AAA City Removalist Sydney

Posting this review late because of safety concerns.

After complaining and leaving reviews, the phone call I received instead of an apology started with "I know who you are, I know where you studied, I know what you do" and was then threatened with a defamation lawsuit for a negative review.

The movers scratched walls and floorboards and a bubble-wrapped mirror frame. When installing a dryer, they tried to bang and smash it into place instead of lifting it as instructed, which bent one of the dryer's legs.
When we let the company know of the damage, the removalists threatened to leave with our belongings in the truck and handed us the phone to lie to their supervisor that there was no damage.

After they left we complained once again, but never heard back. I only heard back once I left multiple reviews, which ended with the phone call mentioned above as well as a discussion involving threats of legal action and telling me they had researched me personally. When that didn't work, offered to have a talk with the removalists on the condition that the reviews are removed. In their last communication to me, they offered us $250 on the condition that they don't admit any fault and we can't share our experience and leave any reviews.

It feels like intimidation and bribery is their way to skew online reviews as some reviews mentioned similar thing happened to them.

A 2-bed (no sofa or dining furniture) move 6mins away took them 9 hours (paid $1568). We moved many times across Sydney and this is by far the longest move we had. We recently moved with more furniture and an hour away with the move taking under 6. They didn't connect appliances or assembled furniture and we had the dining set and sofa delivered to new address, so it was very light for 2-bed apartment. Our original quote was $588.

The bubble wrap insurance was voided because the removalists had left without unwrapping and checking the wrapped furniture. Very incompetent.

Please read the reviews carefully before you book, be cautious, get a support person who can help you if things go south and carefully record everything because you might need it. Also, don't forget to read your contract and be aware of the extra fees.

Removalists are the sorts of business that it's really hard to find reviews for. I've been burned in the past with a budget removalist and so I was impressed with AAA's comprehensive website. A professional looking outfit; uniforms, free boxes, accredited, new vehicles - lots of positive testimonials. Awesome I thought.

We were moving literally over the road so I only wanted 2 men. We didn't really need the van and so I tried to negotiate on the costs - they wouldn't budge but fair enough, the quote was competitive so we went ahead.

They turned up as appointed though 3 men not 2. I told them I was only paying for 2 and so the other bloke sat in the van. The gaffer of the crew liked a chat but was type who talked hardwork and left it all to the other poor bloke. I felt sorry for the other guy so I started helping out. That was my first mistake, I was too helpful. I had to keep at them constantly to stop them slacking off. There was lots of debate about how to get certain heavier items through the doors and I felt like logic and experience were a little lacking. The job was done but I'm sure we could have shaved at least an hour off the final bill if there'd been some good direction from the Gaffer.

The reason I feel compelled to write this review, even though it's a while since I used them, is that something happened which I will never forget.

The Gaffer was the first person to the use the toilet in our brand new apartment. No biggie, BUT...he did a number two...AND...there wasn't any toilet roll...THEN...he continued to handle my personal items!!! I know he's in removal but he didn't strike me as the type to have a pack of wet ones in his pocket, so I'm not sure how he removed 'that' from you know where. SHUDDDEEEERRRRR!

Proceed with caution I say.

Absolutely terrible customer service!
Very slow service as you pay the for the time & not the job. They definitely drag it out. Also scratched the bench of my new house whilst trying to move furniture. Spoke to David on the day of the move & was met with rudeness. Reviewed them on Facebook and was told to email David to discuss my concerns, thought it was pointless but gave them the benefit of the doubt assuming they would resolve the issue and never received a reply. Don't bother guys, we just wasted our money.

UPDATE: Have been offered $100 on the provision I take down my review.

Horrible experience!! Beware!!! The worst movers ever. As an American expat I have moved a handful of times while living in Sydney. AAA were the worst. They sub-contract the actual guys who show up. These bozos did not know what they were doing. The men /boys that showed up did not know how to properly handle the items they were moving. They had a limited use of English as well. Many items were broken. They told us the main office would take care of the damage to our property and lied to get us to sign their documentation. I would NEVER recommend these idiots to anyone.

Worst experience ever. Even for me, and I have a lot of experience in moving house, including interstate and overseas. So I created this Yelp account to warn those who can fall for their neat website and fair prices.

I booked them for 9am, the crew of three arrived around 12pm. It took them 2 hours to load the stuff into the truck. The new place was closer than 1 km distance, literally within the same suburb, they arrived there in 40 mins. While taking the stuff in, they were moving very slowly so I had to micro-manage them, as if I had nothing else to do. One guy was complaining that he is skinny and the items were very heavy for him. At the end of the day they've got a call from their manager that they will not be paid after 6pm.

At least it made them to move faster. They shoved the rest of the boxes into the apartment and hurried away. The invoice was 890 bucks, and I had to leave the garage behind because it was late and everyone was tired.

To draw the line, it took 3 men 6 hours to move my stuff to a 2 bedroom apartment just across the street. And they've lost my guitar in transition. Now I can see other negative reviews on them - I wish I did my research earlier.

