Mrs M

Well after five years holding the visa we are taking the plunge and moving to Brisbane in oct. We had the shippers come over for a quote John Mason
It seems we will need a 40 ft container which the rep said we would 3/4 fill strangething was he wanted to know exactly what would be going when i had hoped to do some last minute shopping before we leave as i have heard it worthwile bringing a washing machine over but the rep said oh you will have to pay gst if less than twlve months old also we bought a few items a couple of years ago and kept as new we have the reciepts but the rep said they wont take note of the reciepts because we could not prove it was for those items, also he said we could not take perfume or cologne unless we wanted to pay duty well like many peeps i have a few which are all a bit used he said no matter we would still pay duty. We asked if it would be any cheaper if we self packed some of our belongings as we are also worried about theft we ll he went right in to one we dont have anyone theiving at john mason and it will be no cheaper to self pack anything he said if we were to self pack anything the customs would empty each and every box and charge us heaps for the pleasure.
So much grief and stress. Has anyone been heavily penalised for bringing goods in or had items confiscated for any reason?

camacazi

hi
we just got our container a few weeks ago. had a tumble dryer that we only bought 2 days before shippers came, declared it but didnt get charged any extra. had 4 xmas decs that had to be destroyed because of little twigs and sand at a cost of $85.
we put our purfume and aftershave in container and packers said it was ok, nothing was said at customs or quarintine.

woowaa

Hi

we got our boxes (about half a container) last week, after much reviewing of this site and getting a couple of quotes we went with John Mason, and I have to say I'm a happy customer.

They did warn of things which we shouldn't take, including bottles of alcohol and perfume, which we packed in our luggage instead, but none of it was more than normal below duty level anyway. This is only my opinion but I think you get warned of all the bad things about customs and quarantine etc etc so that if they do happen you can't go back and say they never told you, as I say my opinion and fair enough if that is the case.

We were in a furnished place in England, so have had to get most of the large electricals, to be honest it was easy as, if you shop about you can find a bargin, each to there own, but I'm sick of adapters and waiting for the hubby to rewire the plugs on the stuff that has just arrived (plus if you buy new in UK and send it over it will be there in 12 weeks, what do you do in the meantime? we got our electrical deliveries the day of purchase!)

I was also a bit nervous of having people pack up for me, but was very glad of it in the end, they were super polite, fast and professional. I did make sure that anything too precious was packed in a box that they would then pack or taken in my luggage, Their packing was way better than mine would have been I know that now, and due to the labeling we ended up with only three boxes opened by quarantine.

I can only give my personal view, and I had a good experiance of John Mason, and was glad that someone else packed and dealt with all the paperwork this side. But others are happy to get their own container and do it all themselves

Howard Jenings

We bought a large TV before coming out and as we shipped our goods just after xmas we had a lot of christmas presents that were newly bought, we had a new pram, toddler bed all of which we declared but we did not pay anything for them. I heard someone say that as long as new items totalled less than $10,000 then it was OK - might not be true! Customs/quarantine don't seem from my experience to look at evreything, we had some baskets destroyed at a cost of $36 as they were made from hyacinth leaves, they destroyed one and let the other 2 in as they didn't look in the box they were packed in!! Wouldn't worry about shipping goods just declare them and let quarantine make the decision.

Burkins

Hi

We packed our own container and had no problems at all. I did a lot of research on here and knew what customs would be looking for ie xms decorations, dirty shoes and tools so the boxes that contained these items were spotless. This saved us a lot of money.

We also had new items in the container but didn't have to pay extra, I read on here that they only cause a problem if you were bringing 10 washing machines in that were obviously not for personal use.

andreak

We used John Masons and I bought stuff before I came over, clothes, toiletries, food mixer, new set of kitchen knives and they aren't worried in the least about this sort of stuff. Obviously no alcohol, or paints, oil etc but other household stuff is no problem, as long as you haven't got hundreds and they think your gonna start selling them over here I wouldn't worry. John Masons for us were great no problems, delivered by Kent over here all went well. Will be finally unpacking end of this month when we move to our new house.

ABB1

Hi,

so u guys seems to have brought all ur personal belongings. Isn't it cheaper to buy furniture + electrical goods from aussie than paying for the freight charges + fumigation + transportation charges to ur home finally???

Kingseat

Not really. Our shipping costs are just under £6,000 for a 4 bed house. Good stuff from Next Directory and John Lewis etc. Yes, I probably could furnish a house in Oz for less but I like my things and it will be nice to have them to help me settle in. I think it depends on how much your items cost you, what you'd make on them selling them and what quality of goods you look for in Oz.

For us our stuff is all pretty new 3-5 years so we'd be silly to get rid. I am in the process of detailing everything for an insurance quote and my house contents looks like being valued between £25 and £30,000.

shears

Hi Mrs M
It might be worthwhile getting another company to give you a quote - a 20ft container was enough for us with contents of a 4 bed house. If you are not going to bring everything with you, you should go through each room and write a list of the stuff that you will be taking so when you do the walk through with the shipping rep they have a clear idea of what space is needed.

Also the difference in quotes might surprise you ... we shipped from Ireland so can't help with a recommendation but there were big differences in cost.

good luck

Mrs M

Thank you so much to everyone who replied to me i really appreciated your comments and will post my quotes and expieriences with the shippers.
Wish me luck!

slipshot

Good luck.

I;d take everything other than alcohol and the banned items. You'll be fine.

Get decent insurance - we had Kent this end and our goods suffered a lot of damage this end too so it shows you can be lucky or unlucky.

As for goods less than 12 months old, who's to know?

You'll be fine. Just make sure stuff is clean...

alipally

We brought everything with us.... Some things are more expensive here....

Washing machines, tumble dryers are more expensive. Decent furniture is hard to come by when you have no idea where the best place is to shop. If you do have to buy something in a hurry you find yourself spending hours trailing round the shops and then find, some weeks later, that you could have got it a lot cheaper elsewhere!

If you sell your stuff and rebuy new it will cost you more than if you packed it and paid for shipping. not only in monetary terms but also in terms of time spent traipsing around the shops...

moneypenny20

We bought a new vacuum and microwave that we didn't unpack - went straight into the container. We didn't list them as new and had no come back. Providing you're not shipping 20 of the things they are not interested in basic household items. They just don't want you setting up business selling the stuff.