John Masons - AVOID THEM!!
Feb 15th 2007, 12:03 am
#1
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Location: Wigan > Perth > Wigan
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John Masons - AVOID THEM!!
Well we've been in Perth for nearly 2 months now so I thought it was time that I gave my thoughts on our experiences with the shipping company John Masons.
First of all we got a few quotes in from the likes of PSS, John Masons etc but decided to go with Masons as they appeared to be more organised and gave us more information.
The day came for our first day of packing to be done by their guys, 2 blokes from liverpool turned up and promptly started to pack all of our worldly belongings, they appeared to be very quick and very efficient, so far so good we thought. They managed to pack about 80% of our stuff on the first day and were then going to come back on the morning of the 2nd day and finish the job before the container arrived.
The 2nd day came and the packers arrived in the morning and finished packing our stuff, the container was due to arrive on our drive by about 12pm ish so we and the packers waited for the container, in the meantime we provided cups of tea and coffee and even some breakfast for them. By about 1pm the container still hadn't arrived, the guys said that it was often late so we sat there some more, by about 2pm the container still hadn't arrived so the guys contacted their office and lo and behold John Masons had not booked the container for that day!! So we now had a house full of boxes packed, the new owners of our house were due to move in the following morning!! and we had our flights booked for a few days later. As if the process wasn't stressful enough, we now had to deal with this!
We rang the people at John Masons to demand what was going on and find out what would be happening with our stuff, they were very unhelpful to speak to, they would not agree to getting the container to our drive the following day as they said that their staff were already booked on other jobs and they had nobody who could sort it for us!! We told them in no uncertain terms that it isn't our problem about their staffing issues, they had cocked up our shipping good and proper and their staff should resolve our issue before moving on to another one!! Needless to say this was getting very stressful and heated at this point! It all seemed to fall on deaf ears though and they would not budge, all they could offer was to fill their van with our belongings (which would take 2 trips) and take our stuff back to their depot to be kept there overnight and they would pack it into a container the following day! We told them that we had paid for a door to door service and that one of the conditions was that the container was to be packed and sealed in our presence, again this fell on deaf ears and they still said that they would have to take our stuff to their depot but we could travel to liverpool for 8am the following morning to witness the container being sealed etc!! How kind of them!! Not. We were totally stressed out at this point so we told them to take the stuff and we wouldn't be driving to Liverpool in the morning, we demanded to speak to someone in charge but after not receiving calls back we eventually had to ring and demand that one of their people came out of a so called meeting to speak to us. We demanded some form of compensation for all of this as we weren't getting the door to door service which we'd paid for, they eventually offered us £100!! That was more of an insult than compensation! So off the stuff went and I dont think the packing guys were too chuffed with having to make 2 trips to Liverpool and back with all of our stuff especially with it getting late. We even gave their packing guys a tip!
We got to Perth on 17th Dec and our stuff was delivered to us about a week to 2 weeks ago. John Masons use a firm called Kents in Perth to deliver your stuff to you. Three aussie guys turned up with a container on our drive and started to bring the stuff in, they gave us a copy of the inventory to tick off every box as it came in. We found that quite a few things were damaged/broken for example: The fridge freezer is dented and scratched, a large mirror was smashed, a large vase/pot was totally smashed, a bowl was smashed, a double fold out bed had its headboard totally broken. We're now in the throws of trying to claim some of it back from the insurers (Letton Percival).
We are now finding out though that a few things appear to be "missing" or as I like to call it "stolen"! My girlfriend had a brand new box of expensive perfume with two bottles in which her mother gave her and the perfume box arrived but it was empty! I then went to open a dvd yesterday only to find that the dvd was missing from the case! I checked all of my dvd's and another one is also missing from its case! Its not a coincidence either that both of the films are animated movies, obviously ssomebodies kids had a good night that night and maybe their wife got a nice bottle of perfume! We dont even know what other things are "missing" yet but you only really tell when you go to use/find them.
