Universal Relocations

I used universal relocation for movement of my goods from US to India. Because of covid situation I had to leave before the goods were moved from my place in US. Venkat from Universal relocation whom I only spoke over the phone took care that the goods are moved in time. He was very much responsive over the emails and what I appreciated of him was he never overcommitted, but goods moved in time as promised. On top, the volume judgment was also accurate, just by sharing pictures and I did not have to overpay too much. I was notified at each step from Shipment pick up to loading on boat. My shipment was handled at chennai and I had to send my passport from Pune to Chennai as shipment arrived. The process was smooth through bluedart and I had no worries. The shipment was handled by Huzaina and team. customs clerance took little more time than expected. But again it was handled very well by Huzaina and team. Eventually material was delivered within 120 days and not a single thing missed/broken/damaged.(Including bicycle).Overall their processes look to be impeccable( especially considering my shipment was part container load ). I would recommend Universal for the shipment from US to India.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $1600

Shipped 10+ boxes. Took more than usual time (4+ months), which is definitely frustrating . Well co-ordination from Chennai Team (Huzaina) is exception. Also senior leadership (Mahdu) is very helpful.

Greetings Huzaina - Thank you so much for your outstanding and exceptional customer service that you showed in the last couple of months.

Greatly appreciate your patience and support. Your professionalism and ability to get to the bottom of the situation quickly exceeded our satisfaction.

You have definitely gained a new customer who will refer further to friends too. Thanks again.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1200

What a great international relocation experience!! All the items including the delicate ones and glass items did not have a single crack. Nothing is damaged and lost. The pandemic related lockdown made the move quite hard for all the parties involved but Universal tried their best to satisfy their clients' needs. The only negative experience that I had was gap in communication and charging way too high for handling, sanitization and repacking. I had only 3-4 boxes to repack after custom inspection. All the best to Universal Relocation.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1500

I am really impressed with the level of service provided by universal relocations, specially my moving Agent Huzaina Bee, she was very supportive throughout the delivery and even went out of way to get my package delivered 2 days early, Would give 10/10 for her efforts. Also Team that pickup my package was very professional and supportive and provide all information upfront about the cost and I was charged exactly same amount, No hidden charges just like they advertise. I also received a status mail every week informing me about the current location of Ship that is holding my package. It made life easy as I never had to call and check on status or worried about the delays. Would definitely recommend universal relocations for international/domestics shipments.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $250

We engaged Universal Relocations for moving house hold articles from (Coimbatore)India to USA.

Priya from Chennai Office, took all the details over the phone and arranged the required paper work and moved the consignment from Coimbatore to Chennai warehouse.

Priya was very helpful in keeping us posted as to what is going on. Once the consignment reached US port, Priya informed us and introduced the NJ office personnels for further follow up action from our side. Yes there was some delay in delivery due to Pandemics. But on the whole we have nothing to complain as consignment arrived in tact.

The credit goes to Priya who took care of the packing at Chennai. We have no hesitation in engaging them again for the future needs.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $400

I sent just one box from Rochester, NY to be delivered at my home in Bhadrak, Odisha only to determine how the service is. I am truly impressed that the service is so seamless and the box arrived at my home today. Balaji at NY took care of all the paper work and patiently answered all my worries.

The pick up from my home in Rochester was without any hitch. Ms. Huzaina Bee kept updating the status of the vessel every week.That may seem a bit frequent, but, in reality, gave a feeling of confidence that things were moving. Mr. Venkatesa Mothish took care of the movement inside India. I am now so impressed that I am preparing a second box to ship soon. The entire team deserves kudos.

The only improvement I can think of suggesting is that the total cost should be made clear at the outset or what kind of costs may arise in the process should be made clear in the beginning so that a customer does not feel surprised later. I am sure that nobody would mind paying the costs involved when the service is good! Thank you for your service.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $170

Universal Relocations are very professional and great shipping service providers. From the time I booked the shipment to India till my packages reached the destination, they have been very helpful. They send weekly / periodic emails regarding the status of the shipment which is very handy. I did not have to follow up on any issues since their customer service is amazing and they were in touch with me during the entire course of the shipment.

