Relocation troubles - did you have this problem ?
Mar 15th 2003, 9:43 pm
#1
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Relocation troubles - did you have this problem ?
Clik2Complain re Avalon – 15/3/2003
We emigrated to Australia from Burgess Hill in England in September 2002, for which we paid Avalon over 2,700 UK pounds.
The whole move of our furniture and prized possessions by Avalon Team Relocations was a total farce:
1. Avalon under-estimated the volume of our shipment by about one third resulting in: too small a lorry, insufficient time, insufficient packing materials and not enough official company labels.
2. The crew captain was young and the other crew members even younger - there was no-one of any experience and this showed in the poor packing, organisation and mistakes made (eg FOOD was packed!!)
3. The quality of the packing was appalling resulting in a lot of damage, breakage and 7 lost boxes.
4. Once the company labels (which had a unique box number, our name, our reference, date and destination) ran out, Avalon resorted to a scrawled box number and a brief and very approximate description of its contents eg ‘books’. These boxes therefore were missing our name, our reference, date and destination.
5. The packing concluded with us watching the crew ‘packing’ our china, glassware and other fragile ornaments grudgingly in our FRONT GARDEN & PAVEMENT while the neighbours watched!
6. During these latter stages of the packing, they packed our goods, which had no packing materials to go round them, so they were balanced loosely in the lorry. These items were balanced in between, and on top of wooden crates, so that they could ‘pack them properly’ in the warehouse 2 hours drive away. We were unable to sign the full inventory as the goods had not been packed properly and naively under these incredibly stressful circumstances we let our goods go under these conditions. We realise now how vulnerable this left us, but we thought we had hired professionals!
6. For our insurance claim Avalon have only offered half settlement, including a derisory goodwill gesture
Has anyone else had this experience ?? We get the impression that companies like Avalon rely on the fact that their customers have to pay up the full amount up-front, before you see your possession again…and once you get the goods back many weeks later, you are less able to complain effectively when you are on the other side of the world !
We emigrated to Australia from Burgess Hill in England in September 2002, for which we paid Avalon over 2,700 UK pounds.
The whole move of our furniture and prized possessions by Avalon Team Relocations was a total farce:
1. Avalon under-estimated the volume of our shipment by about one third resulting in: too small a lorry, insufficient time, insufficient packing materials and not enough official company labels.
2. The crew captain was young and the other crew members even younger - there was no-one of any experience and this showed in the poor packing, organisation and mistakes made (eg FOOD was packed!!)
3. The quality of the packing was appalling resulting in a lot of damage, breakage and 7 lost boxes.
4. Once the company labels (which had a unique box number, our name, our reference, date and destination) ran out, Avalon resorted to a scrawled box number and a brief and very approximate description of its contents eg ‘books’. These boxes therefore were missing our name, our reference, date and destination.
5. The packing concluded with us watching the crew ‘packing’ our china, glassware and other fragile ornaments grudgingly in our FRONT GARDEN & PAVEMENT while the neighbours watched!
6. During these latter stages of the packing, they packed our goods, which had no packing materials to go round them, so they were balanced loosely in the lorry. These items were balanced in between, and on top of wooden crates, so that they could ‘pack them properly’ in the warehouse 2 hours drive away. We were unable to sign the full inventory as the goods had not been packed properly and naively under these incredibly stressful circumstances we let our goods go under these conditions. We realise now how vulnerable this left us, but we thought we had hired professionals!
6. For our insurance claim Avalon have only offered half settlement, including a derisory goodwill gesture
Has anyone else had this experience ?? We get the impression that companies like Avalon rely on the fact that their customers have to pay up the full amount up-front, before you see your possession again…and once you get the goods back many weeks later, you are less able to complain effectively when you are on the other side of the world !
Mar 16th 2003, 1:36 am
#2
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 757
Re: Relocation troubles - did you have this problem ?
Originally posted by Ross Davis
Clik2Complain re Avalon – 15/3/2003
We emigrated to Australia from Burgess Hill in England in September 2002, for which we paid Avalon over 2,700 UK pounds.
The whole move of our furniture and prized possessions by Avalon Team Relocations was a total farce:
1. Avalon under-estimated the volume of our shipment by about one third resulting in: too small a lorry, insufficient time, insufficient packing materials and not enough official company labels.
