Yesterday my guys were conducting a local house move in Manchester, moving a 2 bed house from Old Trafford to Prestwich (6 miles). Our customer was selling and buying the same day so just had to got through the usual rigmarole of dealing with the solicitors, awaiting money to transfer and that completion phone call.
They started at 9.30am, as expected to load by 12pm, then 20 mins to arrive which will get us to the new home just before the key release.
All went well, the vehicle loaded, then drive to the new property. . “Oh dear”!. When they arrived the owner was still packing. The sale had not completed so OK he can still be packing. I visited the property to see what was going on.
Asked where the vehicle was – it had been on it’s 2nd trip. (I thought they must have a lot of furniture – until the vehicle arrived. . I could not stop laughing, my guys were in hysterics. It was an LDV Transit Van and not a pretty one at that (photos).
So while the 2 men were loading the LDV (I had to take pics, as they did not have professional transit blankets, but had a quilt, a duvet, and some bed sheets (I am not kidding) The sofa was just put in with no covers, with boxes stacked to pack it in. (photo)
They then trundled off to Ramsbottom (13 miles) which was taking 2 hours per trip. Whilst they were gone, ‘our customers’ got the phone call that the sale had completed.
I explained to my customer that the house was not empty – which caused her stress, so she had to contact her solicitors to advise them that the movers could not unload and had to wait whilst the old owner emptied the house. As they were not ready then we are entitled to charge a key waiting fee (which the solicitor is looking to deduct from the seller of the property she moved in to)
The old owner was not a fit bloke, he had a heart attack last year, we did help move some of the furniture out of the house. He and a lady started moving the furniture out of the house and on to the pavement (pics) then the skies opened and started to rain. We covered his furniture on the pavement with sheeting to help him out.
As he lifted a box, he hit himself in the nose, cutting his nose, blood pouring down his face, at one point he had to sit down, whilst his partner got him a lucozade. I could see he was getting more stressed which is not good for his health condition, so he had to take a rest for a while.
We started to unload the vehicle 2.5 hours after we arrived, and finished the unloading at 4pm (we even had a coffee break and a chat with our customer) all was good for our team. During the time it took us to load, the other man & van had done 1 return trip.
They had arrived for their 4th trip just as we were leaving.
I offered our vehicle and service to the customer, but he was not prepared to pay us our rates – so we left. There was still a pavement full of furniture and a shed full of items. I can not imagine what time they finished the move with the Man & Van service.
I am posting this as a potential warning to all customer’s who chose to use a Man & Van Service, instead of a “Professional House Removals Company”.
That man wanted to cut corner’s and get a cheap move, I found out that they were charging £50.00 per load, I estimated 8 loads in there little Transit Van. We charged our customer a bit less than this, but she was moved in, having a coffee and an evening meal – while he was having to have all his furniture sat out on the pavement all evening while the LDV was going back and forth.
The nicest part of the move was when she told me “that we had kept the whole move light hearted, had some banter, and did not add to the stress of the buying process”
In the long run, gong cheap with your house removals team is false economy – and will cause all parties involved unnecessary stress during what is already a stressful Moving Day.
I am sure he thought he was doing the right thing, I am sure when the Man & Van went to see the house, they did not mention 8 trips, or furniture on the pavement, “I can’t comment any more than that as was not privy to the sales pitch”