Britannia Movers Reviews 

Britannia exported my belongings out of the UK to the EU (Germany) without my knowledge or consent, having cancelled a day of packing at the last minute (but did not deduct the cost). They then refused to tell me where my belongings were and threatened to sell them (after they had been paid a £3,700 deposit in advance). After they exported my belongings (which I did not know about) they emailed me to say that they had increased the cost from over £8,000 to over £11,000 (they had done a comprehensive home survey visit in person yet stated that the volume was a huge 50% greater than what they had quoted for). It is not a question of what is damaged, it is more a question of what didn’t they damage after my belongings were literally stuffed like sardines into a van, unsecured and mostly without any protection, with garden tools just thrown loose on top of antiques with no protection at all and left to rub against the furniture during transport, perhaps not surprising as the majority of their crew were school leavers (presumably much cheaper than experienced and suitably qualified men). I am left with a permanent scar from a deep cut on my hand after they literally threw a kitchen knife block with seven extremely sharp knives loose into a box, unsecured, with no wrapping and concealed with all of the other items thrown in the box. AFTER I had paid a further £5,000 under protest (against the advice of my solicitor and whilst having to arrange for another company to retrieve my belongings from Germany to take them to my country of destination), they said “yeah, I do know where your stuff is but I’m not going to tell you.” This was after they claimed that they could not tell me because all of their computers were down - I had challenged him (their Operations Manager) and said that I didn’t believe him and he knew exactly where my belongings were. He also said that he had looked me up on the internet and he viciously taunted me about the closure of my company, saying “you are obviously no good at what you do.” I am left deeply traumatised (feeling like I have paid to be burgled and mentally abused) and am now facing an unpleasant legal battle after they have ignored an email requesting copies of the export declaration documentation that they fraudulently presented to the UK Customs, in order to unlawfully remove my belongings from the UK without my knowledge or agreement. A few days after packing I telephoned to confirm that my belongings were stored in their depot in Godstone, as agreed only five days earlier and recorded via email, and the woman confirmed that this was the case. I now know that she lied as their German sub-contractor has since confirmed by email that they collected my belongings from Britannia Sanderstead’s depot in Godstone and exported them prior to the date of this call. I had previously emailed their director (they are in fact a small family run firm operating under the Britannia ‘members’ scheme - there are numerous replies from ‘Britannia Movers’ here, asking reviewers which branch they are referring to) who replied by email, stating that he “was happy with the way his team were dealing with it”, so the director of the company was fully aware. Their chief problem stemmed from the fact that they were not sufficiently versed in overseas customs (they simply sub-contract without knowing the intricacies themselves). I had been advised that based on my foreign dual citizenship I would not have to pay customs duty. Their operations manager had shouted at me, accusing me of “looking up stuff on the internet” and telling me that I didn’t know what I was doing and “your stuff will be confiscated” - I can’t help but wonder if he would have done any of this to a man. He was wrong as I did not pay customs and I have the documentation to prove it. Clearly it was them who did not know what they were doing. These were not just ‘belongings’, my belongings are my entire life, from photographs of my children and family and keepsakes that have been collected over forty years, to cherished pieces of furniture from my childhood and gifts from those whose memories I cherish who are no longer with us.

Edit:
When this review first appeared, Britannia attempted to get it removed by informing Trustpilot that the review belonged to a different company. I confirmed that it was correct. They now seem to have recovered their memory, although selectively. They state:

"Despite multiple requests, the required documentation had not been received. As a result, the shipment could not be completed in the normal manner".

They are correct that they had no signed contract or instruction to export my belongings. They packed on 27 Aug., exported my belongings on 29 Aug., and told me on 09 Sept.

Very efficient and helpful throughout the process. Made the move nice and easy with no panic. Marcus, Ant and Josh were great. Thank you

Great service from a really good team. Had the packing service which made life so much easier. Nothing was too much trouble for the team. Thank you

Extremely efficient service - everything went to plan

I found the moving out and moving days very stressful with so much that could not be done until the last minute, but your team were absolutely brilliant. They were calm, professional, prompt and so efficient my stress levels went right down as the days went on!

From the very first survey, and quote, to moving day everyone was friendly and very helpful. All questions were answered fully when I called and I would recommend in a heartbeat.

Great service, used for move out and into storage and for moving in and would use again (if needed)!

