Kent Removals & Storage

I got Kent to help me moving my 3 bedroom house from Brisbane to Melbourne. When they came to provide the quote they seemed very positive and said they would aim to give the best deal possible. They said they would try and quote close to what I getting reimbursed by my office. It all sounded very positive at the time but they quietly slipped in a possible redilivery fee. While I compared them with other providers they seemed more affordable at the time only till I reached Melbourne and asked them to deliver my stuff. They slapped me with another 2k invoice stating that I had to pay it before delivery. My brother in law who moved around the same time went with a different provider who didnt add any of these charges. Would not recomment Kent at all.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $8000

I was recently employed by Kent Removals and storage in the Albury, Wodonga branch Australia and injured my back. They did everything they could to make sure my claim was not handled appropriately. Immediately stopped my hours and did not help with my claim which l am now having to personally fight with the insurance company while unemployed. Not the way you should treat hard working employees that are at the end of the day the ones handling customers goods and making sure your move is handled professionally. I would not expect customer insurance claims to be handled any other way then poorly from experience

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $10000

Highly recommend Kent Removals. The service was professional, with attention to detail and a very caring, personal attitude from all those involved. Nothing was too much trouble during quote, pick up and delivery even when I changed arrangements with little notice! Communication was very prompt, Everyone I spoke to or emailed knew exactly who I was, had details of the job and any concerns were addressed immediately. So supportive during such a stressful time. Thankyou Christopher and all involved, we are now in qld with all of our valued possessions safely delivered.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3900

For anyone considering using KENT Removals, I would say BEWARE! I had my furniture moved by KENT on Thursday 9th April 2020 at a cost of $8,984.25 (not including insurance) only to have them damage 5 very expensive pieces of my furniture.

On top of the damage, they had the audacity to lie and not accept any responsibility for their actions even though I sent through evidence of photos that were taken just prior to the move by the real estate agent that sold my property showing them the furniture in absolutely perfect condition.

The furniture that was damaged by Kent, originally arrived brand new to my previous apartment and when moving out of this apartment, I used Coleman Carriers in Leichhardt. All the furniture that was moved by Coleman Carriers arrived to my second apartment in absolutely perfect condition with not even a scratch. Tony Coleman is prepared to sign an affidavit to this as is my real estate agent who sold my property just prior to Kent undertaking the removal of my goods. Unfortunately Coleman Couriers were unavailable for the dates of my last move and I ended up using Kent.

The stress that this has caused me, as well as a lack of time has prevented me from taking any legal action. If I can stop just one person from having their furniture destroyed by Kent Removals then that is all I aim to do. BEWARE, BEWARE, BEWARE!

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $8984

Let me tell you a story.

My mum had to move from her house after 15years due to her knees starting to give out and not being able to walk her stairs.

The pick up / uplift from Wahroonga by Kent Removals & Storage went smoothly. There were 2 large containers. It all ran according to plan!

Then it went downhill fast.

First we knew of a problem was the delivery when only 1 container arrived. It was not our stuff. It belonged to someone else and the delivery was to America!

The next container to arrive was ours but it had been opened. A back order placed inside it which we were told wouldn’t happen. That no one opens the containers! This was clearly not the case.

That day our fridge didn’t arrive. They miss placed it and after being told it would arrive on Saturday and waiting at the property all day, it never came.

Our container was still missing. No one could tell me where it was. How long it would be and what the problem was. Days would go by without any contact. No response to emails. Or a message saying so and so will call but they didn’t.

3 days later our fridge was found and delivered.

3 weeks went past and our large container with all my mums precious things was still missing.

Then all of a sudden when I made a complaint it was found. It arrived that weekend.

I knew something was wrong. Boxes were damaged, they were crumbled and some felt or smelt damp!

I told Kent straight away. No information was given.

After I unpacked all boxes there was $2500 worth of damage from broken glassware, mouldy cabinets, ottomans and handbags. Smashed baking trays and vases. Lost outdoor marble vase.

I contacted Kent straight away. I was given an insurance form and told to take pics of the broken items. I returned the insurance form and the pics via email. I was told that was there bit done. They washed their hands of the issues!

The boxes were then picked up 1 week later.

The insurance company, 1 week after submission tells me I need photos of the damaged boxes and box numbers. I explain the boxes were picked up and this information wasn’t in the claim form or in the instructions. We were told you aren’t covered by Crawford & Company

I flipped my lid! Why have an insurance policy that’s recommended that’s not fit for purpose? Why have an insurance claim form that doesn’t give full instructions? Why even bother telling people to take out insurance if you aren’t covered for the damage done by Kent!

