Not great. We got Abels to manage our move from the UK to USA (California bay area) and we were less than satisfied with the service. (1) Long Delivery: We got a part-load service, meaning that we had to wait for a full container before our shipment left. We were told that for our case, this would be typically 6-8 weeks. It took 14 weeks in the end. (2) Non-transparent pricing. When asked, they told us that the cost was pro-rated based on the volume of our shipment. We were quoted for 40 cubic feet, but in the end we only used 37 cu ft. However, we had to pay the quoted price because it's the same price between 30-40 cu ft. I don't understand why this is because we were on the part-load service and they were filling up the entire container anyway. (3) Wrong port. We were told that our shipment would go to port A but instead it went to a port 350+ miles away. We were told at the start that if our destination was more than 30 or 60 miles away from the port, we would incur extra charges. This meant not only further delay in our shipment, but us having to pay extra $95. It was all a tad more stressful than I liked. So I would definitely go with a different company next time. read more

Like most other reviewers, very poor experience with Abels/Sclusa. We moved from London to San Francisco back in 2014. We were told 6/8 weeks for delivery, it took almost FIVE MONTHS (May to September). We were not informed that we would have to pay an extra fee at the arrival to the port (over $100, if I remember correctly), which isn't the end of the world, but I generally prefer clear communication and properly set expectations. Lack of transparency and overall disappointing experience, avoid if you have other providers in the area. read more

Interesting that all the reviews on Yelp are one star! We paid a small fortune to have our furniture shipped from London to LA. Numerous delays and awful communication. We are currently arguing with them because they've lost most of our clothes! Extremely disappointing level of service. read more

We used Abels late last year after a friend recommended them and received an exceptional service from start to finish. This made our move run smoothly and took away a lot of stress. All of the team members I dealt with either on email, the phone or in person were friendly, helpful and efficient. I would definitely use again and would highly recommend. read more

IF YOU VALUE YOUR BELONGINGS, NEVER USE THIS COMPANY. We used them in March 2015 to move all our belongings from Norwich to Spain. Our things went into their storage for two months. Firstly, the team they sent to our four bedroom home of 38 years consisted of just two men. They were inexperienced and totally unprofessional. There was no system, despite the fact that we had spent months packing to a system. Things were literally thrown on the truck and as a consequence over 75% of our furniture and antiques were damaged. Their pricing is totally misleading, and the final invoice, which they made us settle over the phone before they would ship our things out to Spain, was almost double the original contract price. We believe they charged us VAT twice, and despite many letters, phone calls and even an email from a journalist who took up our case, we never received this money back. Indeed they totally ignored three emails from the journalist. When our items arrived in Spain, the damage was beyond belief. All our soft furnishings , three pieces, mattresses and curtains were urine stained. We believe a rodent got into our container. Our hardwood furniture was scratched, chipped, in one case the leg was broken off and mirrors were cracked and broken. Our Victorian dressing table was completely riddled with woodworm and falling apart. Our American fridge freezer was dented as was our washing machine . Of our four antique clocks, three arrived damaged, one was actually packed upside down with the fine mechanism twisted and broken. We have just received this back from a restorer, 15 months after it left our home in the UK. 'Luckily', we took out the premium insurance policy, figuring that if just one clock was damaged it would be worth the expense. The insurance assessor said that he had never seen so much damage in one house removal. His intervention, help and fairness was the only thing which prevented us from completely 'going under' To say this company destroyed our life's work is no overstatement. The MD was totally indifferent, he blamed us for the situation and when pushed would only say, it was unfortunate. Next week a full 16 months after our move, we expect to receive our insurance compensation. It has taken all this time to renovate and repair and replace all our damaged items. It seems that the Royal warrants which this company holds, are for a completely different service than is on offer to Joe Public. We will never forgive them for what they have done to us. read more

We did an international move with Abels at the end of 2008. After the UK side of the move I emailed the International Manager with a number of complaints. I received from him the most breathtakingly peurile responses in a series of emails, which even revealed one of the crew to have quite an imagination when it came to relating events. Quite offensive communications. I believe this Manager still holds the same position. He did not apologise, either for the issues about which I originally complained, nor for the totally inept way in which my complaint was handled. Very, very disappointing. Simply not worth the premium. read more