Special thanks to Khushali for the support and help in booking the shipment. Special thanks to Huzaina and Sandhya for constantly helping me throughout the shipment period. Also special thanks to Mothish for the help to ship the packages from Bangalore to Bellary.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $350

I am happy that I chose Universal Relocations to move my things. I gave five stars for their excellent customer service and communication skills. From the time I contacted Venkat in New Jersey for pick up and Karthikeyan for delivery, every thing was done professionally in a best way. I must thank Karthikeyan for his great help in last minute trouble during delivery. My house is in a narrow street and truck was not able to enter. Karthikeyan handled the situation very efficiently and the boxes arrived in good shape. Thanks, Karthikeyan.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $1200

Universal Relocations took possession of our container of personal belongings on September 12th, 2022, from Entry Port 4601 in Newark New Jersey, which had been shipped from Dubai in July of 2022.

On September 26th, I received an email from UR, which stated that the shipment had arrived in the New Jersey warehouse and was awaiting routing to Washington. On October 8th, Vinay R. wrote back the following: "Your Shipment Was Loaded for CA warehouse from NJ."

On November 4th, in an email with the subject line, "RE: An Explanation Is Required", I expressed my frustration over the lack of transparency over what had happened to the shipment of our belongings.

On November 9th, Mr Shabaz, the Move Manager from UR in your New Jersey offices, wrote the following: "Please note that the shipment is at our New Jersey warehouse after clearance at NY. This will need to be transferred from New Jersey to our Fremont- CA warehouse after which a truck will be scheduled for final delivery to WA. Being a groupage container, the deliveries need to be consolidated to respective branches with us and then loaded in trucks for the final delivery. We will need a few days to plan and deliver the shipment. "

Is this a company that you would do business with?

UR then told me that they planned and scheduled to load my shipment from NJ - CA in Oct and made the necessary entries in their system which showed shipment transferred from NJ. In actuality, the shipment actually did not fit in the truck and the warehouse did not load it into the trailer bound to CA, but their team forgot to update their system and as such the shipment kept showing transferred when it really wasn't.

On November 18th, I also sent an email where I asked Universal Relocations to consider an appropriate form of compensation for the long delay in delivery of our shipment due to the lack of adequate tracking used for our shipment. I was told that Universal Relocations and I were not legally bound by contract and that I should contact DTD.

On November 30th, our shipment finally arrived in Bellevue, Washington, where it was discovered and noted that "Box" 008 was missing. This was an Iranian carpet made of wool that had silk highlights that we had purchased in Dubai in 2000 for around $1000 US dollars. I noted the missing carpet on the form the delivery person, Jose, asked me to sign.

Universal Relocation now insists that they never received our carpet in the shipment from Dubai, that it was never loaded into the container. However, the bill of lading from the New Jersey customs office shows that the company signed off on the form saying 31 boxes had been received.

As I said at the beginning, choose another mover - this company is not transparent in its communications and is, at best, incompetent in being able to track your belongings.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1200

I'll try to be as objective as possible and describe my experience so you can draw your own conclusions. I received about a 1100$ quote which seemed too good to be true (it was) for 12 Boxes and 2 Tv's Anyway, which got picked up on 13th Jan 2016 from Rockville,Maryland, I got my consignment in Mumbai on 15th April 2017, I was very happy when I saw that my boxes and TV's are here finally,

The Blunder began when I opened those 12 Boxes, I was shocked when I saw that many valuable items like my SONY Digi Cams,Homedics Massagers, Lee copper Jackets,Winter Vests, Addidas Hoddies, brand new 17inch swiss gear backpack, couple of my new skechers shoes which were bubble, even they didn't spare my shaving items like Gillette Razors, they took entire Box of Gillette Razors which was wrapped, small small valuable electrical items like google cromecasts,KODI streaming box, also couple of my new trousers were missing, many items were upside down, looks like some one has seriously did a foul play, all these above items were robbed from my boxes.

Luckily I received my few items like Xbox,Game CD's, Bose/JBL speakers and my TV's, for which I thank Universal Relocation not taking those away.

In-spite of paying all charges/customs/taxes/port charges, these guys ROBBED me

After calculating the approx price of the missing items, it comes around 600$ USD approx,

I called Barkha Rani, who is the Manager,Located in Cheenai, she literally said that you have not taken insurance, I don't think you will get reimbursed, she said I will let you know, which she never called me neither emailed me.

Also my wife spoke with Richard Maben, who is the sales Manager in US nothing help from him too.

Than I got call from Mr Jugal from Pune, who is also a manager who operates from Pune, he also took same information from me, and said I will received a call or reply from main branch, no one called me neither emailed me.

I personally feel I was cheated and robbed, after earning hard money, if these people are going to Rob you, why to do business with these guys ?

rite now no one seems to be concerned about my lost items,

So I personally request you guys, DO NOT USE THIS ROBBER COMPANY!!

