Terms and Conditions
These terms and conditions are applicable to any parties hiring First Movers Ltd.’s services. Our Legal Disclaimer can be found here. Please read these terms and conditions in conjunction with our Legal Disclaimer and FAQs and they form part of these conditions.
Pricing
- Our prices are transparent and there are no hidden costs, there is no VAT to add either. The only exception is a parking suspension charge, if applicable – this is charged by your local council – please see Parking (below) for details.
- For hourly priced jobs: prices are charged for the started hour and NOT when the hour completes. For example, if the removal time runs into the third hour –say 2 hours 20 minutes – the customer will be charged for 3 hours.
Offers
- A minimum of two hours applies to all of our special offers.
- Offers apply only to vehicle specified in the offer and are not applicable to other vehicles.
- Offers do not apply to piano moves or antiques.
- Offers are subject to availability.
- Offer prices are subject to advance payment or payment on the day, offer discounts will be automatically withdrawn and standard prices will apply should FirstMovers Ltd remain unpaid on the day of the job. It is customers’ responsibility to ensure that they have the means to pay for the services. FirstMovers Ltd has to be paid for the discounts to be applicable.
- These conditions should be read in conjunction with actual conditions of the specific offer.
Parking
- Parking outside all collection and delivery addresses is customers’ responsibility. If the customer fails to provide legitimate parking, any potential parking penalties will be customer’s responsibility and will be added to the final price of the move. We advise you to arrange suitable parking for the removal vehicle.
- For on street parking. Edinburgh Council grants free parking dispensations or suspensions for £40. You can reach the council on 0131-557-6941
Payments
Privacy Policy: We do not store credit card details nor do we share customer details with any 3rd parties.
- All jobs should be paid on or before the day of the move. First Movers Ltd does not offer any credit or pay later services.
- Payments can be made by cash, cheque (5 days in advance), debit/credit cards (3.5% extra charge) or directly into FirstMovers Ltd bank account. For further details, please visit our FAQs page. FAQs form part of these terms and conditions.
- For long distance jobs i.e. going over 25 miles, 50% payment is requested upfront. The remaining 50% is due after collection.
- If for any reasons, we remain unpaid after the job completion date, we reserve the right to use debt collection agencies to recover the outstanding amount. Debt collection agencies may add their charges on top of the principle amount.
- If for any reasons, we remain unpaid after the job completion date, any discounts or offers will be withdrawn – as they are subject to timely payment, see offers section above – and standard prices will apply irrespective of the reasons for delay.
- Should we need to send out reminders to recover any outstanding monies, each letter will cost additional £15.
- A £25 charge is applicable to all late payments.
- If payment remains unpaid for over 30 days, £25 charge will apply for each delayed month, plus 9% interest on the outstanding amount.
Timings & Delays
- Job arrival times are estimated: Several factors beyond our control effect timings, therefore, we cannot be held responsible for inconvenience, loss or damage caused by delays. We advise you not to book trains, flights or other important things based on the estimated time of arrival provided by FirstMovers Ltd.
- FirstMovers Ltd will not be responsible for any delays, inconvenience, loss or damage caused by circumstances that are beyond our control, such as road closures, breakdown of vehicles, etc.
- All jobs are carried out subject to weather. FirstMovers Ltd will not be obliged to carry out a job, should we consider the weather to be adverse. Adverse weather conditions include but are not limited to: snow, blizzards, high winds, hale, or rain. Therefore, First Movers Ltd is not responsible for any delays, inconvenience, loss or damage caused by adverse weather conditions.
- To assist our customers smoothly, all our vehicles have breakdown and replacement vehicle covers. However, practically, if a vehicle breaks down before or during a job, it can take up to several hours before the recovery company can repair/replace the vehicle. In the event of such a breakdown we will try our best to send replacement vehicle as soon as possible, nevertheless, we cannot be held responsible for inconvenience, loss or damage resulting from the breakdown.
Delivery:
- If the delivery address is unknown at the time of booking, the quotes by default presume the delivery to be to a ground floor. If extra floors are discovered at the time of delivery, the quoted price will have to be revised to reflect the extra work involved.