I cannot hand on heart say whether it was John Masons staff who have sticky fingers or whether it could be someone from Kents etc but John Masons are the ones who instruct Kents so they are responsible for the problem. The boxes did not look like they had been tampered with either, i.e. it didn't look like someone had taken the tape off them and re-taped them so I can only assume it was done before the boxes were packed!
I'm sure many people have had a good experience with Masons but after what we've been through with them, I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole and I'd urge anyone else considering them to reconsider their choice!
Hopefully this post may lose Masons quite a bit of business and that will be enough compensation for me! It would be nice if one of their employee's might read this and respond but I wont hold my breath!
It could have been worse no doubt but if I had the choice again, I would not choose Masons.
We have to name and shame these companies in order for them to take note and I shall be putting on another post about a motor company in Perth (Lynfords in Osborne Park) who have been nothing short of shocking in their customer service!
Maybe we've just been unlucky so far, lets hope so!
Good luck to everyone else going through the process.
First of all we got a few quotes in from the likes of PSS, John Masons etc but decided to go with Masons as they appeared to be more organised and gave us more information.
The day came for our first day of packing to be done by their guys, 2 blokes from liverpool turned up and promptly started to pack all of our worldly belongings, they appeared to be very quick and very efficient, so far so good we thought. They managed to pack about 80% of our stuff on the first day and were then going to come back on the morning of the 2nd day and finish the job before the container arrived.
The 2nd day came and the packers arrived in the morning and finished packing our stuff, the container was due to arrive on our drive by about 12pm ish so we and the packers waited for the container, in the meantime we provided cups of tea and coffee and even some breakfast for them. By about 1pm the container still hadn't arrived, the guys said that it was often late so we sat there some more, by about 2pm the container still hadn't arrived so the guys contacted their office and lo and behold John Masons had not booked the container for that day!! So we now had a house full of boxes packed, the new owners of our house were due to move in the following morning!! and we had our flights booked for a few days later. As if the process wasn't stressful enough, we now had to deal with this!
We rang the people at John Masons to demand what was going on and find out what would be happening with our stuff, they were very unhelpful to speak to, they would not agree to getting the container to our drive the following day as they said that their staff were already booked on other jobs and they had nobody who could sort it for us!! We told them in no uncertain terms that it isn't our problem about their staffing issues, they had cocked up our shipping good and proper and their staff should resolve our issue before moving on to another one!! Needless to say this was getting very stressful and heated at this point! It all seemed to fall on deaf ears though and they would not budge, all they could offer was to fill their van with our belongings (which would take 2 trips) and take our stuff back to their depot to be kept there overnight and they would pack it into a container the following day! We told them that we had paid for a door to door service and that one of the conditions was that the container was to be packed and sealed in our presence, again this fell on deaf ears and they still said that they would have to take our stuff to their depot but we could travel to liverpool for 8am the following morning to witness the container being sealed etc!! How kind of them!! Not. We were totally stressed out at this point so we told them to take the stuff and we wouldn't be driving to Liverpool in the morning, we demanded to speak to someone in charge but after not receiving calls back we eventually had to ring and demand that one of their people came out of a so called meeting to speak to us. We demanded some form of compensation for all of this as we weren't getting the door to door service which we'd paid for, they eventually offered us £100!! That was more of an insult than compensation! So off the stuff went and I dont think the packing guys were too chuffed with having to make 2 trips to Liverpool and back with all of our stuff especially with it getting late. We even gave their packing guys a tip!
We got to Perth on 17th Dec and our stuff was delivered to us about a week to 2 weeks ago. John Masons use a firm called Kents in Perth to deliver your stuff to you. Three aussie guys turned up with a container on our drive and started to bring the stuff in, they gave us a copy of the inventory to tick off every box as it came in. We found that quite a few things were damaged/broken for example: The fridge freezer is dented and scratched, a large mirror was smashed, a large vase/pot was totally smashed, a bowl was smashed, a double fold out bed had its headboard totally broken. We're now in the throws of trying to claim some of it back from the insurers (Letton Percival).