2. The crew captain was young and the other crew members even younger - there was no-one of any experience and this showed in the poor packing, organisation and mistakes made (eg FOOD was packed!!)
3. The quality of the packing was appalling resulting in a lot of damage, breakage and 7 lost boxes.
4. Once the company labels (which had a unique box number, our name, our reference, date and destination) ran out, Avalon resorted to a scrawled box number and a brief and very approximate description of its contents eg ‘books’. These boxes therefore were missing our name, our reference, date and destination.
5. The packing concluded with us watching the crew ‘packing’ our china, glassware and other fragile ornaments grudgingly in our FRONT GARDEN & PAVEMENT while the neighbours watched!
6. During these latter stages of the packing, they packed our goods, which had no packing materials to go round them, so they were balanced loosely in the lorry. These items were balanced in between, and on top of wooden crates, so that they could ‘pack them properly’ in the warehouse 2 hours drive away. We were unable to sign the full inventory as the goods had not been packed properly and naively under these incredibly stressful circumstances we let our goods go under these conditions. We realise now how vulnerable this left us, but we thought we had hired professionals!
6. For our insurance claim Avalon have only offered half settlement, including a derisory goodwill gesture
Has anyone else had this experience ?? We get the impression that companies like Avalon rely on the fact that their customers have to pay up the full amount up-front, before you see your possession again…and once you get the goods back many weeks later, you are less able to complain effectively when you are on the other side of the world !
Clik2Complain re Avalon – 15/3/2003
We emigrated to Australia from Burgess Hill in England in September 2002, for which we paid Avalon over 2,700 UK pounds.
The whole move of our furniture and prized possessions by Avalon Team Relocations was a total farce:
1. Avalon under-estimated the volume of our shipment by about one third resulting in: too small a lorry, insufficient time, insufficient packing materials and not enough official company labels.
2. The crew captain was young and the other crew members even younger - there was no-one of any experience and this showed in the poor packing, organisation and mistakes made (eg FOOD was packed!!)
3. The quality of the packing was appalling resulting in a lot of damage, breakage and 7 lost boxes.
4. Once the company labels (which had a unique box number, our name, our reference, date and destination) ran out, Avalon resorted to a scrawled box number and a brief and very approximate description of its contents eg ‘books’. These boxes therefore were missing our name, our reference, date and destination.
5. The packing concluded with us watching the crew ‘packing’ our china, glassware and other fragile ornaments grudgingly in our FRONT GARDEN & PAVEMENT while the neighbours watched!
6. During these latter stages of the packing, they packed our goods, which had no packing materials to go round them, so they were balanced loosely in the lorry. These items were balanced in between, and on top of wooden crates, so that they could ‘pack them properly’ in the warehouse 2 hours drive away. We were unable to sign the full inventory as the goods had not been packed properly and naively under these incredibly stressful circumstances we let our goods go under these conditions. We realise now how vulnerable this left us, but we thought we had hired professionals!
6. For our insurance claim Avalon have only offered half settlement, including a derisory goodwill gesture
Has anyone else had this experience ?? We get the impression that companies like Avalon rely on the fact that their customers have to pay up the full amount up-front, before you see your possession again…and once you get the goods back many weeks later, you are less able to complain effectively when you are on the other side of the world !
Have to say that we used PSS to move our stuff from Worcestershire UK to Christchurch NZ and they were brill. Young but experienced and professional packing crew the estimate of volume was spot on. Good crew this end and not one item lost or broken.
Sorry to hear of your experiences but I am sure all the people who are going to be looking for a removal company are very grateful of your info.
Paula
Mar 16th 2003, 2:07 am
#3
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I used Anglo Pacific, they packed it and shipped it stored it with no problems, no breakages, great service and in Australia they were better than good.
Coming back they were diabolical, not from Perth but from the minute it arrived in UK, boxes went missing, stuff damaged as the idiot unloading it dumped it off the wagon.
I will be using them again to go out, I am not intending coming back this time. !!
Coming back they were diabolical, not from Perth but from the minute it arrived in UK, boxes went missing, stuff damaged as the idiot unloading it dumped it off the wagon.
