Sounds familiar - we had to deal with exactly this kind of cr*p and more. We thought we would be paying that bit extra for quality service, and had read some good reports on this forum that gave us the comfort factor. However, in reality, the experience with them turned out to be a total nightmare.

I would say to anyone now: use another firm.

Anya.

Their sales guy who did the quote may indeed have been 'far superior'. So was the one they sent us, very good indeed, a nice chap and pretty knowledgeable, too. We felt really good about him & Crown at that point.

It is just a shame that the service he sold us and the skills of his co-workers didn't live up to expectations, and after that first visit he was always 'too busy' to take our calls.

Anya.

Hi we used crown and had a great experience. All our stuff arrived ahead of schedule and no breakages. They were slightly more expensive by a few hundred quid but that DID include all the charges at the Melbourne end. We didn't have to pay a single dollar. I would suggest that you check your cheaper quotes and see what exactly is included.
It does seem a bit strange not to have someone round. We called them and within the week someone was with us and two weeks later we were all packed and shipped.
This is just my experience but I would highly recommend them. We went with them as a friend had recommended them and we are glad they did.
Best of luck. I would phone and ask for a home visit.

I'm wondering if the mixed reports here are due to people using Crown's different UK offices. Certainly, the people in Scotland seem to have had better experiences. We used the London office FWIW.

Anya.

We have had 3 quotes up to now, all three sent people round, and I don't suppose it's any surprise that Crown were the most expensive, by far.

thats cockneys for you tho innit mate?

To be honest Lynn, if they couldnt be arsed to send someone round I couldnt be arsed to give them another chance.

Must admit disapointed with the response I got to my enquiries, just hope JM live up to their promises!

Our stuff is in Crowns depot in leeds ready to go when we get the visa. We have been nmore than happy with the service at this end from Andrew Healey and others. We will wait and see what the service is like at the other end though!!

Paul

Paul,

Just as a matter of interest how did they compare in price with the rest?

Ken

Slightly more expensive, a couple of hundred pounds. Initially quite a lot more until we showed them other quotes. Andrew said the quote must have been a mistake! We thought they were a far more 'professional' set up than the others, so didnt mind paying a little bit extra.

I have found them excellent so far -was e-mailed by peggy yesterday informing me of date of shipping, estimated arrival date and even the name of the ship!!!!! I'm impressed so far but like Paul will wait and see what state my belongings are in in Brisbane and will let you all know what the service is like Brisbane side.

Lynn

Barry:

I'm not going to drag my own experience with Crown through the forum again - and I've emailed you anyway - but I and several others do think you need to have a close look at what the "other end" is like.

>>The second issue is regarding collection of packing material. Standard industry practice is to unpack at time of delivery and remove any unwanted waste packing material at that time. So any items dismantled and packed by the moving company should be unpacked and reassembled- this is considered a typical part of the service. It is true that many people may not want all effects unpacked at the time of delivery and may want to unpack their own boxes at their leisure. If that is the case, there is normally no contractual obligation on the moving company to return and collect the waste material. If you feel this will be a specific requirement on your move, you should ask the moving company at the time of quoting, to include a return trip to collect unwanted waste material. Many find this service helpful.<<

Our delivery people just wanted to drop the 200 boxes off and get the hell out of Dodge. They denied any responsibility for unpacking (and I'm not talking here about so-called "Valet unpacking and setting up", just taking the things from the boxes and taking away the cardboard.) At a fairly stressful time we didn't have the contract to hand (which said they *were* so responsible) so we were left to do it all ourselves despite having paid for it. And we were told we would be charged to take the packing away later.

The standard of some of the packing (done by casual student labour) and the haste of unloading left us with some 27 items damaged and you with an insurance payout of several thousand dollars. I don't know whether it is typical of other companies - we don't move across the planet on a weekly basis - but the (mainly) good experience in the UK was not entirely mirrored down here.

Rog, This is exactly what happened to us, The delivery men made out they were doing us a favor by not unpacking the boxes on the day and then said they would return a week later to pick up the empty boxes. When the men never turned up we rang Crown to be told we had to pay a fee to get them picked up! Had we known this we would have got them to unpack it all on the day rather than let them off early. It took about 4 phone calls to Crown in Australia and a quite considerable verbal battle to get them to pick up their packing materials as was part of the contract.

I wouldn't touch Crown with a barge pole again.

Thanks for your comments on this Rog - I will be very interested to hear Barry's reply on the subject of unpacking - I am happy for all my boxes to be unpacked on the delivery day and if I see my stuff being carelessley removed from the van I will be phoning a manager there and then to complain. What worries me is if they refuse to unpack the boxes?

Lynn

Lynne just make Sure that the office At the Deivery end Knows you will require, full un pack to bench top, of ALL your cartons . Nothing P***s a crew off more than a Client telling them at the last moment they want an unpack, especially if they have a full work load for that day.............. mm