The team worked well togeather as a unit. They were very focused in the way that they dealt with a first floor apartment. The boxes packed well and labelled with the contents and location for delivery. Thankyou very much

Professional friendly service, great at working to time frame, no breakages or bumped walls. Clean and tidy everything you would want from a mover at a reasonable price can't rate highly enough and would recommend to anyone.

Whys, Ben and Aaron were absolutely amazing.
Could not fault them at all made our move so stress free.

Very efficient. Great timekeeping. More than helpful

All contact with the office was helpful and polite. The team of Leighton Harvey Jimmy and Adey were excellent very pleasant helpful. Could not praise all concerned enough and will gladly recommend Brittainia removals

An exceptionally professional move. The team lead walked around my property clarifying all items that were to be removed. Then the lead walked around with their team so everyone was very clear on the tasks. All items were carefully removed and packed into my storage facility - an exceptionally smooth operation, that included disassembling and safely storing a baby-grand piano. Awesome job!

From beginning to end this service has been outstanding. The communication and 'can do' attitude is so refreshing and a relief when needing to move stuff around the world. Moving is one of the biggest stressors around and only one who has moved multiple times can understand how good it is to find a team willing to go the extra mile to make it all smooth sailing.

My furniture was taken to a storage by Britannia Movers in two containers. Each item inside of containers was wrapped with soft material. They came at time. Not small trailer was professionally parked without obstruction of neighbour's ways in/out or pedestrian. Protected my floors. Took out and later put in a small porch light ball to prevent damaging it. Decomposed and moved furniture slowly and carefully. They stopped waiting for rain to be less. Composed furniture and placed it. My furniture had small evidencies of mould which I easily removed before the installation. They let me do it. Considering one year storage time including two winters, it is good result. Small wooden table lost, one bed drawer front panel unattached, some chips on but who working has no small mistakes to fix later. I was explained that they will try to find the table by my photo inventory. Not yet but I definitely looking forward with hope. The drawer panel was unattached when all documents were signed but they kindly promised to put it into delivery report. People were polite. I felt me comfortable, out of stress. Removals and return took reasonable time. I would like to work with Britannia next time when move in /out. Return was handled by Neil, Dave and Chris.

We were relocating from the Uk to New Zealand. Britannia Movers helped us in this process. Super easy to work with and at a reasonable price for the distance we were shipping our belongings. A super helpful team from the start of the process. The guys arrived on time and had all of our belongings packed and logged within an hour or two. We had regular updates on the ship and the eta of our belongings. Once it had arrived into NZ and through customs we had our belongings delivered to us earlier than expected. All exactly as we had left it. A great service and would highly recommend.

Very sorry to say the service was shocking.
I was told I was having the full packing service.
2 men arrived when I said that someone was supposed to be packing the items they said that there wasn’t an extra person available
The whole process was really rushed and I had to pack the items that weren’t packed up very quickly myself because they were in such a rush.
The items were them put into storage into the storage container what I said aren’t the items supposed to be all covered as I don’t want them damaging and they said they would be fine and the storage container that they were put in would not be reopened until the items were returned back to me.
I rang the office the next day to say my concerns about my items not being wrapped properly and it all being very rushed, so she looked into it and then sent me pictures saying that they’d now put protection over the items ready for when my items were being returned to me.

Some months later they arrived in a small van and I was told that all my items had been taken out of the storage container the noght before.and placed into this van when I was previously told nothing would be touched and would be in the storage container until they were returned to me.

in unpacking all the items I found that two of my items were damaged badly and also my items were just put into the property and left really disappointed by the service unfortunately although I will say that the advisers that I spoke to on the phone and also the two Men that we’re doing my delivery on the return we’re very nice and helpful and did take pictures of the damage unfortunately I won’t I’d be using Britannia removals Manchester again

All around excellent service from our contact Avner at NorthStar Mover Co in Northridge, CA to Kate at Britannia Movers in Redhill, Surrey who kept us updated throughout the process of us moving back to the UK.
The guys (Britannia Ryans) who unloaded our 20ft container, delivered everything to our 6th floor London flat, unpacked, set up and took away all the debris were amazing - Igor, Petr, Aurimas, Lyndell, John & Cosmin - they deserve 5/5 - Brilliant work & highly recommended to others planning a big move!

Due to a last minute sale I had to arrange a move in the few days before Christmas. Britannia came up trumps & the move went very smoothly with packing on 23 December & the actual move on Christmas Eve. Many thanks for a first class service.

Very professional team - they couldn’t have been more helpful. I thoroughly recommend them.