As soon as kent picked up our containers they were responsible for their care. They failed in this role. They did not provide acceptable quality to our shipment. They lost an entire container! Where was the duty of care? It took 3 weeks to be found, is that reasonable?

My mum paid over $8000 for the move from Wahroonga. She will never ever use kent again.

The least kent can do is cover the loss of her precious things to the insured value $2500 and refund her the cost of the insurance as the policy is not worth the paper it’s written on.

The fact I’ve been forced to provide this account publicly shows that kent aren’t interested in living by the values they put on their website!

Very very disappointed ☹️

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $8000

While the booking process was smooth and friendly, our actual move was the opposite. I would not recommend anyone use this service.

We moved with a single 20-ft shipping container from regional SA back home to regional VIC, and it turned out to be like we were in an episode of Fawlty Towers.

I understand mistakes, but not dissatisfaction. We were promised "everything" would be done to fix all the problems (on a recorded call).

But NOTHING has been done.

Kent are even refusing to repair an INSURED couch that was damaged in transit.

As well, they failed to turn up at all on the arranged move-in day, despite confirming it the afternoon prior. We waited for hours and nobody contacted us. It took several phone calls (promised return calls never made) to find out they didn't even have our container at that point in Vic. So we had an extra night sleeping on the floor in an empty house.

Kent demanded access from 7am, yet we live almost 2 hours from their West Melbourne depot.

So many phone calls to chase them up, and so little response. We had rubbish left in our furniture from the SA uplift. Damaged items. Items that were unassembled during the uplift refused to be reassembled when we moved in (and for one piece of furniture, the hardware was lost as it was not packed correctly after unassembly). After being told they'd help, we spent more than 3 HOURS getting quotes for repair but then received a flat-out refusal after wasting all of that time. They even needed one of us WORK on the day they moved us in (managing their iPad and inventory list).

That's about as unprofessional as it gets in my mind for the thousands we paid. We've been left very disappointed, not only in the service, but the failed promises.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4500

I had the misfortune to hire Kent to help move my family from Melbourne to Malawi. What started off as a satisfactory experience quickly descended into a nightmare. When my container arrived and opened at our home in Malawi it quickly became apparent that a large number of our items were missing. It turned out that Kent had lost 36 boxes of our property. What proceeded over the next number of weeks was a shocking customer experience. It quickly became apparent that Kent were more interested in passing my claim off to their insurance company than assist me in trying to locate my items. In fact it quickly became an exercise in Kent trying to blame everyone but themselves for the loss of the items. I had to hound them for information on what they were doing to locate my items or what they were doing to make sure it did not happen again. Kent talks about a 5 star service guarantee which is just a lie. I had no 24/7 single point of accountability as I was frequenly met with out of office replies to my emails. I was also not offered any rebate for what I would call a wholly unsatisfactory customer experience. These guarantees are just website filler and they choose to ignore them when things go wrong. My experience with Kent should be a warning to anyone planning on using this company or have them act as a relocation partner if you are moving to Australia. They are quick to take your money and then view you as a nuisance when they fail to deliver the service you paid for. A shocking company that is best avoided.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $10500

We moved from Auckland to the Gold Coast in May 2017. The company that performed the move were awful and I would never use them again BUT, once our goods arrived in Australia, Kent provided the handover, storage, customs, etc. on the Gold Coast end and I cannot fault them. Our goods cleared customs in record time as did our vehicle. Libby in particular was a shining star and I am very thankful to her for her patience, dedication, professionalism and expertise. At times she even played the role of counselor listening to me rant about things going wrong that had nothing to do with the move. She communicated with us continuously and updated us on what stage of the process we were going through and what we further needed to do. She could not have made it easier. Thank you Kent and Libby, we will definitely use you again!

Move size: 4 Bedroom Home Service cost: $13000

“Wonderfully stress-free experience from initial visit to final delivery. Very professional staff who are friendly and relaxed. Also did a great deal at short notice in the high season, January 2109 across the most expensive wee bit of sea, interstate from the nanny state to paradise. So happy to recommend Kent's services as the very best removals' experience. With especial thanks to: Amanda and Michael, Tasha, Scott and Michael and Luke, Michael and Dylan. Kent is my choice for the next move I make. Thank you, Rose”.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5200

We had the most appalling and soul destroying experience with these Kents. Due to my ill health, we needed someone to completely take care of our (large) local move. Having had good experience of Kent in the past in other states, we signed up for $16k worth of packing, shipping and unpacking. The quote included a packing team for 2 days and a moving team of 4-5 men for 2 days, and the plan was that the packers would spend 2 days packing, then the movers would spend the next 2 days, which was required as we only had access to the goods lift in the apartment block for 4 hours each morning.

