Removal troubles - anyone had trouble like we did ?
Mar 15th 2003, 12:25 pm
#1
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 40
Removal troubles - anyone had trouble like we did ?
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 !
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 21st 2003, 1:49 pm
#2
too busy to work members
Joined: Jan 2003
Location: Tahmoor NSW - Southern Highlands
Posts: 1,385
Re: Removal troubles - anyone had trouble like we did ?
Originally posted by Ross Davis
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 !
Alan Collet advises that due to complaoints received GoMatilda will not be recommending Avalon any more.
Mar 21st 2003, 2:41 pm
#3
Just Joined
Joined: Mar 2003
Location: Oxfordshire
Posts: 5
That's something Go Matilda should advise and not someone on their behalf however well intentioned it may be. Their website does not reflect your comments.
I have chosen Avalon myself to do our move and I trust their so far profesional approach will carry on.
Mike
I have chosen Avalon myself to do our move and I trust their so far profesional approach will carry on.
Mike
Mar 21st 2003, 6:14 pm
#4
too busy to work members
Joined: Jan 2003
Location: Tahmoor NSW - Southern Highlands
Posts: 1,385
Originally posted by Whitehorns
That's something Go Matilda should advise and not someone on their behalf however well intentioned it may be. Their website does not reflect your comments.
I have chosen Avalon myself to do our move and I trust their so far profesional approach will carry on.
Mike
That's something Go Matilda should advise and not someone on their behalf however well intentioned it may be. Their website does not reflect your comments.
I have chosen Avalon myself to do our move and I trust their so far profesional approach will carry on.
Mike
See reply from Alan on other thread on this subject.
Mar 22nd 2003, 3:48 am
#5
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Joined: Apr 2002
Location: Sydney
Posts: 336
Sounds terrible must be very stressful for you. Now I have a good story about our stuff. We emigrated a year ago and are still going through the courts sueing the shipping company.
We'd hired a container from a shipping company (recommended to us by a freind) with the intention of shipping my husbands much loved modified car along with as many boxes we could fit around it. we packed all our stuff ourselves, did a superb inventory, steam cleaned the car etc. Basically did everything you are supposed to do for the shipping including arranging insurance. About a month before, we told the shipping company that we would like to load our stuff onto the container on the 26th March 2002 to which they said, yep no problem we will have a container for you then. Everything was going smoothly, (so we thought), contacting the shipping company several times to make sure they were ok with a container to which they said they were. So we booked our flight to fly out to Sydney on the 30th March 2002. We took all our stuff to the shipping company's warehouse on the said date only to be told that they couldn't get a container and our stuff would have to be stored in their warehouse over the Easter weekend and loaded up on the following Tuesday (after we had flown out to Sydney). We were absolutely livid as the only reason we did it this way was so my husband could load the car on and not some spotty teenager maniac!! So we arranged for my Dad to be present when everything was loaded just to make sure it was all ok.
Well my dad turned up at the shipping warehouse on the Tuesday after the long weekend only to find they had been broken into and our car along with lots of other electrical equipment, computers, and one of the boxes (which happened to be the most sentimental box out of them all). Our marine insurance said the policy didn't cover the goods until it was in the container and the company's warehouse insurance said a £40,000 claim was still being processed from the last time they were broken into!! Now how silly did we feel trusting our goods with this company!!
Now nearly a year later, we are still in the process of sueing them as they seem to be ignoring our summons that have been sent. hopefully we will get the value of the goods which was on the inventory which, I might add was less than everything was worth as we were keeping insurance costs down. And how do you put a value on things like irreplacable pictures or sentimental jewelry that was worth sod all but had great sentimental value. And the car, well the book value is about £1500, but over the years my husband had spent well over £20,000 modifying it. He spent £4000 on it in the months before we left to get it up to scratch!
Moral of our story is, go with a reputable shipping company and take out good insurance!! But then I think our case is an exceptional one.
Mandy
We'd hired a container from a shipping company (recommended to us by a freind) with the intention of shipping my husbands much loved modified car along with as many boxes we could fit around it. we packed all our stuff ourselves, did a superb inventory, steam cleaned the car etc. Basically did everything you are supposed to do for the shipping including arranging insurance. About a month before, we told the shipping company that we would like to load our stuff onto the container on the 26th March 2002 to which they said, yep no problem we will have a container for you then. Everything was going smoothly, (so we thought), contacting the shipping company several times to make sure they were ok with a container to which they said they were. So we booked our flight to fly out to Sydney on the 30th March 2002. We took all our stuff to the shipping company's warehouse on the said date only to be told that they couldn't get a container and our stuff would have to be stored in their warehouse over the Easter weekend and loaded up on the following Tuesday (after we had flown out to Sydney). We were absolutely livid as the only reason we did it this way was so my husband could load the car on and not some spotty teenager maniac!! So we arranged for my Dad to be present when everything was loaded just to make sure it was all ok.
Well my dad turned up at the shipping warehouse on the Tuesday after the long weekend only to find they had been broken into and our car along with lots of other electrical equipment, computers, and one of the boxes (which happened to be the most sentimental box out of them all). Our marine insurance said the policy didn't cover the goods until it was in the container and the company's warehouse insurance said a £40,000 claim was still being processed from the last time they were broken into!! Now how silly did we feel trusting our goods with this company!!
Now nearly a year later, we are still in the process of sueing them as they seem to be ignoring our summons that have been sent. hopefully we will get the value of the goods which was on the inventory which, I might add was less than everything was worth as we were keeping insurance costs down. And how do you put a value on things like irreplacable pictures or sentimental jewelry that was worth sod all but had great sentimental value. And the car, well the book value is about £1500, but over the years my husband had spent well over £20,000 modifying it. He spent £4000 on it in the months before we left to get it up to scratch!
Moral of our story is, go with a reputable shipping company and take out good insurance!! But then I think our case is an exceptional one.
Mandy
Mar 22nd 2003, 4:43 am
#6
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 40
Mandy, we are absolutely speechless!
Many thanks for your reply.
I presume you are not naming your shipping company due to your legal action.
This must have cast a huge shadow over everything for you, there we were saying we felt like we had been burgled, but you actually were. What exactly is the point of insurance, if it does not cover the end to end move?!
Good luck with everything, do keep us posted!
Many thanks for your reply.
I presume you are not naming your shipping company due to your legal action.
This must have cast a huge shadow over everything for you, there we were saying we felt like we had been burgled, but you actually were. What exactly is the point of insurance, if it does not cover the end to end move?!
Good luck with everything, do keep us posted!
Mar 22nd 2003, 5:26 am
#7
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Joined: Apr 2002
Location: Sydney
Posts: 336
yes Ross it really did cast a shadow, and I feel for you too. The insurance was a waste of time but then if everything had gone to plan and something had got broken on the way then I'm sure the insurance would have been useful. When we finally got what was left of our belongings it was really depressing unpacking it all as it should have really been like christmas!! anyway I always look on the bright side of things and are thankful that the kids boxes weren't taken, and it probably saved us a lot of grief not having the car here as it would have been a nightmare to get parts for it over here. Also hubby is having fun working on his new car 'project'!!
anyway, its water under the bridge now and I think we have got over it now. Its not fair though is it when things go wrong.
Mandy
anyway, its water under the bridge now and I think we have got over it now. Its not fair though is it when things go wrong.
Mandy
