Hamiltons Removals

I had Hamiltons through Moving Partnerships do my removal from London to Singapore (note I used Berlin on the form as there was no international non EU area) in 2013/14. It started OK with good sales and reponse. It started to fall apart when they struggled to arrive on time, had not listened to the access issues and only made the timings because my partner and I packed about 50% of the load! The real struggle started on delivery. Several very nice small items were badly wrapped and then damaged on arrival. We followed the claim process with excellent help from the Singapore agent company and submitted a formal report showing damage, photos, packing etc. We received a prompt response from Hamiltons and then nothing. Weekly follow up ended with multiple emails and phone calls (more than 30 documented over 5 months) all leading to no response, buck passing between the insurer and Hamiltons. Overall after more wasted time they all washed their hands and did nothing. It was obvious to me that they were working on the basis of we were too far away to keep on fighting. I would not recommend them to anyone or if you do ensure you very carefully get very detailed written inventory packing to make sure the insurers meet their obligation. Our mistake was to help the team during packing as they had not enough staff and were late and then sufferred the consequences. The care, support and communications of Hamiltons were simply shocking and a disgrace to the industry. I am surprised they are on the NATO and governments removal list as they do not deserve to be. In summary avoid or if no option document, photo and watch them the whole way.

Service cost: £5000

Such a stressful two weeks packing prior to Hamiltons moving us to Suffolk. So much stuff in the house especially the loft; never thought we would clear it all and pack it up in time! Boxes, bubble wrap, paper and tape were all delivered well in advance. When we needed more the office staff were most obliging and arranged for further deliveries until we had everything imaginable packed. Great customer service thanks.The actual day arrived and this huge lorry turned up with Ben, Adam and Luke on board. immediately friendly and reassuring  they quietly and effortlessly got on with the job. Their manner and professionalism throughout was tremendous and nothing was too much trouble from start to finish. All the boxes were handled carefully from the house and packed expertly on the lorry. Heavy washing machine and fridge freezer were moved with care and at no time were we worried about anything untoward happening. Then we were off on the long journey to Suffolk- Ben kept in touch en route and informed us of their arrival at our new home. We were running late but they were able to start unloading with the help of Connor and Dean who were also first class. The last box was finally placed in the kitchen at 8pm and a long day was at an end. We couldn't have asked for a better removal company and Ben, Adam, Luke, Connor and Dean are to be commended for a superb job. If we ever move again we would not consider choosing anyone else but Hamiltons! Thank you This is 'the other half' speaking: yes, if it hadn't been for these great removal guys, I may just have had a nervous breakdown in the process.. They absolutely saved the day! .

Service cost: £950

I used Hamilton’s to do two moves for me in the last couple of months. One was to Switzerland and one to France. They were absolutely amazing from start to finish. Their management and team on the phone were professional, precise and supportive - answering many questions and arranging everything for the complicated Swiss move. They dealt with customs (a difficult and time consuming process) and everything went very smoothly.

Their collection and removals teams were very flexible and came exactly when they said they would. International removals are not easy but their scheduling worked well. They wrapped valuable items for me and everything arrived intact.

I would recommend Hamilton’s. Not the cheapest (but not the most expensive either), however you get a premier service and they take care of everything.

PS This review form would not let me select international removals in the drop down boxes so it looks as though we moved within London..we did not :).

Service cost: £1000

I moved at very short notice from London to Switzerland and in the space of 2 weeks from first contact Hamiltons had picked up all my furniture and moved it into storage, where I then managed to add other things coming from different bits of the UK.

The team in the office were always friendly and extremely helpful. The movers were polite and efficient. There was a small accident with the van on the way that delayed the arrival time, but I was always kept informed and the whole team went out of their way to get the problem resolved.
All my furniture was delivered in perfect condition, with no damage or breakage.

Thank you for making it such a smooth process!

