MANDS14

Hi, has anyone successfully managed to track their stuff through the Pickfords website? It does not seem to work for me? How do you register? I have a shipping consignment no but it doesn't like that?

Any help greatly appreciated.

MANDS

dave99

you shipped with pickfords? I was thinking of using them but after many many bad posts here decided against it, I hope yours arrives ok !

londongrady

Hello MANDS,

I work for Pickfords - if you would like to let me have your reference number,
then I can assist you in tracking your shipment, it may be that you do not
have the correct tracking number.
Please e mail me your reference number to [email protected]

thankyou
Grady

dave99,
Moving can be a stressful experience, Pickfords move more people to Australia
and New Zealand than any other removalist and receive hundreds of positive comments - as you might expect for the largest removalist, we do not always get it right and also receive some negative comments.We monitor our performance carefully and are always committed to improving our service.
A Removalist can sometimes take the flak for events that are realistically beyond their control, from Vessel delays to problems in Customs or issues
with fuel surcharges.
There is a good choice of International Removalists who are members of the
British Association of Removalists (BAR), provided you have chosen a supplier
from here, you should be in good hands.Please also be assured that there are
thousands of satisfied clients who have enjoyed the benefits of a door to door
move Down under using Pickfords, who are one of the few represented at both ends.

asher

We have used Pickfords with the armed forces for many moves and never had a problem so don't worry too much mands

dave99

Great to hear someone from pickfords has looked in on these boards.
Theres been a lot of posts that have been put up in the past from people with problems, perhaps do a search and see whats happened before

A couple spring to mind.
One person had pickfords pack their house and noticed boxes were being half filled or even quater filled before being loaded. They then received a bill saying they had to pay for extra space that was used up in the container. That post had pages of replies from people with exactly the same experience. Most had extra money demanded once the boxes were already on there way, so they had no choice but to pay.

Theres been plenty of other posts about items going missing from shipments, in some cases the odd little thing, in one case someone lost antique furniture

A simple search should show up some of those peoples experiences, they all sure put me off using pickfords

discobay

I was one of those poor souls. The experience was a very unsavoury and unforgettable one. Being treated like some complete dunce and held to ransom until the "additional charges" were paid is not something I would wish on my worst enemies (including property agents).

Sunbound

Having viewed and participated in this forum and others i can assure you that ALL of the removalists have been through bad patches and had customers who have had bad experiences. ALL of them.
At the end of the day the office staff may be the best in the world but its the human element thats doing the packing that we rely on and its no different from getting some miserable moo on a checkout till serve you.What may be a good team at say White and co up north ,maybe the complete opposite down south.
I used Pickfords after some lengthy and fanatical research and quotes and the Packing in the Uk was second to none,fantastic bunch and clearly skilled lads.
The same could be said of the crew this end apart from one who annoyed me a little wanting to get home early!! The part in the middle was the issue.That part was where customs unloaded our entire container onto another one in order to check through it ,and in the process threw things back in,re -closed boxes with sellotape with items poking out etc .Its this part where a picture frame glass and a couple of corners got dented AND it wasn't down to the removalists. BUT they still get the blame.
If when you're putting in a claim or asking why its taken too long, youre spoken to like a dog then thats different ..that IS the blame of them.
I'd use Pickfords again.
At the end of the day its Russian roulette whoever you use !!!
Good luck Sunbound

mr mover

After 27 years with Grace Aust pty ltd , i have moved to ALLIED-Pickfords , i find them much more efficient........Thats only Adelaide i cant speak for other States..................mm

MANDS14

Thanks for all the replies guys.

I have to say in Pickford's defence out of the 5 people we had come to give us quotes Pickfords came across as the most professional. They weren't the cheapest initially but they matched our cheapest quote, their communications have been excellent and the packing guys did a great job uk end. I guess the final judgement will come once our stuff arrives but so far I have been happy

LondonGrady I have emailed you our reference. Thank you for your offer of help.

chocciecake

we used pickfords moving sydney to uk,and although we were charged a set price for 20 boxes,(so we had to leave behind all that didn't fit, they packed our stuff atrociously!:curse:
boxes were packed very loosley, and things were just thrown in....some things landing diagonally so eveything went on top and the bottom half of the box remained empty...
the only boxes packed properley were the ones we did ourselves, once we saw their effort..
our glass ware was wrapped with one sheet of butchers paper each, and some wedding presents broke....
so now, i am panicking about having to let whichever removalist we choose to go back to aus in a few months, pack our stuff, as we have alot of nice stuff now, and i don't want ANY breakages!!!
i want to pack all my breakables my self, and i think its ridiculous that the insurance will only cover the boxes they pack!
i'm sure many people stuff arrives fine, but i'm only really concerned about what happens to my possessions!

londongrady

Dave99,

I think you may be referring to Di90, I understand that she is now happy with the way our offices resolved the situation and is not paying any additional charges.

