I've written this on another site as well, but wanted to repeat it to make sure nobody else has to suffer the stress which we did...

This company gave us a very competitive quote and seemed professional when they came around to review the amount of possessions we had. We should have known that their quote - around 300 pounds below the nearest BAR member was too good to be true. Things went downhill quickly from here. The packing materials were late. We had to chase the company. They were not sure what time they would arrive on the Friday - anytime between 4 and 7pm. After our calling them at 7.15 we were told they would arrive in the next 30 minutes. When they did they parked in a car club bay (as opposed to where we had arranged and instructed that morning - on the pavement) and consequently got a ticket. The workers were nice guys, but had been working all day and were understandably miffed that they had only been told about our job 15 minutes earlier. Our possessions were loaded up relatively quickly and efficiently, but we were disconcerted that the removers clearly had no idea how long their journey the next day (to Kendal, Cumbria) was going to take them. We had been informed at the time of our quote that they would arrive in Kendal on the Saturday at around 12 Midday. We therefore made sure we were there at 11 to collect the keys. We then had to wait, our only communication with the company being at our instigation, until 7.30pm for them to arrive (over 7 hours late). At this point they began to unload, until it became apparent that we would not pay for the parking ticket they had incurred the previous day. They claimed that we had to under their terms and conditions. I checked these, and asked a lawyer friend to do the same. Their advice was not to pay as we had arranged parking and they had not followed our instructions. The company boss then phoned up and began to grow aggressive - he told his workers to stop unloading until we had paid the fine, also saying that he would charge us an extra 120 pounds per hour of waiting time (caused by his not wanting to honour his contact). I then had to threaten to call the police as this is illegal and blackmail. The guys doing the moving eventually backed down, unloaded the van and agreed to pay the fine themselves as they could see the injustice in the situation, but the boss would not - another employee phoned back and threatened us with the small claims court. Obviously this was a hugely stressful experience for us - and the removers told us that the boss regularly tries to charge waiting time and add other charges on to his quotes. Steer well clear.