I will be using them again to go out, I am not intending coming back this time. !!
Mar 16th 2003, 10:43 am
#4
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Posts: 1,385
Re: Relocation troubles - did you have this problem ?
Originally posted by Ross Davis
Clik2Complain re Avalon – 15/3/2003
We emigrated to Australia from Burgess Hill in England in September 2002, for which we paid Avalon over 2,700 UK pounds.
The whole move of our furniture and prized possessions by Avalon Team Relocations was a total farce:
1. Avalon under-estimated the volume of our shipment by about one third resulting in: too small a lorry, insufficient time, insufficient packing materials and not enough official company labels.
2. The crew captain was young and the other crew members even younger - there was no-one of any experience and this showed in the poor packing, organisation and mistakes made (eg FOOD was packed!!)
3. The quality of the packing was appalling resulting in a lot of damage, breakage and 7 lost boxes.
4. Once the company labels (which had a unique box number, our name, our reference, date and destination) ran out, Avalon resorted to a scrawled box number and a brief and very approximate description of its contents eg ‘books’. These boxes therefore were missing our name, our reference, date and destination.
5. The packing concluded with us watching the crew ‘packing’ our china, glassware and other fragile ornaments grudgingly in our FRONT GARDEN & PAVEMENT while the neighbours watched!
6. During these latter stages of the packing, they packed our goods, which had no packing materials to go round them, so they were balanced loosely in the lorry. These items were balanced in between, and on top of wooden crates, so that they could ‘pack them properly’ in the warehouse 2 hours drive away. We were unable to sign the full inventory as the goods had not been packed properly and naively under these incredibly stressful circumstances we let our goods go under these conditions. We realise now how vulnerable this left us, but we thought we had hired professionals!
6. For our insurance claim Avalon have only offered half settlement, including a derisory goodwill gesture
Has anyone else had this experience ?? We get the impression that companies like Avalon rely on the fact that their customers have to pay up the full amount up-front, before you see your possession again…and once you get the goods back many weeks later, you are less able to complain effectively when you are on the other side of the world !
Clik2Complain re Avalon – 15/3/2003
We emigrated to Australia from Burgess Hill in England in September 2002, for which we paid Avalon over 2,700 UK pounds.
The whole move of our furniture and prized possessions by Avalon Team Relocations was a total farce:
1. Avalon under-estimated the volume of our shipment by about one third resulting in: too small a lorry, insufficient time, insufficient packing materials and not enough official company labels.
2. The crew captain was young and the other crew members even younger - there was no-one of any experience and this showed in the poor packing, organisation and mistakes made (eg FOOD was packed!!)
3. The quality of the packing was appalling resulting in a lot of damage, breakage and 7 lost boxes.
4. Once the company labels (which had a unique box number, our name, our reference, date and destination) ran out, Avalon resorted to a scrawled box number and a brief and very approximate description of its contents eg ‘books’. These boxes therefore were missing our name, our reference, date and destination.
5. The packing concluded with us watching the crew ‘packing’ our china, glassware and other fragile ornaments grudgingly in our FRONT GARDEN & PAVEMENT while the neighbours watched!
6. During these latter stages of the packing, they packed our goods, which had no packing materials to go round them, so they were balanced loosely in the lorry. These items were balanced in between, and on top of wooden crates, so that they could ‘pack them properly’ in the warehouse 2 hours drive away. We were unable to sign the full inventory as the goods had not been packed properly and naively under these incredibly stressful circumstances we let our goods go under these conditions. We realise now how vulnerable this left us, but we thought we had hired professionals!
6. For our insurance claim Avalon have only offered half settlement, including a derisory goodwill gesture
Has anyone else had this experience ?? We get the impression that companies like Avalon rely on the fact that their customers have to pay up the full amount up-front, before you see your possession again…and once you get the goods back many weeks later, you are less able to complain effectively when you are on the other side of the world !
Thanks for this information I have had 5 quotations and Avalon OVER-estimated to me by 50% according to the other four quotataions which were spot on alike in size. Even taking off the 50% over estimate their quotation was still 40% higher than the others. I also found the representative who came did not REALLY make me feel good about the company and was a bit offhand in his comments about regulations.
