janeyray

Hi There,

I have been told two different stories and would like some help?

Someone told me that when their belongings arrived in Perth (Freemantle) from the UK they had to pay $700 to customs because every box had to be checked (they had payed for door to door delivery). On receiving their things nothing had been opened.
Another person told me that they didn't have to pay anything on reveiving their stuff but their boxes had been opened?

I have received a letter from 'Transglobal Shipping and Storage' in Freemantle to tell me when my consignment is due and had to fill out a customs form, these have been posted back and I am now waiting to hear when it will be delivered. I payed the shipping company in the UK for a door to door delivery and want to know why customs may want more money?

Has anyone else experienced this?

Can't belive my boxes left my house on 10th February 2003 and I am still waiting!! (we arrived on 4th March!) The packing company said they have to wait until the container is full before it is shipped!!! so I don't think it left the UK until we had arrived here!

yafm

Every removals company who quoted for me advised that their costs included everything from door to door EXCEPT any costs incurred by customs and immigration as they were never known They arecharged by the time taken and any 'cleaning' required. Each advised that without 'cleaning services' costs would be about $80-$150

tinaj

The Robinsons removal guy told me they can't cover customs costs as they don't know how much they will be. If things have been packed and cleaned carefully, they should open a couple of boxes, see they are spick and span and reseal them. If they think your items might pose a hazard you could be on for a huge Customs bill.
Apparently they pull lots of scams as that is their main way of earning money. After all you either pay for it to be cleaned or destroyed, either way they get the cash!!

mashiraz

We were told by Grace removers in Oz it will be between $60.50 and $500 depending on how much stuff...

Mash...

scoobydooathome

The robbing B######s ...

heading downunder 2002

We paid over a $1000 for my husbands motorbikes to be allowed in. Quarantine also picked out a tiny Christmas Tree with a bark trunk which I had missed when packing, they wanted $60 to destroy it, it only cost £2.99!!! I posted it back to my sister for $10. In our next small consignment they picked out our linen basket and wanted $565 to clean it or $65 to destroy it, it was too big to pay to have it sent back so we had to pay to have it destroyed.

Just beware they charge for anything and everything in Oz.

Susan

scoobydooathome

Can't be as bad as our local council as they would charge you for the air we breath if they could get away with it ...

How about 160 quid a month CT,

terryg

Ouch !!! - Thanks for the advice

walaj

I take it was a wicker (or similar) rather than being plastic or metal?

mr mover

sorry to harp on but i would see 2 of these storys a week, READ THE QUARANTINE ARTICALS CAREFULLY, [WWW AQUIS.COM.AU]Australia has the strictest q-laws in the world, if they find any suspect items e,g dirty foot ware garden tools etc or food items in your packing which contravene their standards, they then proceed to check the entire shipment, at$125 an hr , if they find contraband or undeclared, they then call in CUSTOMS this is when it gets serious, they can delay release for as long as they desire [push them an inch, they push you amile] if you get my drift, the reason they paid $700 was due to undelared goods they should have received a form explaining the costs, all cartons opened in the bond store are re packed and taped, as the company allways has a man assisting quarantine and customs, as for your last part always pay sole use on containers if you want fast service. It is illegal to import, any other goods in a sole use container,...........................MM

mr mover

your first point correct, scams ???? if we are making money out of scams then we must going bad, we would, probably get two jobs a month out of 15 that require any sort of treatment ,its just bad home work on the part of the shipper that causes grief , just remember when your here and you see t,v, coverage, of europe or the u.k. were thousands of cattle[foot in mouth] or pigs[swine fever]or poultry[newcastle diesease] are being slaughtered, that we don.t have any of that here,hopefully due to our strict Q-LAWS,.........sorry if im ranting , but we get tired of [receiving agent] getting the blame for every little problem that occurs when clearing your goods,.....................MM

heading downunder 2002

Yes it was wicker, which I knew they weren't keen on but all the removal companies that we had quotes of told us that if we weren't sure about something take it anyway because quarantine would just throw it out if they weren't happy about it, they didn't tell us they would charge us for the privalage. I would advise if in doubt don't take it.

By the way as you know we have just returned and we have had live spiders (Australian ones) in some of our boxes. Luckily no deadly ones (well they are dead now!!) but Mr Mover goes on about protecting Australia from foot and mouth (they obviously have no idea about how foot and mouth lives) etc when they have the most deadly creatures on this planet!!! that obviously can survive in a container for 5 weeks!!!

Also Mr Mover I think you will find that most people bringing there household goods over will have left the pet cow, sheep, pig and hens at home in the UK!!!

Susan

Carrianne

I was told by the guy at Britannia much the same, although if you are sharing a container, it may not be your stuff that is picked initally, but they will check everything in it and usually costs about $150. But then he gave me a list of things that are usally pulled up for and to be careful with. But if we get checked we get checked, just making sure we don't have anything they can get hold of.

Carrianne x

mr mover

thats not the problem susan , its in the soil you might have trodden in , northern hemisphere soil, is full of viruses and germ,s ,we don,t want here .just ask the kiwis about FIRE BLIGHT in apples ...........MM...............

janeyray

Call me naive but I didn't know I would have to pay any more?. When I asked Atlantic International Removals for a price he never mentioned paying anymore at the other end, no wonder he was immpressed when I said his price was good!!

Unfortunately my mum packed the last 3 boxes for me after I had left for Oz and then informed me she had put 'Yorkshire tea bags' in one of the boxes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had to declare this on the customs form along with some leather riding boots that I have shipped over, I knew these would have to be disinfected but surely they scan the boxes rather than opening every single one to find the tea bags!!!
It doesn't suprise me, this will be added onto the long long list of things we have had to pay for since we arrived that we didn't account for before we left!!!!!
Hopefully well worth it in the end?