BIDDULPHS REMOVALS AND STORAGE SA (PTY) LTD - Port Elizabeth

I shipped my household contents through Biddulphs International at the end of August 2021.

Biddulphs sent 4 staff to pack. They did not pack it room for room. They sent their staff all at once into my home to pack the different areas. There is no way for you to watch the entire packing process. You should however not have to either.

On the day of packing I received a call from Clarissa advising that my goods would not go straight into a container and be sealed but that rather that it was all going to their warehouse.

No prior advice or warning was given to me on this and I had no option but to trust their process.

Once I had arrived at my destination and querying the shipping date of my goods as I had not heard from them at all, I was told that I now had to pay an additional R36 000 for the shipment of my goods over what i was originally quoted as I now needed a larger container according to them.

I paid it and waited as they were now in possession of all of my goods in their warehouse and I was now also already overseas.

My goods sat with Biddulphs in their warehouse for weeks before it was finally shipped to me after numerous enquiries in October of 2021. It arrived here in and in my possession on 24 November 2021.

On arrival here with me some of my goods were found to have arrived damaged due to not supporting certain items correctly. The cardboard was pulling loose around furniture items that should have been well supported, padded and secured. One large cabinet completely broken at the bottom, coffee table chipped, bed headboard where a piece of it was chipped right off, the bolts for the bed were not taped to it and could not be found during unpacking causing stress to find them as the bed could not be assembled until they were found.

During unpacking we then also started to find that quite a few of our items were no where to be found. They were Missing. Boxes for certain items arrived but not their actual contents.

I reported to them that certain technology items were no where to be found. Biddulphs were advised almost immediately and more things started to show up missing.

When I went to check, covering boxes were there but contents were empty. Other items such as 2 expensive designer handbags and designer shoes were also nowhere to be found.

They stated they would carry out a polygraph on their staff. I heard nothing on this until I queried on 22 February 2022.

I was then told in writing by them that the tests came out negative on the staff that packed the house. I have no feedback on where or what happened while my things were in their warehouse. Biddulphs stated in an email to me that these results could not be provided to me, the client for POPI reasons.

They also advised that these results were however given to the insurer.

As a client whose discovered my things are missing, I don't get sight of their investigation process at all. I have no answers. Seems these goods must have just vanished in the shipping process.

Biddulphs was the company I paid to ship my household contents from SA to my new international residence.

Why did these items not arrive but save for some of their covering boxes which were empty? I wonder what happened to them? Where in this process did they go missing?

When you move overseas, you hand over the entirety of your home to be packed by the company you pay. You cannot hide your goods from anyone or safe guard them nor can you hoard every item you own into your luggage. You also trust they will be packed in such a manner not to arrive broken, chipped etc. You also expect some accountability? Customer care? Follow through etc. I personally did not experience that from Biddulphs in the shipping of my goods internationally.

Ultimately my experience was that there were just too many problems to count during my shipment with Biddulphs.

I personally would never use them again nor would I recommend them to anyone I know.