Your post has definitely made up my mind to cross them off the list. The other post has made me re-think getting Allied in for a quote.
Mar 17th 2003, 10:07 am
#5
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Glad to be of service!
We would not want anyone to go through what we have had to endure.
What of part of Australia do you plan on living in?
Best of luck with the application
We would not want anyone to go through what we have had to endure.
What of part of Australia do you plan on living in?
Best of luck with the application
Mar 17th 2003, 12:08 pm
#6
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Location: Tahmoor NSW - Southern Highlands
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Originally posted by Ross Davis
Glad to be of service!
We would not want anyone to go through what we have had to endure.
What of part of Australia do you plan on living in?
Best of luck with the application
Glad to be of service!
We would not want anyone to go through what we have had to endure.
What of part of Australia do you plan on living in?
Best of luck with the application
We hope to settle south west of Sydney in an area around Bargo- Picton. Just looking thru the Avalon quote and note they are advising 80 - yes 80 cartons for books clothes and crockery??? I would have enough for a bed and breakfast establishment to fill that number of boxes.
Mar 17th 2003, 12:15 pm
#7
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Re: Relocation troubles - did you have this problem ?
Following on from the details we gave above about our move to Australia conducted by Avalon Transeuro Team Relocations, we have now set up a photo web-site that shows piccies of the damages and also the poor labelling. The link is as follows..
http://photos.extrafilm.com.au/AvalonTeamRelocations
We paid Avalon 2,700 UK Pounds for their 'services', but they have still only offered less than half the value of our insurance claim - because they are 'averaging out' specified item values. This is despite being officially noted on goods-arrival in Australia that seven boxes are missing, together with the damages.
Does anyone have any other ideas as to what we can do, or people we can contact - BBC Watchdog have not yet replied to us..!!
:scared:
http://photos.extrafilm.com.au/AvalonTeamRelocations
We paid Avalon 2,700 UK Pounds for their 'services', but they have still only offered less than half the value of our insurance claim - because they are 'averaging out' specified item values. This is despite being officially noted on goods-arrival in Australia that seven boxes are missing, together with the damages.
Does anyone have any other ideas as to what we can do, or people we can contact - BBC Watchdog have not yet replied to us..!!
:scared:
Mar 17th 2003, 12:25 pm
#8
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Joined: Dec 2002
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Were you there when they were packing? How many people packed - just wondering if there were too many to watch.
How come they packed a used cat litter tray and food? What was it like on moving day, was it a mad hurry?
It just seem totally amateur!
Loopy
How come they packed a used cat litter tray and food? What was it like on moving day, was it a mad hurry?
It just seem totally amateur!
Loopy
Mar 17th 2003, 12:25 pm
#9
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Originally posted by Ross Davis
Glad to be of service!
We would not want anyone to go through what we have had to endure.
What of part of Australia do you plan on living in?
Best of luck with the application
Glad to be of service!
We would not want anyone to go through what we have had to endure.
What of part of Australia do you plan on living in?
Best of luck with the application
Good luck with Watchdog - they are quite slow but good eventually Just keep nagging them
How about the Which magazine people - worth a punt to advertise Avalons poor work:scared:
Mar 17th 2003, 8:39 pm
#10
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Originally posted by Loopy
Were you there when they were packing? How many people packed - just wondering if there were too many to watch.
How come they packed a used cat litter tray and food? What was it like on moving day, was it a mad hurry?
It just seem totally amateur!
Loopy
Were you there when they were packing? How many people packed - just wondering if there were too many to watch.
How come they packed a used cat litter tray and food? What was it like on moving day, was it a mad hurry?
It just seem totally amateur!
Loopy
Avalon orginally verbally quoted 2 people for 2 days, but this turned into 4 people for 1 day. We lived in a very small 2-up-2-down house, so you can imagine the results - everyone was on top of everyone and boxes using ALL available floor space!!
The crew were supposed to arrive 9:30am but they turned up at 10:45am instead! The crew left our property at 8:45pm! It was so incredibly stressful, especially when our china/glass & other fragile items nearly went on the van UPWRAPPED! We caught them and insisted it was wrapped - this was done in our front GARDEN right by the public pavement!
