Before you book anybody

Because it is the word people actually search when they are deciding, and because it forced a useful question: what would a removals site look like if it took complaints seriously instead of collecting compliments? This is the answer to that.

No. The position is written into how the site is built and into the note at the foot of every page. If you ever see a customer quote here, something has gone wrong.

No, and we will not pretend otherwise. They are the recurring categories anybody who has worked in this trade will recognise, described qualitatively. There are no percentages on this site because we have not run a study.

No firm is named, criticised or ranked anywhere here. The failure modes described are common to the whole trade, including to us on a bad day.

We list no memberships, badges or awards on this site. Where a firm holds a genuine accreditation it is worth asking about directly and worth verifying with the body rather than taking from a logo.

A star average compresses very different failures into one number. A firm that breaks nothing but overruns constantly and a firm that finishes early and damages a mirror can score identically. Read the text.

The specific ones and the middling ones. "Brilliant, highly recommend" tells you nothing; "they surveyed the loft and the figure did not move" tells you what the firm does. Three-star reviews carry the most honest detail.

Less than a perfect record should. Every firm trading for a while has had a bad day. What matters is the reply — whether it addresses the specific point, or apologises in a template and argues with the customer.

Often it means filtering rather than perfection. A mixed record answered honestly is worth more than an unbroken one with no dissent anywhere in it.

Whether they will survey before quoting. Whether the crew who load will unload. How many vehicles your goods will travel on. What happens if the day overruns. And what is written down if anything is damaged.

Three things, mostly: cartons that collapse because they came from a supermarket, boxes filled too lightly so they crush under stacking, and a load that was never strapped and moved for the whole journey.

For loss or damage arising from our handling, yes. For damage attributable to how they were packed, no — that is the standard position across the trade, and it is the reason we suggest letting us do the fragile categories over distance.

Almost never theft. It is that nobody wrote down what went in, so when it comes out months later there is nothing to check it against. The inventory is the service, not an administrative extra.

As long as the gap runs. Everything is inventoried at the property and the storage agreement sets out access and the notice we need to bring it back out.

Nearly always because of a decision made weeks earlier: a crew sized from a bedroom count, a loft nobody opened, or a start time picked for convenience rather than for the road.

No. A figure given before anybody has counted is an estimate, and it moves. We will talk usefully on the phone and tell you what the survey will be looking for.

Only if what is actually being moved differs materially from the inventory the quotation was written against — and then we tell you before continuing and confirm any revision in writing, rather than adjusting the invoice afterwards.

It happens, usually because of something outside everybody's control. You are told at the time rather than at the end, and what that means for the invoice is set out in the terms rather than decided on the spot.

On long-distance work, yes — one crew and one vehicle from your door to the new one, with no depot transfer. Transferring a load between vehicles is the single biggest cause of things going missing.

Every room, cupboard, loft and outbuilding checked with you before the doors close. It takes a few minutes and it is what prevents the "things were left behind" complaint entirely.

One named person for the whole job, reachable throughout. Bad news travels immediately rather than at the end, which is the single most useful policy we have.

Across western Europe by road, with a customs file built from the inventory taken at your property. No sea freight and no air freight — those are a different trade and we refer them.