“Worst experience dealing with Pickfords! Extensive damages to my household goods packed and shipped by Pickfords. Packing was not done according to the quotation for example frames / mirrors that should have been carded and wrapped were not. Boxes were completely squashed out of shape so you can imagine the state of the goods, packaging was ripped and torn. And worst still, Pickfords claimed the damages were caused during loading and shipping and therefore not their responsibility- shockingly! The contract was door to door so included packing, handling, shipping and delivery.
The insurance claim process is a nightmare!! Most stressful, time consuming and frustrating. Instead of sending out an assessor, you are made to do all the hard work - getting countless photos, quotes, etc, answering questions on back and forth emails and give tight time frames- I was given 5 days to put a claim (bearing in mind I had damages to almost wvery item of furniture and this was a full house move) but they finally settled after 3 months!
While pickfords chooses and engages the local delivery company, you have to deal with them to arrange the delivery. Again Pickfords were contracted and paid for door to door!
PS. They got 1 star only cos you can't get zero!!”
“I have bad experience with pick Ford. They don't have professional coordinator as well as staff. My materials like computer table , cot and photo frames are damaged. Kitchen material also spoiled. Their unpacking team is highly unskilled. They will not commit to the amount as per their quotation. I am not at all satisfied with their arrogant behavior. They talk decently till booking only. I will not recommend this packers again to any one.”
“Absolutely terrible! Shocking service, long delays, lies and more damaged items than not. We had our items shipped from the UK to Canada and were quote 6-10 weeks, after 10 weeks our items were still in the UK with no sign of any shipping date. We were having to chase Pickfords for any information only to be met with 'I don't know' and a very rude move manager called Rachel who quite frankly couldn't give two hoots about anything!
Eventually after my husband leaving a poor review on social media were were contacted by the group sales manager who miraculously managed to give us a shipping date. Unbeknown to them we knew exactly where our stuff was as there was an airtag placed in one of the boxes so knew we were being lied to on numerous occasions. Fast forward to the day our stuff arrived and our hearts sank when we saw the level of damage to our items and the state of some of hte boxes that were being brought in. There were boxes crushed and others with huge wholes and even cables dragging on the floor out of them. That wasn't the worst of it, when we opened some of the other boxes (the people who came to unpack were limited on time and it was the day before Christmas eve so had even tried to leave without unpacking anything!) our items were screwed up and thrown in there. There was clearly a lack of care or professionalism in the way these boxes were packed and it was clear to see from the damage. We had taken the insurance with the company Pickfords make you use and continued to put a claim in following the unpack and the amount of damage. Still over two months later they are dragging their heels to deal with this or come with any resolution. We have done everything they have asked and are left with over £6900 worth of damage that they are avoiding dealing with. Had we known the issues we would have using such an appalling company we would have sold everything in the UK and started again here as not only has the massive delay in our stuff arriving cost us more money we are now left with items that are unusable and we have simply paid money for Pickfords to move and damage our items making them useless. I would give no stars if I could and strongly warn against anyone using this awful company!”
“Have used Pickfords for a previous move and was very impressed so decided to use them again.
Very nice lady came to give me a quote.
BUT on the day they hired two subcontractors. Just as well they did, as the one person from Pickfords was rude, bumptious and 'too busy' to talk to me when I was trying to give him information about the house I was moving to. Neither did he bother to introduce himself.
The situation was complicated both by my solicitor not having acted on information she had had for a week and my buyer's turning up two hours late to collect the house keys from me.
The lorry Pickfords had sent was too large to get into the street I was moving to. This clearly annoyed the men, who just dumped the furniture in the house, so when I arrived, it was to find that the exit via the kitchen was blocked by a fridge/freezer. . Some of the boxes were wrongly labelled, so had been put into the wrong room. Took me 5 days to find out a plate and11 days to find my iron.
One of the items was damaged,but Pickfords would take no responsibility for this.
I know that I was unlucky in getting this particular man (the others did not seem comfortable around him either) but you have no choice in who you are sent.
I will certainly not be using this firm again and would advise others not to, either.”
“This is a terrible company who have…
This is a terrible company who have held all our belongings and furniture in storage for 4 months and counting. They said it would arrive in Nz with in 12-13 weeks. It has not even left uk. We are stranded in Nz with no belongings or furniture. We have 2 young children aged 3 & 1 years of age and all our baby care stuff will be of no use as we will have to purchase new. They don’t care or even answer emails. Do not trust this company. This is not an accident but complete disregard for our position.”
