Handy Moves

Hired Handy Moves to move our two bedroom flat from Chiswick to Islington. We went with the full day rate as we did not want to get hit with any «terrible traffic» charges at an hourly rate. This was a good decision as it took the guys nearly two hours to drive from Chiswick to Islington, stating that traffic was terrible.
Overall, I’d say they took good care with our items. Nothing arrived broken or terribly destroyed aside from the minor bumps and bruises our IKEA furniture endured. Let’s be honest though, IKEA furniture wasn’t meant to be moved and definitely will not hold up to multiple moves.
The two guys were nice and polite. They worked hard and efficient. Overall, a pleasant experience.
The problem is that a loose blown-​up black and white photo has gone missing. It is not at our old flat and it is not at our new flat. It’s somewhere else and that somewhere else is either in the moving van or in someone else’s home. I get it, things happen. It was a loose large photo which didn’t fit into a box (which is why I set it aside, planning to carry the photo to our new flat but things got hectic with packing and it «got packed» somewhere along the way).
My attempts to contact Handy Moves are failing hardcore. I’ve left voicemails and emailed and basically stalked every contact I have at the company. I finally received an email back (a week after our move) stating that the photo is not in the moving van. DUH.
In response to that email I asked what the next steps were to obtain reimbursement for the lost photo. Crickets. My next move is to contact the manager (whose contact information was on the feedback link they emailed me) and if that doesn’t work, well, then I’m going to march my ass in the office and stand there until I get some resolution.
In addition to the above, we were hit with an extra charge for 5 large boxes which were not included in our original quote. Sure, this is in the Ts&Cs but it would have been nice if they would have informed me that they were going to use extra boxes because I would have packed all the excess clothing into our luggage and duffle bags to prevent the £25 charge for 5 large boxes.
Do I think the movers did a good job with our shit? Yes.
Would I recommend Handy Moves? No. They’ve lost a £50 photo which was purchased two days prior to the move and they won’t take responsibility for losing it.

Moved out all my stuff out of storage and used Handy Moves again.
I requested the same crew that did the move in but I got a different one. I was a bit annoyed but I did change my move date 3 times due to exchange and completion changing a few times.
The move was relatively painless although this crew wasn’t as efficient and didn’t know where they were going to so I had to lead them in my car. Come on! Ever heard of satnav???
As the house we were moving into was totally empty we decided to put down new carpets upstairs and on the stairs. Maybe the wrong move but we didn’t want to have shift everything twice. When the crew arrived we politely asked them to thoroughly wipe their feet or remove their shoes. One item went up and there was a BLACK MARK left on my brand new carpet. When I pointed this out I didn’t get an apology, I got attitude. Now I hate complaining but I felt I had to call up and complain to head office. They were very apologetic and they rang them up and had a word. The crew did a complete U turn and offered to pay for the cleaning.
The rest of the move went smoothly and I was relieved that the job didn’t go over the 4 hours that I had booked. Not sure if I would recommend Handy Moves after this experience or after reading other Unilocalers’ experiences…

The booking was easy, the move was slow and expensive, and on move day my furniture was damaged during the move.
The damage was minimal but then their non-​responsiveness to these claims were appalling and not acceptable.
My furniture is still damaged after promises of repair and then complete silence.
I would not engage or recommend Handy Moves again.