Mason's Removals Very Bad Experience
Jun 6th 2006, 8:51 am
#1
Just Joined
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 10
Mason's Removals Very Bad Experience
Just thought I would share my nightmare experience with you all. We chose Mason's after much researching and thought we had made a good choice. They were slightly dearer but had good write-ups. How wrong were we.
The first crew arrived on time and preceded to pack our belongings. They stayed till about three but still had a lot to do. The next day one less turned up and they started to pack again. About lunchtime the lorry driver arrived to collect the 20ft container. By now we knew they were not going to get it all packed on time so my husband lent a hand loading up the lorry. We noticed things were being rushed and noticed not so much attention was being paid to the packing. Eventually everything was packed the house was checked and NOTHING was left behind!
We were over a 20ft container so had to share a container for our excess. Our first container arrived on time. We had approximately 230 boxes delivered. There was no way we could un-pack and check all the contents upon delivery so we signed for them and waited for our next delivery. Unfortunately where they had been in a rush we found we had table tops but no legs. A couple of dinning chairs but no table. Everything had been mixed up so we waited patiently for the arrival of our next part container which turned up 12 weeks later.
Again, we signed for the goods and opened the boxes once the removal guys had left. My 17 year old had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of his brand nex x box 360 and my younger son was looking forward to playing his playstation 2 games. We unpacked and got right to the last box. I was laughing and said "might have guessed your stuff would be in the last box". Wrong. No X Box, No Playstation Games and also an Robotnix Robot at a cost of £300.00 had all gone "missing".
I immediately contacted Wridgeways (The Australian removal people) who said that all the boxes had been delivered. I then contacted Mason's, their attitude was that's impossible, you signed for the boxes, you must have them. We know the items were packed and stored in Mason's warehouse until they could fill another container so at some point our items have been stolen from the warehouse probably taken out of the boxes at the warehouse. We have been told we are lying, not to make accusations as it is their mens jobs on the line. Unfortunately at the time of shipping we never took out insurance as we figured we were using one of the best companies and we took the gamble as we were terribly short of money. That was a big mistake although I don't know if we would have been compensated for theft. Apart from the "missing items"! which amount to about £900.00, we also had the glass in two of our pictures broken, a leg was broken off a table, loads of glasses and kitchen stuff broken. Also we weren't warned about bringing over childrens Electric Scooters. We now have two of those stuck in customs.
All in all Mason's have proved to be a nightmare. I have just been out today to replace my sons Xbox 360 out of our own money. Mason's were so very friendly when we first started dealing with them but as soon as things went wrong they showed their true colours.
The first crew arrived on time and preceded to pack our belongings. They stayed till about three but still had a lot to do. The next day one less turned up and they started to pack again. About lunchtime the lorry driver arrived to collect the 20ft container. By now we knew they were not going to get it all packed on time so my husband lent a hand loading up the lorry. We noticed things were being rushed and noticed not so much attention was being paid to the packing. Eventually everything was packed the house was checked and NOTHING was left behind!
We were over a 20ft container so had to share a container for our excess. Our first container arrived on time. We had approximately 230 boxes delivered. There was no way we could un-pack and check all the contents upon delivery so we signed for them and waited for our next delivery. Unfortunately where they had been in a rush we found we had table tops but no legs. A couple of dinning chairs but no table. Everything had been mixed up so we waited patiently for the arrival of our next part container which turned up 12 weeks later.
Again, we signed for the goods and opened the boxes once the removal guys had left. My 17 year old had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of his brand nex x box 360 and my younger son was looking forward to playing his playstation 2 games. We unpacked and got right to the last box. I was laughing and said "might have guessed your stuff would be in the last box". Wrong. No X Box, No Playstation Games and also an Robotnix Robot at a cost of £300.00 had all gone "missing".
