321lauren

so i've heard about the problems with john mason, and people finding stuff missing / broken etc etc

and so ive narrowed the shipping companies down to crown or doree bonner; there have been some good reviews with crown, but has anyone had any experience with doree bonner??

or are there any other london-based shipping agencies anyone could recommend?

Julian01

Sorry cant help at the mo, but im contemplating Doree Bonner so i will be interested in any info you get.
Likewise if i get any reports i will forward them to you

mr mover

Crown like Allied pickfords are a world wide company with affiliates in every continent.
Doree bonner are a uk based company, who use Agents to do their work in other countries...............mm

Daydreamer123

We used Doree Bonner. They were great. The guys were lovely who came to pack us up. The office staff were also great, I must have called or emailed a couple of times a week until we were packed to check on things, how to fill in forms, what was allowed also asked for a discount and they gave it to me. After we were packed, we received a call the next day (a Saturday!) to tell us everything had arrived safely at the warehouse. He also told us that we had gone over our original quote, but they would not charge us extra .
We then had regular contact from them regarding the arrival time and delivery. On this side, the company who unpacked us were great, took away the packing material for the things we unpacked while they were here (not much just the big furniture items which was what we wanted, we wanted to keep a fair bit in boxes till we knew where we would be staying long term) and told us that when we were ready we could contact them to arrange a time to collect the rest of boxes.
I was extremely pleased with their service from start to finish, we really couldnt complain about it!

Donna&Neil

Hi we used Crown. Worked well for us as there Scotland based office was in our home town & there Brisbane office was in the suburb we rented in. (purely chance ) We had no problems with them, a great service.

321lauren

ok, thanks for your feedback

sammyg

We used crown and TBH i think the most important part is the packing. We were in the midlands and the two blokes who packed us were FAB. Everything was thickly wrapped with bubble wrap, layers of paper and cardboard. Nothing was broken -good job as we didn't insure
(the same two lads did someone else we know on here too and they were impressed)
I don't know what the standard is but Crown, for us, packed everything well!

gill and chris

Hi
We used Doree Bonner and they were excellent! The staff in the UK were really helpful. Our stuff, a 20ft container, took approx 2 months from being packed up in the UK to arriving at our new place in Melbourne. DB used Grace as the local agent in Australia and they were fantastic too!

cheers
gill and chris

kar-kier

We booked Doree Bonner, but with 7 days to shipping they decided to put up the price by £200! Switch to Crown who had been our second choice and they were still cheaper!

Remember that crown include ALL charges, Doree Bonner will call you to get payment for the costs in customs - just something to bear in mind!

Should have pointed out that Doree Bonner reduced their original quote, by (you guessed it) £200, to secure our business and match Crown!

Mrs JFW

we used Crown, no problems at either end...I highly recommend them!


Jackie

Dreamy

We used Crown.

We were already in Oz when they packed up the stuff in the UK as although they'd said that giving them 2 weeks notice was more than ample, when I rang 4 weeks before our flight they were fully booked. After crying, I asked my mother to come down from 85 miles away for the first day, and my SIL to come over from 80 miles away for the second day. We were surprised at needing anyone for a second day as the assessor bloke had said it was easily a one day pack up.. again, different story when I confirmed the date.

My rellies both said that the packers were incredibly professional, polite and efficient (and could easily have packed it all the first day)

Unfortunately, the container missed its sailing date as there were technical problems at the docks. It also missed its sailing date out of Singapore because of rough seas. All unavoidable, and in each case we had an email from the UK side advising us of the delay, so no complaints there.

When it arrived in Brisbane, we had been told that the Oz side would let us know and also when it was due out of Customs/Quarantine. Weeks went by, we rang the Brisbane branch several times. Each time they said they'd find out what the hold up was and get back to us. They never did. Eventually, we discovered that one page of the import form hadn't been signed so Customs were holding on.. our fault.. except that Crown UK were supposed to have checked all the forms when we'd sent them in 4 months earlier.. and Crown Brisbane hadn't bothered to let us know that the form needed signing after Customs got in touch with them! Finally, about 5 weeks after it arrived in Oz we got our furniture - 10 weeks after it had left the UK, 11 weeks after we'd left the UK. Eleven weeks of sitting on a beanbag

The unpackers were incredibly polite, professional and efficient. All the stuff was well packed and padded and we had absolutely no damage or loss whatsoever. They unpacked what we asked them to and the driver left me his number so he could pick up the empty boxes once we'd done the rest.

We're moving interstate later this year.. would I use Crown? No. Not unless I could book the removals men themselves on the side

Faircity

Can't qiote on London shipping based company - but Crown were one of our most expensive quotes - gotta admit when spoke to them about this were told by their salesman they were they best or problem if we thought cheaper were better! In saying this friend used Crown from Wales to Brissie and had no problems - I personally found that they were not the cheapest by a long stretch - almost 2K more expensive than others!

bobbyftm

We used Doree Bonner from North East England to South East Queensland and they were absolutely magic .Big from us

gazclaire

We used Doree Bonner and found them to be very good and very accomodating with free storage for about 6 weeks, Crown didn't seem to want our business at the time,maybe they were too busy.

bobbyftm

Hello mate ,yous popping to Crimbo in July for a swally ?