This company in Bristol are such a bunch of crooks - Let me explain from the beginning.
I initially asked them to quote me on moving the contents of a flat and one car internationally.
The quote came back at around £3000 which seemed okay and we went ahead.
We gave them the exact dimensions of every item that we owned and they said they would collect it on a certain day. On the day they arrived rather late and started packing our stuff into their truck quite quickly.
I had already pre-packed all our small items into cardboard boxes and had them neatly stacked in one room. When they took the furniture away they never covered it or protected it in any way - so we asked why this was and they said - don't worry we will wrap it safely when we get to the warehouse. Well they are professionals right? So let them do their job.. I thought...
After loading up the truck it turned out they couldn't fit everything in and had to get a second truck to move the remainder. They then promptly billed us for the second truck by saying it was our fault because we hadn't told them about two small items that was the size of a small tea chest so we had to pay for the entire truck which was taking the other half of our stuff anyway.
Bad luck - I thought at this stage... Next they wanted to charge a fortune to collect the car and I said I would rather deliver it myself. So I did - A long drive to Bristol and I parked the car outside their offices. This was almost a week after they collected the furniture.
They said the shipment was ready to go and all they had to do was load the car into the container.
At this point they insisted on spot payment but suddenly the bill was about £8500 which was almost triple the original quote! I said this is mad and they said if I cancel the shipment they would bill me the costs of about £2000 for the return my goods. So they broke down the costs and said it was about £800 for the extra truck as a special discount just for me and about £4000 for insurance - I was shocked as they didn't even mention that insurance was additional.
After much arguing and about two hours later I was forced to pay nearly £6000 for the move.
As I was leaving I walked through the warehouse and saw my goods lying all over the place upside down and everyone walking all over my dining room suite and other items. Before I could say anything someone chased me out and told me I wasn't allowed in the warehouse.
Still in shock I went home thinking well if anything is damaged I'll claim from insurance.
Two weeks went by and I called them to find out how far my shipment was and they said it had not arrived on the other side yet. Okay I knew it was going to be at least three weeks anyway so all is well.. Until I got a tracking activation from my car.. which said it was still parked at the harbour in Bristol. Shocked I called them up and they had to admit they hadn't even been loaded in the container yet! I was really annoyed as we had been sleeping on the floor all this time and this was not professional.
Anyway from the cars tracking device the shipment actually left about four weeks late and then took another three weeks to arrive... So nearly two months plus the rest. How annoying.
On the day the shipment arrived at port customs called me in to open the container in person.
I broke the containers official transport seal myself and guess what..
They had not even tied the car down in the container or secured it in by any means. Nor had they put a separator between the car and the goods. I was shocked again. Somehow the car was in one piece and the customs person said if there had been rough sea the car would be smashed.
The next thing I noticed is how rusted the car was.. and this was a two year old car. They had promised to cover the car and make sure this didn't happen but they didn't do that either. Also when they left at the harbour for at least three weeks - I guess that didn't help either.
I was hopping mad.. but there was more..
When I finally emptied the container of my goods almost every single piece of furniture had been damaged in one way or another. There were plenty of scratches and gouges in the table tops, broken legs, foot prints under my tables, dirty hand marks on chairs, broken cupboards, missing screws and much just so much negligence.
Some boxes with items in had also been dropped and damaged which was just a perfect ending. I called them to complain and they put me in touch with the insurance company who then promptly sent an man around to come and assess the damage.
Well with a fortune in insurance I guess ill get my money back.. but that didn't pan out either. The insurance company said they would only pay for cheap repair work to get the items into fair condition and for example a £500 table which needed replacing they paid me out about £25 so it could be repaired. Basically for about £12000 worth of damage I got about £400 in the end because there was a £500 excess to be paid. I had no idea the insurance was such a scam too.
Turns out that first move charge a fortune for insurance and pocket about 50% of the money themselves and pay next to nothing to the insurance companies. Which just goes to show you what sharks they really are..
Anyway I hope nobody else has had such a bad experience.
