So is there a REAL difference in service offered by expensive companies and cheaper ones? Well there is one story going around which reads like this:

'With cheaper companies, they throw all stuff in back of a van and when it gets to other end its all matchwood. With more expensive companies they wait until you are not looking and...' Here I would ask you to consider what is, in reality, happening. Your furniture is being carried out of a house, placed in a vehicle and is eventually unloaded and placed in new house. Rocket science it is not!!!

Lets face it what everyone wants is a reliable, efficient, friendly service. A company that will turn up when they say, not break all your china, be courteous, and deliver your worldly possessions at time agreed and in one piece. Surprisingly smaller, cheaper family run firms provide just this type of service, and after all, when it comes down to it, will your washing machine feel any happier in an expensive removal van?

The problem is 'How to choose your removal Company'. To some extent, that depends on your budget and what you desire. Some companies offer complete dismantling services, cleaning services, pet transfer services and more still. These services you will pay for! If though, you just want to move house and do not want a gold plated delivery van outside your front door, options are almost limitless! Or rather they can be! So before you even start to look for a company, decide what level of service you actually need. Once that is done your search can begin.

Magazine and newspaper adverts and yellow pages are all good starting points. If you are computer literate any good search engine such as Google, will provide you with lists of companies that work within Europe. Once this has been done you can begin your whittling down process. Price will obviously help here, as will attitude of person who takes your call! Personal recommendations are best, but failing that there are a number of Internet forums where you can ask others on line for their moving experiences. These forums can be very illuminating with frank comments on various companies abounding!

Research is key here. I have yet to find a single company that states 'we will be late and break your goods!' All claim an excellent service and truth of matter is that 90% of removal companies DO provide an excellent service. The only question is how much should I pay? But nothing is ever simple and all too often what looked initially like a good deal turns sour l

One of questions that has come up time and again from clients, relates to size. Contrary to public belief size does matter, but it can be terribly confusing. In UK we traditionally use cubic feet in calculating volume. In Europe (and more and more in UK) volume is now measured in cubic metres. To get cubic capacity of anything, you take height width and depth and multiply three together. So a standard fridge of 3ft by 3ft by 4 ft measures 36 cubic feet. In cubic metres this would be 0.95m*0.95m*1.3m to give 1.1m3. Simply put 35 cubic feet is roughly equal to one cubic metre! If you have made your inventory on a spread sheet it is fairly straightforward to add in a separate column for dimensions of each article you intend to move. “Ah” you say “but what of table, and all that space underneath”. Measure table as a solid! True, items can be packed under table, and in many instances items can also be packed inside others (clothes in drawers being an example), but whereas you may think you only have 20 or thirty boxes you will find that once everything is packed you have far far more, and this is where extra space under table will go. Also bear in mind that if you have 34m3 of goods it will not fit in a vehicle with a capacity of 34m3, as, expert as they are, removal companies can never fill every cubic metre on a van! (Now there is a challenge to some one) !!

Finally, please remember that when packing yourself, there is a possibility that insurance cover offered will not stretch to “all inclusive”. This is because insurers themselves cannot be certain that goods were not damaged prior to loading and secondly that they were correctly packed in first instance. Though we did have a report of one client who had correctly packed each room with twenty or so boxes. None too heavy, none too light. The boxes were all numbered and all sealed. The two removal men lifted a box each and everything in boxes simply slipped out bottom of boxes. The client had made up boxes, sealed tops and totally forgotten to seal bottoms of every single box! Sometimes you just cant win!