AnyVan

Please BEWARE that when you book the service, it is not guaranteed that your delivery will be picked up. AnyVan do not operate their own fleet of vehicles, and guess if they can get somebody for that day. When you recive a confirmation email after booking, this does not confirm your delivery. This only confirms that they have listed for a 3rd party bid. It is not confirmed that you are have a van until you receive a call. So if you need a delivery on a specific day as I did, this is not the service for you. This should be made clearer on the website. Do not hang around all day as I did on you pick up day unless you receive a phone call, as you I am very disappointing with the service provided by AnyVan. The only option I was given was a refund, or to put out for their 3rd party drivers to bid again, so another uncertainty. In addition to the extra I paid for getting a pick up on a Sunday, a refund of the difference was not offered. Very poor service!

Service cost: £62

I have a upright piano needs to move from ground floor to first floor. They cancelled the removal without informing me and kept me waiting and waiting! It was 2 days before the removal day the driver said he will arrive between 10-11 am. 11:00 has passed but they still didn't show up. I still waited for a while and decided to call the driver to ask him if he was on his way. He said Anyvan cancelled the removal and asked me to call Anyvan for detail. Thus I called Anyvan. They said it was the driver cancelled it and felt sorry about it. It was ridiculous even if the driver cancelled it, they should have contacted me in advance but not kept me waiting. It was very unprofessional and irresponsible! Although they will give me a full refund I still believe it is a very unreliable company. DO NOT use them.

Service cost: £150

This service is appalling and I would not use it again or recommend it, I booked pick up for a Thursday morning then the night before I was told the route had fallen through and it would be friday. This then didn't happen either and nobody bothered to tell us it wasn't going to. I was told this was extremely unusual. It appears not! I then askws to rebook for the following thursday morning and was told i'd have a bettee chance of it happening if I gave the flexibility of thursday or friday (despite having paid extra for a named day). Again it was supposed to be morning (at extra cost) but it the items weren't picked up until the afternoon. I didn't hear from the driver and whe I contacted him he said he would deliver that evening or monday. Later he contacted me to say he'd be back to late on friday so it would be monday and he'd confirm an ETA on the monday. Then this morning he contacted me to say it wpuld be tuesday or wednesday and then to say wednesday and that it was "only the delivery"! The site says delivery may be next day not same day over a certain mileage - it does not say almost a week later.

Service cost: £135

I was extremely distressed and disappointed with the customer service when my AnyVan booking for 26th July was cancelled on 25th July after 7pm without more information then no driver available.

I was told there maybe a driver available on 28th July but could I do a different week. This was highly unacceptable and left me without any options to arrange alternative removal for 26th. Rang back 10am on 26th and the customer service was still very vague and none committing saying they maybe able to confirm in afternoon of 26th a driver for 27th.

I was required to out of the property on 26th July and I had booked and paid in full for the service that was cancelled at short notice without an acceptable reason or alternate given.

This was totally unacceptable. Shocking customer service. Definitely not using this company again. Moving house is stressful enough without this disaster!

Service cost: £240

Took a deposit and didn't want job but no deposit given back
Had 50 bits of furniture to move and they could only supply 5 blankets and when asked if they could get more they said they could supply 10 blankets . Blankets should have been a given as quote they gave was loading 30 cubic meters of furniture
After taking our deposit of 640 pounds they just passed us over to a driver who then also wanted another deposit which after only one day was not refunded I think this company is a scam.

Service cost: £2250

My son paid £800+ to be moved recently from Southampton to Liverpool. He paid extra to have his removal over 2 days, scheduled for collection early on the Thursday morning and delivered to Liverpool address early on the Friday morning.

The removal men did not turn up on the day and no-one contacted him to say there was a problem even though he had confirmed all the arrangements just a few days before.

Firm not able to arrange another removal until a day later (Friday) and there was no real apology AND NO compensation!

They repaid him a derisory £33 (£23 for finally completing the removal in 1 day instead of 2, which meant furniture delivered at 8pm instead of 8am and £10 for vacuum parts that went missing in the move).

This caused a lot of stress and disruption to my son who had to hang around for another 24 hours with everything packed and to ourselves as we were helping him with the move.

The (new drivers) who finally did the move were great and very professional - but the company is not.

So would not advise using this firm if you actually have to move on the day you have booked!