On another page I found this:
"Please do not use this company. They will ignore you once they have your money. They say weekly shipments and 2 weeks on the water, well 2 months later and we are still waiting for our furniture to arrive. We used this co. even though they were not the cheapest as we liked the idea of a quick shipment time. They do not reply to your emails. We paid extra for off loading into our home but this doesn't seem to have been arranged and we are advised our pallets will be left on the kerbside. Before we confirmed with 1st move and we were in the quote stage they replied immediatly and were really helpful so please don't be fooled by this"
Below are the company details:
Haydn Jones ( Sales Department )
haydn@shipit.co.uk
Joanna Gwinnell ( Freight Coordinator )
joanna@shipit.co.uk
Tessa Beeching ( Shipping desk )
tessa@shipit.co.uk
Roy Hayball ( Car/Boat Shipping Desk )
roy@shipit.co.uk
Andrew Denyard ( Car Shipping Desk)
andrew@shipit.co.uk
Nikki Kenny (Car Shipping Desk)
nikki@shipit.co.uk
Jim Limerick ( Website / Webmaster )
jim@shipit.co.uk
Steve Ford ( Website / Webmaster )
steve@shipit.co.uk
Jo Myhill ( Accounts Department )
jo@shipit.co.uk
Josie Palmer ( Recruitment )
josie@shipit.co.uk
1st Move International Removals Limited.
International House.
Unit 5B Worthy Road.
Chittening Industrial Estate.
Avonmouth. Bristol.
UK. BS11 0YB
Tel: Bristol UK +44 (0)117 9828123
Fax: Bristol UK + 44 (0)117 9822229
Does anyone else have a nightmare to share? Click comment below...
Update:
1st Move is now claiming this is a fake review damaging their reputation.
Well this review is not fake or untrue by any means. Many other people have had issues with this company.
The USA is a free country with freedom of speech so you cannot threaten legal action for the truth.
I am not a competing company I am an individual and I am protected by the 1st amendment.
Next time you hurt one of your clients you should be more careful as they could tell the world.
For the record here is a quote on bloggers legal rights:
You will find that there are several rights that you have as a blogger. It is important that you make yourself aware of these rights. As a blogger, you are protected by the 1st Amendment.
ONE. One of the very important blogger’s rights that you are entitled to is the right to your Freedom of Speech.
TWO. Another one of your blogger’s rights is that you have the right to be anonymous. Your blogger’s rights gives you the permission to refrain from listing your name, and exactly stating who you are on your blog site.
THREE. What you must also know about your blogger’s rights is that you have the right to take the conversation beyond your blog website.
** Click comments below to see what other shocking stories are out there!!
Thank you so much for posting this information. I called 1st Move International today - first moving company I called. Am moving from the UK to the USA and want a shipping company that can be relied upon. I will not be using this company. Thank you so much.
ReplyDeleteI too have and are still having a terrible time dealing with this company. We also decided to use them as we liked the idea of our goods being shipped quickly - how wrong could I be.
ReplyDeleteOur original quote from measuring all our furniture was £1800. After they had collected our goods and slung them like rubbish uncovered in to the back of their truck it took two weeks for them to send me an invoice which I promptly paid the same day even though it was nearly twice the amount originally quoted.
I then sent an email a couple of weeks later to ask whether or not our goods had actually been shipped as I had received no notification they said they hadn't shipped them as we hadn't paid for the insurance (another £300) even though I had already told them I was going to source insurance though a different company - they told me they would not ship our goods until I had paid THEIR insurance - so we paid the invoice reluctantly the same day as we wanted to get things moving. It was a further 4 weeks until our goods actually set sail - 2 weeks later they were still sitiing in Hamburg. Today I have received notice that the ship will be landing in Sydney (miles from Brisbane where we have paid for our stuff to land!) to be told that we have to pay an extra £700 port charges and then our goods will be driven to Brisbane. But the best thing is we will have to go to Sydney to clear our goods with customs and then go to Brisbane to collect our goods! (we live about an 8 hour drive north of Brisbane) so they expect us to do all this just to release our goods - thats if they ever get here anyway.