It's better to sell stuff where ever you are, instead of getting ROBBED.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1100

Oh my god!! I wish I had read some of the negative reviews on facebook before I chose this company for the move. Everyone giving negative reviews are spot on! Moving as is, is stressful, but these guys make it worse than anything.

One line review - This company cheats, steals and scams you! Please, please do not go with them. They are very, very nice to you in the beginning to get your business, and then starts series of problems. It has been 7 months since we shipped our items with them and till today we are dealing with our shipping problems with them. High level review – They steal your items especially new items with tags (in our case, one full box was stolen and may be few more items in other boxes), then they claim it is missing and cannot be found. It doesn’t stop there, they scam you with insurance claim as well. Packer says don’t put the item on the insurance inventory, destination support person makes you wait till the last date to file insurance and then sends you the link to file insurance. So you get no money from insurance as well or your lost items. This makes me believe even the insurance company could be involved in this. So overall total scam, DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY AND TIME WITH UNIVERSAL RELOCATIONS. If you need details, please read all below.

Just to give you a quick summary – Richard Maben, is usually the guy in US side, who sweet talks you in to everything and makes you believe that shipping through them is easy breezy. Then he becomes the nightmare. No kidding! Here are our huge problems – they STOLE our one entire box from the shipment. The irony is, THAT BOX had the most valuable items with mostly expensive new with tags items, with a total value of over $3000. When they delivered one less box, I panicked. But the sweet talker Richard and the Bangalore support person Priya Kumar (both tag teaming in cheating people, read others’ reviews here to clarify), assured me they will find the box no matter what. They waited for 45 days (even with periodic enquiry by me) to come back to me on the 45th day with the insurance claim link to claim insurance for our missing box. But the story doesn’t end here, our items were rejected from the claim for 2 reasons – delayed claiming of insurance, and the most expensive item not the insurance inventory. Upon further research we found that one item was not on the inventory as the packer Bruce Glaze sweet talked us (again) not to worry about adding the item in inventory as we had total loss insurance. He said “only horrible thing that can happen to your shipment is if the cargo ship goes down, as long as you have total loss insurance (which we had), don’t worry about adding the item” (as that was a last minute addition to the shipment. In midst of all the packing and moving, we trusted him and now we get nothing from the insurance! So we asked Richard & Priya about our loss and said we don’t want any money, just find our box and give it to us. How can a box go missing? It has to be sitting either in the warehouse or some other customer must have received an extra box in their shipment which I am sure these people who have realized that when they deliver shipments to people and count them. But apparently Richard says he CANNOT find the box and Priya says they cannot reimburse our money. With continuous fight with the company they offered $100 compensation for our $3000 loss, 4 months of time we have spent on this issue, tremendous stress we have taken to deal with this issue and finally washed their hands off. This makes us strongly believe that it cannot be a coincidence that the most valuable box cannot go missing, in fact it has been stolen! So please do not even consider this company for your shipping needs and share this information with others as well. Thanks!

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $2500

I will recommend anyone to use Universal Relocations for your overseas cargo needs. I have used them twice so far. First I sent a 20 ft container and the 2nd time 7 boxes. I have no words to express the service they have given. Super. No hassle prompt services and responses on your enquiries. Their staffs are remarkable. Very professional and polite. I don't think any company would do a better job. I am glad that I have used this company for my needs. Actually I have contacted several relocation companies in US to do my transfer. Out of many I finally decided with Universal Relocations due to their responses, reasonable rates and etc. Once I uses them for my 20 ft container transfer there is no way I will go with anyone. The schedule may vary for a day or 2 due to holidays, otherwise they are at their par. Thanks Universal.

Move size: 4+ Bedroom Home Service cost: $4000

If I could give 0 starts, I would. Universal Relocations is the local partner for my international move from Abu Dhabi to the US. Despite knowing the arrival date for my belongings for over 2 months, they have not been able to arrange a truck to get my belongings to me. They have kept my belongings in their warehouse for over 2 weeks and then informed me it will be another 3 weeks before my stuff arrives. I was quoted a 10-12 week arrival for our container. My arrival will now be 20+ weeks. What kind of moving company takes a month to schedule a truck when they have known about the shipment 2 months in advance?

