Removals firms recommendations / how to find one

[YorkPeach]

Inspired by another thread of people who were so happy with their removals companies they tipped them - but didn't want to hijack that thread

If you were happy with your removals company - who did you use?

We are looking to get more quotes after getting an astonishing £11k initial quote from Britannia. Admittedly that was an all in quote including packing and we may decide to do the packing ourselves. That was also to move to storage and then out of storage as we are breaking our selling chain. And we are moving contents of a 4 bed house (with empty loft) 200 miles. But planning to get more quotes in the hope we can find a better value plan!

We went with a local, small but well established, company. They were miles cheaper than the national companies.

Look on your local Facebook group. Be careful of recommendations that appear immediately from the same person every time the question is asked. It usually means they are part of the company, and have an alert set up!

We chose a local family run removal company that had been established for 30 years it had excellent reviews and they were great. We did all the packing ourselves which was easy to do they didn’t have a packing service well nothing like that was mentioned. There was a local person who was offering that service but I had already decluttered /charity shop donations so didn’t need help in that way.

I asked for recommendations from a few parents in my dc class that I knew had recently moved. They all ment a local family firm who've been established for about 20 years.

It's best to get direct recommendations from people you know than randoms off FB who could be a removal firm employee!

Local company. Google them in your area and look at reviews. That's what I did. Ours were great

Found mums on our local FB page, she’s moved here from around an hour away. They did most of the packing but the team did loads too. They got a quote from one of the ‘big boys’ that came in at around £6k, ‘anyvan’ were awful (read the reviews on TP) and the local team were fabulous, did 3 trips (one a few days before to move all of the plant pots) and all in cost less than a grand for 3 people to move them. Truly brilliant service (and she tipped them too!)

I moved in October and got two quotes. One from a reputable local firm I'd used for a previous move and then one from a firm recommended by a friend. I did check the reviews for the firm my friend recommended and they were excellent. I ended up going with them.
I moved from a 4 bed semi to a house 120 miles away and paid £5000. This included all the packing. The team were truly amazing and the whole move went extremely well.

If you can get a recommendation from someone you know then that would be good, but I do find reviews particularly helpful.
I moved from London. Where are you?

We got quotes from two local companies and went with the one we had a better feeling from. We paid for packing and it was worth every penny!

I used Britannia to move from Birmingham to Somerset, 2 years ago, they were excellent and it was a 2 day move, due to amount of stuff, I paid £4,500. I just got a quote off them again,. Again 2 day move, to move 5 miles, quote £3,500. Local companies quoted £1,400 & £1,300, both came recommended by friends/locals.

We went with local company recommended by friends whose opinion I trusted. They weren’t the cheapest of the 3 quotes I got, but the one I was happiest with.
I think we were £1800 for full pack of a 5 bed house +loft, and we moved a whole mile!

Always go local. National companies are so expensive in comparison

For a 4-bed house move of over 200 miles (3 day job including packing), most of the quotes we've had have been around £5K. We did have a £7K and a £9K though. I assume the £9K people didn't want the job. Do read the small print though about what is included and check your home insurance as depending on your level of cover, they may include contents insurance for during the move.

Years ago my solicitor recommended a local firm who turned out to be the cheapest and I have used them ever since. Contact local firms as most do long distance as well.

Storage is very expensive. Can you declutter to minimise the space you need? If you could pack yourself that would save as well.

Thanks everyone, that's great to know. We're going to get more quotes including from firms local to where we're going (as we're going from London to Yorkshire)

@user1471538283 good shout - we're going to get cut-throat about getting rid of things we don't like / don't think will work well in the new house. List made - now for actually getting rid!