I immediately contacted Wridgeways (The Australian removal people) who said that all the boxes had been delivered. I then contacted Mason's, their attitude was that's impossible, you signed for the boxes, you must have them. We know the items were packed and stored in Mason's warehouse until they could fill another container so at some point our items have been stolen from the warehouse probably taken out of the boxes at the warehouse. We have been told we are lying, not to make accusations as it is their mens jobs on the line. Unfortunately at the time of shipping we never took out insurance as we figured we were using one of the best companies and we took the gamble as we were terribly short of money. That was a big mistake although I don't know if we would have been compensated for theft. Apart from the "missing items"! which amount to about £900.00, we also had the glass in two of our pictures broken, a leg was broken off a table, loads of glasses and kitchen stuff broken. Also we weren't warned about bringing over childrens Electric Scooters. We now have two of those stuck in customs.
All in all Mason's have proved to be a nightmare. I have just been out today to replace my sons Xbox 360 out of our own money. Mason's were so very friendly when we first started dealing with them but as soon as things went wrong they showed their true colours.
Jun 6th 2006, 9:00 am
#2
Forum Regular
Joined: Jan 2004
Location: Chinchilla
Posts: 255
Re: Mason's Removals Very Bad Experience
I sympathise with you, we also had a bad experience with Masons with lots of damages due to little or no packing material used in some of the boxes with breakables in. The Wridgways driver queried whether these boxes had been packed by the removal company in England and he described the standard as 'disgusting'.
Masons were not interested in giving any response or apology when I contacted them because we had taken insurance out with someone else. I found this suprising that a company with such a good reputation could have such a poor 'after sales service'.
Jaymac
Masons were not interested in giving any response or apology when I contacted them because we had taken insurance out with someone else. I found this suprising that a company with such a good reputation could have such a poor 'after sales service'.
Jaymac
Jun 6th 2006, 9:02 am
#3
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Feb 2006
Location: Gold Coast
Posts: 25,277
Re: Mason's Removals Very Bad Experience
What an awful experience, so sorry you've had to go through all that, what with all the other stuff to worry about, you expect your belongings to all come back intact don't you?
N x
N x
Jun 6th 2006, 9:12 am
#4
Oiiii.. You slaggg!
Joined: Feb 2004
Location: Brisbaneshire
Posts: 5,209
Re: Mason's Removals Very Bad Experience
Originally Posted by LESLEY77
Just thought I would share my nightmare experience with you all. We chose Mason's after much researching and thought we had made a good choice. They were slightly dearer but had good write-ups. How wrong were we.
The first crew arrived on time and preceded to pack our belongings. They stayed till about three but still had a lot to do. The next day one less turned up and they started to pack again. About lunchtime the lorry driver arrived to collect the 20ft container. By now we knew they were not going to get it all packed on time so my husband lent a hand loading up the lorry. We noticed things were being rushed and noticed not so much attention was being paid to the packing. Eventually everything was packed the house was checked and NOTHING was left behind!
We were over a 20ft container so had to share a container for our excess. Our first container arrived on time. We had approximately 230 boxes delivered. There was no way we could un-pack and check all the contents upon delivery so we signed for them and waited for our next delivery. Unfortunately where they had been in a rush we found we had table tops but no legs. A couple of dinning chairs but no table. Everything had been mixed up so we waited patiently for the arrival of our next part container which turned up 12 weeks later.
Again, we signed for the goods and opened the boxes once the removal guys had left. My 17 year old had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of his brand nex x box 360 and my younger son was looking forward to playing his playstation 2 games. We unpacked and got right to the last box. I was laughing and said "might have guessed your stuff would be in the last box". Wrong. No X Box, No Playstation Games and also an Robotnix Robot at a cost of £300.00 had all gone "missing".
I immediately contacted Wridgeways (The Australian removal people) who said that all the boxes had been delivered. I then contacted Mason's, their attitude was that's impossible, you signed for the boxes, you must have them. We know the items were packed and stored in Mason's warehouse until they could fill another container so at some point our items have been stolen from the warehouse probably taken out of the boxes at the warehouse. We have been told we are lying, not to make accusations as it is their mens jobs on the line. Unfortunately at the time of shipping we never took out insurance as we figured we were using one of the best companies and we took the gamble as we were terribly short of money. That was a big mistake although I don't know if we would have been compensated for theft. Apart from the "missing items"! which amount to about £900.00, we also had the glass in two of our pictures broken, a leg was broken off a table, loads of glasses and kitchen stuff broken. Also we weren't warned about bringing over childrens Electric Scooters. We now have two of those stuck in customs.