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $4500

This is my recent personal experience. I do not recommend Universal Re-locations as they charge less while quoting. However they overcharge by up to 50% without any prior intimation giving reasons of repacking, additional boxes and then charge overages claiming excessive cubic ft . This is a bad practice they are following to overcharge customers at the time of delivery.
In my case, they said they repacked 5 boxes, however I wonder how can they repack 5 boxes and turn into another 5 boxes. Original boxes were 20, however turned into 25 boxes.
Also my pick up was rescheduled several times, now my stuffs are stuck at Chennai port as they will not release unless I pay in full.
Despite repetitive requests they will not discuss this matter over phone.

Move size: 2 Bedroom Home Service cost: $1242

I had universal relocations move from Boston to India( 2 point delivery). We opted for a full load 20 Ft container.

At the outset i'd like to mention that my 1 star is solely due to my experience with the delivery team only.

Our sales reps were Arvind and Jyothsna. Arvind was ok and did his job. Jyothsna was downright rude and condescending. Your job is to explain the process to your customers. We don't move half way across the globe every other day and in spite of our best research you need to tell us upfront what to expect in terms of the move and the costs associated. On their website the quoted deposit was $500 but they invoiced us for 50% of the full quoted rate. We almost decided to cancel our order before they fixed the invoice to what was initially agreed upon.

To their credit though ours was a last minute booking and they got the paperwork and other process done within 2 days and had the packers scheduled to arrive on time.

The packing team was professional, efficient and careful. We had multiple high value electronics that they packed very well( no crating) and we received without issues at delivery. No complaints here.

Throughout the transit we received regular updates about the whereabouts of the container and its estimated arrival date.

The shipment arrived on time and the customs process was a breeze. The team at the port was excellent and made a potentially painful process seem like a walk in the park. This is where our good experience ended and the nightmare began.

We were assigned to Mr. Rajan from the delivery team. There was a small unexpected delay with the container so he suggested we have the shipment transferred to their warehouse so we can save on cost of container for the extra days. ( I appreciate that he was looking out for us). At this point we wanted our shipment to be sent to 2 different places because we were not restricted by the container and they were happy to oblige for an extra charge.

We went to the Chennai warehouse to segregate our stuff to be sent to the 2 locations. Imagine our surprise when all our electronics were piled one on top of another with heavy items on top of it. You spend a load of money to have them pack and transport your important items and you find it tossed around like a bunch of trash on the warehouse floor because they didn't have enough space.

Going back to the extra charges. They quoted Rs 13k towards unloading the container in the warehouse and an additional Rs 25k for delivery to the second point of delivery. We agreed to the 25K but were not sure why it would cost Rs 13k just to unload the container at the warehouse. We were given conflicting answers by different people in the team. After several back and forth e-mails with the team I still got no answer but just an e-mail saying I need to pay up for them to schedule the deliveries ( Not sure if this was supposed to mean they have my stuff and i'm at their mercy until I pay up.) The issue was escalated to the management and Mr. Prabhu finally gave us a resolution and we were charged an appropriate amount for the warehouse transfer instead of the Rs 13k.

A week or 2 later we got delivery of the larger of our shipments minus one item which we saw at the warehouse but was not included by the packing team in the inventory list. We were asked to send an e-mail so the item can be sent to us at a later date.

The second shipment with lesser items took another 3 weeks to be delivered. Still no sign of the missing item. Its been 6 weeks since the first delivery and I still have not received our item ( A mattress) and neither have the team at Universal bothered to respond to my multiple e-mails enquiring about it.

The on site delivery guys again were awesome. The clean up after delivery was excellent too.

Final words to the team.

Mr.Arvind : Thank you for the quick turn-around.
Mr.Prabhu : We appreciate your help in resolving our issues as promised.
Mr. Rajan : While you continuously and repeatedly emphasized that you were doing this to help us out I would like to remind you that you are not doing us any favors. Its your JOB to help the customer and minimize their cost. Thats why people picked your company over the countless others. Maybe you should consider cutting back on your lofty speeches about customer service and put them in to action to really help your customers.

Summary:

All our items arrived safe and sound except for one minor broken item. We had a full container so based on that, one broken item is trivial. If we exclude our experience with Mr. Rajan we will rate Universal relocations as FOUR STARS!! minus one star for the delay in delivery.

I will update this post in 2 weeks to let you guys know if we received the missing mattress.

Move size: 3 Bedroom Home Service cost: $7746

Please do not go with Universal Relocations.

