Pickfords - Crap Removal Company
Pickfords - A Crap Removal Company
Halloween - the day of the long awaited office move….
Having endured the nuisance of packing up a few bits and bobs the previous day and unplugging various cables and computer bits whilst suffering the allergic reaction to the dust disturbed after many months of dodging the cleaner’s tools the office move was on course for Halloween - Friday 31st October. Pickfords, the removal company selected for this important task, had left instruction about packing and labelling the cases to facilitate an efficient office move which was assumed to be done during the evening in order for crates and equipment to be in position the next day for connection and continuing work - however this was not the case.
Removal Company Arrives Late
The day begins with the surprising realisation that not only had nothing been moved since close of business the previous day but the Pickfords “Crap Removal” team turned up sometime after 9am - over an hour late.
Close inspection of the Pickfords removal van failed to reveal a new strap line - “Why arrive early when you can still get paid for a crap removal job by turning up when you feel like it?”
Crap removal company Pickfords were amongst several removal companies who have been assisted to stop them from going under during the current housing downturn.
You’d have thought that some degree of pride in the service they provide would be in order instead of the classic British workman attitude.The office manager was sure that every effort would be made to “crack on” and get the new office up and running as quickly as possible. How very wrong…
Slowly Slowly that’s the Pickfords Removal Way
Unaware they were in earshot, following a request that they prioritise certain items for immediate and urgent removal one of the Pickfords gang was observed shaking his head and telling his team “That’s not how it works, she’ll have to learn…” followed by the mob agreeing and trying to out do each other with promises of just how awkward they could be.
First in the door was the Boardroom table and chairs, Plastic plants, framed pictures, stationery supplies, nine water bottle refills but no water cooler. Clearly this removal company were “on side” as they watched all the staff standing around desks with no chairs or computers to sit and work at.
Following a full hour for lunch the Pickfords team re-appeared and the first glimpse of essential equipment was seen. We’re still unsure if the sight of a pc unit and two monitors precariously balance on an office chair being wheeled across the space was a hilarious wind up to reinforce the gaffers exclamation that they were “fully trained professionals” and knew what they were doing. Someone remembered the instructions we received that computers should be left on the desk for proper specialist packing and transportation during removal.
It seems they fair just as badly in domestic home moves although it is possible that the favourable reviews of Pickfords removals “it took three men to remove my drawers” are actually contributed by
In conclusion it was agreed that the whole exercise was a shoddy job. heaven knows what the cost was - the office manager keeps such things close to the chest - and it would ahve been illuminating to see the responses on Pickfords customer feed back questionnaire - which had conveniently been deleted…
In my opinion - Pickfords failed to impress and deserve the award of CRAP REMOVAL COMPANY.
I am so glad I found your blog! I also HATE pickfords. When we moved house from an island onto the mainland, the company lost 2 of our boxes, which held all of my dad´s old sporting medals and antique car collection AND my mum´s wedding dress!!! I agree that they should have taken them in the car with them, but they had enough to dea with with us! The boxes were never recovered….. no idea how they could have gone missing!!
DEFINATELY not using PICKFORDS again. Lesley
It is very hard to find a reliable mover these days. When we moved our office we pack everything electric, computers, tvs etc and move them ourselfs. Then we leave the crap lazy slobs of movers to move all the stuff like plastic plants and file cabinets.
There is a middle way.Use a man and van service and insist on helping load and unload.You will find that anyone who takes a pride in their job does not want to be shown up by the client.Plus its always nice to get repeat work.
They were over priced and useless when they did my move. Quite how Pickfords call themselves carefull i don’t know, all our gear arrived smashed and their so called customer services took 2 weeks to even reply to my complaint. Do yourself a favour and steer well clear of Pickfords Removals - they’re CRAP!
Thanks for this article. A friend of mine told me about Pickfords - the crap removal company. Good thing I decided to research it a bit on the net.. I think I’ll pass on their services
I had to move a few months ago, I didn’t use Pickfords Removals, however I did end up with a torn leather sofa, its probably best to hire a van yourself and have a few mates help out.
