I knew we’d need the help of professional removers long before I knew we needed to move and I knew it would be expensive.
This was the first time I’ve sold a flat. Previous moves have involved me leaving rental accommodation, where you can be fairly flexible, and had me carrying boxes into busses, taxis and up flights of stairs. Such amateur tactics would be impossible for two reasons in this move; there are two of us and we’ve both allowed our geeky collections to grow and grow.
I used Broughton Removals three times in this project. They’re expensive (not sure I’d trust any removal companies that weren’t) but they were good.
Using Broughton Removals starts with a sales guy/estimator visiting your flat. It’s his job to work out how much storage you’ll need. He also produces the quote. I can’t see a way around it but it means the company has a good idea of how much you can afford.
There was too much stuff in the flat to even think about getting it photographed for a brochure and trying to sell it. The first thing, worked with Broughton Removal’s full understanding, was to load up one huge crate of contents from the flat and put it into storage. They’re not just a removal company; you can store stuff in the Broughton Warehouses (although I think the store is actually down by Seafield rather than just Broughton).
For the “declutter” aspect of the Brought experience we packed our own boxes. That suited us better as we could be sure it was done to our specifications and could progress at our own project.
Every month or so Broughton sent me an invoice to pay. No move is straight forward and we ended up without “declutter” – much of it our winter clothes — in storage for a lot longer than expected!
The second Broughton Removals experience was for when we had sold the flat and needed to move out. Once again we packed our own boxes. I’ve mixed feelings about it as it took a lot longer than expected and needed far more boxes than we had initially bought. If I have the money when we move again I’ll strongly consider enlisting Broughton’s help with the packing. This is a service they offer.
This time we were filling two large crates and the company sent two men. I found the removal guys to be friendly and effective. Where John Lewis’ delivery team had really struggled to get our sofa into the living room (we’d measured before we bought) the experienced Broughton Removals team completed the task without even touching the paint work.
I was in safe hands with Andy and Caesar.
The last encounter with Broughton was, as you’d expect, when we had moved into our new flat and needed our stuff delivered. This time it was a three man job; one man unloading the van, one man stationed in the lift (thank goodness for that lift!) and then one man carrying gear from the lift into the flat.
Once again I felt the team oozed experience, where effective and friendly. They unloaded all three crates in the morning. Boxes were put in the rooms I asked for them to be put.
The added bonus is that the Broughton Removals team will dismantle and then reassemble your bed. If you’ve worked hard to move into a flat then the last thing you want to face at the end of the day is having to build your own bed before you can sleep in it.
Overall? I had a great experience with Broughton Removals. They took lots of money from me and I shelled out a small fortune in tips but it was worth it.