1. I used Universal Relocations to Ship 8 Boxes from Norwalk, CT TO Coimbatore. The experience which I had was terrible. We sent our Shipment by June and Received by September 3rd week after a huge struggle with damages on New branded Kitchen utensils like Hard Anodized Pans Which is Too Costly.
2. We did everything as per the instructions given by Mr. Madhusudhan, sales rep from US. We packed in XL Heavy duty Box and wrote Fragile on the box too. But then also the damage had happened. We contacted the insurance team and they are saying they wont cover individual items which is not acceptable. Because of the bends in pan and lids the utensils are non usable which are brand New ones.
3. Every one knows that the whole box wil not be lost. The boxes were not handled properly. The boxes when it reached our home was in very bad condition because of which this damage happened. This is purely their carelessness but as a Customer we have to suffer. We are not earning money just like that. We are working hard to earn a single penny by leaving our friends and family. People don't understand that.
4. After using this Universal Relocations to Move from US to India,to be frank we had lot of issues and mental torture.
5. Please please do not Universal Relocations. There many other good, safe and secure movers who wil get ur belongings safely.
6. Many of my friends shifted lot of other valuable things with other relocation providers which reached safely without any damages.

It was my mistake to go with Universal Relocations so I wouldn't recommend you friends also to do the same mistake.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $1100

My experience has been not good at all good. I did ship 7 boxes in two separate consignments. First consignment had 5 boxes. The boxes were picked by FEDEX from my home and delivered to their ware house. FEDEX was their representative. But, to my surprise, when I received the invoice, Universal had added $50 as packing charges. When I called and checked, they said they received two boxes in damaged condition. Though it was not my fault, I still had to pay that extra money. When the consignment reached Chennai, they charged me another Rs.3260 stating that this was port congestion charges. They do not mention anything while picking up the material. For the consignment of two boxes, they charged me about Rs. 1960 stating the same reason. Until this is paid, they will not release your material. Practically, it is like holding you at ransom. They claim to be the best though not cheap. But, it is like you are being cheated.

Move size: Partial Move Service cost: $900

I moved from Sunnyvale to Pune in April (well items reached in August) 2017.
 
In short, the move was a terrible experience full of headaches; the staff could not have cared any less. I deeply regret doing business with them and I would never recommend them to anyone. All of this is based on my experience of course.
 
First of all Universal Relocations and UniRelo are the same company. Initially they try appear as if they are two diff companies - websites, office addresses, phone numbers are all different and the sales reps are also different. They give different quotes. But end of the day when doing the paper work it becomes clear they are the same. Alert #1.
 
1. I worked with Mr. Madhusudhan. He seemed like the most professional and knowledgeable sales rep assuring me that they will make my move as smooth as possible. Well that was until I paid my first dollar, that's when the trouble started. Later I realized the hard way that it's the trick they use to lure you in - hook, line and sinker.
 
2. The packers who showed up to pack the stuff were the most unprofessional packers I've seen. The guys waiting outside Home Deport for work do a better job. All though I had segregated different items in different boxes (bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, living room etc) and placed them in different groups, the guys just dumped everything randomly into the boxes.
 
3. If I were to pack the stuff myself I was recommended to use heavy duty (double walled) boxes. I had them pack instead and they ended up using regular boxes (single walled) which don't hold up well to rough use. Of course they charged me for the heavy duty boxes. It wouldn't have mattered if half the boxes delivered after 4 months were not squashed and mangled resulting in the stuff inside them being broken.
 
4. They suggest that you have to use their special TV boxes ($100) to be able to claim insurance and they put the box through a battery of tests. That's a lie to make you pay more. It is the same adjustable box you could find at U-haul or Home Depot for under $30.
 
5. My shipment was held up in the destination port (Chennai) for almost 3 weeks and that resulted in port storage charges. Universal dumped all of that on me. I later found out other companies that do the right thing by absorbing part of the fee and having the customer pay the remaining.
 
6. The way the customs and port discharge was handled was very unprofessional. I got requests to pay all dues (customs, port charges etc) which I did, but there was no follow up to inform me of the status or provide me with the paper work to back the charges. I had to make several call and follow ups to obtain these. Again every time I called I heard the standard excuse "Sorry sir we forgot". They kept forgetting for almost 2-3 weeks.
 
7. Finally when the shipment made it to Pune, there was more trouble from the Mathadi union. Maharashtra has a union of workers who do loading and unloading, and movers have to use these workers - that's the state law (well the union is run by you know who, which is a different issue). But universal (for a company that claims to operate across the globe ironically) does not employ them and had me compensate the union instead. Universal rudely declined they'd have anything to do with the compensations, while it was their responsibility to know about the state rules and employ the right folks as the state rule mandates. The representative quoted different clauses in the agreement (which were of course open to interpretation) to shake off their responsibility. This is exactly what they quoted from the 'exclusions' - "Difficult access charges to the door, Shuttle Service" -> interpreted as the union was causing them difficulty to access the customer's door. Cunning!
 
