jsvk

I think the original post was for me? our stuff has cleared customs and we have a delivery date 6th may...i will keep you up dated...we also had a shared container....

mi5agent

Thanks for that...must have had a "senior moment".

Ok well, you have seen the results of our John Mason experience and we had losses! BUT, we went with them from a good report and I know that others have had trouble shipping using John Mason.

Seems that there is some cherry picking or easy opportunities offered that dictates the end result.

Do, please, let me know when your stuff arrives and how everything works out.


TIA

slipshot

We went with PSS. Loads of damage, part due to poor packing of goods and part due to carlessness here in Aus at the customs and Kent side of things.

Bottom line is a hefty insurance cliam still going through. Have used them before but after this would not again.

mi5agent

I suggest whichever shipper you decide on that your next concern is ensuring the safety of you stuff. The real problem from what I see, is not what goes from the packed goods...its that some stuff never gets past the van!

There seems no pattern to the things that go missing - we lost stuff - all art related - worth around £400 to replace - but I also shipped These pro spec camera's, Fuji S2 Pro, S3Pro, a smaller Fuji S9500 A Nikon F60, A Miranda 35mm a Yashica Mat 124 G 6 x 6cm film cameras and a couple of redundant video camera's. Two 4 gig memory cards went from the pro spec camera's but at least they did not take the camera's! I spent weeks worrying if they would make it .....only to find some petty bits had gone missing.
A suggestion is that packers are in a network and have a shopping list!!

Kingseat

How do you work out the value of everything you ship? Do the packers go through it with you as they go or am I expected to have a full list of the cost/replacement of everything?

mi5agent

You should have started by knowing when you will need you gear collected, any shipper will want to know that date in advance.

Nest, you need to do one of two things... the first is sit and do nothing with your gear and let them pack it !OR you start dumping, selling, donating anything you dont want to take with you. Do it on a room by room basis.

When you ask for quotes, the shipper will ask when they can send in a surveyoy. He will then expect you to take him around you house pointing out what goes and what does not. He will progessivly eith write down his opinion of teh space each item you point out will take... at the end of th etour he will tally up the count and conceveryt it into cu feet. Whatever that figure is will decide if you need a container or a shared container.
After the quotes are all in..read each one..dont just do a bottom line comparisin, Crown wioll charge you more - but include things other charge as extra's Like teh threat that customs wont touch a dirty container and they offerto have it cleaned off - John Mason charge £15.
So you get a quote from some.. but have added charges later to consider.

After you have sorted out who you will use, you then decide if you want to sort your stuff out or leave it to the packers.

I and other are victims of things going missing from your stuff. Seeing it all sealed into a container ( get the seal number yourself before they go ) is about the only way it seems secure. We used John mason, but other have used them and have no losses or complaints. Other had stuff go from a variety of shippers, so its a matter not of luck, but if you have something that others covet!

You will be quoted door to door deivery - they whisper the bit about iyt being - only if you are with ( about) 30 klm city/ port where your stuff is landed. Any extra milages is charged byteh contracted mover in Aus.

The the day arrives and to strangers walk into you home and handle every single item you own and pack it.

If you insure it..you put the value on, which needs to be reasonable - and you list ceratin items of high value and or identify those you may decide are attractive to others. The value ( required to be converted to Aussie dollars by John Mason) of the total you come to, is then caculated at a rate they will advise.

Ours was over £20,000 and the cost was about £650 - from memory - and we used 600cu feet in a shared container!

Off you trot to your destination ... and wait for it!

Good luck

charlie5

Hi

Many thanks for this, it is a very useful starting point for those of us new to shipping.

Charlie

slipshot

Very fair, but of course it only applied until the goods land in Australia. The container is then taken off the ship and then collected by the local company and taken to a warehouse where the seal is broken and the goods of laid out. Customs and AQIS will have advised which boxes they want to open so everything waits until they both come. Then everything is put somewhere until the day before your move when it is either loaded into another container or one of the delivery trucks for delivery.

Thus a lot can happen this side as well. I saw our container being loaded and sealed, I took the container (not the seal) number and tracked it from our house to a train to the port to a ship etc. I'm sure it was fully sealed all the way but as the container left Aus long before our shipment arrived, there were a lot of items that could easily have gone missing at the warehouse over here. Nothing did, but the process means having a deal will not help in a lot of cases.

PS Incidentally, our quote and actual action was 30 miles (so 60km) from port. Not always in kilometres...

mi5agent

It may be as you say...and I cannot disagree with you.

Our stuff was groupage and packed 142 John Mason boxes of variuos sizes.
From our UK property to the warehouse where it is alledged to have been stored until packed ina containers, under "secure conditions".
I was not aware that the Aussie movers had any connection with our stuff until it was checked and released by customs. But I can understand teh need to customs to use teh mover labour to find thd boxes they want to inspect.
Which explains the yellow highlighted boxes on teh inventory we got.
We had 142 boxes in John Mason's own logo'ed boxes sea;ed with white tape. Only th eboxes nominated by customs had been opened and were resealed with common brown vynal tape. At least thats how the Kent delivery men explain d it to us - so I suppose it coul dhave been altered..only Sydney customs know teh facts... and John mason , in their "investigation" about our losses, suggested they may havethem, but declined my invitation to ask them and get a written reply. I suspect any movers doubting or questioning the integrity of the service..monitored by CCTV 24hrs - will be in for a long wait next time.