Unfortunately I read this review too late. My husband booked with 1st Move, and I have been cleaning up the pieces for the past two weeks. My issue is not only with 1st move, but with the TWO other companies they have subcontracted to. DGS, the partner in New York is rude, rude, rude. After hounding the company for days trying to figure out where my stuff was, I was told my stuff was at the warehouse in Baltimore. Unfortunately, you are only given 5 "free" storage days (although I couldn't find this anywhere in the original contract with 1st move). But since they let me know late, we would have to pay storage, 1st move refuses to return emails. Also, I have now been invoiced by DGS (new york) and OST (baltimore). 1st move gave no indication to how much the handling fees were in the contract (although this information does not seem like it would be difficult to figure out in advance!). What is happening to us now is nothing short of extortion--pay us X amount if you ever want to see your belongings again. So i'm fighting with 3 companies in two different states, and one different continent. Hoping to get our stuff tomorrow, and i'm afraid to see what condition it will all be in. The communication sucks, and be prepared for major invoices from third parties (and 4th parties!) if you ever want your goods back.
ReplyDeleteThis review is so true and wish I'd have seen it before using 1st Move International.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more with this post. I have had exactly the same experience with 1st Move International. Wish I would have took the time to find out more about the company before, but the stress of moving was so high we just didn't have enough time to invest in researching.
To be honest I thought the service was awful.
I have ended up paying over three times the amount of what I budgeted for the shipment, and only have the advice of the team to blame for this, and the fact that the measurement process is so vague and done too late in the process for you to do anything about it.
I was told that the removal men were border line retarded and that they asked family to help pack goods that were specifically listed as insurance items, so required 'professional' packing. They failed to advise properly on the costs involved on collection of goods and the partner organisation (in Australia) have got to be one of the least helpful and rudest companies I've ever dealt with.
All in all I'd say the service was diabolical, I would not recommend them to my worst enemy. look cheap in comparison, but expect to pay first rate costs for third rate service service.
Please listen to the advice, DO NOT USE 1st MOVE INTERNATIONAL.
I have had a similarly disastrous experience with 1st Move International and wanted to comment to add credibility. I agree entireley that as soon as they have your money, they no longer offer services as promised. I have written to the Managing Director of 1st Move International on a number of ocassions to try get a refund for an additional 600 GBP storage payement which I incurred through their inefficiencies, and have yet to have a response from them. I received an initial quote from 1st Move which seemed incredibly reasonable and which led to my decision to use them. I was very aware of their small print stating that this was a quote only and a real estimate could only be provided upon collection of the goods for shipment. However, the cost of shipping was the number 1 deciding factor for me - if I had known it was going to be so expensive, I'd have sold my stuff instead of shipping it. So I over-stated the quantity and scale of my goods in request for a quote, in the hope I'd get a realistic quote back; I sent far less than I stated yet the shipment cost me almost double what I was quoted! By then, I had already arranged the shipment, 1st Move had collected it and I could not pull out or make other arrangements. I was moving home to South Africa and once my shipment had already left the UK, I was then advised by 1st Move that they didn't have an existing customs clearance partner in South Africa and had to refer me to one - turns out, they'd never worked with this agent before and simply looked on-line, which I could have done myself!I arrived back in South Africa ahead of my shipment, despite me giving it a 3 month lead! Prior to my flight back, as soon as I'd landed and in the first 2 weeks after, both my father and I were contacting 1st Move on an almost daily basis to ask where my shipment was and more importantly, what steps we needed to take to get it delivered to me. They constantly advised that we needed to do nothing, that the customs clearance agent would be in touch with the necessary paperwork, and then the shipment would be delivered to my home address as supplied. The customs clearance agent knew absolutely nothing of my shipment and worse yet, were not in a position to help as they were based in Durban and I was in Johannesburg - a major oversight which 1st Move should have been aware of. We tracked down my shipment with the freight company ourselves and it had already