We are now finding out though that a few things appear to be "missing" or as I like to call it "stolen"! My girlfriend had a brand new box of expensive perfume with two bottles in which her mother gave her and the perfume box arrived but it was empty! I then went to open a dvd yesterday only to find that the dvd was missing from the case! I checked all of my dvd's and another one is also missing from its case! Its not a coincidence either that both of the films are animated movies, obviously ssomebodies kids had a good night that night and maybe their wife got a nice bottle of perfume! We dont even know what other things are "missing" yet but you only really tell when you go to use/find them.
I cannot hand on heart say whether it was John Masons staff who have sticky fingers or whether it could be someone from Kents etc but John Masons are the ones who instruct Kents so they are responsible for the problem. The boxes did not look like they had been tampered with either, i.e. it didn't look like someone had taken the tape off them and re-taped them so I can only assume it was done before the boxes were packed!
I'm sure many people have had a good experience with Masons but after what we've been through with them, I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole and I'd urge anyone else considering them to reconsider their choice!
Hopefully this post may lose Masons quite a bit of business and that will be enough compensation for me! It would be nice if one of their employee's might read this and respond but I wont hold my breath!
It could have been worse no doubt but if I had the choice again, I would not choose Masons.
We have to name and shame these companies in order for them to take note and I shall be putting on another post about a motor company in Perth (Lynfords in Osborne Park) who have been nothing short of shocking in their customer service!
Maybe we've just been unlucky so far, lets hope so!
Good luck to everyone else going through the process.
Last edited by wafc; Feb 15th 2007 at 12:09 am.
Feb 15th 2007, 12:15 am
#2
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Location: Redland Bay
Posts: 2,493
Re: John Masons - AVOID THEM!!
We wouldnt recommend them either they gave us the wrong date of arrival.
We based everything round our stuff arriving on 8th sept then needing a few weeks clearance....bloody november we got it
We based everything round our stuff arriving on 8th sept then needing a few weeks clearance....bloody november we got it
Feb 15th 2007, 12:18 am
#3
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Location: Wigan > Perth > Wigan
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Re: John Masons - AVOID THEM!!
I'm glad it wasn't just us then! Well I'm not glad that happened to you but you know what I mean. 
Feb 15th 2007, 12:19 am
#4
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Re: John Masons - AVOID THEM!!
Nope not just you mate...lately ive read a few complaints about them 
Feb 15th 2007, 12:42 am
#5
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Location: North Rocky
Posts: 447
Re: John Masons - AVOID THEM!!
I'm sure Mashy and Raven would totally agree with the OP. Here's a recent discussion about said removal co.
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=422020
Mx
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=422020
Mx
Feb 15th 2007, 12:45 am
#6
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Location: WA but NOT Perth!!!!!
Posts: 3,318
Re: John Masons - AVOID THEM!!
If i were in your boots I'd find out who the MD is of JM and write him a letter detailing your complaints and also suspicions about the theft of items.
It makes me cross reading posts like this, we trust these people with all our worldly goods and sometimes they treat them like shit.
Hope you get it sorted....
It makes me cross reading posts like this, we trust these people with all our worldly goods and sometimes they treat them like shit.
Hope you get it sorted....
Feb 15th 2007, 12:48 am
#7
Suncream, I need suncream
Joined: Jan 2006
Location: Sydney
Posts: 1,316
Re: John Masons - AVOID THEM!!
Just to balance things up we had an excellent experience with John Masons, quick, efficient, curteous. The delivery company in Sydney (can't remember the name) even re-erected beds and wardrobes for us.
Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience with them....
Graham
Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience with them....
Graham
Feb 15th 2007, 12:52 am
#8
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Re: John Masons - AVOID THEM!!
I'm sure Mashy and Raven would totally agree with the OP. Here's a recent discussion about said removal co.
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=422020
Mx
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=422020
Mx
Feb 15th 2007, 12:59 am
#9
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Joined: Aug 2006
Location: WA but NOT Perth!!!!!
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Re: John Masons - AVOID THEM!!
