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.

Originally Posted by JAYMAC

I would agree with this, many of our boxes when opened had no packing paper in them at all - the guy from Wridgways even asked me if we had packed them ourselves and that the quality of the packing was disgraceful. Then to add insult to injury the packers had packed an old blanket that they use for covering the stuff in the van along with a whole pack of packing paper in its own separate box and shipped that to us. we lost a lot of gear through damages and upset as I was about it, John Masons showed no interest or concern as our insurance wasn't booked through them. To be honest I couldnt give a sh*t about the insurance money, would have been nice to get some kind of apology or explanation about why our possessions had been treated with so little care.
Julia

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 moneypen20

First off we had fantastic service from both John Masons in the UK and Wridgways here - everything was in perfect nick, we got our stuff earlier than expected and were very happy.

Secondly and more importantly. All these International shippers ship mountains of containers all over the world every day of the year. There will always be bad experiences as well as good. One or two bad experiences shouldn't put other people off using a company in just the same way someone shouldn't assume they will get great service because a few people have had a great experience.

There is no way on this earth, that every container will be packed, shipped and unloaded perfectly because there are too many outside influences and other considerations.

I managed to break more stuff bringing it in my suitcase than JM did in our whole container and I am happy to recommend them on that basis. You guys have had bad experiences and so are not happy to recommend. It's horses for courses.

It's no different to taking advice for areas to live in once you get here - why anyone would do that is beyond me but people do. You read people's experiences and then work it out for yourself. You move over and check it all out for yourselves, same with shippers - you get the guys in and decide on gut instinct and price and how they have delivered the initial service.

Originally Posted by wafc

Some of what you say I agree with but a lot of it I dont.

If a company is so slap dash to not even get the date correct when the container is to arrive at your door and to then fail to rectify the situation and even argue with us about it, and to then top it off by packing things in a slap dash fashion which causes breakages and it also appears that they have some sticky fingered employees, then I dont really think its horses for courses.

I'm sure that people do have complaints with other companies too but I still believe that after reading this thread people who were choosing to go with John Masons should consider other options first.

If I had read something like this beforehand I wouldn't have touched them with a barge pole! Like I say - Avoid them!

Originally Posted by moneypen20

Not wishing to start an argument but what is there in my post that you can disagree with? My experience with JM was different to yours - you can't disagree with that. I accepted that you had bad service - you can't disagree with that.

I suggested everyone read other people's experiences and then make their own minds up with a personal experience of the salespeople of any company - how can you disagree with that?

If you read and accepted every bad shipping story and didn't use the companies mentioned because of someone else's experience you wouldn't ship anything with any shipper - My whole point was that they all mess up at some point - unfortunately this time you pulled the short straw and for that I am sorry but that doesn't make JM total crap, just as my experience of them doesn't make them the best shipper in the world.

Originally Posted by wafc

I am just saying that there appears to be quite a number of people on here who have had problems with John Masons and had things go "missing" etc, I therefore do feel that this makes them total crap!