All in all Mason's have proved to be a nightmare. I have just been out today to replace my sons Xbox 360 out of our own money. Mason's were so very friendly when we first started dealing with them but as soon as things went wrong they showed their true colours.
The first crew arrived on time and preceded to pack our belongings. They stayed till about three but still had a lot to do. The next day one less turned up and they started to pack again. About lunchtime the lorry driver arrived to collect the 20ft container. By now we knew they were not going to get it all packed on time so my husband lent a hand loading up the lorry. We noticed things were being rushed and noticed not so much attention was being paid to the packing. Eventually everything was packed the house was checked and NOTHING was left behind!
We were over a 20ft container so had to share a container for our excess. Our first container arrived on time. We had approximately 230 boxes delivered. There was no way we could un-pack and check all the contents upon delivery so we signed for them and waited for our next delivery. Unfortunately where they had been in a rush we found we had table tops but no legs. A couple of dinning chairs but no table. Everything had been mixed up so we waited patiently for the arrival of our next part container which turned up 12 weeks later.
Again, we signed for the goods and opened the boxes once the removal guys had left. My 17 year old had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of his brand nex x box 360 and my younger son was looking forward to playing his playstation 2 games. We unpacked and got right to the last box. I was laughing and said "might have guessed your stuff would be in the last box". Wrong. No X Box, No Playstation Games and also an Robotnix Robot at a cost of £300.00 had all gone "missing".
I immediately contacted Wridgeways (The Australian removal people) who said that all the boxes had been delivered. I then contacted Mason's, their attitude was that's impossible, you signed for the boxes, you must have them. We know the items were packed and stored in Mason's warehouse until they could fill another container so at some point our items have been stolen from the warehouse probably taken out of the boxes at the warehouse. We have been told we are lying, not to make accusations as it is their mens jobs on the line. Unfortunately at the time of shipping we never took out insurance as we figured we were using one of the best companies and we took the gamble as we were terribly short of money. That was a big mistake although I don't know if we would have been compensated for theft. Apart from the "missing items"! which amount to about £900.00, we also had the glass in two of our pictures broken, a leg was broken off a table, loads of glasses and kitchen stuff broken. Also we weren't warned about bringing over childrens Electric Scooters. We now have two of those stuck in customs.
All in all Mason's have proved to be a nightmare. I have just been out today to replace my sons Xbox 360 out of our own money. Mason's were so very friendly when we first started dealing with them but as soon as things went wrong they showed their true colours.
Hmmm? I think I might switch to Doree Bonner then.
Jun 6th 2006, 9:15 am
#5
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2006
Location: London
Posts: 353
Re: Mason's Removals Very Bad Experience
Originally Posted by LESLEY77
Just thought I would share my nightmare experience with you all. We chose Mason's after much researching and thought we had made a good choice. They were slightly dearer but had good write-ups. How wrong were we.
The first crew arrived on time and preceded to pack our belongings. They stayed till about three but still had a lot to do. The next day one less turned up and they started to pack again. About lunchtime the lorry driver arrived to collect the 20ft container. By now we knew they were not going to get it all packed on time so my husband lent a hand loading up the lorry. We noticed things were being rushed and noticed not so much attention was being paid to the packing. Eventually everything was packed the house was checked and NOTHING was left behind!
We were over a 20ft container so had to share a container for our excess. Our first container arrived on time. We had approximately 230 boxes delivered. There was no way we could un-pack and check all the contents upon delivery so we signed for them and waited for our next delivery. Unfortunately where they had been in a rush we found we had table tops but no legs. A couple of dinning chairs but no table. Everything had been mixed up so we waited patiently for the arrival of our next part container which turned up 12 weeks later.