Perhaps you should get together and ALL write to the MD so they know there is a serious problem and it's not a one off
Unless people do that how they gonna know? Obviously the office peeps arent bothered, so go to the top I say!
Unless people do that how they gonna know? Obviously the office peeps arent bothered, so go to the top I say!
Feb 15th 2007, 1:55 am
#10
here and staying
Joined: Jul 2005
Location: happy in the hills of Perth......
Posts: 4,351
Re: John Masons - AVOID THEM!!
If i were in your boots I'd find out who the MD is of JM and write him a letter detailing your complaints and also suspicions about the theft of items.
It makes me cross reading posts like this, we trust these people with all our worldly goods and sometimes they treat them like shit.
Hope you get it sorted....
It makes me cross reading posts like this, we trust these people with all our worldly goods and sometimes they treat them like shit.
Hope you get it sorted....
We used Robinsons for the UK end and they use Wridgeways in Perth
I have to say excellent service from both ends, nothing missing, only a dented freezer top (from washing machine) and a broken scanner screen
Either of which could have happend at any end, they even packed our camcorder (by mistake) which arrived untouched and still in the box! Mirrors all ok, picture frames etc all ok!!!
I would use them again (not that i'm going any where yet!) and recommend them, brill
Really sorry you had a bad experience with Mason, but must admit glad i didn't use them in the end, just had a feeling about them!
Feb 15th 2007, 2:03 am
#12
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Joined: Feb 2004
Location: Hocking, Perth!!!
Posts: 232
Re: John Masons - AVOID THEM!!
I posted a while ago about sticky fingers although we lost things like cheap kitchen scales, pencil case full of pens etc and some really bizarre things that you can't comrephend why people would pinch them....all our CD's arrived but I am yet to go through all our DVD'd to see if any are missing.
I must admit when we were getting our quotes John Masons staff did appear very rude and unhelpful especially when I rang to give them a months notice that I had to change the date for the quote - it was as if i had completely messed up the whole day for their assessor....didn't inspire me to use them.
I must admit when we were getting our quotes John Masons staff did appear very rude and unhelpful especially when I rang to give them a months notice that I had to change the date for the quote - it was as if i had completely messed up the whole day for their assessor....didn't inspire me to use them.
Feb 15th 2007, 2:06 am
#13
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Feb 15th 2007, 2:07 am
#14
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Re: John Masons - AVOID THEM!!
I know exactly what you mean as we think other things are missing such as some slippers, swimming goggles and swimming cap etc! Maybe they're wearing them all at the same time!! lol
Feb 15th 2007, 2:12 am
#15
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Joined: Dec 2005
Location: Sunshine Coast - Oh yea!!
Posts: 464
Re: John Masons - AVOID THEM!!
Well we've been in Perth for nearly 2 months now so I thought it was time that I gave my thoughts on our experiences with the shipping company John Masons.
First of all we got a few quotes in from the likes of PSS, John Masons etc but decided to go with Masons as they appeared to be more organised and gave us more information.
The day came for our first day of packing to be done by their guys, 2 blokes from liverpool turned up and promptly started to pack all of our worldly belongings, they appeared to be very quick and very efficient, so far so good we thought. They managed to pack about 80% of our stuff on the first day and were then going to come back on the morning of the 2nd day and finish the job before the container arrived.
The 2nd day came and the packers arrived in the morning and finished packing our stuff, the container was due to arrive on our drive by about 12pm ish so we and the packers waited for the container, in the meantime we provided cups of tea and coffee and even some breakfast for them. By about 1pm the container still hadn't arrived, the guys said that it was often late so we sat there some more, by about 2pm the container still hadn't arrived so the guys contacted their office and lo and behold John Masons had not booked the container for that day!! So we now had a house full of boxes packed, the new owners of our house were due to move in the following morning!! and we had our flights booked for a few days later. As if the process wasn't stressful enough, we now had to deal with this!
