Recommendations for interstate removalists for a move from Canberra?

I don’t recommend Grace Removals in Canberra. We moved a 3 bedroom house from Canberra to Sydney recently. We hired Grace to pack and they came around to quote. On the day they sent one poor old guy and hour before the removals team to pack our entire house. How ridiculous! We ended up doing most of it ourselves. We left just the kitchen to them and they ended up not packing any of the cutlery or utensils. Our landlord found them and boxed them up for grace. They did collect the box but to this day we don’t have them. We have contacted grace but they never reply.

Then, when they delivered our furniture to Sydney they had lost our 2 seater and 3 seater couches. Yes, they would be rather hard to lose! In the following weeks they didn’t call or follow up and never replied to our emails. We had to contact the Sydney branch to get any response. Thanks to the Sydney operations manager we eventually got our couches delivered several weeks later.

Throughout this experience the staff were rude, threatened us, totally unprofessional and lacking anything you could call customer service. I have since mentioned our experience to all my friends and family and in doing so heard similar stories about grace removals from them. I recommend you use someone else! Even if an employer is picking up your removals bill.

We have just moved from Canberra to Melbourne and would happily recommend Dawsons.

In the early stages, when we were still trying to get quotes, they were the only company who we contacted (we also contacted Wridgways, Allied Pickfords and White Knights) who were proactive in getting back to us and promptly answering all our questions.

They were also the cheapest by a long shot (half the price of Wridgways and about 25% less than Allied Pickfords) and were the only ones who could deliver within a week of picking up. Allied Pickfords estimated that their delivery would be 2-4 weeks from pick up.

At pickup (on a Friday) they were very professional and efficient. They turned up on time and carefully arranged our goods in their truck. They also had plenty of boxes handy to pack any of our goods that could be consolidated into bigger boxes.

At delivery (the next Wednesday, five day after pickup), they arrived six hours late, and weren’t very good at keeping us updated about their delays, which is the only complaint we can make against them.

All the goods arrived and were in the same condition as they were picked up, even though the goods had clearly been moved to a smaller truck for delivery.

On a side note, at the same time that we had goods delivered from Canberra to Melbourne, we also had goods delivered from Sydney with Wridgways. They were good in the administrative side before pickup but were more than two hours late to pickup the goods. They did not bring any boxes with them, even though their instructions mentioned that they should bring bike boxes to transport our bikes.

Delivery then occurred 4 days later than we expected given our conversations over the quoting period. The goods also were shifted from the pickup truck to a train and then to a delivery truck. This had not been explained at any stage. Furthermore, there were a number of breakages. It was a shame to have such a bad experience, because we had moved with them previously and they had been very good and had been recommended by others.

Well the move to Melbourne was done, and it went well. We got quotes from Allied, Grace Bros and Crown, and there wasn’t much in it. We eventually went for Crown. But when we had to delay the move for a month and get a new quote for about 60% of the amount of stuff we were originally taking the quote went up $300!

On the basis of a relative’s experience we got a quote from National Capital Removals in Mitchell. They came out to have a look at what we had, were VERY competitive with their quote, and the people we dealt with (Angie in the office and Steve in the truck) were great. I’d highly recommend them. No slick corporate uniforms but nice people and very hard workers.

Clown Killer said :

Don’t use the insurance cover offered by any of the removal firms – talk to your insurance broker instead, you’ll get better cover for about half the price.

Check your current household contents insurance, many policies already cover your contents whilst in transit.

White knights are pretty good . Used them for a move to Canberra and to Melbourne as well.

Get several quotes, there will be a significant difference between them. Talk to the people quoting about what you want moved and any special items – art work, antiques, wine collections etc. the way these items will be packed, handled and transported affects the cost. Don’t use the insurance cover offered by any of the removal firms – talk to your insurance broker instead, you’ll get better cover for about half the price.

Yep, a tick for Allied Pickfords for me. They moved my stuff from Perth to Canberra without an issue and it included a car plus assorted stuff.

My mother used Allied Pickfords when moving overseas a few years back, and she was pretty happy with their delivery. Of course, the job paid for it, so I can’t comment on the rates…

Defence Housing used Dawson’s for us when my husband left the army and we moved to Canberra from Sydney. They were brilliant, nothing went missing, nothing broke and we were more than happy with them.

However, a friend recently got posted away from Canberra, and they also used Dawson’s. Their fridge arrived dented, their chest freezer dented, their washing machine dented, their dryer dented. Their microwave was completely broken. They had some nice artwork and the removalists put them in facing each other, so the paint rubbed off and onto the opposite canvas. They had come quite expensive suede couches that were 100% stain-free when the removalists wrapped them in plastic, but for some reason when the plastic was removed at their new place they were disgustingly dirty and smelly? Half their boxes went missing, and took a couple of weeks to find. They didn’t properly wrap my friends model planes, and they ALL got destroyed.

Dawson’s had to pay for all of this to get fixed/replaced/cleaned, except the model planes, as my friend had signed the paperwork saying they arrived safely before he actually checked (idiot!). They were worth thousands of dollars.

So don’t use Dawsons, unless you want all your stuff destroyed.

No recent experience at moving interstate but, after having large and bulky goods and materials moved to Canberra, I suggest that you make sure that any goods are not transferred en route if at all possible. All of our problems (eg damages, lost goods) seem to occur when goods are transferred between trucks and/or companies.

Also, based on local removal experience, get a fixed price. We once stupidly agreed to an hourly rate only to find one of the two removalists was a tiny female (I’m sorry but she wasn’t physically strong enough for the job) and the job took much longer than necesary. It also turned out that the truck was too small for the job and if we hadn’t told them to forget it, they were going to have to do a second trip.

I used Allied Pickfords when I moved to Canberra from Sydney at the start of last year. It cost me around $2000 to move the contents of a one bedroom unit and have it stored for 4 weeks while I found somewhere to live. (By way of comparison, 12 months earlier it had cost me $600 to move the same furniture 1km into the next suburb.)

I got quotes for AP, Crown and another large/national mob I can’t remember the name of. AP wasn’t the cheapest, but they were the only one who sent out a consultant to actually look at the furniture for the quote – the others just relied on what I’d entered into their online form.

I’d happily use them again.

We’ve used Hoods in the past to move to Melbourne and about 12 months later back to Canberra. Assume they’re still around.

They busted some wine on the return journey, which wouldn’t have been so bad if the box of wine wasn’t resting on our couch.

Fortunately, we managed to get the stain out ourselves, but they were really good about the damage and coughed up some cash to replace the wine and were awaiting our advice/request on the couch.

I would use them again.

I used Fastmove to move here from Melbourne. They were stupidly cheap and I was nervous that they might end up doing a dodgy job but they were great! They handle moves in the reverse too. In case you want to save a few bucks, go with them. They used some gorgeous South American lads as the removalists. They weren’t the best communicators but as soon as I started pointing to where things should go rather than describing the location, it was magical!

Dawson’s Removals. My friends own it, so I have to recommend it! But they are good, they’ve moved me from Melbourne back to Canberra, as well as a local move.

I wish I could reccommend a good one. My experience and my friend’s and family’s experiences with a range of companies haven’t been great. I can offer some guidance:
– at least use a member of AFRA, listed on their website
– insure everything, or at least the most valuable things
– keep in constant contact with them about where your goods are, have they arrived yet, when will they go from the depot to your house.
– get everything in writing and keep it
– make sure you check that you get charged correctly.
Hope this helps!