So if teh box quantity is OK and the only broken seals are by customs under controlled conditions an dteh items missing were from different rooms..and 2 4gig memory cards taken from my camera's ( how stupidily trusting I was ! at least the camera's arrived! ) and one item was larger than the carton they claim it was packed in!
So its not rocket science to know who or where the stuff went missing.
The box content listing is vague and may only contain one of 10 items inside.
On our list were "2 fishing rods" - which intrigued me... I never own any fishing rods in the UK. The actaul contents were a new rotary clothes drier and two mobile radio arials!

Strange thing is we moved from Crown to JM after good reports on forum posts and others have never even lost a spoon!

All our missing stuff was either art materials and equipment or digital camera cards and re-chargeable batteries. except one strange item... I panorama photo ( 3 prints cut and slotted together before digital) of The Louvre Pa+ris 1997 - in a nothing special frame. Other far better frames arrived OK.

So who knows the why's and wherefore's of how, where or why stuff went missing...but it has!

Then we had to put up with Jm suggesting we left it behind when ( their experienced, long serving, trusted and valued .. ) packers left.
Not so experienced then if they cannot even check with the customers who fed um coffee and snacks for two days, gave them a portable 5" TV and other stuff we decided not to take!

We were also advised aussie distance in miles... but Kent say no...klms!

In conclusion, as a warning to others, the inventory is not specific, its vague and if items go missing that are not shown on the inventory... there is vague suggestion that maybe you forget it.. which really means... yer never had it mate and yer trying to shyster the insurance!
We pointed out 2 claims on insurance in 30 yeas! One was a reported and investigated burglary, the other a lost camer in a restuarant!

The box count cannot be checked unless you stand at the door - because the quote Health and Safety to stop you getting on the van to check!

So the 142 boxes we signed for maybe were not everything that left our property.. they were that boxes the magpies did not want!



PS.. I have a finger - brain disconnection! THE comes ouit as teh....soory!

mordechaivanunu

We used White & Co and can say they were very professional and all went smoothly (We had a 40 foot container and paid 4900, knocked them down from 5400). Hope this helps

Kingseat

Good tips. Thank you. Going to have a few out for inspection in the next couple of week.s

Mitzyboy

Ive posted this before, an article I wrote for another forum. Does no harm to repeat it though:

One of the most difficult experiences in re locating is the actual shipping of your worldly goods and chattels. Not only are there a huge number of companies offering you the opportunity to use their services, but they all tell you that it will be trouble free and that all will arrive at destination in good order. In reality this is often far from the truth. We’ve all read posts from people arriving at destination only to find that their furniture is elsewhere. Whats that old saying? ….. breakfast in London, dinner in New York, luggage in Bombay!

Here are a few hints from someone who spent his life in the ever so stressful shipping industry and is glad to be out of it!

There are so many different destinations worldwide that it’s difficult to be specific so I will generalise as much as possible. If you want specific help then I have contacts in the industry and can point you in the right direction.

Get three quotes from different removal companies. Prices can vary enormously. Many carriers will not honour insurance claims unless they have packed the goods themselves. When you get their quote ask about full marine insurance cover (get a separate quote from them) and check their conditions of carriage carefully. Check to see if they are members of the British Intl Freight Association (http://www.bifa.org/Content/Home.asp )
It doesn’t mean they are perfect but at least they will be an established company.

Gain separate quotes for insurance. Again be careful about the conditions of cover, i.e. do the goods have to be packed by you, do they have to be packed professionally. How extensive is the cover. Check the exclusions and look for clauses about “atmospheric conditions”. If your goods arrive damp (usually deep sea long voyages) you don’t want the insurance company copping out.

If you pack your goods yourself, always make up a detailed packing list in triplicate of what is in each box with a nominal value (I’m assuming the effects are all used and not new). DON’T attach this to the box but number the boxes (and the packing lists) and keep the list separately as it will be required for (a) the shipping line (b) the Revenue & Customs and (c) you. Mark each box with your destination name, destination address and a destination telephone number.

If you are shipping to sea voyage destinations then your effects will probably ship in a steel shipping container. Although these are checked regularly it is not unusual for holes to appear. When you receive your goods you must check them carefully for wet damage as they come off the container. Once you have signed for them it will be more difficult to make a claim.

If you are shipping to Europe then it is more likely that your goods will travel in a box van / truck. The same rules apply when receiving the goods although quite often the effects will have been transhipped at least twice (unless you’ve commissioned a full load) before they get to you. Also remember that if your new home is in a difficult location then the effects may have to be transhipped to a smaller vehicle. Again, count the number of cartons and check for impact / wet damage.

If (in the case of international removals) the cartons have been examined by customs then there will normally be evidence of this. In the UK they are re sealed with security tape. If any cartons look as if they have been tampered with then call it to the attention of the delivery driver and then open to investigate.