Again, we signed for the goods and opened the boxes once the removal guys had left. My 17 year old had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of his brand nex x box 360 and my younger son was looking forward to playing his playstation 2 games. We unpacked and got right to the last box. I was laughing and said "might have guessed your stuff would be in the last box". Wrong. No X Box, No Playstation Games and also an Robotnix Robot at a cost of £300.00 had all gone "missing".
I immediately contacted Wridgeways (The Australian removal people) who said that all the boxes had been delivered. I then contacted Mason's, their attitude was that's impossible, you signed for the boxes, you must have them. We know the items were packed and stored in Mason's warehouse until they could fill another container so at some point our items have been stolen from the warehouse probably taken out of the boxes at the warehouse. We have been told we are lying, not to make accusations as it is their mens jobs on the line. Unfortunately at the time of shipping we never took out insurance as we figured we were using one of the best companies and we took the gamble as we were terribly short of money. That was a big mistake although I don't know if we would have been compensated for theft. Apart from the "missing items"! which amount to about £900.00, we also had the glass in two of our pictures broken, a leg was broken off a table, loads of glasses and kitchen stuff broken. Also we weren't warned about bringing over childrens Electric Scooters. We now have two of those stuck in customs.
All in all Mason's have proved to be a nightmare. I have just been out today to replace my sons Xbox 360 out of our own money. Mason's were so very friendly when we first started dealing with them but as soon as things went wrong they showed their true colours.
The first crew arrived on time and preceded to pack our belongings. They stayed till about three but still had a lot to do. The next day one less turned up and they started to pack again. About lunchtime the lorry driver arrived to collect the 20ft container. By now we knew they were not going to get it all packed on time so my husband lent a hand loading up the lorry. We noticed things were being rushed and noticed not so much attention was being paid to the packing. Eventually everything was packed the house was checked and NOTHING was left behind!
We were over a 20ft container so had to share a container for our excess. Our first container arrived on time. We had approximately 230 boxes delivered. There was no way we could un-pack and check all the contents upon delivery so we signed for them and waited for our next delivery. Unfortunately where they had been in a rush we found we had table tops but no legs. A couple of dinning chairs but no table. Everything had been mixed up so we waited patiently for the arrival of our next part container which turned up 12 weeks later.
Again, we signed for the goods and opened the boxes once the removal guys had left. My 17 year old had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of his brand nex x box 360 and my younger son was looking forward to playing his playstation 2 games. We unpacked and got right to the last box. I was laughing and said "might have guessed your stuff would be in the last box". Wrong. No X Box, No Playstation Games and also an Robotnix Robot at a cost of £300.00 had all gone "missing".
I immediately contacted Wridgeways (The Australian removal people) who said that all the boxes had been delivered. I then contacted Mason's, their attitude was that's impossible, you signed for the boxes, you must have them. We know the items were packed and stored in Mason's warehouse until they could fill another container so at some point our items have been stolen from the warehouse probably taken out of the boxes at the warehouse. We have been told we are lying, not to make accusations as it is their mens jobs on the line. Unfortunately at the time of shipping we never took out insurance as we figured we were using one of the best companies and we took the gamble as we were terribly short of money. That was a big mistake although I don't know if we would have been compensated for theft. Apart from the "missing items"! which amount to about £900.00, we also had the glass in two of our pictures broken, a leg was broken off a table, loads of glasses and kitchen stuff broken. Also we weren't warned about bringing over childrens Electric Scooters. We now have two of those stuck in customs.
All in all Mason's have proved to be a nightmare. I have just been out today to replace my sons Xbox 360 out of our own money. Mason's were so very friendly when we first started dealing with them but as soon as things went wrong they showed their true colours.
Jun 6th 2006, 9:20 am
#6
Forum Regular
Joined: May 2006
Location: From Cesspit London to Glorious Sydney
Posts: 187
Re: Mason's Removals Very Bad Experience
What a nightmare. Does anyone have any recommendations of people they used and found to be good ?
