Allied Pickfords - United Arab Emirates

Allied Relocations as a company promises a lot and delivers a subpar service. There sales techniques and delivery are awful as services

My experience

1) Provided a sales process that promised far more then you delivered
2) Allied did not provide appropriate oversight on the start of packing in Abu Dhabi as items were packed with out any planning and wrongly labeled etc with items missing AND SOME NOT EVEN PACKED
3) Destination Sydney not providing appropriate number of staff for unloading and helping us u pack when we are go through a major transition. Worst was that your UAE team starting from your sales person did not even know that only two people were provided to unload a lot of stuff. We were not told, and your support team did not even understand that was the contract between UAE and Australia

4) Items were missing and we had to throw a lot of items away like fans as they were dismantled and put in seperate boxes with no proper records
5) No duty of care and follow up to understand customer experience which most global companies want to understand how to improve their service, Allied does not want to
6) No follow up on my complaint as was promised that senior management will call me and it’s over 5 months

Don’t believe the hype

We had utilized the services of Allied Pickfords in Malaysia earlier with satisfactory results. However, our experience with Allied Dubai/ Abu Dhabi earlier this year was quite bad. Allied Dubai is overhyped, way too expensive and their communication skills with customers is non-existent. We paid nearly Dhs 40,000 for a move to India and the insurance charges came to nearly Dhs 10,000. On the Indian side, the relationship manager was truly excellent but her efforts were overshadowed by the callous and poor response of the Dubai and Abu Dhabi representatives. They never used to bother to respond to our calls or messages. There were quite a few damaged and broken goods at this end. The insurance company cleverly used small prints and legal mumbo jumbo and escaped without paying a penny as compensation. No words of apology at all at the end of the day. We would not recommend Allied Dubai to anyone.

Disappointing

My family and I relocated back to the UK after 15 years in Dubai. Allied Pickfords were chosen because they also based in UK. COVID caused severe travel restrictions and we couldn't get to the UK as the borders closed so had to pay for extra 6 months storage. No sympathy no reduction from Allied Pickfords. When the borders opened we were told that there was a price increase in our shipment and were forced to pay a substantial amount EXTRA if we wanted to ship our goods. We reluctantly paid. We are now in the UK but WITHOUT OUR BELONGINGS!!!! The SHIPMENT IS A MONTH OVERDUE!!!. No explanation no apology no offer to help. No refund. Do not use this company!!!!!!! The global tracking system doesn't work. NO accountability.

Perfection

They understood the concerns, prompt responses for queries, undamaged delivery and set up.

Average. Disjointed. Poor UK Service

Average, disjointed. Poor UK. Expensive Item went missing.

Not worth paying the extra money

Chose Allied Pickfords because of the Pickfords brand and the fact they are UK based (for our move Dubai to UK).
Was happy to pay 25% more than cheapest option and 10 to 15% more than the average price of the competition.
Was not worth it - in hindsight I would go with the cheaper options.
Allied (the Dubai part of the operation) subcontract the packing to one company, the shipping to another.
Pickfords subcontract the unpacking to another company.
You deal with Allied in Dubai and Pickfords in UK.
Allied and Pickfords communicate at a very basic level but I received initial communications from Pickfords asking questions which were all answered in the initial (Allied!) documentation which I completed - very frustrating to have to go through the process again.
They are both really only brokers for the move so the brand name means nothing and they are not even very well ‘joined up’ to make it seem like a seamless operation to the customer.
Worst bit was that a box containing a very expensive speaker ‘went missing’. With 210 boxes coming in to the house we sadly (and stupidly) signed off that they were all received without undertaking a thorough check of each and every box.
I contacted the moving rep (Pickfords) who were unhelpful and, sent through a vague and inaccurate report after speaking to the unpackers and told me I was welcome to report the incident to the police!
WORD OF WARNING to people shipping internationally... expensive items packed in their original boxes (speakers, computers etc...) get them also packed in the company cardboard box as well as the original box so that the unpackers cannot see what the item is until it is in your House. The guys doing the unpacking are (with some shipping agents) subcontractors (one of the team unpacking for us had been there two weeks) and you never know if one of them might like the look of your item ...
Carefully mark the expensive items on your list and take time to check off that these items actually arrived in your house.
There was some good stuff about the process.
Survey was ok (online).
Packing team was exceptional.
Sadly, however, the process was ruined by the loss of a much loved and expensive piece of equipment.
Summary.
Brand means nothing - they are all subcontractors.
Check everything.
Trust no one.

Quite satisfactory

It was rather expensive but all the other procedures were quite good.

Traumatic and Frustrating, lies, lies ,lies.....

Was told lies from start to finish. Asked for an 'All In, door to door, pack/unpack service that my company was paying for (I had no reason to scrimp), paid over $11K only to be nickel and dimed for more money at both ends (Almost $2K) because they apparently 'Hadn't included that' (to reduce cost and win the bid) that I had to pay out of pocket to get my stuff that was being held to ransom. Was also told that it would be 'Allied' all the way, and although the packers were very good and professional in Dubai, the Spanish end was '3 men and a van' not Allied, who basically dumped all of my stuff in my basement and then left, whilst damaging half the furniture they grumpily did put together and didn't even take the trash with them, which I will now have to pay to get done myself, again! Also, the insurance that I paid $2K for in the quote now refuse to pay for 4/5th's the damage caused, quoting get out clauses in their massive contract. Total disaster, would never, ever dream of going near them again and neither should you.

Super Stressful, Lied to constantly

Was sold the job (over $13000) as 'Pack and Unpack' & 'Door to Door' all done by Allied people from start to finish. In reality, the only portion of the project that was done by Allied was the Dubai pack up (which was good), but from then on, complete disaster. Goods arrived at the port of arrival, and I wasn't informed for a week that they were there, all the time accruing Demmurage charges (ended up being over 1000 Euros), which I was again held hostage for before my goods were delivered. Was told that it was 'Impossible' to get my goods without having a Residency appointment (which are almost impossible to get quickly and certainly not mentioned in ANY documents that Allied gave me, was informed this AFTER packing and shipping, and when you can get them they are 4 months out) and magically when I finally got them to agree that this was the situation, customs cleared my shipment, amazing!!! Then had to wait 2 WEEKS for my goods to be delivered, but not even by the agent that handled it in Spain (Trallero), but by a '3 men and a van' outfit that was certainly not Allied, only to be then told that they weren't here to put together all of my furniture or unpack all the boxes. They turned up at 11am the first day, and left at 4 after an hours lunch, and 10:30 am the next day, leaving at 6 with 1.5 hours lunch, then told me that they would come back and do me a favour the following week to do a bit more. Damaged most of the furniture they put together and left ME with 50 boxes to move and unpack myself, TOTAL SHOCKER, AWFUL SERVICE, AVOID