We rang the people at John Masons to demand what was going on and find out what would be happening with our stuff, they were very unhelpful to speak to, they would not agree to getting the container to our drive the following day as they said that their staff were already booked on other jobs and they had nobody who could sort it for us!! We told them in no uncertain terms that it isn't our problem about their staffing issues, they had cocked up our shipping good and proper and their staff should resolve our issue before moving on to another one!! Needless to say this was getting very stressful and heated at this point! It all seemed to fall on deaf ears though and they would not budge, all they could offer was to fill their van with our belongings (which would take 2 trips) and take our stuff back to their depot to be kept there overnight and they would pack it into a container the following day! We told them that we had paid for a door to door service and that one of the conditions was that the container was to be packed and sealed in our presence, again this fell on deaf ears and they still said that they would have to take our stuff to their depot but we could travel to liverpool for 8am the following morning to witness the container being sealed etc!! How kind of them!! Not. We were totally stressed out at this point so we told them to take the stuff and we wouldn't be driving to Liverpool in the morning, we demanded to speak to someone in charge but after not receiving calls back we eventually had to ring and demand that one of their people came out of a so called meeting to speak to us. We demanded some form of compensation for all of this as we weren't getting the door to door service which we'd paid for, they eventually offered us £100!! That was more of an insult than compensation! So off the stuff went and I dont think the packing guys were too chuffed with having to make 2 trips to Liverpool and back with all of our stuff especially with it getting late. We even gave their packing guys a tip!
We got to Perth on 17th Dec and our stuff was delivered to us about a week to 2 weeks ago. John Masons use a firm called Kents in Perth to deliver your stuff to you. Three aussie guys turned up with a container on our drive and started to bring the stuff in, they gave us a copy of the inventory to tick off every box as it came in. We found that quite a few things were damaged/broken for example: The fridge freezer is dented and scratched, a large mirror was smashed, a large vase/pot was totally smashed, a bowl was smashed, a double fold out bed had its headboard totally broken. We're now in the throws of trying to claim some of it back from the insurers (Letton Percival).
We are now finding out though that a few things appear to be "missing" or as I like to call it "stolen"! My girlfriend had a brand new box of expensive perfume with two bottles in which her mother gave her and the perfume box arrived but it was empty! I then went to open a dvd yesterday only to find that the dvd was missing from the case! I checked all of my dvd's and another one is also missing from its case! Its not a coincidence either that both of the films are animated movies, obviously ssomebodies kids had a good night that night and maybe their wife got a nice bottle of perfume! We dont even know what other things are "missing" yet but you only really tell when you go to use/find them.
I cannot hand on heart say whether it was John Masons staff who have sticky fingers or whether it could be someone from Kents etc but John Masons are the ones who instruct Kents so they are responsible for the problem. The boxes did not look like they had been tampered with either, i.e. it didn't look like someone had taken the tape off them and re-taped them so I can only assume it was done before the boxes were packed!
I'm sure many people have had a good experience with Masons but after what we've been through with them, I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole and I'd urge anyone else considering them to reconsider their choice!
Hopefully this post may lose Masons quite a bit of business and that will be enough compensation for me! It would be nice if one of their employee's might read this and respond but I wont hold my breath!
It could have been worse no doubt but if I had the choice again, I would not choose Masons.
We have to name and shame these companies in order for them to take note and I shall be putting on another post about a motor company in Perth (Lynfords in Osborne Park) who have been nothing short of shocking in their customer service!
Maybe we've just been unlucky so far, lets hope so!
Good luck to everyone else going through the process.
First of all we got a few quotes in from the likes of PSS, John Masons etc but decided to go with Masons as they appeared to be more organised and gave us more information.
The day came for our first day of packing to be done by their guys, 2 blokes from liverpool turned up and promptly started to pack all of our worldly belongings, they appeared to be very quick and very efficient, so far so good we thought. They managed to pack about 80% of our stuff on the first day and were then going to come back on the morning of the 2nd day and finish the job before the container arrived.
