Better Home Removals

Great experience moving day – We moved from a 2/3 bedroom house to a slightly smaller place in the same suburb, both flatish entries, no stairs but some oversized furniture. We hadn't moved in a long time and were wary about the quotes we received from a quote website so used Better Home Removals based on a recommendation and the initial dealings with their office. The truck and men arrived on time (2 mins early) and were straight onto the job.

Below the email text I sent Julie in their office. "Just to let you know our move went well on Friday. Bruno and Brent were very efficient and were a pleasure to deal with. Nothing was damaged other than a few minor nicks and it couldn't have gone any better. Thanks for your help."

The minor nicks were on plastic containers I hadn't fully packed. Arriving on time and their efficiency took away a major worry on a moving day which also involved multiple settlements.

I am happy to recommend (and have already done so verbally) Better Home Removals for your moving day.

Don't Use Better Home Removals - Quoted $1,550 & charged $2,900 – Quoted $1,540- $1,738 and invoiced for $2,879.25. One of the worst experiences I've ever had. Use them at your own risk. The good news: The employees are excellent and did a great job moving our 3 bedroom villa with minimal damage. The bad news. Everything else. We were recommended Better Home Removal by Ray White Concierge Service (avoid them too). We had a guy come out and spend a lot of time talking and telling us that he didn't like the large Boomerang boxes we had organised.

He had a look through our villa and gave us a written quote for $1,550 - $1,750. I thought that this would mean that I would pay a minimum price of $1,550 and a maximum of $1,750. (Ended up paying $2880)

I spoke to someone at their head office who told us that nothing would be a problem for the removalist staff on the day and that they had many blankets so if there were unwrapped paintings etc they would gladly wrap them for us (actually that's in their quote) because they provide excellent service . So it was a good price and sounded pretty stress free. Right? WRONG!!

What took place was one of the most stressful experiences of our lives.

The truck arrived on time and from the very first minute the boss (I don't remember his name. He talked *non-stop* all day) told us that we should start loading up our cars and helping in the move to save money. I was so confused because we had a quote, right? And the quote was based on him visiting weeks before, right? And it wasn't an hourly quote, right? More about that later.

So anyway, we had sent back the $200 Boomerang boxes on his advice and purchased a couple of hundred removalist boxes from Queensland (another $300 bites the dust) and we had them packed, taped and lined up ready to be loaded.

We asked about a queen size bed and whether the removalists could take it in one piece. The boss said that we had to dismantle it because his team could not navigate from the bedroom to the truck. I knew it would take me forever to re-assemble the Ikea bed so I asked if was able to move it to the truck would that be OK. The boss said that would be OK. However, after I left, they dismantled the bed and got one of their crew to re-assemble it for an hour at the other end. Of course, I had a fixed price quote, didn't I? I shouldn't be paying an hour's labour, should I?

(upon reflection, their quote says that THEY would dismantle and re-assemble - so it should be cost free)

At one stage, the boss asked one of us to start loading their own car up with belongings. We wondered why we would hire a removalist and then use our cars, but you'll soon understand.

Mid afternoon, the boss started to mention that it might not fit in one truck. He then mentioned another way he was going to save us money. Rather than do two deliveries in one truck, he suggested that he get another truck to pick up the extra couple of items. At this stage, I could see the maximum on the quote was fast approaching. But it was much worse than that.

Unloading was like clockwork. As I said his staff were excellent.

After a long 11 hour day I received a phone call from the boss from outside the house to come into his truck to discuss the bill. Frankly, I didn't think there was much to discuss. But I was wrong. There was an hourly breakdown of $2,370, including $20 packing tape and, believe this, a "call out fee" of $90 as well as the full price for the second truck plus another call out fee of $75 totalling $2,879!!!

So the quote nearly doubled!

I explained my objection to the boss.

From my perspective, I had a fixed price quote based on a physical visit to my house by someone I assumed to be experienced - and any excess was squarely on the boss underestimating the scope of the job and outside of my control.

He replied that I may not agree with the quote but asked for an honest review about Better Home Removals...and here it is:

Don't use these horrible, horrible people.