Abels Moving Services

Reviews

Dated rows only. Movers cannot pay to add, alter, or remove a review here. Licensed rows carry a small source label. Reader reviews are read by a person before they go live. How we handle reviews.

1. W

   William

   Source: RemovalReviews · Croydon, UK to Barcelona

   22 Nov 2018Paid £1,000

   The worst service.

   After accepting the job and collecting the good, they then tried to charge me an extra 700 which reduced to 300 when I complained. i paid as I felt must stuff what held ransom, needless to say when it arrived it things where broken and scratched i have complained and had nothing in response.

2. O

   Oleg S.

   Source: RemovalReviews · Uppsala to London, UK

   10 Jul 2018Paid £3,000

   Completely aweful.

   TL;DR: Not working with this company EVER again. They screwed up the collection date and threatened to hold our stuff hostage (which we pay for) because they couldn't wait for a company to do invoice. The communication was poor and very much passive-aggressive. This is as far from "service-minded" as it gets. I've had enough of "please be aware" and services advertisement in attached JPG format to last a lifetime. Long version: So, the beginning. We do the video survey, get a quote, all seems shiny. Abels wants to know when to pick up the things. We don't know though, because the renting market is ridiculous and you only have a week's notice. But ok, we set up a week when the pick up must definitely happen. Date gets finally set. Oh wait, that week is suddenly not available (there's a "subject to availability" clause in the contract, conveniently of course). Why let us know your vehicle schedule, right? But we have said that we have a hard deadline when we have to move out. So then we rent a storage (+cost) and transport all our things there ourselves (+cost) and of course since our storage room is on the 2nd floor there is an extra charge, because apparently taking furniture out of a storage (equipped with a heavy duty elevator and trolleys) is harder than taking it down a spiral staircase in our house. Nevermind the time/fuel saved due to storage being right next to the highway out of the city. And hey, we already have paid the deposit, way too late to look for another firm, anyway, right? Yeah, they got us by the balls. And to think that I actually expected some sort of apology, with a discount on account of inconveniencing us, how naive of me. Then there is the ridiculous requirement of labeling boxes and having a list of boxes and their value in £. This after having already compiled a list of all the rooms contents and their values. No, for the insurance, you must speficy how much each box costs. Or lump sum, but then you can't have anything "expensive", like a PC. And then the cherry on top. Abels is an international moving company, very experienced and so on. And so they split the bill between me and a company (C) that assists me with the moving costs. Except the C of course does the payments on a monthly basis (which I imagined, wrongly, was common knowledge), and our delivery is suddenly pending due payment. Of which they inform me Thursday evening, when I can't do [EDIT] about it. Friday morning, I'm trying to sort it all out and Abels tells me that they need the payment by 12:00 or no delivery. No delivery for a month, in fact, because booked up! And this is an international payment, so there is a snowball's chance in hell it will come through in just 2h even if miraculously everyone rallies, which should be pretty [EDIT] obvious if you ask me. And of course, delayed delivery means more costs for storage and delivery cancellation. Does this sound like a hostage scam to you? Because that’s what it felt like to us. In the end, it was sorted. In the very last minute, I was able to pay the invoice. We got our stuff. But it could have been much smoother. This is no way to run a business. Bottomline: I didn't get an impression that Abels are professionals. The impression I got is that they won't do [EDIT] unless you pay in advance and sign off all the rights to them, like you are some [EDIT] crook trying to rob them. This company seems to be run by bureaucrats of legendary rigidity. They throw a legal agreement at you composed in the best traditions of "end user license", neatly squeezed into fine print on a couple of pages. They don't seem to know how much time international money transfers take. They want YOU, the customer, to cover THEIR transfer fees. They have an online payment system for deposit (=instant), but NOT for the actual payment, has to be bank transfer. Oh, and on top of that there is the annoying music when you call them, punctuated by a pre-recorded voice telling you how they can take care of everything for you to make your move as stressless as possible.

