Grace Removals Group

We used Grace because we wanted a reputable moving company. The sale rep told me that I Grace checks all its employees and I could have peace of mind with Grace (unlike other moving companies he said). So, we duly arranged for Grace to do the removal.

2 to 3 days after moving, during the unpacking phase in our new home, we discovered that some very expensive items had gone missing during the move undertaken by Grace. The fact is, during the move, you just cannot watch everything that is going on.

We called Grace immediately. Grace promised a swift investigation and response. But, Grace has so far refused to accept responsibility. For various reasons, it is 100% apparent that the items went missing during the move.

If you are moving and have expensive items in your household, I do not recommend Grace. Indeed, if you have an issue, the resolution of that issue may be a further reason to consider other movers.

Dear Grace, your reviews have a number of similar complaints on the review page, so I ask, is Grace going to do anything about our stolen items?

Grace you have provided a generic response below, as we are already in contact with Grace, but have received no assistance, how would customer services help?

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3400

The sales person was great but the removal guys didn't have enough space in the containers so they pushed my furniture uncovered into a back area when it got to Brisbane boxes were missing and the men had no idea what was there or not furniture was damaged a piece that had been put in the back area uncovered. Items had to be delivered the next day and they even brought a box that wasn't mine, very chaotic. The insurance company CGU and Intercept Loss Adjustors are now refusing to pay for the damage. I complained to the customer service and the Mackay branch but they don't care once the job has been done.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2000

I have moved often both locally and internationally in my life, but first time using Grace, mainly because the sales rep was absolutely lovely and seemed to know what she was talking about. However, as others have said, packing was below par, with a weird selection of items packed together and personal items used as protective packing, a missing box, 3 missing boots(!) and two damaged Italian leather lounges. Impossible to know which box went in which room as second and third hand boxes were used - wish I’d noticed this at the outset as I feel like for the money we paid, it is totally unacceptable. I made Grace aware early on that there were missing / damaged items, but feet were dragged, and now apparently it’s too late to use the very expensive insurance I took out with them! Finally I was charged an additional $400 shuttle fee to get to my front door. All in all, feeling pretty ripped off.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $13000

So my partner recently came back from the UK (with me in tow) and we recently moved from Perth to Leonora. My partner works in school and the delivery day was set on a Friday meaning she could not be here to check everything arrived fine. Upon coming home she realized that one part of two bed's was missing (I had no idea what it was meant to look like as I never saw the bed before), meaning we can't even setup a bed and are currently sleeping on a mattress. We were told because I had signed for the delivery not knowing what my partners stuff looked like or if there was incomplete stuff that its not their problem and we now have to make a claim on insurance and look at buying a new bed as the current bed we own is discontinued. What a company, how on earth do you lose bed parts?? I am genuinely shocked at how unhelpful and how little you actually care. Thanks for causing my partner many sleepless nights and a great deal of stress and sadness, but the real thing, who on earth can lose a bed part if not two separate pieces? What a joke!

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3000

We used Grace to ship 59 boxes of contents from the south coast of Australia to London, Ontario Canada back in October 2017.
Unbeknownst to us, our shipment was sent to the USA and not direct to Canada as arranged and was held to ransom for release unless we paid an additional $6500 by a certain date or we'd be charged on top of that amount, an additional $325 per day. What should have been a 45 day delivery, ended up being 90 days. Once released though, the road transport delivery to our home went well with the local moving company but although 59 boxes were counted upon arrival, for some reason 3 of the boxes were not there. We believe some boxes were opened at the USA customs that we have not been told about as we are missing items and the 3 boxes that were not marked off, were found inside others. Having contacted Grace Removals twice already, we have still not heard anything from them. Will I use them again?? I don't think so. What should have cost us $11,000 as per quote, ended up being over $17,000. We are not happy.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $11000

We engaged Grace Removals to move us from a four bedroom home to another four bedroom home which was only a 3klm move to the next suburb.

The experience was very stressful as Grace Removals workers damaged several of our belongings and damaged the home we moved into.

We previously used Grace Removals in 2007 to move and had no issue, however, this time things were very different.

The move started at a brisk pace: they packed the first truck load in just 2 hours.

The issues began when Grace removalists told us our fridge would have to stay in the garage instead of the kitchen. Naturally, we weren't happy with that decision, so I pointed out that the previous owner of the house had precisely the same make and model of fridge in the kitchen, so why couldn't Grace Removals move our fridge into the kitchen? where fridges belong!

The lead removalist asked my partner to sign an "All care, NO responsibility waiver" before he would tell his workers to carry our fridge into the kitchen.

By getting us to sign the waiver, Grace was essentially seeking full exoneration for any and all damage that they did to our house and/or to our belongings as a result of moving our fridge. However, the waiver covered everything, not just our fridge. NSW Consumer Affairs has since advised us that Grace Removals' waiver does NOT circumvent our consumer rights, so why did they ask us to sign such a waiver?

As soon as my partner signed the waiver, Grace Removals' workers took the handles off the fridge (so it could fit through the front door) and started to haul it up the steps. That didn't go very well, because the removalist ended up scuffing the wall and splintered a step on the staircase.

The next issue was when they pushed our fridge through the doorway at the top of the stairs: they scratched the door jamb.

