Movers Not Shakers

At first I thought Movers Not Shakers were going to be a god-send as I had to book them last minute and they seemed very capable of doing the job.  However, when I made the simple request of asking for a copy of the insurance policy I was told that it could not be sent to me until Monday (I asked on a Friday).  At first, Mike said he would not hold the trucks for me over the weekend but when I explained to him that I would find someone else he guaranteed to hold them for me until Monday afternoon so I had time  to review the policy.  On Monday AM, I received an email from that he booked the trucks over the weekend.  Makes me think they may not want people to look to closely at the insurance policy.

I rang Mike yesterday to see if he could arrange my move today - just over 24 hours notice. The guy who came (sorry I can't remember his name, but I do recall he was from Durban in South Africa) was absolutely lovely - on time, efficiently packed up the van in London and arrived all the way down in East Sussex punctually. He was polite and handled my possessions carefully. The total cost of the job was about a third of the price that I was quoted by Bournes. I will definitely be using this company again when I move back to London. Thank you. 

I had to find a removals company at very short notice (booked on a Thursday for a move the following Wednesday).  Pickfords couldn't fit me in, so despite some of the negative reviews on here, I gave Movers Not Shakers a go.  When Mike gave me a quote that was nearly half the cost of what Pickfords would have charged me had they been available, I have to admit I was a little concerned about the level of service I would get on the day...

They were wonderful!

The van size was just right, and there were two removals men (Todd and Silvio) who turned up on time and were charming, helpful and didn't stop working until the job was done.   Nothing was broken, nothing was too much trouble and was done in super-fast time.   In fact the work was done so quickly that Mike reduced the charge he had quoted me.   

Thank you to Mike, Todd & Silvio for making my (very stressful short-notice move) so simple and easy.   I hope I'm not going to move again for many years but I'll tell all my friends and colleagues about you!

Cheers!

Please take heed of the warnings on here and DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS. I could go into details about the terrible way they behaved, but enough to say, the men turned up late and hungover (one of them actually told us this) and we had to ask one of the young eastern european guys to leave after telling us to  "F*** off, I'm not your slave", after I told him not to put something in a certain place! Mike the owner cannot or will not see the problem with his company and his attitude (and I expect he'll leave a message on here saying I'm unreasonable too). He and his men made our day a nightmare and he has still refused to apologise, saying the guy in question was stressed out with a new baby. He does not know anything about customer service or care and believe me, I have no ulterior motive, I am only stating the truth, so this doesn't happen to someone else. As the lady said before, I would give zero stars if I could. Find another company, whoever they are, in comparison to this lot, they will be great.

Hi Mike,

Just wanted to say your guys today were excellent. Think one was called Gregor and can’t remember the other guy’s name. Not a thing seems to be broken and the punctuality, speed and care they took was fantastic. They were also very kind to my pregnant wife who managed to lock herself out the house. We’ve only moved to rented accommodation and will be moving again within the year as soon as we buy a house and we’ll be looking to use you again when the time comes.

Thanks and kind regards,
Lee T

We decided to use Movers Not Shakers after reading a positive article on them in Time Out. Our experience was very good.

Mike visited our property at short notice and provided a very reasonable quote – almost half the amount quoted by Pickfords. We booked a date and everything was set.

Our team on the day comprised Clint and Silvio. Both were very nice guys, who worked extremely hard and were very careful with all of our things.

Our well-stocked one bedroom flat was wrapped, boxed, loaded, transported and unloaded in 7.5 hours – no mean feat considering we were moving from the second floor, with no lift. Silvio actually managed to (carefully) take 70 boxes from our top floor flat and load them into the van in 35 minutes. A personal best apparently!

During the move not one item was damaged or broken, and the guys displayed a friendly and helpful attitude throughout.

We would recommend.

We thought the owner was well organised and reasonable. However, his team were not. An earlier review above stating that one member sat in the cab of the vehicle doing nothing was exactly the same as our experience….we had no idea that he wasn’t doing anything until we walked down to the lorry and found him sitting there, blaming a twisted ankle. He left all the work to the other two – one young guy and one close to retirement who were clearly exhausted. They worked well together but were moaning about what a slacker he was. Unfortunately because of htis experience, we would not use them again.

