Britannia Leatherbarrows Removals & Storage

Having to move at short notice I cannot fault James at Legerstar self storage. Helpful from first contact right through to the removal company arriving with our stuff. Due to the distance moving we couldn’t be at the storage unit at the same time but James made sure everything ran perfectly and kept us informed all the way through.Great service and highly recommended!

Avoid this company. Very poor service, I had contact this company over a week ago to request assistance in moving a heavy chair down a flight of stairs. (Simple Job I know, but needed assistance). I made the booking over the phone was told that it was all booked and that I would receive a Invoice by email (Which I did not receive). The key holders has travelled down from the Midlands especially to meet us on site to find out No Removal Men Here. Give them 15 minutes before calling them to be told that they do not have any details of the Booking, Very Disappointed, I would not use this company again. Unhelpful and rude and no communication.

I give them 2 stars because my goods did arrive in the US with nothing I have found so far broken! Initially the process all seemed very professional and Leatherbarrows were helpful as the time was short. The packers appeared to be good with very few breakages! Issues arose after pick up. I was advised of the ship the container would go on, and so I tracked it. When it arrived I called to see when I could expect delivery and then I realised that they had NO IDEA. There was no tracking, little link with the US handlers and from my perspective I saw little ownership from Leatherbarrows. I contacted the US handlers - they were unhelpful. Eventually they told me it would arrive a week later than the ship I was told it was on, then it took more than 2 weeks after docking to get it 200 miles from the port - at one point I was told it was on a train that was going to take 6 days to cover the 200 miles from the port to my city. I was working and had to alter plans around when the stuff may (or may not) arrive, and after cancelling / re-arranging several business trips, it arrived the day I was going on a trip and so I was then charged $100 / day for the container. Eventually the stuff arrived - 2 great guys delivered it, and I realised the packing of my clothes, well, I may as well have screwed up my own expensive suits in to a ball and vacuum packed them for 6 weeks. Large cleaning bill ensues.........So, overall, the stuff got packed, picked up and delivered, 2 stars. Lack of communication, lack of traceability, a couple of additional 'charges', late delivery, lack of ownership - you can see where the 3 stars were lost. In 2016 this isn't really acceptable. Very disappointed.

We had used and been pleased with Leatherbarrows service before but, nonetheless, moving house is a stressful things so really glad to have their experience and professionalism to help us through. No removals/storage problem is new to them and ,with changes in dates,downsizing and storage arrangements involved, it was great to know that the removals part of our move was in good hands !

We received our cargo from UK to US within 3 months, as estimated.Very reliable service from start to finish. Helpful booking support staff. Packing team were friendly & professional. Britannia team and the Shipping company (Schumacher Cargo Logistics), both were ensuring that we were kept informed on the status of the cargo and were setting the expectations right. Can't ask for more. I would definitely recommend them!

We used Leatherbarrows to remove from UK address to their storage and deliver to France once we had found somewhere. At the initial stage of using Leatherbarrows we were pleased, they accommodated our need to leave on the 24 December and while organising our requirements confirmed they had good experience of caring for classic cars and understood the need to turn the engine over at least once a month. When our belongings were being packed up we were assured time and time again that our property went into the container and stayed there throughout storage and is only removed on delivery to us.. 6 months after putting out property into their care we had it delivered to us. Immediately something wasn't right and items were coming out in a different order to what they went in! Then items were coming out water damaged. The damage was quite considerable, many had obviously been actually standing in water for some time. We also had a lot of breakages and a lot of items mostly sentimental, wedding glasses anniversary gifts etc but also including clothes, pictures and books and other items were missing completely. I had numbered the boxes and kept an inventory of what I had packed, but 5/6 boxes were missing. It appeared some boxes had been opened and repacked with others and this is how I know items were missing and what they were. The total damaged items alone came to over £8000. Many unrepairable or unreplaceable. We obviously claimed but got only a fraction, Leatherbarrows didn't give a damaged and neither did Brittania. We should have been able to get compensation for their gross lack of care of our items entrusted to them. Don't bother with your credit card company or ombudsman either, they are no help and Brittania and Leatherbarrows know this and that they can get away with what they have done.

