Reviews by hkiwi

This review is for Top Removals, Melbourne VIC

verified email - 02 Sep 2012

Do not even consider this company !!! We were mistakenly enticed by the low hourly rate and the helpfulness of the female sales representative. However, when it came to removal of our goods in safe, timely manner this company failed and provided no formal resolution process when we followed through on a complaint for damages.
Firstly, the company doesn't visit your home to provide an accurate quote. Initially the sales rep suggested we only needed a small truck but, due to our concerns about this, we itemised all our belongings via email and she agreed a bigger truck was warranted.
On the day of our move, the removalists arrived with a smaller truck but convinced us all our belongings would fit. Then, when the truck was three quarters full, four hours into the move, they informed us they would be unable to transport all our belongings as the truck was too small. Their solution to this was simply to do two trips. This was not an option for us, given the trip was going to be 1 ½ hrs away. We were being charged by the hour and their progress so far was much slower when anticipated.
Due to our concern that our costs would at least double, we hired our own truck and drove ourselves in addition to our hired truck. The company would not allow us to speak to their manager but agreed to reduce the hourly rate yet this was hardly compensation for our overall costs and stress.
The removalists then arrived at our destination an hour after we had – we had already unloaded our own truck by the time they arrived. They blamed the GPS but our destination was extremely simple to reach. They did give a slight discount for the delay.
Over the following days as we were unpacking we noticed significant damage to our furniture and belongings which had obviously not been packed safely. We asked for compensation for these items and for the cost of our additional truck hire. The sales rep asked us to forward receipt and photos as evidence which we did but then we were told, after multiple contacts, that the removalists denied the damage so we would not be compensated.
After multiple contacts she finally provided us with the mobile number for a nameless French manager who avoided our phone calls and was then extremely abrupt and rude when we explained our concerns. He repeatedly avoided us by responding that he would need to “check the file” and repeatedly informed us he would ring us back but failed to do so. After a lot of pestering the sales rep arranged for us to be reimbursed $100 but this was in no way compensation for the damage and stress.
Our feeling was that this a common method for this company to make money from customers and no formal complaints mechanism or insurance for customers. In fact, I overheard one of the removalists attempting to placate a person on the phone obviously seeking funds from him whilst he was at our job !!!
Horrible, horrible experience, with absolutely no consideration for customer service.

Approximate cost: $85.00