MoveCorp

An international move is a stressful experience, but having relocated multiple times over the years from different continents, I felt Rome to Vienna ought to have been a smoother ride. Not so with MoveCorp.

The person who coordinated my move seemed to give up once my boxes had been collected - a process which took hours, although I had my relatively small load professionally packed in advance.

Once I contacted the company with my new address, having paid for a storage service and used up my limit on this, I was assured my belongings would reach me within a week. I planned around this to ensure I could be around once they arrived - not easy given I moved to take up a new job. This date came and went with no contact from MoveCorp. That's despite
the multiple attempts I made to contact the agent - resulting in expensive phone bills to top it off. It seemed she actively ignored my correspondence and calls. Two more weeks passed, my boxes were delivered at a different time with four items missing.

To summarize the rest of my experience: it involved my own interventions to locate my missing belongings, numerous delays, flexibility on my behalf and my MoveCorp agent proceeded to ignore all contact from my. She was not only unprofessional, unresponsive, unhelpful but also extremely impolite.

MoveCorp, never again, even if I have to drive my own truck across Europe.

Service cost: £2500

HORRENDOUS EXPERIENCE! Why did I not read these reviews, instead of just google (fake) reviews before!!
Movcorp were very proactive and communicative at first, delivery was promised from Northern Italy to Berlin in a couple weeks. After I paid, the removal became a nightmare.
The following 4 months of phone calls to them every week, promised deliveries that never arrived, which resulted in me waiting at home 5 half days over a couple months. Terrible communication. When half of the boxes arrived, the delivery guy had absolutely no information or intention that he would help move them into my 2nd floor flat. Despite having paid a lot of money for this to happen.
They had absolutely no idea where my belongings were, which warehouse in which city..
Eventually, some of the boxes arrived a month later, some another 6 weeks later, all horrendously damaged, the mattress black, a bike that looked like it had been run over by a lorry, not to mention the half that has still never appeared.
They did not do the job they promised, they destroyed half of my belongings, they lost half, and put me through 4 months of unnecessary stress. Do not use this company if you are moving to a new city, have a full time job, need help carrying the heavy boxes, care for your belongings, want them delivered on time in good condition, and don't want to be on the phone every single week trying to figure out where your belongings are in the world.
I am not materialistic, nor have incredibly expensive/precious belongings (thankfully after this), but the emotional stress that this removal company caused, is a complete joke.
Moving house/country is always stressful, but do not use Movcorp if you care for your belongings/time/money and want someone to do this job correctly.

Service cost: £1000

I have had a terrible experience with movecorp and would definitely not recommend!
No problem with the pick up and payment. We were promised delivery within 6-8 weeks. During this time there was zero communications or news with any updates. Over 2 months later now I am told that there has been a paperwork issue and our things are not even en route yet! No explanation why nor offer of partial refund..
I made a number of requests to escalate my issue and I was never given a person or contact to escalate my issue to get an answer or resolve.
I would avoid Movecorp in the future and not recommend anyone to use their services. Very unprofessional ..

Service cost: £1300

We began our move from Dubai to Leipzig with a company called JNT Cargo. JNT were pretty decent at handling the whole process, they followed up regularly and got us sorted. We asked for a door-to-door service, and was assured that furniture that was dismantled will definitely be re-assembled in Germany. We had to pay for everything up front, which we regretfully did.

After the shipment left, JNT handed the move over to the MoveCorp circus. We spent lots of time following up and waiting for MoveCorp to get back to us. It was a hassle getting any information out of them at all. We were surprised to find that our cargo had taken a strange detour via the UK instead of to Hamburg, and there we were asked for a list of items and how much they were worth for customs. We asked both JNT and MoveCorp for a reason, but got none. We complained that a lot of our stuff had already moved over to Dubai from England and that we'd be paying taxes on them TWICE. We were advised to put in lower amounts to avoid the amount being too high.

We were then told to expect the shipment on the 29th of June. After lots of following up, we were told to expect our shipment at the end of July. No proper reason given, just that our goods were caught up in a random inspection and that "Unfortunately there is a port fee outstanding on the goods which totals £85.00. The charge is due to a random customs inspection which has also resulted in the container incurring demurrage and quay rent whilst undergoing the inspection conducted on the container. The inspection is carried out based on a random selection process which I’m afraid, we have no control over. Kindly note that this charge must be paid prior to arranging your delivery. Payment can be made by any of the following options:

Debit card
Credit card (does hold a 2.9% usage charge)
Bank transfer
Cheque

Kindly note that if we do not hear back from you within 1 week from 5th July you will begin to incur storage charges based on your overall volume. "

