AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
The first warning sign probably should have been that this company seems to have multiple names. I just did not spot this at the time of booking with them. Their webpage calls them Auckland Cheap Movers but all their emails come from Auckland Furniture Removal (which is also where all the calls get directed to).
Briefly, I had a move booked for a Saturday but these guys canceled/tried to rechedule on us twice and their communication towards us was very poor so at the end of this whole thing I needed to ask them not to come and cancelled the move.
The original window for the movers to come to the house was also rather long (between 10am to 2pm). I was supposed to get a call from the movers 30 mins before they arrive but as there were no updates at around 2pm I gave them a call. The waiting time for the calls I made with this company (probably around 10 in total) was 5-15 mins each time. Over this call, I got to know that the moves had "a technical issue" with their van and could not come. I was asked if we could do the move on Monday instead (pushing it already to Sunday was going to be difficult for us). I managed to get them to agree on a move first thing on Sunday morning and was told the movers will come to the house between 7-9am. Luckily we could stay in the house we were moving out for the whole weekend.
Come Sunday and 8am when I got a call from the movers saying they are 30 minutes away. This sounded like good progress, however, about 40mins later I got another call saying that the movers "had a technical issue" and that they will try to get another van to come to do the move as soon as possible. However, their as soon as possible was told to be between 10am-2pm. At this point, I was starting to fully lose my trust in the company. I asked them to give me an update by 11am if the movers have not arrived at that point. Unsurprisingly no update call was given so I called the company myself at around 12pm just to get hung up on. By this time we had managed to move a vast majority of our stuff with the help of our friends so the help from a moving company was getting quite useless. Also getting hung up got me to call them back and cancel (after waiting another 10 minutes or so).
I had paid a deposit for the move and was not quite sure if I will get this ever back as this whole thing felt like a scam at this point. Luckily this was the only thing that the company could deliver (although it required 3 additional calls from my end).
Even one star might be a bit too much, but I got my deposit back so there was something positive in this whole story. Just not sure yet how much all this calling to them ended up costing me...