I’m glad I found your post and blog because surely I will not be letting my husband call that crap removal company to help us at all with our move now. Thanks so much for helping me save my energy and time now!
I have to agree , Pickfords are a bit overpriced , it would have been ok for me if they offered good service along with that rather high price tag.
Unfortunately their service was really crappy , that’s the last time I avail Pickfords removals
just a thought but next time hire a Luton van, for most full house moves two trips in one of them (though make sure you get one with a tail lift to make loading easier) will get all your stuff shifted, plus you can take more care of packing everything, so more chance of it getting there in one peace.
I should always use larger Removals Companies for small moves, as yes, they run up and down the country all the time, and can put one item on the end of someone else’s move, and you may not even have to wait that long, if they have a load going in a few days! Pickfords is part of Allied Pickfords, though ‘Allied’ is an International part of it. Pickfords (UK) staff attend many training courses,….. I loved your op!
I will not be letting my friend call that crap removal company Pickfords to help us at all with our move now. Thanks so much for helping me save my time!
i wish i’d seen this before my move with Pickfords!! they’ve trashed half my bedroom furniture, computer desk, tv stand and shelves. not to mention my under 2 month old very expensive tv!! my fridge and they being funny buggers about that. the brand new flat carpet. couldn’t even be bothered to but my matress in a protector like they said they would or my pc in a box either!! can’t believe how much money was spent on such crap service!!!
Use pickfords recently amazing service didnt have to do a thing. Much better than using a man in the van and worrying if you will ever see your goods again. Well worth paying a bit extra to bit true professionals to do the job. For those who have been put off I would at least give them call and let them come round to quote.
There are good branches of Pickfords and not so good ones. Your geographical location often determines the level of service received from them. I used to work for them so I know. Most removers take a pride in their job and do their utmost to help the customer but some customers do make the day harder than others, i.e not being ready on the day and expecting the mover to help with the packing even when they have not quoted to do so. The idea of using a hire van and a few mates always appeals to the first time mover but I rarely hear anyone say that they will do it a second time. Also, if doing a self drive move, you inevitably end uphaving to do 2 or more journeys. You can’t gain access to your new home until midday, so can’t empty your old home and hence keep the new occupant’s movers waiting around until the house is clear. Who pays for the remover’s wasted time? - the owner of the removal company! A decent removal company will give good value for money and it is worth checking them out and asking for references. Pickfords have many branches so of course many people do have bad experiences but I’ll bet they have a lot of happy customers also! As for the person bad mouthing Pickfords at the beginning of this thread, perhaps if you had been ready for the move, things would have gone a lot smoother. As for making life difficult, in order to accommodate items on a furniture van, they have to be loaded in a certain order, so if some items do not immediately appear on delivery, it is not out of spite but more often than not, out of necessity.
i used pickfords once and ended with huge bill and damaged tv cabinet. last week we get small company the removals to move my sister 2 bed house and they were great and much cheaper. i wish i read your posts before:(((
@ Peter James - Fair points well recieved however my experience of Pickfords removals was enought o drive me to publish this post. We had prepared for the move the previous day - so we were ready for the move - Pickfords arrived late and the move did not require a van so the choice of what to take first was entirely free.
We are about to move again and after our dreadful experience with Pickfords in Cambridge on our last move I wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole.
How does a company with such an appalling track
record stay in business.
I am amazed at the comments i have read above, no doubt all comments are genuine, if not a bit inflated perhaps. I have used Pickfords all over the uk on a commercial and domestic basis and have always been more than pleased in every aspect of the process. It is very easy to read these comments and be put off, however Pickfords move thousands of people every month and i am sure only the rare few that go wrong are obviously going to have a moan like the above. Bigger picture everyone!!!