Got AAA to move a 2 br house in Newtown (which means it's a shoe box), 500m up the road to a 2 br, 2 storey house in Enmore. Truck 45 I was told.

Took 9.5 hours to move. They dismantled all my furniture, and didn't put any of it back together. Most of the boxes that were meant to be taken upstairs were left downstairs (why on earth did I pay removalists to move my stuff if I had to move it all myself afterwards? I pay the removalists so I don't have to lift the heavy boxes upstairs!!!). Most of the items weren't even put in their labelled rooms. I provided a floor plan to the movers and labelled every item where I wanted it to be located. Simple instructions.

Mostly none of it was adhered to. The really big items like beds and mirrors were in the right place, I'll give that. But boxes and other items, none of it was in the right place. Boxes for the kitchen were in the dining room, boxes for the upstairs office were in the kitchen etc etc

I went to my old residence and saw that they had taken off the door stop to one of my bedrooms for easier access and didn't put it back on. I messaged the mover and asked where he put the door stop he removed and got no response. After I paid my whopping $1652 bill, that's the kind of service I got. No bloody response to tell me where you've put my stuff you've dismantled. They took the flyscreens off the door and also the glass security door off, and never put it back on. When I came back to the old residence the glass door was still off, so they obviously forgot to lock the door!!! They just shut the gate and that's it.

In the end, because they had to go to another job (in the guise of trying to save me money) they didn't re-assemble any of my items and didn't bother to put anything where I wanted. My white leather lounge was turned upside down on the floor. They broke my 21st birthday present of a dragon statue. (their reasoning probably would be that I didn't get it bubble wrapped.....Even though I paid an extra $200 to have everything that needed to be bubble wrapped wrapped). The house was a disaster. Was so mad to get the call saying how long it took and how much I was being charged. I even hired the extra man to make the job go faster. 3 men to move a 2 bedroom house in 9.5 hours with no lunch break, and only 500 metres up the road. And the majority of stuff wasn't even taken up stairs!!!! Ridiculous.

The explanation was that they had to do a 2nd trip. What bollocks. If this was my first time moving this amount of furniture between suburbs, I may have believed it. But I am, and everyone I've spoken to agree that the hours taken to complete the move is absolutely dumbfounding.

My friend who moved from Enmore a couple weeks back had the contents of a 5 bedroom house and they moved it all the way to Cobargo (a 5-6 hr drive) and it only cost them $3400 and they made 3 trips.

I've had one good experience with AAA previously (about 4-5 years ago). But after this experience and after the bollocks story I got after calling up the customer service team. This will certainly be the last time I ever use your services.

Platinum removals will be who I use next.

I will post this to any review site I can find that is relevant. I was not happy at the time and I'm still not happy about the result.

I used AAA Removalist in December 2016. Initially, I had booked another removalist and they never turn up. So I had to call AAA and book. I was pleased with the service they offered. I didn't have many items but my move was smooth/ The guys came on time and there were friendly. Will use them again :)

Stay clear from this company!! If you think that they are cheap - beware they take their time and you will end up loading yourself. Moved us one suburb in a small house and we ended up having to help! They put gaffa tape on the furniture which damaged it, damaged the front door tiles and put a hole in the wall. Then had the hide when we complained to the office to try and blame us for putting the tape on ourselves. The supervisor David just ignores your complaints in writing and by phone. We will be taking this further - beware!!

We moved 10 minutes down the road, yet the whole move took in excess of 6 hours and we were only moving from a small 2 bedroom flat. However, this was not our main complaint, and we would have been fine with this should due care have been taken by this company.

Following the move, we switched on our HD TV, only to notice immediately that there was a large crack across the centre of the screen, and this was despite the TV being bubble wrapped as per their own policy with more expensive items. The building manager also knocked on our door a while later to inform us that one of the doors the removalists had been using exclusively, was badly damaged and no could no longer be closed. We therefore submitted claims for these 2 incidents of damage to AAA Removalists. That was over 2 months ago, and despite numerous follow up emails and calls to date, we have heard absolutely nothing back, despite being informed via email that we would receive a response within 10 - 14 days.

We were also very frustrated to have the removalists insist at the end of the job that we had to pay in cash, even though we had been told we could pay by card when booking the job.

Finally, subsequent analysis of the CCTV footage for the building by the building manager showed that the removalists were seen to be opening up our boxes and inspecting items within them before moving them up to the new flat which is extremely disturbing.

This is appalling customer service, and we still have a damaged TV, and damaged door in our new building - with no response yet on our claims. Do not believe their customer service claims, this company has no interest in looking after your belongings.

They are not expensive, but you may end up paying for it some other ways. The movers really didn't seem to care at all. I was assured on the phone that the mattress would be wrapped. I stepped out for some time when they moved the mattress. When I came back, the mattress was already on the truck, unwrapped. So that got pretty dirty over the whole process. One of the handles on a dresser got knocked out of place. The mover just said "you can easily fix that" when it was brought to their attention. I will not soon forget their nonchalance. Anyway, I will not use them again.