arrived in Johannesburg and was now waiting for collection, which could not be done until customs had cleared it. Every day that my shipment was sitting at the freight depot, I was being charged storage costs and had the risk of my shipment being auctioned off to cover these if customs did not clear my goods in time! Hence the additional 600 GBP which I have since been trying to claim back from 1st Move - if I'd known this was the required process contrary to their incorrect advice, I'd have managed this all well in advance of my arrival! Thankfully the Durban Clearance company was able to recommend a Johannesburg agent who acted on my behalf and finally got my shipment cleared through customs and delivered to my home, incurring additional costs that I was in no way aware of when planning to leave the UK and had not accounted for in my decision to ship stuff home. As I said, we contacted 1st Move every day via email and telephone to ask for updates, guidance and advice. Everything they suggested was wrong, they refused to accept any responsibility at any point and try and rectify the situation or find solutions, completely washing their hands of the problem. I refuse to accept that the 600 GBP cost is mine to carry and will continue to make efforts to get 1st Move to reimburse me though they're extremely good at avoiding any responsibility. So I'll second it - DO NOT USE 1st MOVE INTERNATIONAL!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this up and saving me from this scam. I sent them an online quote yesterday and they only quoted around £500 which I thought was unbelievable. I have a good habit of searching online for reviews and am lucky that I found this blog. Thank you very much.. I will not be using them.
ReplyDeleteCheck out their PAYPAL scam!!
ReplyDeleteI have had a much different, but still frustrating, close encounter with 1st move. I was selling a bed in Canada on craigslist, and received a response from someone named Liana Johnson, but her email address was from a Larissa. Anyway, we arrangd for her to purchase her bed, and she said she would have her shipping company come for it. She then set up a PayPal scam (hopefully no one would be ignorant enough to follow a paypal link to sign in via email) where she claimed to have deposited $950 (500 for bes, 400 for shipping and 50 for western union money transfer) that cannot be deposited until I sent $400 via western union to the shipping company, and provided my PayPal representitive with the proper codes for the money transfer. THEN, my $950 would be available in my paypal account.
Of course, when I logged in to PayPal directly, there was no such information. Also, there is no such situation where PayPal holds funds until shipping is paid for, they don't provide that service for PayPal users.
When I called her on the scam, she threatened that I send HER $950 or she will call her lawyer. I mentioned that there was no information on my account of this, and that she would have to sue PayPal for the money. I also told her I sold her bed, and she said that our verbal contract held me to the sale and again, to refund her money. Hilarious.
I obviously have no commitment to give her a bed or money, if I have received none. She tried to bully me into feeling responsible. Basically, if someone sends the $400 via western union, deal is done and I assume you would just never hear from them again.
Unfortunately I didn't see this review until it was too late. Same terrible experience.
ReplyDeleteSee my review from another site:
One of the worst companies I have ever dealt with. PLEASE DO NOT USE THEM. It may seem as if you are paying less with 1st move or that they are quicker, however:
- They pack your goods terribly and end up charging a lot more than their original quotation
- They charge additional fees that they don't list on the quote
- They don't care once you've paid them
- They say they'll ship in one month, however by the time it's on the ship and going through arrival it's just as long as the other companies quote.
DO NOT USE THEM! I HAVE WARNED YOU. Use Anglo Pacific instead...
You can also see my blog at
ReplyDelete1st-move-international-review.blogspot.com
I'm sure the writer of this blog will be pleased to see two terrible revies at the top of google. I just got charged even more for my shipment!
Truly terrible. Never use this company. A bunch of lies sold by great salesman!
Interesting posts, but I didn't have a single problem with 1st-Move. They had someone pick up my car and transport to Southampton UK - and I had it within a couple of weeks in the US. The car was perfect when it arrived, and the costs were in line with their original quote. My point of contact was Andrew and he was very attentive and cordial. I'm really surprised by these posts... all i know is that I had a successful and great experience with 1st-Move.
ReplyDeleteMike
Thank god i read this review. Otherwise I would be shipping my lifetime collection to Canada with this Company.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for all those who've contributed to enlighten us.