helsbells79

Hi

Our container arrives in Sydney in a couple of weeks time. We thought we had paid everything in advance, unless AQIS found anything that shouldn't be in there!

We have now received a letter from Chess Removals of Sydney, stating we have to pay a $440 Quarantine Inspection Fee before our container will be released. I have absolutely no recollection of John Mason's telling us we would incur this charge at the other end.

Has anyone else inccured this, or have any advice???????

Thanks

Helen

wardy2

we used Robinsons and have just paid our customs money although it was $234 but that might depend on how much stuff you brought over.

It is a standard payment I believe for everyone.

Pollyana

Shipping companies very raely include the quarantine fee in advance as no-one knows how big it will be.
There is a standard inspection fee, plus an extra charge for each item that needs destroying/fumigating. Hence it isn't practical to quote in this beforehand as the shipping firms wiuld be out of pocket on many occasions.

Dorothy

It's the fee for AQIS to inspect your container. Everyone has to pay the fee and like Wardy said it's dependent on your shipment how much the fee is.

Iwannabethere

Masons told us. Ours was a whopping $780 for a 40ft container. Cost more than most as Masons hadn't itemised which box they'd put my wedding bouquet in and AQIS spent extra hours looking for it. :curse:

Rossi

Tell them you'll pay AQIS direct........ you may be suprised at the "discount"

Dorothy

We simply asked if our shipper could fax all the paperwork to my office for my records. It included the AQIS invoice which was exactly what Pickfords said it was.

helsbells79

THanks for the replys so far!

Rossi...can you expand on that? Are you suggesting that the removal company are charging us more than AQIS charge them?

Helen

Iwannabethere

Likewise. Itemised to show standard charge for first two hours then additional charge to continue looking for bouquet.

Rossi

It has been known for an "administration" charge to be included, and my move was 5 years ago so maybe things have changed.

Red_V_Roger

We used Davis Turner who had included the AQIS charge in their quote.


But the local agent still sent us an invoice for the AQIS charge as it is normal for it to be excluded. However, after sending the local agent a copy of the Davis Turner quote, they agreed to withdraw the invoice.

FoxyRuthie

We had the exact same thing happenthough I knew there would be a fee. I asked John Mason's before we agreed to their quote how much AQIS would be and I was told approximately $100 if nothing needed to be destroyed. But when our stuff arrived we got a letter from them saying we had to pay a fee of much higher (can't quite remember!) when I queried it I was told this was their standard fee and that the UK branches were well aware that it was their standard fee and should have told me. So I quiried this with the UK branch who originally told me of the $100 approx and they told me they would never have told me such a thing!!!! SO basically they told me I was a liar!!! What a great way to treat your customer! I guess they didn't care as the stuff was already sent! :curse:

My advice to anyone considering John Masons is don't!

DunRoaminTheUK

We used John Masons and they included the cost in our quote.

moneypenny20

Ditto.

ianhutch1

John Masons included it in our quote as well, actually they had an option where we could pay a small amount (think it was about 25 quid) and if we got hit with the AQUIS inspection we wouldnt be charged any more but didnt get a refund if we werent inspected.

The sales guy was saying that only one in every certain amount of containers going in get inspected so they just split the inspection fee by the number of containers and you get some peace of mind that you arent going to get hit with a big bill - good idea