Jun 6th 2006, 9:22 am
#7
Breeding little aussies
Joined: Mar 2005
Location: Perth WA
Posts: 963
Re: Mason's Removals Very Bad Experience
Sorry you have had such a poor experience with your removal company. One thing which our removal company asked us to do which may prove useful to anyone who is waiting for their shipment was.......
when they turned up to deliver it they came in and gave me the manifest, they pulled out a picnic chair and sat it by the front door then told me to tick off the item number as they brought it through the door, that way i knew everything was there before i signed for it, they also suggested we open any of the boxes which contained valuable items to check all was well and also heck items which had been opened by customs to check it was all ok before they left, they removed the packaging from all items of furniture and asked which of the boxes we would like them to unpack.
They really could not have been better, nothing was damaged which i think is down to luck as well as good packaging. We used PSS who use Kents here in Perth. they were very efficient in every aspect of the move, mond you i didn't have any complaints so maybe their complaints department are not so good!
Lynn
when they turned up to deliver it they came in and gave me the manifest, they pulled out a picnic chair and sat it by the front door then told me to tick off the item number as they brought it through the door, that way i knew everything was there before i signed for it, they also suggested we open any of the boxes which contained valuable items to check all was well and also heck items which had been opened by customs to check it was all ok before they left, they removed the packaging from all items of furniture and asked which of the boxes we would like them to unpack.
They really could not have been better, nothing was damaged which i think is down to luck as well as good packaging. We used PSS who use Kents here in Perth. they were very efficient in every aspect of the move, mond you i didn't have any complaints so maybe their complaints department are not so good!
Lynn
Jun 6th 2006, 9:22 am
#8
Oiiii.. You slaggg!
Joined: Feb 2004
Location: Brisbaneshire
Posts: 5,209
Re: Mason's Removals Very Bad Experience
Originally Posted by JAYMAC
I sympathise with you, we also had a bad experience with Masons with lots of damages due to little or no packing material used in some of the boxes with breakables in. The Wridgways driver queried whether these boxes had been packed by the removal company in England and he described the standard as 'disgusting'.
Masons were not interested in giving any response or apology when I contacted them because we had taken insurance out with someone else. I found this suprising that a company with such a good reputation could have such a poor 'after sales service'.
Jaymac
Masons were not interested in giving any response or apology when I contacted them because we had taken insurance out with someone else. I found this suprising that a company with such a good reputation could have such a poor 'after sales service'.
Jaymac
Cheers.
Jun 6th 2006, 9:59 am
#9
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 269
Re: Mason's Removals Very Bad Experience
Originally Posted by DunRoaminTheUK
What's the cancellation policy for John Mason? We will be giving 3 weeks and 2 days notice. Will we be penalised?
Cheers.
Cheers.
Why are you cancelling?
Who are you going to go with?
I am trying to get quotes at the moment and I'm following your thread with interest.
Jun 6th 2006, 10:01 am
#10
Forum Regular
Joined: Jan 2004
Location: Chinchilla
Posts: 255
Re: Mason's Removals Very Bad Experience
Originally Posted by DunRoaminTheUK
What's the cancellation policy for John Mason? We will be giving 3 weeks and 2 days notice. Will we be penalised?
Cheers.
Cheers.
To be quite honest, I think that most of the time John Masons seem to get it right and that is why we decided to go with them but every now and then someone has bad luck (it just had to be us). What gets my goat is the lack of interest that they took in something that was quite devastating to us. If they had shown even a little bit of concern over our problems, then I wouldnt feel it neccessary to comment. We didnt even bother to claim for most of the stuff, as the monetary value was not the issue to us. We were more concerned that we had taken a great deal of time and effort selecting the items we thought worthy of paying to ship half way round the world and expected to be paying to receive these in one piece.
Its like adding insult to injury if you consider that you have actually paid to ship that broken desk, dinted filing cabinet etc etc.
I would strongly recommend that you watch over the packers and ensure that the boxes are packed to the correct standard.