Fran Munby.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: £817

I used AnyVan to move home. The time slot we had chosen was between 10am and 12pm. At 11am I used the tracker to see where the driver was and he was over 2 hours away. When I called the office to find out what was going on, they said the original driver had cancelled. I did not find this out until I called them, they did not call me to let me know.

By 1:30pm the new driver had still not arrived. I needed to collect the keys for my new property before the estate agent closed at 4pm. The estate agent was 1.5 hours away so I had to ask my Dad to drive 1 hour to the collection point to wait for the driver while I went to collect the keys. When I had collected the keys at 3pm I used the driver tracker again to see where he was and it said there was no driver. I once again called the office and they once again told me that this second driver had also cancelled. Again, this was not communicated to me until I called them.

A driver eventually turned up to the collection point at 4:45pm, 6 hours and 45 minutes after the start of the original collection window. It was nearly 8pm by the time the items were delivered.

When I spoke to AnyVan they said they don't know when a driver has cancelled but were satisfied that this had been communicated to me. But it was only communicated to me after I called them.

They also believe they arrived within the time frame because at 3pm when I called, they asked if I still wanted a driver that day and would 6pm be ok or I could cancel. At this point my stuff is all packed up and I have collected the keys to my new flat, I had to move that day, of course I was going to agree to that.

After making my house move infinitely more stressful and causing my Dad to have to take time out of his day to drive an hour away to wait for the pickup, and arriving more than 6 hours late from the original pickup time, I was offered £3 as a refund.

Needless to say I will never be using AnyVan again.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: £160

Charged me almost £500 for 2 incredibly rude men who catcalled me, then said they cannot lift the small things that it takes one person to lift and sat in the van for 1.5 hours in front of the house, then drove off. They claimed because in front of the house was a yellow line they weren’t allowed to park/load there, and made NO effort to move to the white parking available on the street and this was their reason for not doing the service OR giving me a refund! Basically this is a con website that steals your money!

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: £500

Be careful before choosing AnyVan - their cheap quotes may end up costing you more than you think!

I used AnyVan for a home removal and was enticed by the low rates, however it ended up costing more than I expected and was a terrible experience. Here are points you should consider before using AnyVan:

- Unknown quality of service provided:

They are connecting you with service providers that already exist and are not providing the service directly. What this means is you have no idea on the quality or professionalism of whoever turns up on the day. If these providers are vetted (unlikely) it is not a rigorous vetting process. The providers that showed up on the day for me were NOT professional and one of the removal men said he had been doing this for 2 weeks. The team they sent me were rude and smoked in my flat when I had stepped outside for a few minutes.

- Basically a call centre and cannot help you with issues:

AnyVan hide behind their website policies and are NOT able to help you out on the day if there are any issues. In my case the removal men had not brought enough packaging products and there was nothing AnyVan was able or willing to do on the day to help. You will end up get connected to the AnyVan call-centre if you have any issues. The team you speak to on the call-centre range from being aggressive and rude to incapable and apathetic. If there is a problem on the day, you are pretty much on your own and there is no accountability from AnyVan. If you are moving home, it needs to be done on the day and if there is a problem you will be in big trouble.

- Hidden costs:

The itemisation process for home removals means you have to accurately itemise every single item, including the exact number of boxes needed to move. Like most normal people, I don't know the exact square footage of van space all my belongings will fit into, or the exact number of boxes to fit my plates, clothes, electronics and small items into. Well guess what that means? It means the van drive won't touch anything else unless you pay extra on the day, essentially holding you hostage. Even if you have the best intentions and simply get this wrong, tough luck. You can pretty much guarantee that you will end up paying more than you expected.

-Bad practices

I was told on the day that I had to sign waivers for certain items, such as my television, because I did not have the original box to transport it in. Who keeps the original box!? Despite providing an insurance policy to cover this, they put pressure on you on the spot to sign this waiver for damage without explaining this before you use their services. When I asked AnyVan to explain what this was, they said some movers require this. I think that it is completely unfair and inappropriate to demand someone sign a waiver for damage to their belongings, on the day whilst in the middle of the move, threatening not to move an item unless you sign a waiver.

After the terrible and overpriced moving experience I would never go near AnyVan again, even if it was free. When I spoke to AnyVan afterwards to explain the issues I faced and for them to explain why the removal company they provided were so poor they simply closed my case and told me to go away.

Listen to the reviews out there - there's a reason why there are so many bad ones.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: £916