TL;DR: Not working with this company EVER again. They screwed up the collection date and threatened to hold our stuff hostage (which we pay for) because they couldn't wait for a company to do invoice. The communication was poor and very much passive-aggressive. This is as far from "service-minded" as it gets. I've had enough of "please be aware" and services advertisement in attached JPG format to last a lifetime. Long version: So, the beginning. We do the video survey, get a quote, all seems shiny. Abels wants to know when to pick up the things. We don't know though, because the renting market is ridiculous and you only have a week's notice. But ok, we set up a week when the pick up must definitely happen. Date gets finally set. Oh wait, that week is suddenly not available (there's a "subject to availability" clause in the contract, conveniently of course). Why let us know your vehicle schedule, right? But we have said that we have a hard deadline when we have to move out. So then we rent a storage (+cost) and transport all our things there ourselves (+cost) and of course since our storage room is on the 2nd floor there is an extra charge, because apparently taking furniture out of a storage (equipped with a heavy duty elevator and trolleys) is harder than taking it down a spiral staircase in our house. Nevermind the time/fuel saved due to storage being right next to the highway out of the city. And hey, we already have paid the deposit, way too late to look for another firm, anyway, right? Yeah, they got us by the balls. And to think that I actually expected some sort of apology, with a discount on account of inconveniencing us, how naive of me. Then there is the ridiculous requirement of labeling boxes and having a list of boxes and their value in £. This after having already compiled a list of all the rooms contents and their values. No, for the insurance, you must speficy how much each box costs. Or lump sum, but then you can't have anything "expensive", like a PC. And then the cherry on top. Abels is an international moving company, very experienced and so on. And so they split the bill between me and a company (C) that assists me with the moving costs. Except the C of course does the payments on a monthly basis (which I imagined, wrongly, was common knowledge), and our delivery is suddenly pending due payment. Of which they inform me Thursday evening, when I can't do shit about it. Friday morning, I'm trying to sort it all out and Abels tells me that they need the payment by 12:00 or no delivery. No delivery for a month, in fact, because booked up! And this is an international payment, so there is a snowball's chance in hell it will come through in just 2h even if miraculously everyone rallies, which should be pretty fucking obvious if you ask me. And of course, delayed delivery means more costs for storage and delivery cancellation. Does this sound like a hostage scam to you? Because that's what it felt like to us. In the end, it was sorted. In the very last minute, I was able to pay the invoice. We got our stuff. But it could have been much smoother. This is no way to run a business. Bottomline: I didn't get an impression that Abels are professionals. The impression I got is that they won't do shit unless you pay in advance and sign off all the rights to them, like you are some goddam crook trying to rob them. This company seems to be run by bureaucrats of legendary rigidity. They throw a legal agreement at you composed in the best traditions of "end user license", neatly squeezed into fine print on a couple of pages. They don't seem to know how much time international money transfers take. They want YOU, the customer, to cover THEIR transfer fees. They have an online payment system for deposit (=instant), but NOT for the actual payment, has to be bank transfer. Oh, and on top of that there is the annoying music when you call them, punctuated by a pre-recorded voice telling you how they can take care of everything for you to make your move as stressless as possible. read more

In the middle of being "moved" by Abels. I so wish I'd seen these reviews before I went with them! So far, I've had a great sales rep, who was very efficient and seemed very helpful. Then the guys who came and did our packing were also very helpful, friendly, efficient. And now I'm stuck. My stuff is still in the UK and Abels can hold it to ransom, literally. I have a "Customer Service Manager" although "Customer Service" seems to be a foreign language to her. She has phoned me once - to get money paid - and emailed me a couple of times. All other contact has been at my initiative. I've had to chase her to get an additional quote when it was needed, to find out dates, basically to get any information at all. She doesn't seem to do anything at all unless I hassle her. As if moving to a foreign country with two small children weren't stressful enough. I've gone from the sales stage - "we have the royal accreditation and we frequently ship to Scandinavia, it's all very routine" to the actual moving stage - "Finland is actually very remote, very unusual destination. Our associates will contact you once your stuff gets to Helsinki." read more

