graham wade

can anybody reccomend a good reliable shipping agent
moving from Essex to QLD soon

mi5agent

If you do a forum search for "shipping Agents" you should drag in enough material to keep you reading for the next 3 years.

You will read about Joe Blogs & co being real w***ers, from one post to finding out from another post that they were brilliant. One mans drink is another mans poison, comes to mind.

Some tips are, haggle for a better deal no matter what they offer - play one against the other. Consider how much time you may need for storage.
Do you need your own 20ft or 40 ft container or are you dumping stuff and just crating up personal items?
Once you have done your deal - you lose the haggle.
You need to bring in at least 3 shippers...more if you want to go through the same scripted story with each one.
I mentioned to each "surveyor" that we called them after seeing a post on the forum about them. A. It pre-warns them that you have taken advice about the move. B. Your 600 cu feet needed does not become 900 cu feet to pay for! Also, they are aware that forum users soon blast out bad news about any negatives that come into play. I also told each one the names of the others I called in. IMHO it keeps them aware that you may not be a green ill advised punter.

When you get the quotes, check like for like, some say, for example that customs and quarnantine is "FREE", no its prepaid by you! Others will tell you that you have to pay this...including an extra £15 to "clean the container". So you need to check item by item. and compare.
Be aware that just now a whole raft load of Brits have had to cancel moving either because sponsors have pulled out or houses have not sold, so the shippers are NOT busy and now need to compete for business.
No matter what dates they give you for shipping, they need to have space booked on a container ship. Ours left the UK 4 weeks after we did!

Crown, John Mason, all get good mentions, Crown usually appear the dearest, but when you compare, they appear to "give" you things free.
We used John Mason and cannot fault Tony the surveyor - complete with bow tie, or the two scouse packers we had. BUT, so far the conatiner is still afloat. Notified from the Aussie contractors that the ship is due on the 20th.
ALso spoke morning with their office to check on actaul delivery dates. Advised the container can take 2 - 3 weeks to clear customs.And in the blurb they give us 10 days free storage.

There are stories of stuff being stolen, broken, lost, damaged. SO insure your stuff.

That should help! But do the search. best of luck....


check this out, just found it! http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=584462