Simpsons Removals

When I arranged my move they told me that I would receive my belongings definitely within 4 weeks, but it lasted 2 months. Co-workers were clumsy and bumped with my furniture against the wall causing damage. Most pieces of furniture had scratches on them. All my belongings were full of dust, while I cleaned it all before pick up. Making reclaims was impossible because I could not prove on what date I had bought my belongings. Overall, it was a horrible experience. I should have read a review website.

Service cost: £980

Right from the very first phone call to Sue Bacon to get a quote we were impressed. Both Sue Bacon and Sophie dealt with our move in a fast and efficient way. They offered good advice right along the way and were extremely helpful. The guys moving our furniture were amazing and extremely helpful, especially Steve and Jay. It was not an easy move, but Steve had already moved our furniture 4 years before when we moved in. He moved us out of our home this time and then into the new home. Nothing was too much trouble. They maintained a great sense of humour during quite a difficult move. We were very impressed and would highly recommend to anyone else using them. The 5 star rating is given because of the quality of the staff we encountered. Please pass on our grateful thanks to all staff mentioned.

Service cost: £2400

I booked a removal from Scotland to Northern Ireland and was given a guide delivery estimate of 7 to 21 days.

It took 58 days, so more two and a half times their estimate.

While this in itself was bad enough they also failed to keep me informed about this situation, providing neither reasons for the delay nor updated estimates, which is in violation of their own T&Cs.

In fact, they never even told me there was a delay.

I have emailed them countless times, including official complaints which were not acknowledged. All I got as response were half hearted non-apologies ("we're dorry you're not happy"). The pressing questions of where my stuff was, why it was delayed and when it would arrive were ignored.

When the items finally arrived they gave me all but three days notice despite originally promising me at least five.

Overall this experience has been very stressful and time consuming and if I could give 0 stars I would.

My advise is to avoid them at all costs.

Service cost: £1100

Removal van arrived promptly at 7:30 and in a whirlwind we were loaded. They left for the new house 40 miles away at 10:00 and arrived about 11:30, obviously keen to finish early. We had to spend an hour clearing the old house and collecting the last special items. We arrived around 13:00. Of course it seems to take time getting the funds transferred up the chain so our house was not released until 13:45. I had the feeling the removal team were frustrated at the delay but they must be aware of this. Truck emptied in another whirlwind of activity. Again mostly ok but several boxes ended up in completely the wrong place in spite of us labelling clearly on the supplied boxes. Only minor breakages but overall good. They just need to acknowledge that the Conveyancing system is not designed for early finishes; even if they think it should.

Service cost: £1500

My family moved to Canada from the UK this summer. Our belongings were collected in June and almost three months later are still in the UK.

They originally gave me an estimate of 6-12 weeks for completion. Had they been more realistic (I find it very difficult to believe that they have such a skewed grasp of their own operation) then I would have gone elsewhere.

Communication is cursory. They do respond to emails but only with platitudes (just one more week . . . ) and there was a marked change in posture from the moment we paid them. When we arrived in Canada, they wrote telling us that they didn't know when they would be able to send our belongings, but for an extra £1700 they could send it straight away. We felt as if we were being held to ransom.

There was a mistake made with our invoice, but this was an honest one.

My wife is a piano teacher. Her piano - and our livelihood - is stuck in the UK. We have now had to rent one at considerable cost, to buy a complete winter wardrobe, and replace our son's toys and books.

I don't think they are crooks, but they seem mercenary and defensive - once we paid, they stopped caring. I would advise extreme caution and to get EVERYTHING in writing. I wonder how many extra weeks this review will cost me. I'll keep posting updates here and on other review sites.