The 2nd day came and the packers arrived in the morning and finished packing our stuff, the container was due to arrive on our drive by about 12pm ish so we and the packers waited for the container, in the meantime we provided cups of tea and coffee and even some breakfast for them. By about 1pm the container still hadn't arrived, the guys said that it was often late so we sat there some more, by about 2pm the container still hadn't arrived so the guys contacted their office and lo and behold John Masons had not booked the container for that day!! So we now had a house full of boxes packed, the new owners of our house were due to move in the following morning!! and we had our flights booked for a few days later. As if the process wasn't stressful enough, we now had to deal with this!
We rang the people at John Masons to demand what was going on and find out what would be happening with our stuff, they were very unhelpful to speak to, they would not agree to getting the container to our drive the following day as they said that their staff were already booked on other jobs and they had nobody who could sort it for us!! We told them in no uncertain terms that it isn't our problem about their staffing issues, they had cocked up our shipping good and proper and their staff should resolve our issue before moving on to another one!! Needless to say this was getting very stressful and heated at this point! It all seemed to fall on deaf ears though and they would not budge, all they could offer was to fill their van with our belongings (which would take 2 trips) and take our stuff back to their depot to be kept there overnight and they would pack it into a container the following day! We told them that we had paid for a door to door service and that one of the conditions was that the container was to be packed and sealed in our presence, again this fell on deaf ears and they still said that they would have to take our stuff to their depot but we could travel to liverpool for 8am the following morning to witness the container being sealed etc!! How kind of them!! Not. We were totally stressed out at this point so we told them to take the stuff and we wouldn't be driving to Liverpool in the morning, we demanded to speak to someone in charge but after not receiving calls back we eventually had to ring and demand that one of their people came out of a so called meeting to speak to us. We demanded some form of compensation for all of this as we weren't getting the door to door service which we'd paid for, they eventually offered us £100!! That was more of an insult than compensation! So off the stuff went and I dont think the packing guys were too chuffed with having to make 2 trips to Liverpool and back with all of our stuff especially with it getting late. We even gave their packing guys a tip!
We got to Perth on 17th Dec and our stuff was delivered to us about a week to 2 weeks ago. John Masons use a firm called Kents in Perth to deliver your stuff to you. Three aussie guys turned up with a container on our drive and started to bring the stuff in, they gave us a copy of the inventory to tick off every box as it came in. We found that quite a few things were damaged/broken for example: The fridge freezer is dented and scratched, a large mirror was smashed, a large vase/pot was totally smashed, a bowl was smashed, a double fold out bed had its headboard totally broken. We're now in the throws of trying to claim some of it back from the insurers (Letton Percival).
We are now finding out though that a few things appear to be "missing" or as I like to call it "stolen"! My girlfriend had a brand new box of expensive perfume with two bottles in which her mother gave her and the perfume box arrived but it was empty! I then went to open a dvd yesterday only to find that the dvd was missing from the case! I checked all of my dvd's and another one is also missing from its case! Its not a coincidence either that both of the films are animated movies, obviously ssomebodies kids had a good night that night and maybe their wife got a nice bottle of perfume! We dont even know what other things are "missing" yet but you only really tell when you go to use/find them.
I cannot hand on heart say whether it was John Masons staff who have sticky fingers or whether it could be someone from Kents etc but John Masons are the ones who instruct Kents so they are responsible for the problem. The boxes did not look like they had been tampered with either, i.e. it didn't look like someone had taken the tape off them and re-taped them so I can only assume it was done before the boxes were packed!
I'm sure many people have had a good experience with Masons but after what we've been through with them, I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole and I'd urge anyone else considering them to reconsider their choice!
Hopefully this post may lose Masons quite a bit of business and that will be enough compensation for me! It would be nice if one of their employee's might read this and respond but I wont hold my breath!
It could have been worse no doubt but if I had the choice again, I would not choose Masons.
We have to name and shame these companies in order for them to take note and I shall be putting on another post about a motor company in Perth (Lynfords in Osborne Park) who have been nothing short of shocking in their customer service!
Maybe we've just been unlucky so far, lets hope so!
Good luck to everyone else going through the process.