Insurance
- Most home insurances would cover your goods in transit when moving home, we strongly advise that you check with your home insurance to ensure you are covered. Should you not be covered, your home insurance may be able to add a cover for a very small premium, it’s always worth asking.
- We can arrange various levels of cover for you, please enquire for details.
- Our quotes or offers do not, by default, include insurance to cover your goods, therefore, contents are moved entirely at customers’ risk.
- All our vehicles have goods in transit insurance – ranging from £5k to £50k -to cover eventualities. Nevertheless, this is purely to cover FirstMovers Ltd liability that may arise in case of eventualities like a road accidents. This would not automatically cover your goods for damage.
- In the event of such an unlikely situation arising – we haven’t had any so far – the same conditions shall apply as the ones for the customers who choose to insure with us; the valued inventory, and maximum item value in absence of the valued inventory shall apply. This information is not to be interpreted as replacement for the insurance offered at extra cost, this is only for quantification purposes if loss is suffered as a consequence of a road accident.
Dismantling/Assembling Furniture
- We are happy to help customers dismantle their furniture (beds, wardrobes, etc). However, we are not furniture specialist, and dismantling or assembling furniture requests are performed entirely at customer’s risk.
Delivery Policy
- Packing material is usually sent through a 3rd party company which delivers between the time of 9:00AM – 6:00PM and does not provide an accurate time frame hence First Movers will not be liable for Late deliveries, mixed up deliveries or/and any aspect of the delivery accept payments.
- Any delivery from the storage facility to the customers property is made on a time & date convenient to both First Movers Ltd and the customer, should the customer book her delivery 2 weeks prior we will deliver on the date and time chosen by them.
- We do not deliver Any means of goods on weekends ( Sat – Sun ) should this be a date of your convenience please call us in advance to make a booking.
Travelling With Us
- We are not insured to carry passengers and we do not encourage customers to travel with us without insurance. Please be advised to arrange your own insurance if you decide to travel with us, otherwise, you will be travelling solely on your own risk and FirstMovers Ltd will not accept any liability arising from your decision to travel with us uncovered.
- Our business is moving contents and not people, therefore, the charges you pay are for moving contents only. If you decide to come along, the journey is free and at your own risk.
- Should you intend to travel with the vehicle, please inform us at the time of booking and ensure that there will be room for passenger.
Fixed Quotes
- For fixed quotes, any additional items to those declared at the time of the quotation may result in change in the final price.
- If keys are not received on time, there will be an additional charge for the waiting time. Our usual hourly rates will apply to the additional waiting times.
Cancellation Policy
- All cancellations incur a £45 administration charge.
- If you are moving within Edinburgh, cancellations must be advised at least 96 hours before the scheduled removal date. Failing which, £100 cancellation charge or 50% of original price -whichever is greater – will apply. You will appreciate that drivers and porters are reserved for the particular date and other jobs are turned down to ensure that we can assist you on moving day.
- If cancellation for Edinburgh jobs is advised at least 48 hours before the scheduled removal date then a £150 cancellation charge or 80% of original price -whichever is greater – will apply. You will appreciate that drivers and porters are reserved for the particular date and other jobs are turned down to ensure that we can assist you on moving day.
- Cancellations within 24 hours of the job will incur 100% costs i.e. you will still have to pay for the complete moving costs even if you do not use the service.
- For hourly jobs, as the total amount is unknown, the 2 hours advance payment, serves as the cancellation charge.
- Long Distance cancellations will incur a £200 cancellation charge or a 50% (of quoted price), whichever is greater. Any cancellation advised within 15 days of move shall not qualify for a refund. (*This is for a dedicated move with a fixed date).
- Long Distance (partloads or backloads) moves with flexible pickup and delivery dates, once booked do not qualify for a refund, even if the cancellation is advised 15 days prior to the move. This is because we start booking other jobs to match your journey and still require to service other customers sharing the journey with you.