We promptly paid this fee. At the time, we were apartment hunting and had a smaller 1 bed apartment. We opted to find a much larger apartment and asked for storage options and asked them to confirm if we would retain the door-to-door service we paid for. They asked us to find our own storage solutions and that we would retain the service, so we did. When we asked for an update for when the storage facility could expect the cargo, they said that storing the items would incur a fee and asked if it was something they should look into - almost as if the conversation never happened. When we asked again for an update on the cargo, they said we should expect it on the 31st of July - a whole month later than we expected with no reason whatsoever. Seeing as we were moving in a few weeks from then, we asked if we could store it until the 22nd. Again, they responded as if we never had this storage conversation. We were under the impression that the cargo arrived on the 31st of July and we needed storage until the 22nd, but they quoted us 6-8 weeks worth of storage! When we explained (again) that we had already found our own storage solution AT THEIR REQUEST, we were then told that we would have to find our own transport solution from the storage facility as they only do a single move and that we would lose our door-to-door service. We then had to forfeit the deposit we paid to our storage facility and were forced to go with with MoveCorp's storage solution instead.

After weeks of waiting for them to get back to us on "an exact date closer to the date," we had to keep following up until we were told to expect our cargo on the 25th of August. The night before, we were contacted by the people transporting the cargo. Again we asked to confirm that we still retained our door-to-door service and we were explicitly told that the guys would unpack and help re-assemble the furniture as requested.

When it arrived, the guys showed up and took over 5 hours to unload the truck and the moment they were done, they tried to leave. I stopped them and told them that we had paid for a door-to-door service, which made them gasp in shock! They started complaining that it was not their job, that they were just drivers and refused to do it. I showed them the message we received from their boss, so they began to assemble our bed. While this was going on, one of the guys asked me "Are you happy now?" as if this was a favour and not a service we paid for. In fact, as they built this thing, they made it very clear that this was a favour and that they had to leave to Vienna as they were running quite late. At this point, I had also found out that our shipment had gone to Bulgaria for some reason and not Hamburg like we were told.

The moment the bed was done, the guys tried to leave again and I had to stop them and tell them that we requested this service. They then carelessly started opening boxes at random, haphazardly taking things out and strewing them all over our apartment in at attempt to appear as if they were unpacking, when what they really did was open a bunch of boxes, take 2-3 items out and put them in any spot they could find. I couldn't believe that this "professional" outfit had no structure. I had specifically asked them to help with the furniture at first, so I had to stop them from opening any more boxes and guide them to the furniture so we might have a place to put the items they were unpacking at random. They opened 1 bookshelf, stared at it, started complaining that they were drivers and that we needed a carpenter to do this job. I brought out instructions and they insisted that we needed carpenters.

My wife came home from work to examine the mess, and we started discovering damage EVERYWHERE. All of our expensive furniture was damaged, irreplaceable antique pieces were broken, our records were broken, wedding presents destroyed (one of them was sliced open with box cutters while the rest was smashed due to poor handling) and our 4 day old apartment (which had just been refurbished) had damaged walls and floors. My wife broke down into tears, and the movers then said they would be back in 10 minutes with a carpenter to help fix the damage. We never saw them again.

When we called Movecorp, we were told to wait 30 minutes for a call back. TWICE. We then emailed them multiple times, and we received the following:

"I’ve spoken with the removal team and crew and they have made the below comments as to why the full service was incomplete.

1. Long distance carry was needed which is an exclusion of ours. (My wife and her elderly parents helped carry appliances and other things with relative ease. It's not a long distance, and the men had trolleys - a luxury we did not have. We also only live on the first floor)

2. The assembly required was not basic – only basic re-assembly is quoted I.e. legs onto tables. (It was pretty basic. They didn't even try. There were many other pieces of furniture that only required the legs to be put back on, but the men insisted that they were just drivers and we needed carpenters. I manged to breeze through all of it by myself in a few hours last night)

3. Brand new furniture is never assembled by removal companies – it is not classed as basic re-assemble. (We only had 1 piece of brand new furniture which only required its legs to be put on. We never asked them to fix that and I specifically told them to put it aside because we needed to figure out where we wanted to put it. That brand new piece of furniture was also badly damaged)

4. The dimensions of the apartment made it impossible to complete the unpacking (This takes the cake. We have 2 spare rooms, a spacious bathroom, a balcony and corridor/entryway. My pregnant wife and I managed to clear it out in a few hours, yet it was "impossible" for the "professional" movers we hired?)"

So basically, 2 people in their 70's and a pregnant woman can do a much better job than these "professionals" and it's all our fault because these guys couldn't use their own brains to read some instructions or figure out how to make the most out of all of this space we had available to us.

