Re: Advice on Shipping Companies
 

We used John Masons, all I will say is that we have an insurance claim going through for over $10,000 worth of damages.

Re: Advice on Shipping Companies
 

Hi we finally got our things yesterday..guys from wridgways great..we had some damage ( computer so oh not happy :frown: casserole dish smashed to bits, water damage to several photos in frames) and silly things gone missing, computer gigabit switch and a very heavy base stainless steel frying pan!!! but it didnt look like any of our boxes had been opened and resealed :confused: ...luckily we had insurance, everything else arrived ok...

Re: Advice on Shipping Companies
 

It would be absolutely wonderful to get a list of "approved recommended movers". Trouble is one persons success is anothers failure.

To give you an idea, I have a very good friend who is manager of a major freight company in Birmingham, and I asked him if he would be interested in looking at a current shipment ready to go from the UK to Auz.

His comment was that they tried to keep away from personal effects at all cost! They know that they will have to subcontract and then they lose control. They know that they have to use subcontract packers. They know that a lot of the goods will be breakables. They know what this all adds up to.

Whoever you use. Whoever you recommend, you will be able to find comments somewhere damning them as useless. Theres no such thing unfortunately as a 100% reliable perfect deep sea removals company. But on the other hand that doesnt mean they are all crap either!! :)

Re: Advice on Shipping Companies
 

The original post asked abou Anglo-Pacific bu no one's mentioned them in response. they'r one of the one's I've been looking at and wonder whether anyone had any experience of gthem?

Thanks

Alistair:confused:

Re: Advice on Shipping Companies
 

Hi, I know that on another Forum they're referred to as **************. We contacted them, however they couldn't manage to arrange to come and quote so we didn't bother chasing them.....having said that I'm sure someone would have used them and had a perfectly good experience, it's all luck of the draw I guess.

Re: Advice on Shipping Companies
 

We had a quote also from Anglo- pacific. I thought the guy was nice and knew what he was talking about. He said we could take our car. But the other 2 said best not to. Also we want to take a fab wood burner and he said yes but the other 2 said best not to. So a little confused.

But saying that not sold our house yet so not a problem at the moment.

Sorry to butt in your thead Alistair. But I also would like to know good and bad about Anglo-Pacific.
Julie

Re: Advice on Shipping Companies
 

Hi there, would you mind explaining to me what this means. Think I understand the bit about dont let them sign unchecked - ie don't let them pressure me into signing when all has not yet been checked, but I don't understand what you mean by giving them a 'clean signature' or sign 'boxes opened and re-sealed'. Also you mention sealing everything with security tape. As we are considering doing our own packing (depending on what we decide to take) would this be something I can purchase or do they provide it? And finally: When customs or quarantine open boxes and then re-seal them do they always use tape that clearly states customs and would there ever be an exception to this? Cheers Chris n Paul

Re: Advice on Shipping Companies
 

Boxes opened and resealed - if you sign this, they are baiscally saying that when you come to open them, if there is anything missing you have no come-back on the shipper as you agreed with the condition of the boxes.

It really is a crock of
... you know everything went in OK yet the ONLY way of checking everything is to ensure you open and unpack every box. For us, moving from a large 5 bed house to a 3 bed house with about half the room it means it was impossible to do this. And there is even some stuff we have yet to check over a year later.

It's very hard to know what to do, but I would suggest, if you have time, to look at opening and removing items, and you have a good idea if they are broken or not. Then repack them in the box.

In Melbourne, there was a clear sticker on all boxes that were opened with an 'Approved by AQIS' or something like that on them. It was thus interesting for us, as customers, to see what was written on the shipping document that was of interest.

Bear in mind the only thing they charged us for was a £1 tub of fish food - and charged us $85 (reduced after argument from $140) to be destroyed. This showed me they seem to need to make money from everyone to justify their existence. Thieving gits... daylight robbery is what it was and nothing else.

SO be prepared for more charges although I have heard of people with charges over $1,000...

Re: Advice on Shipping Companies
 

The answer to your last question is no. Customs will restick it with the original tape if they can or use plain tape. We could easily see which boxes they had definitely opened as they were resealed with plain brown tape as opposed to the decent quality Anglo Pacific tape.

Also be warned that customs repacking is shocking. Any breakage is more likely to be the fault of customs rather than the original shippers. I think Custom opened 20 to 25 of our boxes. Luckily nothing valuable.

We used Anglo Pacific. 136 boxes. All arrived safely ; even after being in storage in Perth for 15 months. We had lots of glassware/crockery/crystal/kitchen stuff etc and nothing was damaged. All electrical goods (PC, stereo etc) in full working order. All clothes/bedding smelling as though they just came out of the washing machine.

The packers/unpackers were excellent. The rep was good. The staff at the storage company AP use in Perth are great. The only issue I had with them was that they were slow to respond to emails sometimes (due to certain members off staff not liking email apparently).

Re: Advice on Shipping Companies
 

....something to which many members of BE will agree, having waited a couple of years for a certain AP representative to answer their complaints.....Mr Payne, I wonder if you still browse the forum? :sneaky:



(and that is me as ME not as a Mod!!)

Re: Advice on Shipping Companies
 

Well even if he doesn't I do and it is very off putting to read this. Maybe I will give AP a miss!

Re: Advice on Shipping Companies
 

Well as we're about to get this ball rolling, I see it can be a bit of a lottery.

We've decided to get Anglo Pacific and John Mason to quote and Letton Percival for insurance as recommended by so many people on here.

I'll let you know how it goes. i.e. my timeline :lol:

Re: Advice on Shipping Companies
 

Polly i hope you are refering to Anglo -Pacific [AP] and not Allied pickfords [AP} i think this confuses people...............;)mm

Re: Advice on Shipping Companies
 

Umm yes that would be a useful clarification. :fingerscrossed:

Thanks Mr. Mover.

Re: Advice on Shipping Companies
 

Not sure if this is too late or not but...I used Anglo Pacific as recommended by Alan Collet at Go Matilda.

The rep was very good. He said I COULD take the car but suggested that with import tax and gst it wouldn't be worth it. (But it could have gone in the other half of what ended up as shared container.)

The packers in England arrived early, allowed me to watch what they were doing, all sealed and signed for.

No damages, no thefts.

Ryans of Warnambool unpacked at this end. Very friendly, very helpful.

There was a slight dink on the washing machine.

I declared that an ancient set of drawers might have woodworm; nothing was said or done about it at Customs. All they opened was to lengths of 2 x 1 pine from B & Q still with labels on. That was rewrapped in red and white striped paper.

I had no extra charges.

I can only recommend Anglo Pacific - other may disagree.