8. On unpacking and checking several of the items were found broken and damaged, including some expensive ones. As always universal disowns any accountability - it's the insurance company's responsibility they said. Of course the insurance company had their own way to deny the claim. Universal did zilch to help with the claim. The items would have made it safe if universal used professional packers and the right packing materials to pack the stuff in the first place. But no, they cut every possible corner to make more money at the customer's expense.
 
And by the way, I haven't been able to get a hold of Mr. Madhusudhan ever since the shipment left the door in Sunnyvale.
 
Net-net, my experience with Universal Relocations (a.k.a UniRelo) was terrible. What the staff do is nothing short of cheating the customer to make a few extra bucks.
 .

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $3000

I had moved from USA back to India in February 2017. Received my shipment in India in May 2017.

Overall very poor experience due to loss of goods, innumerous lies from Universal throughout the transaction and hence do not recommend the services. Though the people that I had dealt with looked all genuine but loss of goods along the way and their inability to help made it a very poor experience.

Brief background: I had booked Universal Relocator as it sounded like a good brand, a company came on top while googling. I didn’t do a whole lot of research on the customer feedback as it’s get super crazy to move your household along with family. After I completed the moving transaction and terrible experience with them, I did see the customer feedback all over the internet describing same ordeals that I had experienced with them. So it was my fault of not doing a good homework before booking my shipment with them.

Zero integrity: The quote process looked little cumbersome to me as it wasn’t straightforward. The charges were based on the volume of contents. Universal measured the true volume at their place after picking up all the goods from my home. The true volume I was mentioned was more than double of what I was quoted – it was also double than what the pick-up man had indicated to me. I am no expert in measuring volume but I am sure the pick-up guys do this for living and would have a fair idea of volume by looking at size and number of boxes. So it was a shock that I took with a pinch of salt – as at that moment, you really can’t do anything

Loss of goods: Upon receiving the shipment on the doorstep, I found few of my electronic items were missing, some of the cosmetic things were missing and lot many were broken. After opening few boxes it was very clear that boxes were opened at some point in time during the transit. I had a net loss of more than $1000.

I had bought Full Packing option from Universal and also paid heavily for it. Full packing means, they pack everything on their own. Very smartly they marked few boxes as “packed by owner” instead of “packed by Packer” even when they had packed them. I am not sure if it was deliberate or a mistake – but that played against the insurance exclusions and all my claims for loss of goods were rejected as Insurance company said I packed boxes on my own.

Recommendations: While I strongly recommend not to go with them but even if you decide to go ahead, take photographs of every box before you let them pack it. There is a strong chance you are going to forget after 3 months of shipment delivery which box had what item. Also, there is no way you can verify each box contents right on delivery – so photographs taken just before you put the tape on box would come in very handy to verify if you received everything.

Be ready for the surprise cost elements: While I was told of the custom charges in advance but I was definitely surprised by bank charges, notary charges and port charges that I was asked to pay once my shipment landed on the Chennai port. It wasn’t a huge amount but again something which they never mentioned in the beginning.

Ineffective insurance: They are so many exclusions that one tends to ignore or at least not care about. I ultimately lost few valued electronic items and never got reimbursed even when I had taken insurance for them. Again, Universal will ask to buy Full Packing from them to be eligible for insurance – but in my case even after buying Full Packing option, all my claims were denied.

Keep in mind insurance has a deductible of $250. I didn’t think too much about this clause till I actually had to go for claiming insurance. In the hindsight, it didn’t make any sense of high deductible in case of P&C insurance. I had claimed insurance of about $1000 (if my claim had adjudicated successfully, I would have got just $750). But my claims were denied completely due to all sorts of exclusions that didn’t make any sense to me.

Net net I felt cheated by Universal with so many lies along the way. The goods were stolen during transit and Universal took no responsibility for it. It directed me straight to insurance which denied my claims because Universal smartly mentioned “Packed by Owner” on the inventory list when they should have written “Packed by Packer”. I paid a huge amount for shipping that resulted in loss of goods and very poor customer service experience. I strongly recommend to stay away from them.

Move size: 1 Bedroom Home Service cost: $2500