We've spent our weekend unpacking and so far, EVERY SINGLE BOX we've opened has revealed damage of some sort (you can view it all here http://imgur.com/a/DxqKx). The only thing to have come out of this unscathed has been our TV. Movecorp have made no comment whatsoever about the damage to our property or our apartment, nor have they mentioned anything about compensation for the service we did not receive. Currently considering taking legal action against them. Absolutely despicable people. WOULD NOT RECOMMEND.

Service cost: €4000

My husband and I were relocating from the San Francisco Bay Area back to Germany in July with Dynamic L.A. as the organizer of our move (that was our first mistake, but that's another story). Unfortunately some of our boxes didn't fit in the container and had to be shipped additionally. Their partner in the UK is Movecorp Ltd (which we never would have chosen ourselves reading all those negative reviews!) and now we are running from one annoyance into another.

First of all Chloe from Movecorp Ltd contacted us two days after the container arrived (1st delay from their side) and demanded a detailed list of all our goods with the value and how long we’ve been owning them for VAT/duty. I promptly wrote them that I was in contact about that with Dynamic L.A. because I have no idea which items were in which shipment as we haven’t packed the boxes nor did we distribute them between the container and the additional shipment. Also I wanted to know why we suddenly would have to pay VAT/duty for relocating household goods. I even sent the list we’ve gotten from Dynamic L.A. with the rough description of the box contents, such as „Dishpack – Dishes“, explaining that this is all the information we got. There was no response for several days, neither from Movecorp nor from Dynamic L.A., then they wrote again that they need the list, without answering my questions. I again tried to explain my situation and again I asked Patrick from Dynamic L.A. for advice. Then he sent me the exact same rough list, stating „To the best of my capacity I have filled out custom invoice. The only thing needed will be the value and time owned.“ Trying to find any difference between this list and that one we provided Movecorp over two weeks ago I wildly guessed the value that the items could have (it is pretty obvious that we still had no clue which items are in that shipment). AGAIN I asked why there is VAT/duty on relocating our household goods. This was on October 9th, a bit over two weeks after the container arrived.

One week later I again checked in if there are any updates. On the 18th I’ve got an email from Chloe that we were charged £421.04 for duty & VAT „as previously discussed“ (well, ehm, no?! There was no discussion AT ALL! Only unanswered questions!). There was no invoice, no bank details. I AGAIN asked why there were fees on our goods and mentioning the lack of professionalism, asking for transparency. Then we were told that we should have been informed about the rules and regulations before the items actually left the US, and that „Back in April of this year, the UK law changed so we are now unable to claim transfer of residency relief on any consignment that is clearing into Europe via England but not designated for England.“
Again we contacted Dynamic L.A. who basically rejected the blame and saying „From that (used) value, duties may be 2%-7%, if any at all. I.E $1,000 declared used value = $20-$70.“ I’ve sent another email to Movecorp asking for details as the declared value of our goods was £1,270, so this would mean that VAT/duties would be 30%?! We were informed that VAT is 20% of the overall value and the duties are worked out based on commodity codes which differ per item. And that there is also a small administration charge of approximately £25.00 (which Dynamic L.A. was gracefully willing to pay as a good-will gesture…). Stupidly we paid the fee, trying to avoid any further delay (probably having a premonition of what was about to come).

On October 20th Chloe told us „Upon customs clearance, I will be back in touch to begin arranging delivery with you.“ Six days later I again checked in to see if there are any updates to get the response „We’re finalizing clearance currently so will be in touch ASAP to advise.“ One day later we got the news that our consignment has now cleared customs and „Please note due to delayed documentation there is a demurrage charge of £775.00 outstanding on your consignment. This will need paying prior delivery.“ Now this is the point where MY good will and patience has an end! I replied asking if this immense demurrage charge is due to the delay Movecorp and Dynamic L.A. caused in our correspondence. I again mentioned that I haven't gotten replies to my emails for over a week several times although I was always checking in! For me it looks like a planned delay to charge us even more money and this business methods seem to me more and more criminal! I wrote that I’m starting considering taking legal steps and
furthermore that not sending proper invoices for all those unexpected fees is highly dubious and I'm expecting both invoices immediately for transparency! After checking in AGAIN I got this: „We received the importing documentation late from yourselves which meant that your consignment was part of the reason the container couldn’t clear on time. All documentation should be in place prior to the items being shipped to avoid issues such as these.“ Now they are blaming us again for THEIR lack of organization and professionalism?!? This is unbelievable! I immediately wrote back, demanding proper transparency of the charges and fees made by Movecorp as well as a proof of how the law has been changed that we suddenly had to pay for VAT/duty by the end of the day, otherwise I see myself forced to press charges. We won’t pay anything without having official bills/proofs for our records and we won’t pay for additional costs that occur due to your delayed responses!