- If you did not pay the full quoted amount at the time of booking, and secured the booking by only making a small deposit. The cancellation charge is not limited to the deposit only, and you will still be liable to pay the full cancellation charge application, as per conditions above.
Refunds
You are entitled to a full refund IF:
- First Movers Ltd was unavailable to do your job
- You cancelled your removal a month in advance ( £30 administration charge is still deducted and not applicable to long distance moves. )
- First Movers Ltd did not show up to do your removal and failed to get in touch throughout the day which caused you inconvenience.
Insuring with us
If you choose to insure goods with us, the following terms will apply
- No claims for any damages will be entertained if part or self-loading.
- Boxes contents will not be covered unless, we packed them.
- We will be entitled to a pre-move visual inspection of items, especially furniture items to record any existing scratches/damages. This is only carried out if you buy extra insurance with us. If we are not covering the goods, we don’t need to make the inspection either.
- Any items found to be missing, lost, broken or damaged, must be informed to the supervisor during or at the end of the job.
- Televisions are fragile and should always be boxed in their original box supplied for proper protection, otherwise they cannot be covered by insurance due to inadequate protection.
- Loose items like lamps, lamp shade, vases, pottery, should all be adequately packed with bubble-wrap and newspaper cuts and packed carefully, otherwise they cannot be covered by insurance. Such items can merely break from the vibrations caused by a moving truck, therefore, please ensure proper packing is in place for protection and insurance cover.
- An inventory list of all valuable or/and fragile items must be provided before the move including their estimate value for insurance purposes. If this list is not provided, any claim of loss or damage will not be taken into consideration.
- Electrical goods will not be covered for internal/functional damage unless there is evidence of physical damage caused by us.
- Antiques and Pianos are not automatically covered, please mention separately.
- In the absence of a valued inventory, each box (combined items of the whole box, not individual items) will be covered for a maximum value of £50 per box. For items that were not boxed, but sufficiently protected, will also be covered for a maximum of £50 per item (this applies to odd items like plants, sculptures etc.) Items such as books, paperwork, CDs, clothes, pillows, duvets, mattresses, general bedding, shoes, or indeed any items that can easily get dirty with elements like dust, water etc. should always be boxed and protected or else they will be considered of zero value.
- Our Goods in Transit insurances are arranged through a third party – usually Aviva group – and are subject to additional terms and conditions that may be imposed by the Insurance company. A copy of those terms and conditions can be supplied on request.
Others
- Moving items require appropriate clearance. If we are asked to carry large items up narrow stairways or corridors without reasonable clearance, we will move the items entirely on customers’ risk. In such circumstances, we will not be responsible for any damages to the walls, stairways or the items being moved.
- Packing materials/storage is charged in additional to the removal, unless specified in the quotation.
- First Movers Ltd cannot take responsibility if the customer underestimates the capacity of the vehicles he requires and more than one trip is necessary.
- First Movers Ltd reserves the right to change man power required for a move. We reserve the right to use more or less than stated men for a number of reasons including – but not limited to – unforeseen circumstances. Extra charges may apply if increased man power is required. Fixed price quotes will not be reduced if concluded with lesser man power. Hourly prices will be reduced/increased to the appropriate – as per prices advertised on the website – hourly charge for the amount of men used. For instance, if 4 men were promised and only 3 were made available, the hourly charge for 3 men will apply. Similarly, if 3 men were promised and 4 men were used, the increased hourly charge for 4 men will apply. The charges will be determined by rates present on our website.
- First Movers Ltd reserves the right to cancel or refuse a job if the customer’s behavior is unacceptable or abusive.
- Porters are allowed 5 minutes break every hour.
Hazardous and Unacceptable Items
- Explosive items and/or flammable liquids are not permitted in First Movers Ltd vehicles.
- Electrical and gas appliances should be unplugged before removal. Refrigerators and freezers should be defrosted, emptied and cleaned before removal. Please read our Removal Tips page for further details. First Movers Ltd is not responsible for the contents.
We have taken time to draft these terms and conditions for your peace of mind, please take your time to go through these. Our Legal Disclaimer can be found here.