Visa's in passports, house sold, time to get some quotes for shipping. Decided on six quotes to get a good mix and range of views.
First up John mason, the first and best rep, helpful, informative, not pushy or cheesy, gave sensible advice on what to take/leave and knew his stuff on the rules and regs of Australian imports.
Answered all questions and no hard sell on insurance.

Second in line was Pickfords, again well informed, thorough and pleasant but slightly too well polished bordering on cheesy.

Third up Bishops move,(reccomended by a friend who moved to Spain) what can i say without being rude, in and out the house in twenty minutes, clueless when questioned, fobbed us off with excuses that the Aus. regulations had recently changed and they were still getting to grips with them. Promised to send us copies of the handouts he had in his portfolio which caught our eye, which never arrived. The only quote we received saying we would require a 40' container, at a cost of over 5k.

Our number four contestant was Brittania, this guy was serious about shipping, the only one so far who actually measured our belongings and furniture. Pleasant, helpful and very proffesional, he had also spent some time in Australia and came across well informed.

On lucky line five was Crown relocations, again thorough, proffesional, measured larger items, also brought soft toys for the children and a nice little kids book about living in Australia.
Like most of the others knew his job and answered any queries no probs.

Last man in was PSS. Once again carried out his job well, informed, helpful and professional.

The decision on who to go with was made after our final visitor, PSS, it was a straight fight between John Mason and Crown.
We opted for crown after searching the group and being unable to find one bad post about them and they were also the only one of our shortlist that were the same company both in the UK and Aus., so no blaming subbies.
After the initial decision the quote from PSS arrived, a spanner in the works, nearly 500 quid cheper than any other quote.
After deliberating a while we rang Crown saying that they were our first choice but that we had a quote from PSS for 500 GBP cheaper and could they do anything about it. They rang back later on and and knocked off 150 notes off their original price so all things considered they get our business.
Now to start chucking all those bits of junk that might come in handy one day.

philanthropist

We have had he same experience.

We've had Britannia, Robinsons, John Mason, Crown
and Excess International.

From the start I preferred Crown, but they have come in
£1000 more than the others, though the cuft was about the
same for them all.

I'm planning to do a bit of haggling and see how much
they're prepared to knock off. So it's good to hear that they
are open to bargaining.

All the best with your move

Karen.

Karen

Stand your ground and tell them what you want to pay, don't let them take over.

Clevs

Anyone had any experiences with Doree Bonner?

We are expecting them shortly for a quote and would be good to hear any experiences.

To be honest about crown, we had made our decision to go with them before the PSS quote, that only gave us the leverage and the impetus to haggle, so we are quite happy to go with crown and trust their reputation.

Insurance though, there's a nightmare. Filling in forms about the value of your possesions, down to kitchen utensils, what a pother. Plus the customs forms, somebody must be having a laugh, itemise everything your taking which is made of wood, god where do you start.

Where/when are you going and have you booked flights yet.
Good luck with the haggling,
sean

Do you have to take Crown's insurance or can you sort your own?

Please make sure you write down EVERYTHING on the list. Hopefully you won't need to claim, but things can be damaged in ways you never thought possible.

Jane