All good until a few days before the move when I got a call to say there was a change of plan and the packers would start a day later and overlap the movers. That didn't sound so bad, but it was the start of everything unravelling. The packing team arrived late, and consisted of 2 guys who worked flat out for the day and managed to pack less than half of our stuff. Then the next day, 3 guys arrived with a truck to do the move, the same two plus their mate. When I asked where are the packing team and the 4-5 movers? we were wold we are it, mate. It then became obvious that they weren't going to complete the packing and move us out in the 4 hours that we had access to the lift. A phone call to Kent resulted in my wife being told they were "used to dealing with difficult people like you".

Anyway, to cut a long story short, they did finally get everything moved out of the apartment by 9pm on the second day, but only because we sweet talked the building management into allowing us use of the lift, and only because nobody else in the building was moving.

The "manager" at Kent said to my wife "There, I told you we could do it, nothing to worry about.

Yeah, right, until we started unpacking. And finding box after box where our valuables had just been thrown into the box in haste without being wrapped. I have a large collection of old model railway locomotives, where the condition of the box for the value of the item is extremely important. Every box was torn or damaged, wooden presentation cases scratched and scuffed where they had been thrown in together. The leather case for my headphones was ripped. A 1 metre steel rule was bent in half to squash into a box, a car battery was wrapped up with my guitar case and placed on top of other contents which then got crushed lengths of model railway track were bent in two to fit in to a box. A wooden boat kit that I was planning to build had its contents spilt at some point, and instead of carefully putting the contents back in the box (or even telling me it had happened and asking me to help), all the wood was just tipped into a box and then other stuff chucked in on top so that all the parts were broken. Then I found that the spare parts for my classic motorcycles which were all carefully sorted and stored in a tool chest had all been tipped out of the toolchest into a cardboard box, with no wrapping, so they are not only all mixed up but they are damaged.

The puzzling thing is the lack of logic. Power boards, old biscuit tins, Tupperware containers carefully wrapped but valuables just tossed in haphazardly.

Do not go anywhere near these people. They are the absolute worst.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $16123

I have moved about 6 times in the past 10 years (internationally to London and London back to Sydney) so this is not my first time at the removalist rodeo.

I used Kent for a regional move in Sydney and .. wow.. i've never had such terribly awful customer service.

They arrived 4 hours late (no communication) they lost boxes and damaged items. Not one person got in touch with me to apologise or help rectify the situation.

And the pièce de résistance of this awful company is that they were going to charge me $500 to replace the $400 worth of damage and missing items incurred by their utter incompetence - despite having paid $380 in insurance and the cost of replacing the items that went missing.

This company is an utter joke. I'd rather pay $4000 to a bunch of monkeys to move my house next time. You would get the same service.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4000

I am so DISGUSTED! I went with Kent because of their old reputation of care, and paid more for it. But my most valued items arrived smashed! At both ends of the relocation, staff piled three boxes high on trolleys that they RAN with, really fast, over our bumpy gravel driveway - same situation on uplift as delivery. Running as fast as they could go because of their tight deadlines! Bouncing boxes marked FRAGILE and thudding them into the truck! Then dumping them on the ground at the other end. No training visible here!

On top of that, they refused to wear masks are told me they were unvaccinated!! In Victoria!! Coming into my house and practically daring me to object! I've reported them to police.

But now I am fighting for compensation for my smashed, expensive computers and computer screens. Kent dare to say, don't get them repaired without their permission!

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. I regret bitterly not going with the company I knew well, thinking I needed to pay more for 'reliable' service! They clearly no longer train staff or grant them the time they need to do removals at a SENSIBLE PACE. SHAMEFUL. I know I've got a lot more smashed china waiting for me in boxes as yet unpacked.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $10000

I hired this company to help move a few months back (relatively small move, 2 bedrooms & not a large amount of extra furniture) for a move from one side of Brisbane to the other. On the day of removal one of the removalists (the fees paid for 2) wasn't doing anything other than standing out the front of the house talking to the other one & talking on the phone. Seeing as the company charges by the hour, I called the company office to double check I had definitely paid for 2 removalists & they confirmed this.