Service cost: £4000

We’ve used them before and it was ok. The second time was a complete disaster, including having to deal with an employee called Paul who clearly hasn’t gotten the memo that sexism isn’t ok, but more on that in my review.
They showed up with a van that was too small for all the items we listed. Even the professional movers that showed up with the van said the list provided by us would never fit the truck they provided. We knew then and there we would lose our flight tickets as well, as the move could not possibly happen.
They then resorted to telling us to move our house in 2 loads, with the original van taking one part and the second part in a van that they would organize (no definitive answer on when that would happen provided by them, however, they had already calculated all the extra thousands of £ it would cost us to fix this situation). Obviously, if a company can’t estimate what size van to bring, or inspect the property prior to taking your money and sending the wrong moving truck, we did not want them taking any of our things in 2 separate loads, for fear of them mixing it up or not ending up in the same place at the same time. At this point the person I spoke to at the company (Paul)kept telling me over the phone that he wouldn’t speak to me, he wants to speak to my husband. Pretty disrespectful, as this “woman you don’t want to speak to” is paying for your services. As we did not want to support a company which doesn’t treat men and women equally, or knows how to responsibly move your personal belongings, we proceeded to ask for a cancellation. They charged us £700 cancellation fees for their movers showing up that day. Meanwhile movers only make £7 per hour. Not quite sure where the math went wrong here. As of today, 4 days after the fiasco, we have still not received our refund of the rest of our money back (minus the £700 ransom, ahem, cancellation fee)
even after sending them several emails. We never expected a full refund as they did have costs, but £700 .. excessive to say the least.
We will be giving the refund a few more days, however I do have a separate YouTube channel and blog with a 6 figure following. If the situation persists and they still insist on taking such a large sum for what is their fault, I will re-edit this comment leaving the links to a story time video with email trails and phone recordings for everyone to go through the experience with us and judge for themselves.
So needles to say, we wouldn’t use them again.

Service cost: £1500

If you need to move 48 cubic meters of stuff you care about. Hamiltons are the guys you want on the job. They are proud of what they do and so they should be. You will find cheaper movers, but you will be hard pressed to find anybody who will do a better job. The legendary fire fighter Red Adair once remarked: “If you think it's expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur.” Hamiltons are professionals: on time, on budget, all delivered in impeccable style. I did not get paid for this review, I am more than happy to pay Hamiltons for my next move.

Service cost: £5000

In early 2016 my husband and I were moving from Paris to Zurich. I saw many horror stories on my company's internal mailing lists so I asked a friend who has made this move a few times and she responded with "here is a company that saved us when another company was holding our stuff hostage". The company was Hamilton's Removals and the contact was Paul Walsh: pawalsh@hamiltonsremovals.co.uk. They describe themselves as "A logistics/removals company that has trucks moving all over Europe offering courier/part load/groupage and dedicated direct services"

I told Paul over the phone that we needed to move from Paris to Zurich and that it was likely to be 3 months before we had an apartment to move into. We were lucky in that a truck was scheduled to be in Paris the day we needed our stuff to be out of our apartment. They had to rent a smaller truck to get into our narrow street but Paul was up front about that during our first conversation. He also clearly explained that when we found an apartment in Zurich and needed our items delivered we would be dependent on their shipping schedules - basically whether or not any other people had items coming to the area during that time. He explained that we could be waiting for our items for up to ten days depending on how the scheduling worked out. It turns out that we were lucky again, as they were able to bring our items the day we got the keys to our new apartment.

They took our stuff from Paris and drove it to the UK for storage and kept it safe for 3 months, charging only 7GBP per week. When we were ready to move they helped arrange our customs paperwork and remained in constant contact over the few days it took to get everything in order. No issues there.

As for the actual moving process, the same two guys moved our items out of the Paris apartment and into the Zurich apartment. They were friendly, professional, efficient and careful. We packed our items ourselves but I would have no problem letting them do the packing as well. We were upstairs while they moved stuff into a room in our new apartment and I ran down to tell them something and got to witness their mixture of speed and care when they didn't know I was there.

Overall we had a great experience with this company and I'd recommend them to anyone. Even if you think your situation is too strange just give Paul a call - he's super friendly and you can almost hear the gears turning over the phone when you throw odd timing and constraints at him. :).

Service cost: £2000

Hamiltons were absolutely superb. Steve and Mark provided an exceptionally efficient and professional packing service with respect and care. Items arrived perfectly in the UK with a detailed inventory with systematic numbering to the 80 boxes I used to help identify where items were. They also expertly moved the dismantled kitchen units into a self storage crate in a different location. I highly recommend and thank Hamiltons, in particular Mark and Steve who worked tirelessly to get the job done in Germany and in the UK.

Service cost: £6500