3. S

   Simon

   Source: RemovalReviews · Bordeaux to London, UK

   23 Oct 2017Paid £2,000

   Simply dreadful.

   Booked a move from France to London - all confirmed - and the removal van didn't turn up! At first, they didn't seem to be that bothered by the error but after a number of very angry calls, the company managed to get another firm to do the move - a couple of days later. It took about 6 months for them to admit their error and offer a rather half-hearted apology. I cannot believe that they are still in business.

4. H

   Helen

   Source: RemovalReviews · London, UK

   16 Nov 2016Paid £4,500

   Abels Moving Services.

   We did an international move to Asia with Abels. I cannot for the life of me see how these people got a royal warrant. They're obviously so scared of losing the warrant that they refuse to admit any mistakes. The worst customer service ever from their' international manager' verging on the abusive, and the removal guys lied through their teeth about what happened. This company seem to believe that they're above apologies. Extremely disappointed.

5. S

   Simon

   Source: RemovalReviews · Southampton, UK to Koeln

   19 Dec 2014Paid £8,220

   Far from their advertising image.

   Chose Abels after shortlisting 3 companies following internet research. Close call between 2 of them but chose Abels based on their image of both professional and quality service; they were certainly not the cheapest. Surveyor visited and made accurate estimate of load. We pointed out several delicate items, including paintings, antique clocks, piano and furnishings.  We were assured that Abels provided the highest quality care and service, that items would be carefully, and, where necessary, specially packed and wrapped. Paid deposit and took quote for Abels insurance at £1500. Found (excellent) insurance from insure-your-move.com at £1000 so elected to buy that instead. Abels warned that if we did not buy their insurance their liability would be limited (this is in the terms and conditions).  Never dreamt that this would, in effect, mean that we were paying to insure against their removal team's incompetence.  Big mistake. Packing went smoothly; left team to it since we at this stage trusted in the Abels' service. On delivery, not all items unpacked; only delicates. 3 damaged items found at that time, totalling approximately £600 value (no photo I'm afraid; they were taken by the company and we had no reason to question). Company admitted liability but insisted that despite the fact that their team had damaged our belongings, we had to claim on our own insurance.  Abels paid only £120 due to their limited liability clause. When we tried to appeal to their integrity there was no budging.  In fact, Mr Neil Pertoldi, the International Moves Manager stated in an email "I sincerely hope that the money saved not paying for the insurance protection, plus the liability payment, will cover the repair to the items accidently damaged".  In other words, you didn't buy our expensive insurance so we wash our hands of our responsibility to deliver your goods properly.  Fortuneately, insure-your-move.com were much more accomodating.  Despite making the claim outside their 30-day period due to the time to negotiate nothing out of Abels, they paid immediately and without fuss for the full value less the £120 paid by Abels.  After the move, as we unpacked further items, we discovered a brand new £1200 wrought iron bed had been badly chipped, our £5000 piano had been misassembled, none of the original oil paintings had been 'specially crated' as promised, our wooden bed had been dented, a stag's head had been rammed into a box of other items, bending the antlers, etc, etc.  We had expected a superior service from Abels.  Having moved over 10 times in our married lives to date, we have some experience of removal firms.  First, they have never damaged as many of our belongings as Abels did.  Second, when they did and it was their fault, they paid full compensation; they didn't tell us to claim on our insurance.  That's like Rolls Royce telling you to claim on your car insurance for a manufacturing defect.  So by all means move with Abels but 1) be warned that paying for the most expensive removal firm won't guarantee you any better service than other removal firms 2) be prepared to pay for Abels' own insurance or you won't be covered if they damage your belongings 3) note that, given that you are paying (via your insurance) for any damage Abels do, there is not much incentive for them to do a good job 4) if your'e not the Queen, they won't take much care.  I sincerely hope this review helps you to choose a decent removal firm.