After that phone call, the removalist recieved a phone call from the company office & then immediately approached me in an intimidating/aggressive way & shouted at me for about 5 mins straight & then threatening to not do the move at all if I didn't agree that he was doing work. (Also keep in mind that I was a young woman & on my own at the time, & both removalists were large men). While this was happening I was on the phone with a family member that was helping with the move, so that family member heard every threatening word of this 'conversation', & I stayed on the phone with them for the remaining time that the removalists were at the house because it felt like an unsafe environment.

As well as this event, the removalists permanently marked a lot of my fabric furnishings, & were really rough with items that were clearly marked fragile (TVs, clearly labeled & packaged mirror cartons etc.).

After they completed the move I made it clear to the company office worker over the phone that I had been verbally attacked & that I would be making a formal complaint. A few weeks after that I sent through my formal complaint email, after which their HR team proceeded to gaslight me & ask why it took so long to report & saying if I hadn't submitted an official police report then there was no proof & nothing must have happened.

After that email they have completely ignored my reply emails, and apprear to have zero interest in taking any responsibility for how their removalist behaved.

[UPDATE]

After posting this review elsewhere, the company contacted me to "resolve the issue", which was just them repeating their denial that anything happened & that as far as they're concerned my removal service went "very well"... That was just insulting at that point.

Do not give your money to these people. If I could rate them lower I would.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $965

Recently engaged Kent to relocate the family from Townsville to Cairns NQ. Prior to the move, we had a high quality (Bosch) washing machine that was less than two years old and in perfect working order. After arriving in Cairns, the washer has a massive leak from the base, displays error messages, and is obviously not fit for purpose anymore. Try managing a family of four (including a baby) without a washing machine!

Avoid this company at all costs. They'll seem to offer great personalised service before they get your money - after that, they have no interest in you at all. All of my attempts to contact Kent to talk about a way forward have been completely fruitless.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: 5500ARS

I've used Kent Removals twice now. Both time, fantastic service.

First time was moving from Melbourne to Brisbane. Pretty stressful moving interstate as I've never done it before. Kent staff came to my house inventoried everything and gave fixed price. My goods were packed up with care and moved up to Brisbane to be stored with Kent for 3 months until I needed it. Redelivery process was even easier, arranged a day for delivery and they unpacked everything exactly where I wanted it.

The second time I used Kent was moving houses in Brisbane. This time I used their hourly rate. Craig and Yasi should be commended as it was a very hot day. Glad I wasn't moving my stuff. Even on the hourly rate they didn't waste time. Again this move was stress free.

Thanks Kent!

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $15000

Moved from Melbourne to the Czech Republic in October 2023. Collection guy was grumpy, ok fine, whatever. He packed everything and told me there were 46 boxes, so I signed off on that. Everything was already in the truck so I couldn't count it myself. 46 boxes arrived after 5 months (no communication from them along the way, even though we were told we would be kept informed). 46 boxes arrived, but we are missing a lot of stuff. Obviously there was actually more than 46 boxes collected, and the grumpy pickup guy miscounted.

Next problem was the unpacking - we paid for Kent to unpack and take away all the packaging materials. They subcontracted to a removalist company in Brussells, who then subcontracted and the guy who turned up was basically a delivery driver/ courier with a larger than usual van. He was clearly not going to unpack and was not in any way prepared to do anything more than delivery the boxes.

We then contacted Kent about the missing stuff and also the unpacking, they basically blew us off and said it was actually our fault for not insisting that the poor delivery guy stay and unpack. They also just kept monotonously repeating that 46 boxes had been delivered so that is that. I have asked them what we can do to try and track down the missing item(s) and they have not answered the question.

Belinda from Kent got in touch with me after I lefet a negative review on another site and offered us $150 to shut up and go away, but we just want a refund for the unpacking (and you know they would have charged more than $150). Since we refused, Belinda has sent another email basically telling me to p*ss off.

Even if they had just lied and said they had tried to locate our box but couldn't, that would have placated us! We know that it was a long shot and had pretty much accepted that life happens and sometimes you lose. And if they had just offered us a decent refund, that would have been ok with us. But nope, they had to dig in and be dicks about it. I can't remember who said it but basically, any company can be good when things go right, it's how they handle things going wrong that shows you how good they are. And Kent is terrible.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $5000