We will see what happens, but I highly recommend to STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY! Their business seems to be driven by criminal methods charging fees without any proof!

Service cost: £1200

I moved with movecorp from Scandinavia to the East Coast
with no problems 5 years ago so when the time came to move back to Europe I enlisted them. I so regret it. They lost several of my boxes containing irreplaceable photos of my deceased mother and other keepsakes, things that insurance is useless for. The worst was their reaction. They simply didn't care. Emails went unanswered and answered week later, no apologies..nothing. It was a heartbreaking loss for me.
They outsourced to at least 4 other companies throughout the process of my move this time around. It was only two companies involved 5 years ago. They've simply gotten sloppy.

Service cost: £3000

Where do I begin? That's what I said to myself when my mother told me she would be retiring and moving to The U.K. Her best friend and husband had moved to Birmingham U.K. 8 years before and convinced her it was the ideal place for her to spend her golden years. Now all I had to do is figure out how to get her packed up and moved to a foreign country.. thank goodness I found this amazing company. They came to my mothers condo and took care of EVERYTHING! Packaged everything carefully and professionally including furniture , paintings, dishes, silver, photos and even some larger furniture pieces she insisted she needed to have . Everything arrived safely and in perfect condition and in the time that was promised. I can't say enough about these guys! They were professional, friendly and all around amazing. I highly recommend them.

Service cost: £4250

I chose Movecorp while trying to figure out with moving company would be best, and after reading a few reviews I decided to go along with booking them. A couple of days later, when I was still looking at reviews I noticed a few people had problems with Movecorp, which worried me a little. I had my items picked up from England - West Midlands at about 11AM (they told me the movers would be here sometime at 9-5) which was a great time - as it wasn't too early, or too late. It was a UPS van, and the driver helped me with all my luggage even after saying I didn't need any help - which was really nice of him. He told me that my items would probably reach their destination the next day - the destination was Cyprus. (The website didn't have an option for Cyprus) To which I was amazed by how quick my items would arrive. On the UPS tracking website I noticed that it said the delivery would be done by Thursday by the end of the day (the items were picked up on Tuesday morning) - so I thought okay, that's still brilliant.  The items ended up arriving on the Wednesday by the afternoon - which was quicker than what the UPS website said, which was brilliant. Really good service overall! Quite pricey, but I had 4 large boxes, 2 medium boxes and a big suitcase - and the items arrived by plane.

Service cost: £666

I will start with a one sentence warning for those whose belongings are handled by MoveCorp: be prepared to wait 4+ months for your items.

My move began in the middle of July with the U.S. company, InterMovers, which did a good enough job as far as the initial pickup and sea transport to Europe. They failed, however, to communicate that the shipment would first stop in England (final destination was Germany) and it would fall into the absurd hands of MoveCorp. As a first time international mover, I would recommend that you strongly pressure whatever company you are dealing with to give the name of the subcontractor(s) involved so you can check the reviews of the other companies involved; if they will not supply this information, tell them "no deal." I would have never shipped the goods if I knew MoveCorp was involved-the bimodal distribution of 1 and 5 star reviews should make one suspicious about the authenticity of the 5 star reviews.

Back to the moving story at hand-an individual at MoveCorp contacted me at the end of July to notify me that my goods were to be received in early August at the UK (the original company made no mention of this roundabout way of getting to Germany..). After sitting in the UK for an extended period and with no ETA given for shipping, I was finally contacted to pay an ~260 USD quay rent/demurrage fee for my goods in early September. I promptly paid this. Following this, there was limited response to emails requesting an ETA for delivery of goods and phone calls ended with "we'll call you back later today with an estimate." No calls came. After many emails and phone calls to MoveCorp, in late September, an email came saying that a truck would be leaving for Germany at the very end of November. I ended up paying ~2500 Euros to hire a local company to pick up the goods from MoveCorp's warehouse in the UK-this happened while MoveCorp informed me they "could not locate a truck service going to Germany." They would refund none of the money that they were paid for providing a service they never gave.

So to sum up, my minimal wait to get my goods shipped (once they were in the tender, caring hands of MoveCorp) would have been four months. I would strongly encourage to look elsewhere for your moving needs, and make sure whoever you use doesn't utilize MoveCorp anywhere along the line.

Service cost: $6300

Okay, we had a few problems but nothing that could be blamed on Movecorp or us as a family.

One of the vans was late as they had a puncture on the way and the keys were not available for our new home but hey, these things happen.

Good marks for Movecorp because they did what they said they would do for the price quoted and made a good job of it.

I would 100% recommend this company to anyone looking for a professional removal company 5 stars.

Thank you Movecorp and Kirsty my removal coordinator.

Service cost: £790