Dubai-Based Relocations Company Scammed Hundreds

At Paul’s Removals Melbourne we are aware that organising your move in a cautious and responsible way might be one of the most important things we will do to help you start your new life in your new home. Not all companies understand this responsibility though. Or even if they do understand it, they have mastered their way around it and are conning hundreds by initially offering a competitive quote, only never to deliver… literally.

When news broke yesterday about a Dubai-based relocation company that conned hundreds of people, including Australian citizens, we at Paul’s decided to help spread the word and provide tips how you can identify and avoid dodgy relocations, both here in Melbourne and anywhere in the world.

The Emirates relocations company, ReloGulf (also known by other names) contacted people to help them with their move, offering the most competitive quote on the market, promising quality and results in a given time.  Ex-banker Elaine, for instance expected a pre-Christmas delivery of her items from Portugal to her apartment in Dubai. When the dodgy removals started cooking up stories to explain the delay, Elaine took things in her own hands and decided to track her items down only to find out they are still in Portugal and no one has even contacted the storage to begin the move. The Dubai company took the payment, but never initiated the move. Now Elaine has to once more organise everything from scratch.

If you think this is bad, here is more, because Elaine turned out to be among the luckiest. She only lost the money she paid them and not her belongings, some of which can be priceless like a wedding album, which is precisely what happened to the next victim. After living and working in Dubai for 16 years, Vangi Radhu Samarasinghe decided to move to Norway. For the purpose she needed to move 10 boxes labelled “sentimental and priceless things”. After landing an offer from the company in question, devastated Samarasinghe haven’t seen her boxes since and the company claims they don’t know where these are. Another victim, Aussie Daryl Wake was lucky to see his belongings again after entrusting ReloGulf, but was appalled by the way the removalists mixed people’s items in the truck without caring. He immediately asked himself what if he ends up with something that could be deemed by the law as contraband? In Dubai this could mean years and years in jail.

The worse part of this whole story is that the local authorities are not doing anything presently and have not taken any action against the company. As  for the dodgy removalists, they just keep changing their name when the bad press is getting too much.

So, here are our quick tips that in most cases will save you from being scammed:

– Always take your time to compare quotes and do your research. A simple Google research will help you identify scammers in most cases. Just check what the company’s activity online is and what people say about them.

– Don’t always go for the cheapest quote. Here is a list of differences between cheap removalists and professional companies. Sometimes less is not more!

– Hire insured, vetted and trained individuals for all your relocations.

As seen on Gulf News