Pickfords?

janey_uk

I am looking to move next month and have obtained some removals quotes, including one from Pickfords. Does anyone have any good/bad experiences with them?

Also, someone else mentioned on here a while back that they thought Pickfords may be in financial trouble - does anyone know any more on that?

lostinrates

I don't know what the situation is financially but I can tell you that Pickfords have handled a domstic and intrnational moves for me and family with me organising and nothing broke, they were ok. They also just recently moved my sister and broke nothing but I think there was some minor hassle over collecting empty boxes afterwards.

Pigster_2

In case it's helpful, we recently used GB Liners for a move from Gloucestershire to Sussex and I have to say they were absolutely first class.

(I have no connection with them except as a satisfied customer).

Thanks.

p00hsticks

janey_uk wrote: »

Also, someone else mentioned on here a while back that they thought Pickfords may be in financial trouble - does anyone know any more on that?

They looked as if they might be going bust in the early part of last year, but someone stepped in and bought them

http://www.ldpbusiness.co.uk/liverpool-news/national-business-news/2008/04/01/pickfords-saved-from-administration-96026-20699865/

I've used them in the past and found them good, but it was too long ago to really be relevant now....

Premier_2

I've used Pickfords previously. I wasn't paying though I do know how much they were paid.

I found them highly efficient, highly professional, highly caring ... and highly expensive!

I've no idea of their current financial situation, but don't you usually pay removal companies once they have completed the job to your satisfaction? I know I do!

barnaby-bear

janey_uk wrote: »

I am looking to move next month and have obtained some removals quotes, including one from Pickfords. Does anyone have any good/bad experiences with them?

Also, someone else mentioned on here a while back that they thought Pickfords may be in financial trouble - does anyone know any more on that?

Highly recommend them.

Great packing materials supplied and good quality boxes, including wardrobe boxes, with a rail to put clothes on so no suitcase/ironing rubbish. Also some weird card backed bubble wrap that was fantastic.
No breakages.
Vans had all sort of weird special anchorage devices for telly, garden tools, bikes; doubt average man and van has this.
Staff were obviously trained to get stuff in an out rotating at weird angles to avoid bashing possessions and door frames.

janey_uk

Thanks for all the replies.
I have had three quotes - two local family firms and Pickfords. Pickfords were the cheapest and certainly convinced me that they have the equipment to protect my stuff, whereas the others plan to just use blankets.

m1ntie

I have used Pickfords twice in the past (several years ago) and found them very efficient. They are usually very competative on long distance moves but less so on local.

tbs624

janey_uk wrote: »

I am looking to move next month and have obtained some removals quotes, including one from Pickfords. Does anyone have any good/bad experiences with them?

Also, someone else mentioned on here a while back that they thought Pickfords may be in financial trouble - does anyone know any more on that?

Pickfords, as part of Sirva Uk Ltd, was in trouble 07/08 & was looking at huge losseslast year because of the donwturn in the property market: in early 2008 the parents company Sirva Inc injected aroung a third of a million IIRC to keep things going, & was talking about administration. The business was eventually sold off around Easter 08 to The Team Group.

Used Pickfords once in the past & found them professional but expensive.Have since used another firm who was equally professional but cost less Local "word of mouth" recommednations are probably the most use to you. Does your town/city have an online forum where you could post a query?

abouttimetoo

Hi Janey

I needed alot of removala nd storage work doing 2.5 years ago - all my furniture had to go into storage for 6 months as I'd sold my place and my new place wasn't ready at the time and I needed some smaller things moving to where I was staying temporarily and then 6 months later everything moving from storage and my temporary place to my new place in one go.

I did lots of shopping around and to my amazement at the time Pickfords came out the best in every way in terms of price, service the lot. They were absolutely fantastic as were all the staff I dealt with in the office and the removal men. They even sent someone out first to look at everything and then costed the whole lot out.

When they put my stuff in storage it went into large crates that were already in the lorry that were then sealed up and they just extract the crate at the storage place and it's never opened again until you get it back so there were no worries about my furniture being damaged with offloading and storage.

They beat the competetion by miles on the prices which I was really pleased about as I'd been led to believe that storage can cost as much as the mortgage payments.

They were fab - sorry I'm gushing here:o I don't work for them, honestly

PasturesNew

I and another family member have both used Pickfords:

1] Extra "packing service" was booked, £100 quid extra, they turned up and you wouldn't believe how fast/professionally they wrapped every intricate piece of ceramics, glassware, statue etc that my family member owned (masses of the stuff). They just kept going, like robots. Full speed, perfect. Job done.

2] I moved things into storage, then some time later had it taken out of storage into a house, then a year later back into storage and a further year or two and it was out of storage again. Lost nothing, all brilliant. I used what they call their "part load" service to get my stuff back. With part load you tell them you want the stuff, then they tell you when they will deliver it and it's cheaper. But you get your stuff back in batches. How that works is next time they're coming your way they will put one of your storage boxes onto the van and deliver it, so it can turn up on 2-3 different days if they fit one box onto each of several different vans coming your way.

On the other hand, I do know of somebody who did end up losing some stuff with them. Odd stuff, so they didn't even notice at the time. It went into storage, they got their stuff out of storage - and it was only some months/whatever later that they suddenly thought "where's my ....". But could never come up with a list of what they thought was missing so didn't bother pursuing it.

On one of my moves, however, I did find that one of their drivers made me feel uncomfortable in my own home when they hit on me.