You can use with confidence MOVERS NOT SHAKERS.
They packed all our stuff and safely took everything to our new home.
I am very happy with the job they did and i RECOMMEND them to all.

DO NOT USE THESE PEOPLE! MIKE the owner RUINED my moving day. Moving from a large property to a smaller one I wanted assurance so got Mike to visit my house for an accurate quote. He walked through with me from top to bottom and he assured me he could do it and I would not be displeased with the men he sent and would take around 5 hours using his largest van. I emailed and called to confirm after this with him.
Due to the size and nature of my move as advised by Mike we booked to move at 9am. For my 5 bedroom house- Mike sent a Luton van. This is used for a single person moving or to deliver a fridge The movers were in dismay to see the size of my house & said it would take at least 8 trips and 12 hours! We rang Mike to ask why he had sent this van when he had seen what he was dealing with, him saying might possibly take 2 trips...
He was very rude, unprofessional saying he didn't like OUR attitude! He said I knew the size van he was sending was small(not true) and I should have looked on the website. I booked with him in person and was assured to be using a large 7.5 ton truck. Plus what can a photo on a screen confirm for me- ever viewed a flat online and been shocked to visit in person? He is the 'professional' so is his role to know what to send and communicate properly to customers.
The van was being loaded- over the phone he ordered the 2 skinny moving men to unload my things and he wasn't doing the job! Unbelievable on the day!
He acted like a child, ruined my day making me find another company at 0 notice, put the phone down on me questioning what he was doing to me and why! The very reason he visited my home was to avoid such a situation but even so no one on his side (I am the customer) should react in such an appalling manner.
Ready to leave initially at 9am- I didn't move from my house until 5pm that day. Luckily, with a large and professional company sending big men in big vans.
Really he deserves 0 Stars, but that's not an option to leave so.
MIKE DISGRACED HIMSELF, HIS COMPANY MOVERS NOT SHAKERS ARE APPALLING. STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS.

Terrible if you don't get the right team or have to deal with the owner (Mike).

Moving home is stressful enough as it is -- it's not worth hiring an unprofessional outfit to make the experience worse.

Our first move was organised by an employee as the owner was on holiday for several months. Communication was perfect, the two member removals team were professional and efficient, and we had no damages to either the properties or our items.

For our latest home move, based on the great experience we had before we decided to hire Movers Not Shakers again. This time it was a nightmare.

The owner was completely disorganised and often didn't have his diary on him. We would have to be the ones to contact him to confirm bookings and instructions, as he was not responsive and did not initiate any confirmations. He would confirm the wrong date and time, instead of saying "let me check and get back to you". As a result, the movers showed up at the wrong time, even after our repeated confirmations before the move which we had to initiate, and without the proper packing materials or instructions.

Not only did they show up without any tape for a job that included packing delicate items, there were more movers this time and they took twice as long. Often the extra mover would be caught sitting in the cab of the vehicles with his legs on the dashboard doing nothing or sitting on our furniture swinging his legs. This was upsetting as they were charging us by the hour.

The team we had this time were clearly not properly trained and ended up damaging the walls and flooring significantly, as well as our furniture and personal items. When we phoned the owner he said customers should expect damage when moving an entire household and we should just "live with it". We are reasonable and understand damage may occur, but being told those responsible for the damage that they would not compensate us was surprising. This kind of attitude from the owner of a business is disappointing to say the least.

Then the owner apparently told his employees they would not be paid, after which the movers came back and tried to get us to pay them cash because they claimed the owner would dock them for a week's wages.

We agreed to pay for the removal but only via credit card so that we would have a receipt for payment and be able to hold the owner to his assurances that we would be reimbursed for the damages. We had previously been told that credit cards were an accepted form of payment and found it quite suspicious that suddenly they were demanding cash or they would not leave the premises. When we informed the owner of his employees's actions, he responded by calling us rude names. ???

A nightmare.