Mar 17th 2003, 8:45 pm
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Originally posted by yafm
Good luck with Watchdog - they are quite slow but good eventually Just keep nagging them
How about the Which magazine people - worth a punt to advertise Avalons poor work:scared:
Good luck with Watchdog - they are quite slow but good eventually Just keep nagging them
How about the Which magazine people - worth a punt to advertise Avalons poor work:scared:
Many thanks for the suggestion of which magazine - we will try this!
We contacted Watchdog via their web site twice - the first time was about 3 weeks ago - do you think this is a normal wait?
We are returning to the UK for a visit to friends & family, so this will give us a chance to chase up people on the phone - this is hard to do at a distance with the time lag!
You were certainly quoted a lot of boxes! Good luck with the B&B - its obviously meant to be, you just didn't know it!
Mar 17th 2003, 9:10 pm
#12
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We contacted Watchdog via their web site twice - the first time was about 3 weeks ago - do you think this is a normal wait?
You were certainly quoted a lot of boxes! Good luck with the B&B - its obviously meant to be, you just didn't know it! [/QUOTE]
I don't think so!!! We are going to australia to RETIRE
All TV companies are slow at answering - perhaps a fax to their offices - being a hard copy - may be better - They may not always look at their e-mails regularly.
Keep trying and good luck
You were certainly quoted a lot of boxes! Good luck with the B&B - its obviously meant to be, you just didn't know it! [/QUOTE]
I don't think so!!! We are going to australia to RETIRE
All TV companies are slow at answering - perhaps a fax to their offices - being a hard copy - may be better - They may not always look at their e-mails regularly.
Keep trying and good luck
Mar 18th 2003, 3:10 am
#13
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Re: Relocation troubles - did you have this problem ?
Ross,
This is Just a thought, but have you considered putting in a complaint this end to the gov officals? You may be able to stop that company from being a shipper into Aus, or at least give them a warning from the Authorities here.
As you probably know Australia does not allow certain things into the country, they are quite strict on that - and as for the used cat box - well!!.
I have a link here for the customs , and there's contact details there for complaints. I don't know if this is any help - but what I would do, is search the net a bit for the relevant authorities in Aus, and put in a complaint about that shipping company - about the food, and cat box etc http://www.customs.gov.au/site/index...670&area_id=5.
And what about "Today Tonight?" channel 7
This won't get you your money back of course, but it may stop them from ever being allowed to ship into Aus again, or it may result in a big fine for them.
cheers
This is Just a thought, but have you considered putting in a complaint this end to the gov officals? You may be able to stop that company from being a shipper into Aus, or at least give them a warning from the Authorities here.
As you probably know Australia does not allow certain things into the country, they are quite strict on that - and as for the used cat box - well!!.
I have a link here for the customs , and there's contact details there for complaints. I don't know if this is any help - but what I would do, is search the net a bit for the relevant authorities in Aus, and put in a complaint about that shipping company - about the food, and cat box etc http://www.customs.gov.au/site/index...670&area_id=5.
And what about "Today Tonight?" channel 7
This won't get you your money back of course, but it may stop them from ever being allowed to ship into Aus again, or it may result in a big fine for them.
cheers
Mar 19th 2003, 7:36 am
#14
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Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2003
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Re: Relocation troubles - did you have this problem ?
Many thanks for the tips so far given, we will be following these up. All further ideas of what we can do regarding our removal problems are very welcome!!
The Clik2Complaints.co.uk web site have posted our complaint and are contacted Avalon for their right of reply, so we are now awaiting this.
Well worth remembering this web-site for any issues concerning any organisation in the UK! It gives you an opportunity to air complaints free & openly, including giving the organisation a chance to explain itself.
Regards
The Clik2Complaints.co.uk web site have posted our complaint and are contacted Avalon for their right of reply, so we are now awaiting this.
Well worth remembering this web-site for any issues concerning any organisation in the UK! It gives you an opportunity to air complaints free & openly, including giving the organisation a chance to explain itself.
Regards
Mar 19th 2003, 8:14 am
#15
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On another thread on this site Macquarie advises that his removals company told him 'not to worry' abouttaking wicker and cane furmniture all five of my qupote companies told me under no circumstances to take it? Do they not all go to the same school??