“Sitting here on a Thursday evening, still not knowing when our goods will be arriving in spain is just the tip of the ice berg. We were told WC 10.10.2022 but they cannot even tell us which date after this.
The service from young ladies that are clearly NOT Managers and are experts are delaying, avoiding and blaming others is appalling.
This is the second attempted delivery of our goods to Spain as the first time we were told it would be anytime in a 10 day window. We explained that we gave 6 weeks notice of the dates we would be in Spain for a week, and was told that it was a 10 day window - that's what you paid for!
After speaking to the sales person who definitely lied to us when being sold this service said "sorry but I am not an expert on Export".....then why sell it?
We tried to escalate the situation and our calls were never replied to.
Make no mistake this has cost us MANY thousands of pounds plus the monthly storage fee.
I welcome any pickfords real management to contact me and hear the real truth of how people are treated and read all the emails.
We wait to see how and what condition our goods will be delivered in.”
“They hound you daily for payment but when they need to respond to a claim they disappear. Avoid this company! They are overpriced and unprofessional. Not only did the movers break a fixture in the house we were moving from but they put boxes in the wrong rooms despite being clearly marked, broke our bed and refused to put the furniture in the correct rooms. When one of their movers broke a fixture in our house, they told us their insurance would cover it. Actually the insurance won't and pickfords won't take responsibility for their own mistakes. We have been trying to get a response from Jade in Aylesford for over a month, she ignores emails and doesn't answer her phone, but she had no problem hounding me on a daily basis to make the overpriced payment. Look for other moving companies, we will never use pickfords again”
“We used Pickfords to move from the UK to Australia and our experience from start to finish was absolutely appalling. We wish we had never shipped anything. Every single box and item of furniture had damage to it ranging from water damage to large heavy items of furniture being smashed to pieces. Our furniture was missing for 8 months with virtually no real correspondence and no apology and the insurance company (Centry Services Ltd) are horrendous to deal with. Fiona Goulder at the company is indeed dragging her heels with our claim even with absolutely overwhelming evidence that all of our consignment is destroyed. Absolutely disgraceful customer service and still no apology to this day. AVOID AT ALL COSTS”
“We have used Pickfords,the removal company, to pack our items in April 2021 and to store them in their warehouse. Before our move we have asked to provide us with a crate to pack a very fragile antique vitrine. On the day of the move the crate has never materialised. We kept our belongings at Pickford warehouse for 13 months. In June 2021 Pickfords has moved our belongings back to our house. During the move the delivery of our grand piano turned out to be
a total disaster:the unprofessionalism of the team, the non-existent communication between the team and their managers had resulted in a very, very badly damaged piano. Most importantly the vital set of the screws, bolts and other important details to re-assemble the piano was lost by Pickfords. The managerial team of the company was late with apologies and is not accepting the responsibility for piano damage and lost of the screws . As a result of their unprofessionalism we no longer can use the piano as a musical instrument. We were offered by Pickfords £40 to get new screws. The Pickford's team of the day of the move included a female worker with very long acrylic nails.I felt very nervous seeing her carrying our items.
The whole experience with Pickford's was extremely unpleasant and I seriously question this company Pickford's to handle specialised or antique items .
If you have to pack and move antiques or other specialist items like musical instruments, please think twice before entrusting these items into the hands of Pickford's unprofessional movers and packers.”
“Our experience of using Pickfords for our move was absolutely appalling. They didn't send enough vans or people to move us and ended up having to leave some things behind while I had to ask our house buyer if they would please let us do this!! Even so they left many items behind and we'll never see them again.
The removals men damaged our bed base, a chest of drawers and a new metal work bench so badly that they will have to be sent to the tip. We even paid extra for them to carefully take our bed base apart and put it back together again and they massacred it!!
Worst of all is their transit Insurance - Centry services. We moved on the 23rd but so far our claim has elicited just two emails from them after the initial one - asking us to pay for a 'furniture restorer' to come and look at the bed base! it's foil coated chip board!! They dont seem to want to send anyone out to actually look at anything and haven't responded to any of my emails since last Wednesday.
Today I discovered that the removals company have left behind a load of large garden trays etc which will be next to impossible to replace. Our removals experience was a nightmare which doesn't seem to want to end. We have to live with the knackered items as we're not supposed to move them until they've decided they're going to pay - any guesses as to when or even IF? Because I haven't.
