Prime Time Man & Van Reviews 2

Not reliable.
They had to move scheduled work from Friday to Saturday. No big deal. I arranged things to make this work so they could do a different job. I appreciate that companies need to follow the money.
The big problem was they then never turned up on the Saturday leaving me with a sofa stuck in a house that had to be moved that day.
Didn’t pick up calls.
Didn’t reply to messages.
Really screwed me over.
Do not recommend at all.

I booked Prime Time M&V thru a referral service for a big move. I went overboard in preparing the proprietor, Paul, for this move with every detail possible, inc. a video showing & describing every item that required moving (most of my items were not furniture, but loose items that would require patience & an eye for detail). I fully accepted the risk on time & paying by the hour for it to be done exactly as I wanted: slowly & carefully.

The day before the move, I had contracted (at a steep hourly price) for an experienced porter to help me pack, as have a bad back. The man who showed up, while being lovely, admitted that he was completely inexperienced in packing! As a result, I ended up doing most of the work & was exhausted for the following day's move. Paul mysteriously calls that evening to say that he was sending me 4, rather than 2 people for the move the next day????? I assure him that the flat is too small & there's only one of me to supervise, so am very happy to stay with just the driver & helper I'd originally booked.

That should have alerted me to a problem, as the next day, rather than the Large Luton van I'd booked, the crew showed up with a smaller van instead, with no advance warning. Paul then says that he would send a 2nd van "later." Early pm, a Luton van miraculously arrives with 3 additional crew, even though I'd specifically said I didn't want any more than 2 & explained why. I now have 5 people swarming about!

I'd arranged the move meticulously, so that the items that needed to be placed in the new flat 1st (for instance items that needed space to be assembled before the boxes started piling in taking up floor space) went into the Luton van last & came out first. I'd even done a detailed floorplan - measured extensively - where every item should land, so it would all fit properly.

Because of the smaller van, the first crew were apparently leaving everything in the lobby of my building (unbeknownst to me, as all I saw was them taking things out of the flat) & the new crew actually loaded those items into the Luton instead, so the whole order of the move was turned upside down.

About 1-hr into the 2nd crew showing up, I receive a call from Paul out of blue, saying that if I don't immediately transfer the entire move's cost to his account, he would ask the crew to dump all my items from both vans onto the sidewalks & leave!!! This after I'd paid him in cash for the prior day's helper right up front & had paid the required deposit with the referral agency. So basically, at 14:30 on the day of my move (& with cleaners coming in the next morning early to prepare the flat for check out) he put a gun to my head. Afterwards, I discovered that everything he'd done, from not reporting the incorrect van size to requiring upfront payment was breaking the T&Cs of the referral agency. At the time, with my cortisol levels skyrocketing, I went ahead & paid him upfront...Boy did I regret it!

Basically, we ended up having to leave 4-5 larger items behind in the old flat, & go to the new one (5 mins away) to unload. The idea was to unload enough to fit the remaining items in, that way we could spend the rest of the time in the new place finishing the unloading in one go.

In fact, the unloading was a nightmare. I had 5 men dumping items wherever they would fit throughout the flat & it was next to impossible to direct where things would go, there being only one of me! I couldn't keep track of if my items were broken or missing, as everything was being piled up.

At one point, I noticed that a green Harrods bag with a fragile box of crystal had had the handles ripped off & a small Tiffany box in the same bag had gone missing. When I asked one of the men about it, suggesting it may have fallen out in the van when the handles came off, he went ballistic on me. He started accusing me of thinking he'd stolen it, then called me all kind of names I won't repeat here (but were shocking in their nature). I ended up having to call the police, as none of his colleagues were stepping in to stop his tirade. Here I am, one 5'3" woman confronted by a screaming strong male, with 3 others (at that point one was down with the van) looking on, with no help...it was terrifying! After the call to the police, his colleagues finally walked him out of my flat, leaving me trembling!

Then, in a final disaster, I was informed that Paul had told the crew to quit just before my pre-paid time ran out & to leave my items in the old flat, even though it would have only taken a couple more hours max to bring them over. Had I not paid upfront, he would have had to finish the job, as is usually the case with these moves, in order to get paid!

I had an emergency on my hands & ended up having to pay double to get the items out early the next am. Several items had been broken & he's since refused to reply with insurance details. Altogether, the move ended up costing 3 times his estimate!