest or the dearest.
One of the factors for going with them was that I did not have to buy their boxes - just borrow and give back.
Didn't use their packing service as we were divorcing so it made it more complicated.
It was a local move too - one part of SE London to another about a mile away. If I move again I will go with them for sure.
Good luck!

Finally exchanged and Harradine’s don’t have availability 😣. They were far away the cheapest as they said they could pack up my tiny house on same day of move (~£1.5k). Waiting to hear back from Casey (~£2k) and Aussie (~£2.5k) on availability. Glad I got three quotes!

I’m gutted about Harradines as they seemed to provide a really personal service such as arranging parking bay suspension and their whole fleet is ULEZ compliant. Need to pay £100 extra to Casey for ULEZ charge. Aussie T&Cs are really narrow with lots of extra fees.

If you're still looking for quotes I can highly recommend Fantastic Services - they've done packing and moving for me 4 times and have always exceeded expectations (and been very reasonable cost-wise).

Was 4 years ago now but we used Casey's and they were great.

We used Robert's and Dennys last Sept and they were good. Similar area to you. Would have also gone for Casey's but they didn't let you reserve a date.

I called up Casey’s after I posted to pay the deposit and mentioned that I wouldn’t be able to secure parking space at the new place (it’s been empty for two years, no one moving out to save place). They started saying well you have to do something about it, we’ll charge extra if we can’t park outside, how are we supposed to do it with no parking. I said I’m not the South East London removal expert! Person was really pushy and unhelpful and I ended up saying I’ll get back to you with no intention to - terraced streets lined with cars either side is not novel in London.

I then called Harradine’s again and explained the conversation I just had and was there ANYTHING they could do to fit me in as they’d been so awesome. Michael was really helpful saying this is what we would do in this scenario, actually looked at the street and said there are these options and also have me advice what to do in advance like put notes through neighbours doors of new place just politely asking if they can keep it free - not something I would have thought is done but apparently is a normal thing to do. He called Martin the MD up and 10min later said they could do my move. Feel so relieved! Will report back again once move is actually done. When Martin did a home visit to quote he also gave loads of advice so at the moment feel like I’m in the best hands. I’m first trimester pregnant and very nauseous and exhausted and can’t do much myself.

I had an excellent experience with Harradines. I went to the house we were buying the evening before and put notes through doors and on cars (in plastic pockets) and the space was there when the removal people arrived there next day.

They arrived on time and packed like machines, it is nothing like what you or a friend would do. I also think they use magic as they managed to get garden furniture through the house without dismantling and took down things like the cot within a minute - without looking at the instructions! One of those fiddly mamas and papas convetprting toddler bed things. Took us ages to put up and down ourselves when moving between rooms. I was in awe. The three moving men were really friendly, they just got on and did the job and we made them tea when asked. Once done, they drove to new house and waited for us to come with keys. We didn’t do anything. Just woke up, showered, took toddler to nursery and put valuables and overnight bag in car.

In the new place, they put all the boxes in the right room. They don’t put up stair gates or anything like that. Made up the cot again.

It was so easy to unpack, as they packed by room and item. I could literally open a box and put it back in its equivalent home in new place. Like contents of the sideboard, each drawer’s content was separated by paper, so no sorting needed.

They do pack EVERYTHING left in the house. Nappy from the morning had been left on the changing table, and we found it in a nursery box - good thing we unpacked each and every box that weekend!

We unpacked and I called them to pick up the boxes, they came within 2 days and took them all - again a friendly moving man taking them to van.

Honestly delighted with them and I do not understand why people do their own packing and moving!

I used Aussie for the deep clean, they were great too. The house had been left for 2 years and not decorated for decades, they really put the elbow grease in and it was like a different house. Bathrooms were gleaming, where we thought we’d have to rip them out. I asked them to come back to do a cupboard and they didn’t quibble at all.