Dreadful company. Dreadful service. We booked a removal from France to London and on the agreed day, the van didn't turn up! At first, they didnt seem too bothered about the problem but after many very angry phone calls they managed to get another company to do the move. It then took around 6 months for them to admit their error and offer a half-hearted apology. Avoid. read more

Awful communication about unnecessary delays. You will fear all of your life belongings have gone missing. It took me 7 months to get my items. Some were broken and their scam insurance did not cover. Huge mistake. Do NOT use them. read more

NEVER use this company. I wish I could give them minus stars. My shipment to the US arrived smashed and they could not have been less helpful.. their insurance is a con - despite the furniture being smashed on their time we're now 5 months down and I haven't seen a penny in compensation and the company refuses to help. it's fraud to take someone's money for insurance and then not bind it in. some of the packing of the items was dreadful and damage has been done to items that simply aren't replaceable. these guys are expensive and take no responsibility when things go wrong. terrible customer service Avoid these people at all costs if you want to save yourself heartache. read more

Friendly, helpful staff that took care of my belongings like they were their own. I have recommended them to a friend and would most certainly use them again. read more

Fantastic service- was beyond pleased with this company! They really made me feel looked after from the get go and looked after all of my belongings! Thanks Abels! read more

Chose Abels after shortlisting 3 companies following internet research. Close call between 2 of them but chose Abels based on their image of both professional and quality service; they were certainly not the cheapest. Surveyor visited and made accurate estimate of load. We pointed out several delicate items, including paintings, antique clocks, piano and furnishings. We were assured that Abels provided the highest quality care and service, that items would be carefully, and, where necessary, specially packed and wrapped. Paid deposit and took quote for Abels insurance at £1500. Found (excellent) insurance from insure-your-move.com at £1000 so elected to buy that instead. Abels warned that if we did not buy their insurance their liability would be limited (this is in the terms and conditions). Never dreamt that this would, in effect, mean that we were paying to insure against their removal team's incompetence. Big mistake. Packing went smoothly; left team to it since we at this stage trusted in the Abels' service. On delivery, not all items unpacked; only delicates. 3 damaged items found at that time, totalling approximately £600 value (no photo I'm afraid; they were taken by the company and we had no reason to question). Company admitted liability but insisted that despite the fact that their team had damaged our belongings, we had to claim on our own insurance. Abels paid only £120 due to their limited liability clause. When we tried to appeal to their integrity there was no budging. In fact, Mr Neil Pertoldi, the International Moves Manager stated in an email "I sincerely hope that the money saved not paying for the insurance protection, plus the liability payment, will cover the repair to the items accidently damaged". In other words, you didn't buy our expensive insurance so we wash our hands of our responsibility to deliver your goods properly. Fortuneately, insure-your-move.com were much more accomodating. Despite making the claim outside their 30-day period due to the time to negotiate nothing out of Abels, they paid immediately and without fuss for the full value less the £120 paid by Abels. After the move, as we unpacked further items, we discovered a brand new £1200 wrought iron bed had been badly chipped, our £5000 piano had been misassembled, none of the original oil paintings had been 'specially crated' as promised, our wooden bed had been dented, a stag's head had been rammed into a box of other items, bending the antlers, etc, etc. We had expected a superior service from Abels. Having moved over 10 times in our married lives to date, we have some experience of removal firms. First, they have never damaged as many of our belongings as Abels did. Second, when they did and it was their fault, they paid full compensation; they didn't tell us to claim on our insurance. That's like Rolls Royce telling you to claim on your car insurance for a manufacturing defect. So by all means move with Abels but 1) be warned that paying for the most expensive removal firm won't guarantee you any better service than other removal firms 2) be prepared to pay for Abels' own insurance or you won't be covered if they damage your belongings 3) note that, given that you are paying (via your insurance) for any damage Abels do, there is not much incentive for them to do a good job 4) if your'e not the Queen, they won't take much care. I sincerely hope this review helps you to choose a decent removal firm. read more