Buy decent tri wall boxes to pack your effects in. Most removal specialists will supply them. Try to avoid cardboard boxes that you bought your last supply of baked beans in. They will collapse in transit.



Complaints: http://www.removalsombudsman.org.uk/yourqas.htm


Google: http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...sociation&meta=

Marine insurance: http://www.marine-insurance-uk.net/i...=google&kw=all

thebooys

has anyone had experience of using GB Liners ? we have them coming round to quote for a move from Gloucester to Melbourne, although also waiting to hear back from PSS, Doree Bonner, Crown etc.

l've heard all of the above mentioned in positive/negative comments, but nothing about GB Liners. Any comments would be useful to help set my expectations of what to expect from them.

razbolch

We used PSS last May to ship 70cu feet of personal effects to Melbourne and had their packers "professionally" pack our stuff. We were quoted 8-10 weeks and it actually took 12 plus custom clearance of a few more days. When it was delivered we found 3 of the boxes were deeply gashed - thankfully nothing in them was broken. However our big wedding photo picture was smashed to smithereens and the guy from the associate company who delivered it said it had not been packed correctly - they had used a folded box as protection and nothing to pad it. I telephoned twice but got cut off each time and no one replied to my 2 emails to customer services as we had insurance. We decided we would reglaze it ourselves though some of the photos are a little scuffed. There are no doubt people out there who have been happy with their service - we were not and suggest you keep an eye on any packing if you use this service and bring attention to any delicate items.

Hope this helps - I would suggest when you get quotes you find out what is included as many put the charges for customs on top of the general quote & any insurance needed.

mi5agent

I cut the quote to save space.

I dont want to bang on about our aggravation with the shippers we used.

Having used this - since 2003 and another forum - since it was born but I cannot name coz it will be deleted - but it centres in brits not in UK!

from teh two, we saw posts about shippers and I recall there was even a poll to show who had problems with which shippers.

In real terms, every shipper got complaints about damages or thefts. I use "thefts" as defined by, it was packed at our home and did not arrive at destination" the bit in between is a bigger mystery than the desination port of the Marie Celeste.

And - all shippers had teh "we used them and they were great, even brewed up and bought is chocs to go away with " ( semi joke)

The ones who showed the worst, were local companies who took teh contract and farmed it out- for the shipping - but in most cases sent their own staff to pack it up. Anybody having a different appraoch may contadict me at will.

So, with all this knowledge and experience from those wot have dun it, we thopught it woul dbe a simple issue for us.

First get the three seemingly, most used and who handle the whole contract in-house.

We chose Crown, went through the routine and were just waiting for the house to sell. That was back in 2006/07. Just has the house prices stumbled.

In August 2008, teh visa on the was on teh final glidepath, the house had a buyer. time to boohk teh shippers, phoned Crown...ah, old quote, need to re-assess. OK so we will do it again and get in other quotes, Dorree Bonner and John Mason.

We got quotes from all three in best price order, JM, Crown, DB.
Checked the forums for info...JM had good reports, and having lost a truck load on the house and the exchange rate looking terminal - we fell into "save some cash " mode and chose John Mason.
I am sure you will have have seen the results in my posts, all of what was taken from our home..did not arrive at destination.

The situation is that you at least two strangers walk into you home and pack it away. According to the inventory, we had 142 boxes taking 595cu ft of container space. $2625 plus 315 to clean thentainer! plus Insurance £634.10 plus £63.41 for Derangement cover Total £3337.51 PLUS AUD$249 for added milage delivery.

We had delivered 142 boxes, all still sealed except a few which had been identified on the inventory as inspected by Customs. Re-sealed using brown vinyl tape.

So where did our missing items end up?

That question is yet to be answered, but John mason dont give a hoot, "Start an insurance claim" was theie responce after suggesting teh items may be with the customs people...but made no effort to ask!

So with all thehelp in theworld, with other experience to guide our path and using the TOP shippers - according to two of theost popular and frequented forums - and we end up ion te very situation we did our best to avoid.

I have little confidence about our insurance claim and expect them to respond with, But you sihned out 142 boxes and recieved 142 boxes and teh only one not sealed by JM - were those opened by customs, so we do not understand how you say items are missing. or words to that effect.

After it leaves you home - if its not sealed in a container, which seemed to be the only tamper free option, until has pointed out to me, you realize that the aussie shippers unpack every for customs and eithe rload it back or onto their van. So still a risk of pilferage.

What can you do? Everything we did amd more- accidental damage is in teh lap of the gods -IF you ensure that everything is packed well, in truth I cannot fault the amount of packing used by JM, although, the other side of that is most of the boxes were only about half full of gear and teh rest packing paper. We trusted the packers and did not stand over them. So who knows what went into the boxes or hown many boxes were actauly packed and even less idea how many went on the van to be opned and looted on-route.

There you go, the conclusion is that for every post who reports, XXX are great no problems, there is another like me who reports - naw they are part time looters and make Fagin look like a novice.

Make you choice, pay your money and start worrying!!!



PS... where you see teh its THE...but fingers and brain aint on good terms