Santa Fe Relocation

With a lot of moving experience throughout my life I can say that this was the worst of all! The movers were so tired they took from 8:30 in the morning to 11:30 at night to do a move which should have been finished by 5 pm for less than a 20 foot container. We had dismantled all furniture, taken all lamps down and prepacked 35 boxes. Removalists ran out of tape twice and they ran out of packing material because they had used all on a move the day before. 2 hours waiting for packing material to come from the head office! Movers did not do anything in the meantime. Plenty of boxes just marked "MIX". A nightmare for customs in Australia and for us when unpacking!! Plenty of boxes just marked "Tools" and there might be kitchen appliances in them. "Boy's Room" instead of "Bath room" written on the box seems funny, but what exactly is in such a box .. Things which we had put apart and marked with big blue tags saying: "Please do not pack, need to stay" were just packed and shipped! Lack of common sense when packing. Packing included e.g. an unwrapped fragile lamp and a clothes airer in the special box designed only for clothing on hangers. The telephone was in a box together with pots and pans without any writing on the box. The vaccuum cleaner was in an unmarked box and took ages to find and that is one of the first things you want after moving in.. Lots of damage due to unprofessional packing. The list could be continued.. I can only warn to use Interdean Germany! The Interdean counterpart in Australia is very professional.

Service cost: €8000

Our move was contracted to Interdean by my husband's new employer, who paid for the move - please note that the estimate figure above is entirely random -  we were never told what the move cost.  Initial contacts with the UK arm of the company were very positive, and first encounters with the German branch were also encouraging.  After having been given a date for arrival of the packers, we made travel arrangements to fit in with their estimate of how long the job would take and how long the transportation would take.  At a very late point in the process, and only after I had happened to make a related enquiry, we were told that Interdean had altered their timings and would now be turning up on a different date, and that the transportation of our goods might take up to a week.  This did not fit in with what we had initially been led to believe, and meant that we had to alter all our travel plans at very short notice.  Given the stresses of an international move, this was unpleasant and surely unnecessary - with better communication from Interdean, it could have been avoided.  The packing team, however, were extremely hard-working. They provided all boxes and packaging materials, and ensured that our belongings were, in the main, very well packed up.  Sadly they managed to break some bathroom equipment in the house we were leaving and did not admit this to us - not impressive. The packing team also worked very hard to empty our removal van and place everything in the new house.  However, they did not mention to us that, if we could not empty all the (296) containers by the time of their departure, we would be charged 150 Euros for collection at a later date.  The head office then ignored all our emails asking for collection of the boxes and finally mentioned the 150E charge.  This was yet another example of poor communication by the company and, while it was not major, it meant that our relationship with the firm was underwhelming.  I do not believe we would use Interdean again.  .

Service cost: €7000

In a bad stroke of luck, I chose Interdean to store all of my belongings worth close to £2000. The items were supposed to be delivered last Monday (from time of writing {10 days ago}) and they still haven't shown up. I've phoned the head office multiple times each day since, and have been put on as "urgent" 8 times ("double urgent" is apparently a thing, as well) and once as "top priority". At this point, it is better off to let them keep my stuff rather than chase after them and pay the phone bill. Next time anyone asks me about using Interdean, I'll tell them to move bonfire night early and just chuck their stuff on top. Top side, cheaper than hiring a skip.

Service cost: £174

It was totally HORRIBLE. I used this company's service when I moved from Cambridge to London. Contact personnel often ignored my inquiries, and replies were insincere and obscure. But worst of it was that they DID NOT SHOW UP on the moving day (Monday) I had ordered! I had to move out from my previous flat on that day, so I was totally at a loss with my many boxes..after spending all day waiting for the collection (as they don't give customers any window for baggage collection). I made phone calls to the company to inquire the status in the late afternoon, but they kept me waiting for 1.5 hour. What was even worse, when I finally got a callback, the contact personnel told me a lie, that he had sent me a message about rescheduling for Thursday..! (Of couse, I didn't get such a message. And it is just irrational that moving company indicates customer's moving day, in defiance of customer's will.) I had to leave my belongings in an insecure, communal space of the previous property. They also kept me waiting for the final invoice. So, the day when I could finally receive my boxes was 11 DAYS after the initial collection day. It was just a nightmare. Definetely, I will NEVER use this company.
(To be fair, a driver who delivered my boxes was a very nice person, and it was the only one good point.)  .

Service cost: £216

Never in my life have I been so dissapointed in a service that I paid for. Final cost was double the initial quota, half of items were destoryed or broken, communication and professionalism were totally absent. Items were not collected on the agreed upon day, so I spent an entire day at home wasted since they do not give you a collection window. Once items were collected hidden fees were introduced. After contract was signed never expect to hear from your agent again. Despite daily attempts at contact , I was totally ignored. Finally, items arrived in Budapest through DHL. So Interdean is not a moving service at all they just came over to collect my things. If I had wanted to use DHL I could arranged that with them directly myself. .

