Which removal company would you choose?

[HeadFairy]

I've had three quotes, they're all in the same region (approx £1800 - includes full packing plus storage for 8 weeks then delivering to new address and unpack), there's only £100 between the cheapest and the most expensive... so how do I choose?

Do I go for the large nationwide recogniseable company (well I've certainly seen them about a lot) or do I go for the cheaper one with a nice friendly Irish man who gave me the quote (he actually didn't come to the house to quote, but gave it to me over the phone), or the middle quote (came to the house, recommended by the estate agent)????

I thought there would be a bigger price difference, but they're all so similar. I haven't really got time to have loads more chaps come in, esp as I think they'll all be about the same price.

I'd check they all have the correct insurances (and are members of whatever the removals association is called) and then go with who you trust the most.

Two of them have the BAR badge on (British Association of Removers) however I can only find one of them on the BAR website... does that mean the other company has got the badge on their paperwork despite not being members?

The third company hasn't got membership of any organisations....

My household contents insurance is covering everything in transit and while in storage so I'm not too concerned about that.

oops my mistake, the third one is a member of the National Guild of Removers...

I wouldn't go with anyone who only quoted over the phone, others might disagree though. I would want to know that they had taken everything into account and they weren't going to get shirty about things that they didn't know about, or that they thought things were smaller or something.....

Never use a national firm beginning with P.

It isn't that one Avengingangel.... the slightly more expensive one is Britannia....

I was a little unsure about the other firm who didn't come around to ours and quote too Pfft... It struck me as odd, and I was sure their quote would be out by miles compared to the others, however, it's so similar in terms of the amount... I've just checked on them and they are a full member of the National Guild of Removers. Maybe they're just very good at working out how much crap stuff a two bed household accumulates in 12 years?

Is there an established local company?

We used a really old fashioned local firm. Have been around donkeys years. Put us a quote in writing. They are BAR approved and turned out to be the cheapest which I couldn't believe. They were absolutely brilliant!!!

Would definitely recommend going that route if you can find a firm - much better than national company.

All the companies I've had in are local.. even the big national one is based only about ten miles away. the problem is I need our stuff put in storage for 8 weeks and I really want the same firm to do it, as it's too complicated otherwise, and most small local firms don't have storage facilities....

We used the national firm beginning with P and they were very good, the blokes worked Bl**dy hard - friends also recommended Britannia. We wanted to use a local one, they had a good feel about them, but they were all booked up on the date we needed.
I wouldn't use anyone who didn't come to the house imo
Good luck

Britannia normally come up more expensive. I would have expected the local guy to come in cheaper but it's harder to guess if he hasn't seen it in person, maybe he is overestimating just to be safe? Surprising that they are so close in price though.

Difficult as you are complicated with the storgae issue....

Can you ask the local guy to come and quote properly? People I know have had Britannia come in at double the cost of others so you could be saving yourself a bit...