This very quick process provides you with one way to help ensure that you choose a good removals company
1. Make a list of 30 companies
2. Write down three questions to ask each company
3. Phone them all
4. Eliminate the bad ones
5. Have the good ones provide quotes
6. Book the one that offers the best combination of price and service
1. Make a list of 30 companies
It doesn’t have to be precisely 30 but you don’t want fewer than 20 as many of them will be eliminated very quickly.
Ask your friends to ask everyone they know if they’ve used a removals company recently. Expect nothing better than a 1 in 10 response rate.
Do this first because it will give you the slowest response.
Three or four days after you’ve put the word out assume that anyone who hasn’t responded isn’t going to!
Now it’s time to make the rest of the list using the British Association of Removals website (hundreds on there), telephone directories, the internet or your library.
All you need is (i) the company name, and (ii) the phone number.
2. Write down three quick questions to ask each company
Be a bit clever with these. The aim is to spend as little time as possible talking to each company but getting the most useful bits of information.
So don’t ask “what does the cost include” ask “what does the cost not include”. This will be much more helpful in separating the sheep from the goats.
Another question you might want to include is what the payment terms are. You only want to be dealing with companies that allow you a little bit of time, may be a week or two, to make unpack and check that everything is there and in good condition.
For all the assurances they might, and doubtless will, give over the phone, they’ll be far more responsive to any issues if they haven’t already got all the money from you.
3. Phone them all
Put your watch next to you and limit each call to a maximum of two minutes (one should be enough).
Ask each of the three questions and make one or two word notes on their answers.
After each call make a note about how responsive, polite or professional they were as well.
Then pick up the phone and call the next one.
If they have a voice mail then leave a message. If they don’t reply quickly then they are probably best avoided.
If they don’t even have a voice mail then they’re out!
4. Eliminate the bad ones
It will be pretty clear quite quickly which ones did not come across well over the phone.
With a list the length that it should have been you will be able to dismiss those bad ones without worry.
5. Have the good ones provide quotes
Get a handful (at least three) to come round, view the premises and give you a quote.
Some will drop out at this stage refusing to do so. That’s fine, move on.
Arrange that they all come ideally in one day/ evening. Each one should need no more than 10 minutes to see all they need to see.
The more punctual, professional and insightful they are, the better.
6. Book the one that offers the best combination of price and service
Don’t just choose based on price. By saving a few pounds you might be getting a much worse service that could be unreliable or even damaging to your possessions.
So assess everything and give yourself at least 24 hours to think about it.
Once you’ve done that and phoned up any companies for which you needed to check a point or two, then you can book the best one.
