Bought it, cannot shift it
Marketplace and second-hand collections
A sofa from Facebook Marketplace, four miles away, up two flights, today.
You have bought something second-hand, the seller wants it gone this week, and it is considerably larger than it looked in the photograph. This is probably the single most common job we do.
It is a genuinely awkward category. Couriers will not take it, a full removals firm is far more than you need, and the seller is not going to hold it for a fortnight while you work out what to do.
So it needs a van, two people who can lift, and someone who will talk to the seller about access rather than turning up and finding a sofa on a third floor with no lift.
How we make these work
We ask for the seller’s address and postcode before we quote, not after. A collection from a ground-floor flat with a driveway and a collection from the fourth floor of a block with no lift are the same sofa and completely different jobs.
We also ask you to check one thing with the seller: whether the item comes apart. A great many second-hand sofas and bed frames were assembled inside the room they are in, and the person selling it often knows whether it can be dismantled.
If the item will not come out of the seller’s property, we will tell you before you have paid for a wasted trip. We would rather have that conversation on the phone than in a stairwell.
Payment and any dispute with the seller is between you and them. We are moving the item, not verifying it, and we will not act as an intermediary if what arrives is not what was advertised.
Next step
Sound like your job?
Send both addresses, the floor at each end and a few photographs. We will come back with a straight answer.