Other things that Grace Removals (GR) did incorrectly was stack heavy boxes onto boxes clearly marked fragile - which resulted in several of our fragile items being broken in transit;

GR also placed boxes clearly marked laundry chemicals in a carpeted bedroom.
GR broke the side attachment off our 4 burner BBQ.
GR chipped our coffee table edge
GR broke the caster/wheel off a 4 drawer cabinet.
GR damaged a wooden artist easel which was found broken and splintered.
Several glass mugs were smashed, even though they were wrapped in several sheets of butcher paper.
GR tore an electrical wire cable of a 2 metre high decorative lampshade.
GR shoved a timber statue into a box that contained our Christmas tree, which caused some of its decorations to be broken and some of its branches to be bent.
GR left boxes clearly marked cosmetics, kitchen pantry and liquor cabinet in the garage.

Several days after Grace Removals moved us, we still couldn't find our "essentials" boxes that contained our toiletries. We eventually found them hidden beneath several other boxes in a carpeted bedroom, so we were without our essentials for 3 days.

As we started unpacking our boxes (over the next few days) we found more issues of damage.

This was a dreadful experience with Grace Removals and we have since lodged a complaint to the Dept of Fair Trading, but to no avail,as we were told by the dept, that Grace Removals did not respond to our lodged complaint within the prescribed 5 business day period.

Our next step now to get this issue resolved will be to submit a formal application to NCAT.

I was hoping this matter would be resolved through mediation and agreement, but Grace Removals refused to respond back to the Dept of Fair Trading within the specified time.

We have attempted to solve this issue via email, but Grace Removals has refused to accept responsibility for the damage and have only offered us a small ex gratia amount to close the case. The sum that Grace offered us is well below the cost of repairing the damage they caused.

We have moved 3 times prior to this move and had no issues with other removalist companies.

However, this time, Grace Removals let us down terribly and we will never use their services again.

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2360

Grace Removals has been a very difficult company to work with.
Their Agent provided one quote, then at the last minute demanded more funds for the exact items I had been originally quoted for.
Their Movers left a huge mess at my last residence.
Their packing was substandard, putting fragile items in the bottom of moving boxes with heavy items on top, causing damage.
Their Insurer, Intercept Loss Adjustors, is not an independent insurer, but is part of Grace, and has delayed paying a claim for 3 months. I am still waiting!!
The US company that received the Grace packed shipping container, said they had never seen such a poor job of packing. Numerous boxes were either not labeled or labeled incorrectly, so kitchen items ended up in the garage.
Parts for assembling furniture were packed separate from the furniture- in boxes marked clothing. Other parts were not packed at all and are still missing.
Electrical items that were designated not to be packed, were packed to a country with different voltage, creating waste.
Packing tape was applied directly to wood finishes.
Grace actually packed a box of their own packing tape!!
I would advise anyone considering using Grace Removals to read these reviews and consider their options, if they value their money and goods.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $18000

We relocated back to South Africa in March 2020 and then Covid hit the world, as we were sharing a container with other people our shipment was put on hold as one of the travelers were unable to get back into South Africa, which is totally understandable. We were then penciled in for our shipment to depart on the 25th of September 2020. On the 29th of September I didn't hear back from Emily at Grace so I emailed her to follow up, she said she was going to follow up with their Sydney office and just never EVER bothered to come back to me! I sent her 4 emails and she totally ignored me! I finally got hold of her manager Jim Petersen, who said he was sorry and would then follow up on his side. He also just didn't bother emailing me back to say that he would get his manager to revert back to me. I then received an email from his Branch Manager in Perth, Rob Simms who sent me this apologetic emailing sorry he is in the wrong he should have got back to me, but one of his staff forgot to write down the code for our shipment and our shipment is now lost!! He said its a very manual process and they need to go through thousands of containers to trace ours, I was like REALLY??!! I gave him the benefit of the doubt and gave him last week to trace it or have some sort of feed back for me by Friday.. and guess what??!! no email from Rob ! I emailed him this morning and guess what it gets even better, he has gone on HOLIDAY!! WOW Grace Removals I am utterly shocked by your lack of customer service!! My husband and I have had to buy new things to replace our belongings in our container which were not necessary and we have a 1 year old baby too!! So here we wait for SOMEONE.. ANYONE to get back to us and just get our belongings back to South Africa which we have already paid for in full!

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $7000

We moved locally in Sydney. Their brochure 'Removal' said ‘numbering item’ and ‘unwrapping all your furniture’, these didn’t happen. Their rep promised (with email confirmation) to put floor covering to protect the new carpet during the move, this didn’t happen. I needed to book the loading docks for moving because I live in a high-rise apartment. Grace confirmed by emails (more than one) that I only needed to book both loading docks for half a day. They came in a small truck and at the end they needed the loading dock for the whole day and more. The crew worked from 8-5:30 without a lunch break and they left without unwrapping all my furniture. One can imagine the quality of the service, the mess and the stress on that day. Their service delivery manager (Peter McDonough) called me and I explained the situation by email. It took him 5 days to reply in a few vague sentences. I emailed back with photos taken of the pages from their brochure ‘Removal’ and excerpts from emails. I haven’t heard from them ever since. I would give zero star if I can. We had had 5 international moves and never experienced such horror.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4300

Engaged Grace for an interstate move (ACT to WA). The process of obtaining a quote was great and took the time to arrange transport of my motorcycle. However, a day after everything was agreed and paid for, I receive a call from the contractor who provided completely different details. They advised that Grace had instructed them to deliver them on those dates despite the fact that Grace had provided completely different dates to me.

Tried to get in touch with Grace to rectify the issue only to learn that the sales consultant has gone on leave. Once you've paid, there seems to be bugger all support.

Not exactly the first impression I was hoping for. Whether I use them for relocating the remainder of my gear will depend on the outcome I receive.

If the details of the move change on the date the invoice is issued, AT LEAST CONSULT WITH THE CLIENT BEFORE A PAYMENT IN MADE.

Service cost: $1389