Service cost: £1543

I am hugely disappointed by the lack of expertise shown by Sante Fe. Their packing team who are apparently experts closely looked over and packed 4 bikes that had dust on them. My husband pulled 3 off the truck and unpacked them to clean them but was unaware of the fourth that I had added. It, like the others had no caked on dirt but did have a coating of dust around the wheels and spokes etc .. but not more than you would get on the soles of your shoes that you might wear on the plane so because it was raining, I made a quick decision that turned out to be wrong. The bike got pulled up by Australian Quarantine and the charge I was quoted by Sante Fe was $110 to destroy the bike or $220 to clean it (note the other three had been hosed down and sponged with a little detergent so not a difficult clean). I appreciate that they have to deliver the bike to the cleaning company but having shipped items home before and handling it all myself, all those companies are centrally located so delivery and treating the dirty water should not be that much (I find it hard to believe that destroying a bike is half the price of cleaning it!). Despite the manager stating that they did not charge a profit, Australian Quarantine said that the charge was up to the broker and Sante Fe staff had already confirmed that. So, Sante Fe charges for their 'expertise' and then profits from their lack of it.
P.S. As for the rest of the relocation, it was nothing more than I could have done myself so I would definitely save your money, time and the hassle and do it yourself!

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $99999

I don't know how this company received such good reviews. My experience of moving from the Netherlands to Australia and from the Netherlands to Germany (one big complex move with several parts) was abysmal. The so-called coordination office gets paid handsomely for its 'service", but in actual fact does little coordination, at least none which would actually make the move smoother and less stressful. My experience with the 'coordination office' was: messy communication, mixed messages to me and packing crews, constantly having to go back over what was in the contract and paid for, etc. The only good part were some of the moving crews, which on the whole were friendly, professional and did a good job getting my things here in one piece. But overall this has been such a messy and stressful experience that I will certainly never use Santa Fe again.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: €15000

We relocated from Singapore to Europe.

After loading our container it was sealed, as can be expected. We later found out that the container was then opened, other customers household (Belgian customer) was loaded, and re-sealed.

This was evidenced by a document we inadvertedly received, where Santa Fe signed on shipper's (me!) behalf for importation of the goods.

So officially I imported goods I had no knowledge of!!

Not only that, they tried to get extra money claiming we needed a high-load container - yet there was room left in our container they subsequently sold (I assume) to another customer.

I appreciate anyone optimising their processes, but not in a dishonest way.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: 14100SGD

Be very cautious in dealing with this company (move India to Belgium):

1. They "sub"contract their moving services to very cheap non known companies in Belgium that are not compliant with COVID-19 government measures (no masks, no gloves, no desinfection products) and their sub-contracted movers have to work under a "very tight time schedule" (not even a proper inventory of arrival to count/tick the boxes on packing list was done - boxes were lifted to 15th floor and directly unpacked so very difficult to check whether all boxes were there) and you might lose items under packing materials because they have to unpack very very quickly. I luckily had my mask and desinfection product. I insisted they could only come back to unpack remaining goods when fully compliant with COVID-19 government measures. They use pressure on you by saying big elevator is there and reserved (move was on 15th floor), staff of 4 people is mobilized so that you cannot send them home.

2. Avoid doing insurance with them and make sure you request all insurance conditions & terms BEFORE contracting. They rely on their own handyman to do the expertise of damaged goods. When your goods are damaged they use the small letters of the contract and manipulated report by handyman to avoid any liability. I paid roughly 175€/month storage insurance for a small container. Roughly after one year storage and shipment protection insurance in total something of 3000€ - 3500€ insurance fees. All - but luckily only - my big furniture was broken with cracks, in departure inspection report no mention was made of any of the damages, however they will find excuses by saying it is "old furniture" when antique pieces, "normal wear and tear" or due to "climate changes" when in fact it was not properly packed. They find their way out to not cover your damages and make it extremely difficult to claim your rights as per insurance contract. So just to conclude when you think your goods are insured by them against damages due to move/storage, be sure at the end it is not.

3. Whole their insurance and legal services are outsourced to UK so no contactpoint in Belgium. You have to deal over email with their reps in UK directly. If you consider legal steps they make reference to Shipment Protection Insurance + Storage insurance governed exclusively as per "UK Law and UK Courts". This while full storage was in Belgium and move was contracted by Belgian Gvt and their Belgian based (post box) office, administratively subcontracting moves and outsourcing insurance claims.

4. At the end they make it so difficult for you to claim your insurance rights, so you just give it up. Like was mentionned in another complaint: "Do yourself a favor and avoid Santa Fe unless you don’t care for your belongings and/or love playing an endless game of administrative cat and mouse."

5. In order to avoid others have the same bad experience I took the time just to warn you. If you do your move in/to Belgium there are much more reliant and professional companies to deal with. So avoid this kind of non reliable (post box) companies based in Belgium that just take a big commission and outsource everything such as moving services/insurances to low cost service providers.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $7500