I have used Leatherbarrows twice now for a move of our inherited family items to the US. As part of this, much of the organisation had to be done remotely over the phone. Despite that challenge that this and a house situation being somewhat hectic to get it ready for sale, Leatherbarrows did a fantastic job on both occasions.Jenny Horner has been absolutely wonderful in organising and advising the moves, and mea culpa, in patiently dealing with my delayed responses to her questions. She was spot on and took care in fast order of the quoting and confirming documentation requirements for Customs etc. Just fantastic and made it really easy for us.The Leatherbarrows moving team did an incredibly professional job with some real care and attention to detail - all the items were really well packed and labelled correctly in what again was a less than optimal moving environment. Had some really bulky items (eg 12' solid wood table) to move out of a cluttered environment and a high wall to deal with. No damage at all.On the US side, their partner (Michael Diana and team from Schumacher) was similarly great about scheduling of delivery, turning up on time, communication and physically moving the often large items into the house.Overall I couldn't be happier - these chaps are real pros and know their job really well. I recommend them without hesitation.Rich

Leatherbarrows found a way to move us, with only 3 days to completion, when our first removal company told us they couldn't do it. They came up with a creative solution, across several days with storage, when we were not thinking straight. After that, they delivered the agreed service, on time at both delivery and collection. Colleagues on the removal dates treated us with courtesy and respect, and made it easy for us. Without Leatherbarrows, the whole transaction might have fallen through.

AVOID AVOID AVOID All rip off merchants !! From the estimator (Robin Johnston) to the General manager (Richard Fisher) to accounts (Andrew Pittwood) all the way through to the MD (Robert Dance)As can be seen on previous reviews!! Final invoice is double the estimate !!I got 3 different companies to send out estimators to our house to come and calculate volumes and give us an estimate to store our houses content for 4 years.Quote 1 was £1200 per year (Nowstorage)Leatherburrows Quote was £1400 per yearQuote 3 was £1800 per yearWe took leatherburrows quote as we were taught you don’t take the cheapest quote and you don’t take the most expensive, in the middle should be a balance between cost and value.When all our stuff was packed and taken away we received an invoice that equated to £2800 per year.When questioning the invoice vs the estimate as to why it was double ??!! The response was, “sorry, we supplied an ESTIMATE which you SIGNED and unfortunately there was more stuff in your house than we culculated for (they said their estimator had 30 years experience estimating). “We are willing to reduce the rate slightly as a goodwill gesture ! And if you are not willing to pay these rates (£2400 per year) then you would need to come collect your stuff as we can’t be held accountable for an ESTIMATE.Bearing in mind I had already paid Leatherbarrows a separate fee to pack and collect my houses content. I now had to pay another company to go and collect my houses content from leatherburrows and take it to the new storage company in quote 1 which stood by their quote of £1200 for the exact same content leatherburrows we’re trying to charge me £2800 for.To which I responded “No thank you I will have my stuff taken away and stored somewhere else”When I told Richard Fischer (General manager) I was having my stuff taken away he became very unhelpful. Not responding to emails, not responding to the Newly instructed removal company’s emails especially after arranging with Richard that he would communicate with them in order to make the process efficient and to get my goods out of their way as quick as possible.As a last resort we had to contact London Head office ( Britannia Movers) to intervene and get Richard and his team to release the storage container numbers and information via email so that the new removals company could go and collect my goods.I could not believe to what extent Richard and his team went to try and rip me off, fortunately I had the money to pay another removals company to go and collect and store my goods as I was told by Richard that if I don’t collect my goods they would just carry on charging me at the new rate which was double the estimated rate.This company and their staff do everything possible to get your business and then when they have it they double the rates and in some cases as you can see on the other reviews triple them !!I tried to find out from Robert Dance who is the managing director of that branch how this business relationship went so horribly wrong. And his response was “Richard is dealing with you, I am not interested, you are not willing to pay our prices and have decided to take your goods away. Robert did not want to answer any questions to why the final price was double the original quote, it was as if he was dealing with this sort of problem on a daily bases.Don’t go anywhere near this company! Not for removals, not for storage, not for anything !!If this review had a feature whereby I could upload the estimate and final invoice I would, as well as all the email correspondence I had to have with London Britannia Movers.

What a fantastic team - the 3 men that sorted our household removal today and loaded it on to the container from UK to Madeira, were absolutely brilliant!They were friendly, very professional and had a great sense of humour - cannot recommend highly enough. Thank you very much.Also Jenny in the office at Bournemouth who dealt with all my emails and queries has been excellent throughout the whole process. Again, Jenny was highly professional, efficient and friendly throughout our whole moving process.I cannot fault Leatherbarrow's and highly recommend them to anyone looking for a professional, efficient and friendly removal company.