Service cost: £3200

If you have the chance to see this blog before going with Simpsons Removal Company - think again and do not go with them. I have never found myself in such a situation to even consider writing a review but this company is not what they claim to be. In all fairness they were always really kind, helpful and SEEMED professional. That was after I discovered that they withheld quite important information to the point where I actually feel devceived. They made me pay the downpayment (50% - ca. £1000) because the moving truck already arrived less than a week later. Then send me through the documents detailing that I need to accomodate 7tn truck at both destinations. I had to sign up to it because I had already paid the downpayment. No one had let me known before hand (which would have been the important bit). Then they hassled with me over insurance as they told us that each box was insured with £40 and in addition we could insure whatever we wanted. We got a quote for that in writing. Afterwards I was told that I was "discriminating" against the insurance company - I.e. not insuring enough stuff. When I called out to them politely that it seems that they had not checked what we wanted insured with the company first, still quoted us and this was not my fault that they did not know the minimum levels of insurance for their own company they dropped it - but that was a good 5-6 emails of hassling. Then the guys came and picked up the stuff. The movers on the day asked me for a feedback form when I pointed out that I had not actually heard about most of the things on the feedback form ("Have you been informed of such and such in advance") they said - "yeah the office..". Ah great so even the movers know that office is not doing a proper job. Afterwards I get an email telling me that more space was used than actually quoted for - I had to pay an additional £400. The truck that arrived was empty it could have been pointed out to me at the time and at least I had the choice of either taking stuff off the truck or paying but just receiving an email "Surprise - please pay" I do not think is a very ethical approach whatsoever. The day after the movers came I had to pay the rest of the money (another ca. £1000 - that is in addition to the £400!) even though my goods had not arrived in Germany yet. We then had paid for a Premium Service, which we were told meant that all the other deliveries were being arranged around ours and we would get our goods on a Saturday. They then changed that to Friday ("we never confirmed Saturday"). On top of it we then were unable to arrange for the truck to deliver in Germany so it had to go to a different moving company that we are now paying. They were meant to deliver today (as per the Premium Service that cost us £500) - the goods were dropped off yesterday. In between all these issues you cannot believe how many conversations and how much hassle we had to put up with constant back and forth writing of emails to get what we wanted, needed and paid for and that is simply not what you want from your moving company (given that moving is stressful at the best of times and you really do not need this additional hassle). Their one argument is that they are governed by the BAR, however I contacted the BAR about this unethical behaviour and their response mainly was I should try and sort it with the company itself first. Now I have worked in the Financial Services industry and I know if someone contacted the FCA (to which Simpsons referred the BAR to) this would have been taken a whole lot more serious. We did complain to the company so many times about the lack of service and the withhold of the IMPORTANT information to make moving decisions and they have always come back in a professional and kind tone which was a voluminous amount of text detailing and explaining but essentially not helping us at the end of the day. I spent so much money for a service that does not even deserve the word service and I need to spend more now for the moving company in Germany. Waste of money and time (not to mention a "premium service" that they did not stick to as per contract). I have to say that I was surprised to see the company respond to so many claims here on the review site - perhaps the time would be better invested into upskilling employees to not just ACT professional but also BE professional - I.e. giving your clients all the necessary information to make an informed decision before you take their money.

Service cost: £2400

Be very careful if you consider using Simpsons for your removals as they are at best unprofessional and at worst dishonest. The TPO will not help as they seem to be in league with Simpsons
In October 16 we were looking for a company to move our household goods from Sheffield to Cyprus. We chose Simpsons from the information told us by the customer service staff, this information was found to be blatant lies used to get our contract. We were told it would take a maximum of 12 weeks but it actually took 22/23 weeks, we were told the quote was door to door with no added extras, we had to pay wharfage charges to get our goods out of Limassol port. We packed our own boxes, gave systems the exact sizes, marked every box with the required information and prepared the manifest list. Because we did all this our quote was £1033 instead of the original £1094, We paid the higher amount and then spent over 2 months with many e-mails to receive this overpayment back.
When we complained to Simpsons they just reverted back to their t & cs and not honored the info told us by their lying staff.
We volunteered to pay for lie detector tests for the staff in question but never got a response from Simpsons. After the collection of our goods at the beginning of October the customer service was abysmal and always had to be initiated by ourselves. We registered a complaint, the outcome just stated that the staff didn't lie and again talked about t & cs, We again offered to pay for lie detection tests but with no response.
We took the complaint to the TPO who sided with Simpsons and did a very poor review, we asked the TPO to get Simpsons to carry out a lie detection test but they would not, they didn't even look at Simpsons on line reviews even though these showed that numerous complaints had been made for the same reasons with identical problems.
Do not believe a word that Simpsons staff tell you, they will lie and then deny it. The TPO will not bother too much to look into it and will side with Simpsons. We think its the do not bite the hand that feeds you concept.
Use Simpsons at your peril, we would never consider them again as there are a lot of honest companies out there that will do a good job, why take the risk.

Service cost: £1033

Overall this was a very smooth move for us. The move was planned over two days, loading on day one and delivery on day two.
The initial costing (competitive) and arrangements were very capably handled by Sue and advice freely given.
The three man loading team were very friendly and efficient and we were able to depart on time for our destination.
Two of the original loading team met us as arranged at the property the following day. Our possessions were unloaded and placed where we directed. The guys couldn't have been more helpful, especially when one or two unexpected property issues were encountered.
None of our items were lost or damaged, so all good on that score.
Thanks to all at Simpsons for making the move as smooth as could have been hoped for. Recommended.

Service cost: £1700