Ozzidoc

I thought that I’d share this in case it was of use to anyone…

After six years living apart, I was finally moving permanently to the US to be with my UKC husband. I was taking personal effects only, no furniture.

I purchased double-walled cardboard boxes and packing paraphenalia from here: http://www.ukboxesdirect.com/categor...-boxes-2-2.php They arrived within two business days.

I packed 12 boxes with my personal effects (clothes, books, cooking/baking ware, course papers, photos etc). I don’t know how accurate my weighing was – my husband stepped on the bathroom scales with each box and we simply extracted his weight from the number! Total weight 204kg.

I numbered each of the unsealed boxes and wrote on each of them what the exact contents were. At the same time, I input this information onto a word document on my laptop, along with the weight and the boxes measurements.

Through BE, I had heard about companies like: http://www.interparcel.com whereby your parcels/boxes could travel door to door in less than a week via a reputable company like Fedex or DHL.

Once I had all the information about my shipment (ie box numbers, their sizes and weights), I obtained several on-line quotes for air freight and for standard sea freight.

There was quite a difference in prices between providers. I attempted to get hold of the air freight dept of several airlines, but I didn’t try too hard….I was out of time!

Ultimately I chose to go with: http://www.wedelivertheworld.co.uk/index.php who trade under then name of “Fast Lane”. I had several provider and speed-of-delivery options. I chose DHL’s economy (or something similar) which had a usual arrival time of 4 – 7 days after collection. It was the cheapest DHL option, and meant that I could specify the date of collection but not the specific time slot, not even morning vs afternoon.

Here’s what happened…

Monday lunchtime
I finally finished packing, weighing and my inventory.

I found the company I wanted to go with online. I had a quick question about insurance. I rang the company, who were very helpful and answered my questions. I completed my order online, paying by credit card. I then printed out all of the associated paperwork including a number of delivery labels. I printed 36, as I wanted three for each box (one attached inside and outside, and a spare loose one inside). The delivery address was my husband’s work address.

Tuesday
Fast Lane sent an email confirming the airway bill arrangements, including a copy of what one looks like and what I need to write on it….if I mucked this up, I pay double!

Wednesday 230pm
DHL van pulled up. Mr DHL visually inspected that all boxes are unopened. Lovely DHL man then helped hubby seal all boxes with our packing tape. DHL man was expecting an airway bill for each box. I only had one to cover the entire shipment. (He might also have been expecting a US customs form cf3299 for personal effects – I cant remember.) DHL man goes away, leaving the boxes behind – I think he takes the airway bill?

Wednesday 355pm
DHL man comes back – still happy and courteous according to hubby– to collect the boxes. (?Airway bill photocopy now attached to all boxes?) He made a throwaway comment along the lines of “USA? Probably be on the plane in a couple of hours and at the office tomorrow…!”

Thursday 6pm
Hubby gets a phone call from DHL USA. (He’s still in the UK with me.) My boxes have arrived in the USA. DHL USA needs a copy of his passport and a completed customs form cf3299 faxed or scanned to them, and items will be released immediately. Eek! Too fast for us! Thankfully we had until Sept 10th before they’d be sent back at my expense to the UK….

Wednesday – morning Pacific Time
Hubby now back in the office. He emailed scanned copies of the requested documents to DHL USA.

Thursday 2pm Pacific Time
Ozzidoc’s 12 boxes all arrived unopened, in one (12) pieces, everything seems to be in good order an undamaged.

Friday
Ozzidoc realised that she has too much stuff and not enough room!!!!!!!

Mummy in the foothills

Holy fast shipping batman

Jerseygirl

Ozzio...should it read Wednesday 6 pm (not Thurs) and Thurs morning PT (not Wednesday)?

Ozzidoc

Thanks for reading JG

I dont think so.....

Basically, we could have had the goods by lunchtime Friday (pacific Time) had we provided the receiving-end paperwork.

We couldn't do this until the following Wed evening, goods arrived the next day.

I appreciate that I should have included the dates....that would have made it easier.

Essentially, our DHL contact was Wed & Thurs one week then Wed and Thurs the next... It could have been only Wed, Thur, Fri all in the one week if hubby was in town when the boxes arrived.

Feel free to edit my post to make it clearer

Elvira

Great information - hope it works going the other way too...

How much $$$ ?

Jerseygirl

OK I didn't realise it was the following week.

That's a great way to move if your haven't got a great deal to ship. We didn't take furniture but ours took around 2 months by sea/road.

Ozzidoc

It was £600 door to door. Some quotes for the same weight and service were over £1000.

This was about the same price as by sea with Excess Baggage and also Seven Seas.

Norri

I used Fastlane recently to ship three picture boxes from the UK to Phoenix about 20Kg's total.

It was pretty much the same story, picked up on 4th Aug and delivery attempted on 6th Aug, but I missed the guy

Finally got everything in good shape next day, total cost £134, I was pretty impressed with the service

Elvira

Thanks - one more question: how do they cope with fragile and/or valuable items? What about insurance?

PS: This stuff should go in the Wiki - all very useful!

Ozzidoc

Individually, my items were neither valuable or nor particularly fragile. I had several ceramic vases which I hoped wouldn't be damaged, but wouldn't have been surprised if they were. I estimated that the new cost of my medical books and replacement costs of my clothes & cooking things was about £3500.

When obtaining the on-line quote, there was an option for purchasing insurance - the price was 1% of the value. I spoke to Fast Lane customer services directly to confirm that this insurance would cover personal effects if damaged, went missing or the plane fell out of the sky. She confirmed (verbally) that it would. I had no problems with goods - all arrived in one piece, including the vases - so I do not know how difficult it would be to claim or to receive compensation.

I'll try to do a basic wiki in the next week or two.

unrelated

Thank you, this is very useful!

Ill be shipping some personal stuff to the US, hopefully im only going to ship the bare min. We dont have a lot any way so i was thinking about taking it as exess on the pane, having looked at this ill look at shipping companys.

thank you!

Cherylbe

Do you know if you have to be the person on hand to pick up?
Also was it door to door or did you have to drive to
port" to pick up.
I would love to send my things now that I am moving house but one place that I called said I had to be the one who did the pick up because only I know whats meant to be in boxes.

Meryl

Ozzidoc for some weird reason I always thought you were a man....lol, I'm sorry!!!

my shippers are coming in 2 weeks, just taking clothes etc, no furniture, had all sorts of varying prices quoted to me, but in the end opted for Dorree Bonner as so far their customer service has been spot on, just hope it all goes smoothly.

Ozzidoc

When you say "pick it up" do you mean when the boxes are being collected, or when they reach their destination?

The people I dealt with (see 1st post in this thread) were very helpful. Indeed, ultimately it was my hubby who was with the boxes when they were collected in England. I dont know if he signed anything though, as I already had.

We had arranged for the boxes to be delivered to him at his work address. This is what happened

You could have them delivered to you at your new work address or home address.

Because the parcels were addressed to hubby, rather than "Ozzidoc, C/- Hubby, Work Address.....", hubby had to complete some kind of customs form saying that the goods belonged to a family member etc, so that he/we wouldnt be subject to import duty.

Does this answer your questions?

I'm sorry that I've not yet done a wiki - I'm such a slacko!

Good luck with everything

Ozzidoc

LOL - the pink symbol next to my username wasn't a clue??

Good luck with your move