Jaymac
Jun 6th 2006, 10:03 am
#11
Account Closed
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 10,158
Re: Mason's Removals Very Bad Experience
Originally Posted by DunRoaminTheUK
Hmmm? I think I might switch to Doree Bonner then.
Dun, we went with them and so far, excellent. Grace International handle it at this end. Grace are excellent - they unpack at this end too and take away the packing materials. Lots of good advice at this end from Grace.
Jun 6th 2006, 10:06 am
#12
uk -> brisvegas
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 9
Re: Mason's Removals Very Bad Experience
Originally Posted by LESLEY77
Just thought I would share my nightmare experience with you all. We chose Mason's after much researching and thought we had made a good choice. They were slightly dearer but had good write-ups. How wrong were we.....
Alicia
Jun 6th 2006, 10:07 am
#13
Account Closed
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 10,158
Re: Mason's Removals Very Bad Experience
Originally Posted by JAYMAC
What gets my goat is the lack of interest that they took in something that was quite devastating to us.
I was prob the warehouse people or packers... I can't think it could have gone at any other point.
How they can defend their staff after that I don't know.I'm really sorry you've had a crappy time JAYMAC. Look on the bright side though ... reporting it here has probably blighted their business for a good while which is obviously no less than they deserve.
DB packed our stuff and it will be here in a few weeks. I'll report how it went.
Jun 6th 2006, 10:22 am
#14
Oiiii.. You slaggg!
Joined: Feb 2004
Location: Brisbaneshire
Posts: 5,209
Re: Mason's Removals Very Bad Experience
Originally Posted by iPom
When I told JM that we were going with DB, they got quite offensive on the phone, warning me about DB and their 'sharp' practices. Totally unprofessional.
I was prob the warehouse people or packers... I can't think it could have gone at any other point. How they can defend their staff after that I don't know.
I'm really sorry you've had a crappy time JAYMAC. Look on the bright side though ... reporting it here has probably blighted their business for a good while which is obviously no less than they deserve.
DB packed our stuff and it will be here in a few weeks. I'll report how it went.
I was prob the warehouse people or packers... I can't think it could have gone at any other point.
How they can defend their staff after that I don't know.I'm really sorry you've had a crappy time JAYMAC. Look on the bright side though ... reporting it here has probably blighted their business for a good while which is obviously no less than they deserve.
DB packed our stuff and it will be here in a few weeks. I'll report how it went.
Did DB expect payment 7 days before packing and collecting? They just told us that a few moments ago and we are confused as their rep told us that a part-container needs to be consolidated and only then can they determine the cost?
Jun 6th 2006, 10:24 am
#15
An Official Visa Holder
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 999
Re: Mason's Removals Very Bad Experience
What happened to you sounds awful and you have my sympathies, as I would be devastated if something like that happens to us when we move!! 
I just think if you were to put a thread on here about everyones expereinces with Removal companies, there will be someone out there which has probably had similar experiences with all the removal companies that go from the UK to OZ, the amount of shipments they all do there is always going to be a percentage that go wrong, stuff gets damaged etc etc.
We are just about to get quotes from people for shipping our stuff and I think it is a huge gamble which ever company you use but that is part of the emigration programme!! Looking on the bright side as my old Nan always said, it is only material stuff and you are all fine and dandy and thats what matters!!
Not trying to play down what happened to the original poster as I said I would be livid if it happens to us!!
I just think if you were to put a thread on here about everyones expereinces with Removal companies, there will be someone out there which has probably had similar experiences with all the removal companies that go from the UK to OZ, the amount of shipments they all do there is always going to be a percentage that go wrong, stuff gets damaged etc etc.
We are just about to get quotes from people for shipping our stuff and I think it is a huge gamble which ever company you use but that is part of the emigration programme!! Looking on the bright side as my old Nan always said, it is only material stuff and you are all fine and dandy and thats what matters!!
Not trying to play down what happened to the original poster as I said I would be livid if it happens to us!!