Originally Posted by alan and sam

We nearly used Mason,s for when we moved over it was only the fact i remembered a post regarding WIGS (remember Bridie) that put me off

We used Robinsons for the UK end and they use Wridgeways in Perth

Originally Posted by wafc

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.

Originally Posted by Toon Williams the Second!

Its not just John Mason, we have had an awful time with Doree Bonner!! But still waiting for our stuff so dont want to comment just incase they read this and sink the ship or something !!

Originally Posted by Toon Williams the Second!

Its not just John Mason, we have had an awful time with Doree Bonner!! But still waiting for our stuff so dont want to comment just incase they read this and sink the ship or something !!

Originally Posted by wafc

I just wish that I had read more bad reports about Masons before we used them!!

It just shows that its the luck of the draw but if they have sticky fingered employee's in their midst and they cant get the date right for the container to arrive and they then fail to sort the problem out, then I would personally recommend that people choose another company for their shipping.

Originally Posted by paulrachel

Ah, but we used Crown, same thing happened to us but worse. I named and shamed them too.
Good for you for posting this. I know nobody is perfect, but we still need to hear the bad as well as the good.
Stick with it, you will get somewhere in the end. It took us 5 months to sort out our problems with Crown.
All the best Stu.

Originally Posted by wafc

Its all these little things though that make the migration process so difficult, at times you just want to throw in the towel but we'll keep at it, for 2 years at least, they're not getting rid of me without a passport! lol

Originally Posted by hedgehog-girl

We used the Liverpool John Mason branch and I could not recommend them enough. They were perfect for us and did everything that we wanted them to.

They gave us lots of quotes, good information, good packers who came on time and dealt with out goods quickly. Phoned us to let us know the container had left and called us to tell us it had arrived.

I thought they were great and would use them again totally.

Originally Posted by wafc

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.

Originally Posted by kitty4

I replied a little while back on a previous 'don't use John Masons' thread that we had an ok service apart from the packers packing trivial tiny items, like 6 napkin rings alone in a full size tea chest and packing our stack of hundreds of egg cartons that we needed for our chooks eggs, despite being told to keep away from the area we kept them in. Wridgways were ok this end (sunshine coast).

However - now we have been unpacking I'm speechless. Fragile and expensive ornaments were packed with one piece of paper around them and put in a big cardboard box along with whatever else - like tools - all tossed in, no special packing. I'd say fish and chips get better packing (it looks like the same paper they use) Needless to say that are nearly all our ornaments broken.

Please take note to unpack boxes with valuable/fragile items as soon as they arive. We didn't becasue we were in a small rental at the time and now it's too late to claim on the insurance Our big welsh dresser is smashed on one end of the top.

Ok, we could have stood over the 2 guys from Liverpool (seems to be a trend cropping up with those two), but the job really needed another guy, they worked like whirlwinds and with everything else one has to do in the process, we could not watch their every move. They were told what to pack/not to and what was very fragile (if it isn't obvious). They were quite offhand when each of the 2 days they were there were coming to an end. Then the container arrived and the rep bloke said to us it could get down our single lane road (despite my anxiously asking are you sure?). Driver wasn't having any of it, so the 2 Liverpool guys had to ferry it in loads in their van, to the container on the main road, where a nice audience was gathering! This made them extra grumpy.

I was unpacking the broken china etc the other day and unwrapped a package with several rusty screws in it!! There were more like that!

We had to leave a load of stuff behind becasue they said we were full (now we know why - a big box for a few tiny unbreakable objects and the expensive fragile things are thrwon in with tools). There are quite a few things we haven't come across yet - but I can't say they have been light fingered until I throw the last bit of paper packaging away.

Still haven't unpacked the eggboxes - may as well wait till we move to acreage and get some chooks!!

I would never use Masons again and if anyone makes a decision based on this and other posts on here about them recently, not to use them, I hope you get a more professional company as these guys (Masons) really don't seem to care about your belongings and the packers have no commonsense whatsoever.

Thanks for listening.