MrJenkins

John Mason team in tomorrow. I have spent the weekend cleaning bikes, golf clubs, shoes, power tools and anything else that has been exposed to the British elements . Will update you on how it goes and how John mason faired.

charlie5

Stand by for action and make sure they don't pack things too early. They move pretty quick and we had to make sue they kept a few essentials for the second day (eg bed, TV, kettle).

They will pack anything unless you stop them. We brought over old newspapers, dirty rags etc.

They did a pretty good job though - we only had one small glass broken.

Charlie

Alfresco

Correct! Make sure you have a room with all your important stuff in and close/lock it or tell them not to touch it.

MrJenkins

Well John Mason came, packed and loaded. They also did a damn fine job. Cant fault anything as they turned up on time (2 of them) and got stuck in. Pleasant enough and happy to add a few more things that we forgot to tell them about. 20 ft container was full to the brim and we had a panic moment towards the end thinking not everything would fit, but the last thing that went in was a double mattress that they had to hold upright whilst they closed the doors.

So my overall assessment of John Mason in the UK . Best price and couldn't fault the service. Lets hope it continues when our stuff arrives in Sydney.

charlie5

Hi

Do you know who your Australian sub-contractors are ging to be? We were given Wainwrights.

Charlie

Dimond

Good point about the Australian sub-contractors. We were given Chess who did the following:
1. Would not put books on shelves but dumped most of them on the floor...their bosses & UK shipper (Coles) would not believe us until we produced photographs. Keep your camera handy to document any irregularities or breakages.

2. Intimidated us by saying unpacking would be very difficult as we would not know where to put things so they had better just leave most things in boxes (ie they are keen to avoid unpacking).

Tip- get it clear from the beginning what the un-packers will do and not do and how many trips to the address you are entitled to as we got slugged for their second trip to unpack more stuff they had left before. You need to be strong with these guys. They may not all be like this -just depends on the local crew you get but be careful.

kizbut1

We used Robinsons who were excellent, couldn't do enough for us in the UK or over here. Avoid Berk Bros, moving is stressful enough without these idiots. Beware scammers asking for money upfront before the 'autumn prices come in' like we had, I did a thread regarding that.

Mold/Mildew, things like fridges/washers get mold, they are in an unventilated container for about 6-8 wks. We washed our fridge with mild bleach solution and put unused tea bags and silicon sachets in the bottom and it was better, but still had mold, also try and put a peg in the door so it is partially open. Dishwasher had several hot washes and washing machine had a bleach wash, obviously run a wash through again before you use it.

We had no trouble with feather duvets or pillows and listed them as bedding so we weren't hiding anything. Were also told that the feathers were regarding feathers of endangered birds and didn't related to chickens/ducks/geese, so it seems its open to interpretation.

Hope it all goes well for you

paulry

It looks like a "must do" is to print off every email commitment that the shipping agent makes in case it's necessary to point them out to the Australian sub-contractors.

Excellent tips! Thank you

charlie5

Hi

The Wainwright guys didn't want to unpack either.

Wainwrights also tried to charge me for a delay in delivery due to port congestion!

Charlie

Pollyana

You were lucky there....the words ten foot and barge pole come to mind when I see their name..

If you hear anything from them you'll be lucky A few years back several of us complained so much about them on here that one of their executives joined BE and promised to personally address all the complaints........he's obviously forgotten his password as we are still waiting.......

GetmetoOz

Hi, I am currently getting the shippers in to quote...

The first one went on and on about having to pay duty on anything less than one year old...

We were going to buy new wardrobes/drawers as ours are all fitted - anyone else been told about declaring new stuff??

Thanks

Dimond

This might be the theory but in practice as long as it is not excessive (ie a dozen wardrobes)and has the new labels removed all will be OK.

charlie5

Don't worry about this. They may also tell you that you cannot take your fridge/freezer - just ignor them.

Charlie

paulry

Was chatting with a long time friend this evening who over the years has shipped their belongings to several destinations around the world and back again. She said that something that we have to watch out for is that the shipping people pack tightly filling up every available space in boxes and the container. She said that at least on two occasions in the past they packed loosely and uneconomically such that they needed to pay extra for a 40 footer/additional container space. She said that we also have to watch out that sets of things / parts of dismantled furniture go in together and to have a "must go" grouping of possessions and "a can go if there's space" grouping. She said that a trick appears to be to separate dismantled sets /parts of furniture and then be told that the last bits won't fit in leaving no real option but to pay for extra space.

mr mover

Un less you pay extra for "Valet " unpack, the rule of thumb is unpack to bench top only, this is a world wide industry standard.
The people you sent the photos to would have known this and were humouring you.
You are entilled to ONE only Debris disposal, others are to be paid for, so it pays to get all your cartons unpacked and disposed of in one hit..........MM