How I hate moving. It seems to never go over as smoothly as you hope, even when you take the time to pack early and label things. You really think that Pickfords are crap don’t you? Hopefully you won’t have to do it again for a while
I’ve just moved from Glasgow down to Manchester with Pickfords and can’t praise them enough. I was highly stressed before the move (the usual my husband left me to do it all!) but Pickfords did everything I asked AND more. I’ve already written a letter of thanks to the local team and also to their MD. People nowadays always look to post the negaitives when there are still companies out there that do a damn good job!
I wished I had found this site earlier!!!
Here’s what happened:
We had moved from AUstralia to the Uk a few years ago with Allied Pickfords. It went okay, so we selected Pickfords for our removal back home, even though they were slightly more expensive than others.
Packers arrived late and kept on wandering off for breaks: 2 1/2 hours of breaks on a 7 1/2 working day. Team leader spent another 2 hours or so texting!
Packing was done without any care or thinking- fragile items practically thrown into boxes, no consideration to space (we pay by volume!).
Boxes thrown into a great big heap onto the truck!
Packers too lazy to inspect items closely at beginning. When everything was packed, team leader showved packing list into our face, claimed to be in a hurry and urged us to sign quickly - when we noticed that he had marked everything that is valuable as ‘marked & scratched’!!! Most of the items he hadn’t even seen. All items were absolutely as new, without a single scratch!!!
So we refused to sign and got them to rub the comments out. After lengthy negotiations with head office they did.
Packers told us that they are always instructed by head office to mark all wooden and valuable items as marked & scratched!!!!
This is fraudulent!!!!!!!
Now we got a mail from head office telling us that they were going to unpack and rewrap all those items to check - did that without us present!
I see a lawsuit against Pickfords on the horizon.
@Petra - crikey let us know how the legal proceedings go.
A crap removal company is a great idea. People have way too much crap. They need to get rid of it and move on with their much neater lives!
I’ve worked for Pickfords for about 18 years & the main reason for any damages or poor workmanship is down to using ‘Casual’ labour.
The amount of times the customer has been told that we use fully trained staff etc…Absolute crap!
The only one with experience on the job is the driver & he is as happy as you are to be seen with this rabble.
They can’t be bothered to do anything, want to be home by 4pm & are just a total embarrassment to the company.
All the drivers have brought this up at every meeting & told, basically, tough.
Next time you move, have a quiet word with the porters & ask them how long they’ve been doing this job for. The answer you’ll get is about an hour!
Good luck.
It’s interesting that the big boys like Pickfords can be awful too! I started my man and van business in Plymouth a few months ago, against the best advice of many and having read lots of information (not surprisingly from other removalcompanies) about there being too many cowboys out there. One has to wonder how these big boys can charge the money they do and yet invest nothing in their personnel. I think that is probably more criminal than the small one man band just trying to scratch a living!
I used to work for pickfords and i can honestly say…..DONT USE THEM….
They use full time drivers,but part time offsiders….from who knows where….
the office staff have never actually done removals,so havnt a clue what they are talking about……..
My advice…..use a middle of the road company and local…..
I operate a very reliable and above all professional removal company. We operate as a removal brokers so can cover the whole of the UK. We have had dealings with Pickford’s in the past, our customer was satisfied, they did pay more for the service - we could have got a company of comparable quality at a lower rate, the customer was happy to pay for Pickfords. “We have only used them once. We would use them again”. It is unfair to judge a company who has been operating for over 300 years on 26 reviews.
If anyone would like to discuss their removal needs with me then please visit our website, or give us a call. Mention discount coupon code Pastymuncher and we will not place your move with Pickfords!!
As an ex soldier i can say that pickfords
are the worse company out there
they moved my family on a number of occasions not our decision,
Try RTS removals for youre next relocation they are medium size company based in surrey who have moved a number of my friends of mine nothing but praise. By the way i dont work for RTS Removals.
October of last year i lost a number of things. from this firm.If anyone has seen a bright red Morrison 30 inch cylinder mower please get in touch.