I moved from North West England, UK to Southern Italy, afraid to say I have to agree with the negative reviews concerning Pickfords/Allied Pickfords - and, before others rush to say "ah but people only feel moved to review when they have something to complain about rather than praise" as I have read in one or two other reviews, one has to ask oneself WHY there are SO MANY negative reviews?? Yes it's true, more people tell others about poor service than excellent service but so many awful reviews - surely we can't all be wrong?

I did some research regarding international removers (with hindsight, I wish I had done more but I had time pressures to get the move organised) and let's face it when you think of International Movers you think of Pickfords - therein lies the first problem, they rely too much on their historic trading name rather than the service they provide nowadays! When I looked on the web at Pickfords reviews they were 60% positive and 40% negative - hardly "all one sided" as someone else has described Pickfords reviews. Though apprehensive I went ahead and booked Pickfords.
My advice to others?? spend a little more time researching other International Removal companies, I am sure it will be time well spent.

Summarising my Experience (which is hard as my complaint to Pickfords/Allied Pickfords ran to five pages of all the things that were so wrong with the whole experience!):

Front end polished and slick - but that's before you've signed everything and they've got their hands on your money - after that the service changes distinctly. The staff arrived on time, on the removal day we had agreed, were pleasant and worked diligently, I had no issue with the front end of the service - though some of the packing was a tad questionable - I was told not to worry as some items would be re-packed at the depot.

Hard working staff at the front and back ends of the process (the packing/collection and delivery staff) whose livelihoods in turn, are reliant on good leadership, effective management and decent administration systems - sadly none of those were exhibited during my move.

Once your shipment leaves your local Pickfords depot and goes to the 'European Operations Department' in London you really are in the lap of the gods!

Attention to detail is not their strong point! - they got the actual town it was being delivered to wrong, when I pointed this out I was told I would have to pay more as it was further, despite the precise location being detailed on my initial web enquiry form. We gave them very detailed instructions about parking/delivery restrictions - when did they eventually say they wanted to deliver? Yes, you've guessed it, during the period when restrictions were in place! - this further delayed our shipment.

I was requested to complete a 'customer satisfaction survey' when they had only completed 40% of the contracted service!

The much vaunted 'Globalcom' tracking service doesn't work, so we weren't able to track our shipment - that's absolutely fine no problem with it, but don't advertise it in the glossy brochures as a 'benefit'!

My Personal Move Co-Ordinator who was supposed to 'save me time and effort', wasn't very 'personal' and certainly didn't save me time and effort.

By the time my shipment (finally) arrived it was more than double the contracted time in the 'Move Plan' - that's some margin of error!

Nearly 2 hours late on the day of delivery - a phone call from Pickfords or the driver to let us know would have been nice, especially considering they had my mobile number. When the delivery truck finally arrived and to be fair and balanced, the 2 members of staff worked very very hard and were shattered by the end of it - for this reason we ended up carrying our own things into the house as we felt sorry for them and we did not ask them to perform the unwrapping service - despite having paid for this service.

Pickfords damaged the Flat Screen TV, (the corners were all scratched, they hadn't even bothered to use corner protectors, which is pretty standard when packing pictures or 'framed' items for shipment), a Leather Armchair and a wooden sideboard were also damaged.

They have absolutely no appreciation of what it's truly like to be on the receiving end of their service! or the impact their actions have - 100% over the delivery date? what's the problem? surely you can sit/sleep on the floor for another 3 - 4 weeks if you are without a sofa or a bed!! You start to comprehend what this company truly thinks about customer service when they ask you to sign the acceptance/satisfaction of delivery sheet, one of the questions I was asked to tick was "did the delivery arrive on the day it was scheduled"? (says it all really? and there was me thinking being 2 hours late was somewhat important - obviously not!).

Finally, what I found quite disturbing was, on unpacking items I found some 'strange' things in a couple of my (sealed) boxes, e.g. in a Samsung Laser Printer I found: a child's drawing; some paper wrappers for sports socks; a Tesco freezer bag and a jiffy bag for an X Box! In my written complaint which I sent to the Managing Director in London, I asked them to explain the process once my goods are packed up at my home address and then taken away for shipment to the relevant destination, (I was particularly keen to understand the security aspects). THEY DIDN'T AFFORD ME THE COURTESY OF A REPLY!

I am writing this review somewhat belatedly, but I feel just as strongly about the whole experience now, as I did at the time we were being subjected to their 'service'. One of my main reasons for writing this review is because THIS COMPANY JUST DOESN'T LEARN! We all make mistakes but the important thing is to learn from them and do better next time, Pickfords simply doesn't learn and what's more they don't care! Until customers start voting with their feet and it impacts on their bottom line, Pickfords will carry on providing the same shocking service. I will never use them again and I suggest you don't either!