Shocked at quote from removal firm

[Daffodils9]

We’re moving house nearly 400 miles, so it’s definitely a big move. Thanking our lucky stars that DH’s work will pay most of the relocation costs including for the removal firm to pack for us. We needed to get 3 quotes so work can sign off on one of them.

We have a four bed house and it’s a bit cluttered. Probably more than the average number of books, for example.

We’ve had our 3 quotes and I was expecting them to be high because of the distance. It will be 1 day to pack, 0.5 days to load, 1 day to travel, 0.5 days to unload and then 1 day to travel back, so 4 days total for each firm.

One firm has quoted £11,000!!!

The other two quotes are £6,000 and £7,000 which I thought were pretty high themselves. We’re not keen on the £6,000 one as their service has been pretty bad so far just trying to get the quote booked in.

We’re getting a fourth quote as the £11,000 seems ridiculous. Do they just not really want the job? They are a national firm so it doesn’t really make sense to me.

All the movers know that a company is paying rather than us so I don’t know whether they put the prices up a bit in that case. Do they expect us to haggle or is what is quoted the final price?

Looking at calculators online I was thinking more £1500 for the packing, £1000ish for the travel and then some more for the labour and accommodation for the movers. So maybe £4000 total. Perhaps it’s the fuel costs that are pushing it up? Or am I completely unrealistic about how much such things cost?

Thanks!

Probably cos someone else is paying. Makes sense to do it yourself if it’s coming out of your pocket

Wow that seems insane!! We paid 6k and that was for a four bedroom house to be completely packed by them and shipped across the Atlantic !

I wouldn’t care if someone else was paying I wouldn’t want someone else rifling through my personal belongings.

About 11 years ago we paid not much more than that to move a 2 bed flat plus 2 x shed contents and the contents of a storage unit about 15 miles up the road, including full packing service - 2 part day's work. Think it was about £700. Fuck me, costs have gone up!

They pack everything that isn’t nailed down. Chests of drawers they take the drawers out as needed to carry the carcass down the stairs and then put the drawers back in.

They’ll disassemble furniture and rebuild it.

You can also pay them to unpack, though generally by the time boxes are in I wanted the house to myself.

If we move, I don’t care what it costs, I am never packing anything ever again!

A recent local move in the SE - 2 bedroom house, fully furnished but not loads of 'stuff'. 1 person 1 day to pack (that bit was £195) 3 people 1 day to move and total just under £1,000 including the packing. Small family company who would also go further afield- they were talking about a distance job the following weekend. I would get another quote from a more local firm and see how it compares but also not worry about costs too much - companies will be used to it.

Good for you. I had a two month old. I was very happy for them to pack everything.

For everyone saying I couldn't have people going through my stuff Insurance for removals can be tricky unless the removal firm packs so they know things are protected as they should be. It's very time efficient as they generally send enough people to do the job in a day or two so you don't need to live amongst boxes before moving for weeks which can be the case if you do it yourself. You can spend quite a lot on packing materials if you do it yourself so can be a bit of a false economy and removal firms reuse boxes so it's good for the environment to not be chucking out boxes after one use (not everyone will do that I know but many will just to get them out the house after moving).

100% Agree.

Also seriously what personal stuff do you have that others can't see? You can pack stuff specifically. Our moving company would not touch jewellery that was down to us to transport.

If I could afford it Id 100% pay for the unpacking too :)

Exactly! These firms absolutely take the piss! £11,000 just to do a house removal - 400 miles away! And big deal they are packing for you. Do the packing yourself FFS. Cannot believe people are actually mug enough to pay this horrific price! You really need to give your head a wobble and shake the rocks out of it if you think it's okay to pay £11,000 for the removal costs for a 400 mile house move! You can see who's got more money than sense on here!

Also seriously what personal stuff do you have that others can't see?

My ginormous stash of beauty products

The messiness of my drawers, personal paperwork, the number of shoes I own, knickers??!

I don't know really, I would just feel really weird about some random men coming over and going through my stuff.

We paid £3.8k inc vat to move a 5 bed from london to Edinburgh using a local Edinburgh firm. We were flexible on dates, up to a point, and so got them on the return half of a Edin/london journey they were already making. Massive lorry. They packed for us including loads of artwork. This was summer21, so two years ago. Edin quotes were more reasonable than london ones. I would advise getting quotes from firms local to your destination if you haven’t already.

We moved 600 miles (although it was 6 years ago) with full packing service for a 4 bed house - a day to pack, a half day to finish packing and load and they arrived at the new house 2 days later. Only the driver came down and they sent a couple of guys from the local depot to help unload. It was £3500 inc VAT.

Try GB Liners.

You need to get it teamed up with a backload to keep costs down.

Pickfords aren’t worth the money. We booked with them and they contracted out our booking without informing us. On the day of our move, another firm showed up. They were totally crap. A student, and two not very able/motivated others. Definitely not worth the money.

Some firms are extortionate. We got some quotes recently, to pack and move for a 2 bed 2 bath flat moving 10 miles away.

£4,000!

We shopped around and found some that were more reasonably priced. Definitely need to get several quotes.

£11k? Blimey. What a con!

We paid £4,600 18 months ago to pack up a five bed house and move 10 miles away.

We paid £7k to move 400 miles last year (1k for packing and £6k for the transport etc). Packed one day, then loaded late afternoon into one evening and the rest the next morning. It was a lot of labour andnpeople so I’m not surprised it cost so much

Ps forgot to add it was a five bed house but one room a guest and one room a study so not su much stuff in them.

DHs employer always payed packing and moving for us... the packing can take ages! (Especially last time as it was under Covid protocols so it was 2 packers and only one of us in the house... the time before it was 8 people!)
We always packed private stuff ourselves. The boxes were then marked PBO so not insured on the same way.

We used pickfords 5 years ago. £1.5k for small uncluttered 3 bed house pack and move 2 miles. (Half day to pack and load, then another half to move and unload.)

Best money ever spent on getting them to pack.

£6 or 7k seems a good price.

We moved last December - Team of 5 packed up a 3 bed semi and moved our belongings 20 miles. We paid £4,500 and they wrapped and packed everything for us (although they didn't wrap the garden stuff!). Also moved my chicken runs to our new house.

The service was amazing and it took away so much moving stress. I used the same service to move my elderly dad from his one bedroomed flat to sheltered accommodation.

I would definitely use the packing service again and if you can afford it, go for it. I'd recommend it to anyone. £11,000 sounds excessive though!