David Jordan went to see a moving company in Buckinghamshire that, through no fault of its own, has been landed with an unfortunate name and is battling to maintain business despite prejudice against it.
When Gabriel ‘Gabby’ Gomes founded his removals and storage business in Milton Keynes back in 2009 he wanted to give the fledgling company a name that would reassure customers they were dealing with a professional, caring mover. One of Gabby’s children was studying Egyptology at the time and suggested he named the company after an Egyptian Goddess known for her caring and understanding nature – her name was Isis.
As we all know, the name Isis now has very different connotations and in recent years Gabby’s caring understanding company has become a target for online abuse and threatening phone calls from people who have never used the company or met anyone who works there.
“It all started about two years ago when people started posting pictures of our trucks on Facebook and making silly comments,” said Gabby. “We also have to put up with lots of nasty phone calls. It’s had a devastating effect on our business and despite having excellent reviews from our customers, our enquiries are down by about 40%. What makes things even worse is that I’m of Asian extraction, so when I turn up to do a survey in an Isis branded van I kind of fit the profile – it would be quite comical if it wasn’t so serious.”
Thankfully there is still enough business - especially at the upper end of the market - to keep things ticking over, and Gabby is hoping it will be a short-term problem. In the meantime, he is keen to do more subcontract work for other removal companies.
“When we started, almost all our work was for other removers, including some of the biggest companies in the industry, but as time went on we gradually found more work of our own and the trade work was put on the back-burner,” said Gabby. “We currently do a lot of work for Pickfords but I would welcome enquiries from other moving companies as well. I’ve been in the removals industry for over thirty years and we have an excellent team of guys here in Milton Keynes that really know their business.”
ISIS Relocation Ltd was voted Commercial Mover of the Year 2016 by the Alliance of Independent Movers.