In relation to packing I would confirm that all our packers are fully trained
and should be filling cartons correctly, the final weight of the cartons should also be suitable for carrying. If you were not happy with the packing process you should be speaking to the Team leader or the local Operations Manager.
We also quality monitor our pack crews at residence - using a Supervisor or Managers on spot visits around 2000 times each year.

Sunbound makes a good point about the human element in a move and the difficulties that occur when other authorities have access to the goods, for Customs/Quarantine process.We have around 1000 employees in the Uk. Generally I would say our Operative staff are a strongpoint for Pickfords.You may have read the post from Paul1968mcr - this is a difficult one for a removalist - simply put US Customs will utilise Dock labour to do the handling/
unpacking of household effects at the port of entry - during this process there may be risk of loss. Pickfords have a strict policy with operative staff -
basically Stealing will be met with dismissal and potential involvement from the Police - it is simply not worth it.
We do use some subcontractors etc in the UK and hold them all to the same
standards for obvious reasons.
I would disagree on the final Russian roulette comment - choose a BAR International Specialist Mover, who ideally would also be a member of FIDI
(the worldwide moving association)

Moving on - discobay - I'm not expecting your sympathy, but here is the rationale. Moving Companies provide extremely competitive services, I have been doing this about 30 years and from the UK a 20 ft container to Australia
costs probably 10/15% more then when I started out.We pay Freight costs in
US Dollars (usually) or Euros (even worse?) plus delivery charges in local currency or USD. Sterling has fallen at least 20% against the USD, whilst it has had some highpoints against the AUD, currently it is not doing well. This impacts costs, especially when coupled with the fuel surcharges that we also have to pay - despite the topping out of fuel wholesale charges, we are still paying fuel surcharges that are higher than the basic freight cost.In Airline
terms this would be the same as buying a ticket for 450 gbp, then having another 450 to pay for fuel surcharge. All the Shipping companies have adopted this policy, so there has been no way around it. In this circumstance
Pickfords when costs have risen have to try and recover the sum, so if your quote was older than 30 days, you may have been contacted on this basis.
We do not like doing this, as we realise how unpopular it is - unfortunately this has been a difficult year for everyone.


MANDS - received your mail, will respond with details tomorrow.

Grady

MANDS14

Thanks Grady, got your email. I am able to log into the tracker fine now. Just fyi, one of the selling points for us to go wih Pickfords was that we knew this forum was monitored by yourself and felt that if things were going wrong there was another route to getting issues resolved. I think this is a very powerful differentiator and hope that other posters can recognise this. Fingers crossed it all arrives safely! At least we know it is on its way

Thanks once again.

MANDS

chocciecake

londongrady, if we book packers and they are in the middle of packing our stuff and we feel its not being wrapped/packed/ protected appropriately, what can you do????
our furniture is all designer stuff, and i don't want a scratch on iy, and along wth some vintage, irreplacable glassware i have, i am also an artist, and have large canvasses that will need to be specifically packaged to avoid damage...
i would actually trust ourselves to package it more, but understand insurance won't cover unless the packer do it, so whats the best solution to ensure we will not end up in a situation where we are unhappy with the packing job?

we are open to using pickfords again, if they pack to our satisfaction....

londongrady

chocciecake,
I'm assuming that you may be in the London/SE area - we cover this area with a Quality Controller, with over 20 years packing experience, who carries
out quality control inspections at residence during the packing.
If you decide to proceed with Pickfords, then if you identify yourself to me, I can arrange for him to be booked in to visit your residence during the course
of packing to ensure that that the standards are top quality.If you require
further reassurance, then either myself or one of our Directors could also
be scheduled to visit.In relation to your canvasses I would expect you have already discussed crating where appropriate? This can add to the expense but is worthwhile with valuable pieces. A Few years back we removed the American Ambassador from his residence and crated what seemed like hundreds of paintings (whilst the premises were renovated) all were returned to his official residence and rehung undamaged.Your glassware should really
be wrapped in acid free tissue, then paper or something called Jetwrap
and then into a carton - Jetwrap is a special system that suspends the Glass item in a 'tube' of corrugated card, that means it is not weight bearing at either end.It is time consuming and takes a little more space, but is very worthwhile for glassware such as you describe.
Please drop me a line if you wish [email protected]
Grady

mr mover

One thing we used for glass ware at Grace, were Partion pac,s the only trouble with these is you only get18 items per standard, carton thus you end up with more packing.
But you cant have it both ways......................mm