A crew arrive to load. The garage contains half a can of petrol for a mower, four gas bottles, a shelf of part used paint tins and a bag of fertiliser.
None of it can go on the vehicle. The customer had assumed everything goes, and now has a pile of items in a driveway with a completion time approaching.
Nothing was hidden. The exclusions were in the terms, nobody drew attention to them, and a foreseeable problem became an argument on a doorstep.
1. Publish the excluded items plainly
A specific list, before the move, in the survey and again in the confirmation. Terms containing the list are not the same as a customer knowing it.
2. Explain why the exclusions exist
Insurance, safety and legal requirements rather than preference. A reason converts a refusal into something a customer accepts without argument.
3. Name the items people always have
Petrol, gas bottles, paint, aerosols, cleaning chemicals, fertiliser, fireworks and barbecue fuel. Almost every household has several and almost nobody thinks of them.
4. Explain the paint position specifically
Part used tins in a garage or shed are the single most common excluded item. Telling customers weeks ahead gives them time to dispose of it properly.
5. Explain the plant position
Whether plants can travel, in what circumstances and with what risk. Rules and practicalities vary and customers care about this more than about the paint.
6. Explain the pet position
Pets travel with the family rather than on the vehicle, and arrangements for the day need making, particularly for anything difficult to transport.
7. Explain the perishables position
Food, freezer contents and anything that will not survive. This needs planning in the final week rather than discovering on the morning.
8. Advise carrying valuables personally
Documents, jewellery, medication, keys and anything irreplaceable. This is advice rather than an exclusion and customers are grateful for it.
9. Explain what happens with firearms and similar items
Where they are held legally, they have specific requirements and cannot simply be loaded. Rare and consequential when it arises.
10. Explain the disposal options early
Where fuels, paint and chemicals can be taken, and how much notice a facility needs. Customers cannot deal with these on the morning of a move.
11. Ask about the garage, shed and loft at the survey
This is where the excluded items live and it is where surveys are least thorough, and a survey that covers the house and skips the outbuildings misses exactly the items that will cause trouble.
12. Explain what happens if excluded items are found on the day
They are left, which needs saying in advance so that it is an expectation rather than a dispute during loading.
13. Keep the storage exclusions aligned
Items acceptable for transit may still be excluded from storage, which is the ground in storage between completion dates questions.
14. Send the exclusion list at the enquiry
An assistant that asks about the garage, shed and loft, sends the prohibited items list, explains the disposal options and flags anything needing separate arrangements gives a customer three weeks to deal with it rather than three minutes. The same restricted item conversation appears in what can and cannot be taken questions for junk removal and the fit matching in ai shopping assistant product fit. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under moving companies.