Appalling experience, appalling insensitive customer service and a total lack of interest in helping us in any way at all. They got their money and they seem to be quite happy to leave us like this.”
“I would provide zero stars for Pickfords if this were an option. Normally I do not leave negative reviews, but this company failed on way too many counts: poor communication if at all; instead of 6-10 weeks for service it took almost 8 months; an item was completely damaged and they refused to properly compensate despite my insurance calculation reflecting the actual cost; and finally terrible customer service. Do not trust this company and give your business elsewhere.”
“I have used them for a local move and they did great work. Packing was done with care and everything was delivered safely at my new place. I highly recommend these guys.”
“I used Pickfords my my move to Germany and I really wish now that I didn't. There were many problems but the key ones are:
It took one month longer than expected for my goods to arrive at their destination. During this time there were no guaranteed dates and no communication, I had to repeatedly follow up and keep pressing to try and get my things delivered. This made it impossible to plan if I needed to find new / extend my temporary accommodation in Germany.
At one point my customs documentation / proof was lost by Pickfords (computer problem I think) and I had to gather it all again and re-fill out some forms etc.
Many Items were carelessly packed and several items badly damaged including a TV (which arrived with a knock and was bent) and some wooden furniture which had been dropped or bashed by Pickfords.
I have tried to raise an insurance claim, so far, 1 week after initiating the claim I have heard nothing back other than that my claim has been forwarded to the processing company.
For the last month I have been attempting to raise a complaint and not once have I had a call back, only after calling multiple people did I finally manage to get an email back from someone but they just said they will look into my complaint and it's been a week since I heard anything from them, and now I can't get through to anyone on the phone.
Think twice before you move with Pickfords, the sales part is super smooth, it's only once your at their mercy that you start to have problems and it feels like no-one cares”
“Rude and useless on the phone, astronomical prices for the smallest container, how companies can use this method to transport their goods across the world's and still sell them at a reasonable price I have no idea...”
“I would say the initial engagement was satisfactory, they made attempts at good customer service, however, communication was still sporadic at times. However, as the process went on and especially at the end when you had signed all the disclaimers and they had your money - your satisfaction with the service seemed very low on their list of priorities. Our belongings were packed very badly, some had no extra packing on from Pickfords at all, we had some large heavy items resting on fragile, glass items. We had an expensive PC which was wrapped only in a thin wrap, no extra packing, padding, no box and surprisingly it arrived and no longer works. The insurance company Centry which Pickfords encouraged and are affiliated with are a joke. You can only engage with them via email, which they very rarely respond to and still after months they are accepting no responsibility. A real poor service all round, and I would not use the services of Pickfords or Centry again, nor would I recommend them.”
“Hi nobody from Pickfords will ring me back
My name is mr N Sheppard
Contact. Adam wilding. Pickfords
Charlotte Doull Pickfords
1st. Step
Ps21013187
PS21013187”
“Disgusting and unprofessional service! Damaged multiple items of furniture and they haven’t even been bothered to apologise. We have asked for details of who to escalate to and received nothing from Tracey Mccombe.
The insurance company Century services (Fiona Goulder) that they seem to be affiliated with pickfords and are just as bad, no customer service, bad attitude and are dragging their feet to pay out. The photos only show a small part of the damage DO NOT USE PICKFORDS!!”
“The sales guy was great, from there, Terrible experience. Quote doesn't include insurance (and doubles your 'true costs'), what is included is £40 a box (?!), which isn't covered if the incident happens whilst packing, if you want to make a claim, you have 7 days to do so (unrealistic!), be ready to be forced to sign multiple 'waiver' forms whilst in the midst of packing, the packing team were not briefed of contents prior to pack, only a team of 3 to pack and load, extra costs for secured 'crates' but this actually happens off site so you have no security if they properly do this until your furniture arrives, no extra padding on the corner / legs of furniture so they arrived nicked/bashed/scratched... the list goes on. Oh and you MUST read the T&C's … they constantly refer you to the T&C's (30 pages of small font of T&C's).”
“Appalling service!
Numerous items have been damaged and no compensation or even an apology. Scratches on furniture, broken oak table, glass bowl, lights and more.
Attempted theft of items was made by hiding them in the van.
Do not use!”
