artep

Shipping's been mentioned a lot I know....but I thought I'd just give my two penneth FWIW

We had these 3 companies round last week to quote.


Whites - £2,900 for sole use of a 20ft container - They didn't offer shared.

I got the impression from this lot that they haven't been doing international shipping for long, maybe they have but they didn't give that impression. All the info I got from them was a general leaflet about moving house. He couldn't even tell me who they used at the other end. So all in all I wasn't impressed, they may be cheap but I have my doubts about whether my stuff would actually get there in one piece...if at all.


PSS - £2547 for a shared container - they reckon we have 560 cubic feet
£3356 for sole us of a 20ft reefer container

The info sent with the estimate was very good and informative....but the word estimate scares me....its licence to move the goal posts.
The chap from PSS was very nice, but a bit....how can I put it...dismissive. I appreciate he's done this job a million times before but it was like he wasn't really listening sometimes. We'd maybe express a concern about something and he'd anwer our question but almost brush it aside at the same time....am I making sense? They use 2 different companies in Brissy it depends on the size of your shipment as to who they use. Also he said if we used a shared container then our stuff would be packed here at our house....then unpacked and packed again at their depot ready for shipping???? Anyone else had this?? Maybe I'm over -reacting but what's to stop someone slipping something in with your shipment??



Crown - £3375 - for sole use of a 20ft reefer container

I was really impressed with Crown, the woman was very good and extremely professional. She was informative, genuine and no question was too much trouble. As we went round the house she discussed in detail how everything would be packed plus she was clear on any items we weren't sure would be ok to be shipped. Regardless of whether we had shared or sole use, our stuff would be packed for shipping at our house...not re-packed at the depot.

On the down side....if there is one.... is that initially she came back to me with a quote for a shared container as when she was at my house she thought we'd need about half at a cost of 'just over £3k'....when I told her we'd had cheaper quotes she went away and came back with £3375 for sole use. So not much price difference between shared & sole.....bit weird that one..

We've decided to go sole use with Crown...even though they're the most expensive of the lot. It's because of the way the whole thing's been handled. I got a much better feeling of professionalism & 'knowing what they're doing' from Crown & at the end of the day I want peace of mind and I prefer the thought of using 1 company at both ends and not 2.

I appreciate other have used Whites & PSS with great success & I'm not knocking that...its just my personal preference.

Petra

Brissiegirl

all the best with your move.. we are still waiting for quotes to come back.. and we'll have to pack up soon.

When do you go?

Davidd

I think what PSS are getting at when they say unload at depot is that they collect and load at your house, then unload all your cartons, furniture etc., at their depot, then reload into a container and shipped, they don't physically unpack all your goods from the cartons.

This is the way shared containers work.

artep

Fingers crossed...& house permitting (we hope to complete on March 18th) we'll fly out towards the end of April ish...depends if I can get flights.

What about you?

tabby

Hi

The price for crown does that include VAT & insurance???

Tabby

Wol

We used Crown - they came down on the price to match the others BTW - and still have our stuff in storage Sydney.

They are a bit casual here - you ask them for something but they never get back to you. This applies to Australian companies though!

Crown's warehousing is very clean and professional, so don't worry on that account.

Stormz

Like I said in another post, Eagle quoted us £2750 for a 20 ft container door-door (UK - Perth), with packing here but no unpacking at the destination (as we don`t need it).

JayDeee

[The only thing I will say about shipping as everyone has there preferances is

REMEMBER the nice person who comes to your house to size things up and tell you about there company is a salesperson and they are gonna get a nice chunk of commision for getting your business.

The company I used were very overdue with my delivery they were good as a company but the nice chap who I initially dealt with was a very scetchy with the truth and denied giving me a promiced timescale once that had been broken.

If he had just said sorry I would have been peed off but because he tried to make out I imagined it I wasn't too impressed.

Oh and do Barter, I got my price down a fair bit by saying I had been well underquoted by another reputable company, they treid telling me they were better than the other company but I stuck with it and they gave in

Kala

jimtrish

thats exactly how they explained it to us, i felt really happy with their explanations etc, but you have to go with who you feel at ease with

artep

No it doesn't include insurance

tabby

Thanks

I'm in 2 minds about getting insurance, spoke to one firm and they said you had to work out the worth of your shipment by pricing how much it would cost you to buy new stuff of same quality in Oz, seems quite diffucult to work out as I'm in the UK

Tabby

artep

hiya Tabby

Think we'll def get insurance as it more than makes up for the cost to replace what we'll ship should it all be lost.

mr mover

WHITES {southampton] have been around a fair while. and we get some good jobs in from them. they generally do a neat and tidy shipment, PSS never dealt with them,and judging by some of the comments on here, I,m glad. CROWN i have to admit im biased here as they are our sister company,and are a world wide entity,[head office in hongkong], it is amazing that they are charging so much for "reefer boxes" they practically get them for nothing due to reassignment, back to asia and oz. When a company do,snt load on site, they loose load back to the depot,there is more chance for damage. .............................. mm

Stormz

I believe other ppl in other threads have said getting insurance isn`t worth it for various reasons.... not least it`s normally for the whole load and nothing ever really happens to it.

If you do get insurance, you aren`t stuck with the shipper... you can shop around.

Wol

Insurance: the rates charged by the shippers are very high. You can get independent insurance against total loss which IMO is better - after all you are likely to get a few bits and bobs broken anyway, the excess on comprehensive mops that up and you are still $$$ out of pocket. What IS a big loss is if the boat sinks and you lose the lot - and that's much cheaper to insure against.

The only problem is that they want a complete breakdown of insured values, which is the last thing you want to do at this stage - so you do as we did and get the comprehensive! Then you also have the problem that if your stuff is in storage you have to continue paying the insurance otherwise any breakages or loss during the entire transit won't be covered anyway. Catch 22...