RenShen

Hi all,

I have had PSS and Crown round for quotes and thought I would post the details here in case it helps anybody.

We are going from Wirral (UK) to Brisbane. (Still can't believe it even as I type that!).

We are taking clothes, beds, sofas, tables, chairs, crockery, cutlery, ornaments, pictures, photos (loads), christmas decorations (no pine cones!) toys, golf clubs, games consoles, televisions, dvds, small electrical items, tumble dryer, cupboards, football table, pool table and probably a cuddly toy. No cars or outdoor equipment or bikes because of cost an AQUIS concerns.

Pss came round first and the bloke seemed very helpful at the time.

I had already gone around the house and made a list in each room of what I wanted to take. He then came around the house with me and made his own list too.
Said I would need a 20 foot reefer container. Apparently a reefer is an ex refrigeration unit. He said he prefers these as they are better insulated against the heat than other containers. Quoted £3255. Includes everything door to door except for any AQUIS inspection charges which are a bit of an uunknown. Plus there is a one off handling fee for storage if needed in Brisbane of $208 then $43 per week after that. The bloke left me with a PSS brochure.

I was quite happy with that as an initial quote.

Crown have just been and were more thorough than PSS. She wanted more details of specific items. She then gave me a huge glossy pack of info about the packing process, a Brisbane guide, customs and AQUIS standards and a leaflet specifically for my youngest son She also pointed out some interesting facts that I was unaware of, namely

They will not come to fill the container until the visa has been granted

and

As we are going to Oz on a temp visa there is an additional customs charge to be paid, which we could then claim back if we became permanent residents. She will email me more details about this when she gets back to the office.

She also mentioned that a reefer container does not hold as much as a standard 20 foot container. Only one shipping line, P&O carries reefers but 6 or 7 shipping lines carry standard containers. This means that a standard container would probably get there quicker.

The Crown lady did not give me any indication of what her quote would be but it will arrive via email later this week. I will post it here then.

As time for us will be limited when it comes to the move, I gave her the PSS quote. She seemed quite surprised at this but I explained that I couldn't be arsed setting one off against the other so she may as well be aware of what we have already been quoted. Don't know if this was the right thing to do or not but it's done now

This all puts our plans out a bit. As we were not aware of the visa restriction on sending a container, we had thought that the container might get there around the same time as us. We hope to travel shortly after the 457 visa is approved so face 6 weeks or so in Oz without our stuff.

We had hoped to stay in holiday accommodation for a couple of weeks initially while looking for a house rental, but without our container we would have nothing to put into the house! We are now considering spending longer in holiday aaccommodation but this is not something we really wanted to do. My husband will start work shortly after we arrive and I wanted to be settled in our house asap. Never mind, we will just have to work around it.

Will post more info as I receive it, hope this helps
Ren.

sals

Hi Renshen,
You can send a container if you haven't got your visa but you are then liable to pay import duty on it! (think that's what it's called) It helps if you have a friend or relative in Oz who will let you use their address. Hopefully your visa will come before you need to ship. That's what happened to us and now thankfully our container arrives at the same time we do, so by the time we find a rental it should hopefully have cleared customs.
We should have intially gone out on 457 and I wasn't told about extra charge for being temporary residents, we are now going out on PR but I'm sure my friends who have gone out on 457 haven't paid an extra charge either!
BTW I'm using Crown. I got plenty of quotes and they were very competitive and AQUIS fees where included.

domco77

Any chance of posting a link to Crown? I might give them a go. Can only find an "Ocean Crown" on Google....

Thanks.

Pollyana

First time I've heard of there being an "extra charge" for a temporary visa. Sounds like a bit of financial licence to me and I'm sure it would've been posted on BE if anyone else had known about. It's also rubbish about them not shipping till the visa is granted. People on here have shipped early before - its your own risk if you haven't got a visa.

Buzzy--Bee

John Mason were good for us -

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=474957

Buzzy

Red_V_Roger

We've just had our stuff arrive and we are on 457 - we were never even asked what visa we had so I think that goes down with the:

1. Sea gull poo on container cleaning charge
2. Unexpected quarantee fees
3. What ever else we can charge you for now we've got your stuff and you haven't charge

and oh yes I have been got on the "we will need a ferry vehicle to get your stuff to your house charge - pay us $600 or you can't have your stuff".

Its was a bit tight on access so I paid the money in advance then the driver got the container within 3 feet of the front door and no sign of a 'ferry vehicle' even being sent just in case. I've asked OSS Worldwide twice now for a refund and got no repsonse whatsoever.

RenShen

Here you go: www.crownrelo.com

I have searched the customs site and can't find anything about the temp visa charge either. I am begining to think she had her facts wrong. Will wait for her email to see.

Has anybody else had quotes for a 20 foot container? I don't want a stream of people round to give me quotes as I can't keep the house tidy for that long

Dreamy

We had Crown, Doree Bonner and Allied Pickfords round (Allied Pickfords have a contract with Himself's new employer, and we've always used them for domestic removals, which is why we asked them for a quote)

All three were contacted via their websites.
Doree Bonner and Crown got back in touch with me almost immediately.
Allied Pickford took three weeks to contact me.

Doree Bonner quoted for a 20' container. It took 10 days for the quote to arrive after their site visit. Their quote was £3225, not including insurance, taxes, demurrage and storage or Customs & QUarantine inspection fee. They had little things listed wrong - such as listing the telly as a plasma when I'd emphasised it was LCD, things like that.

Crown emailed me the quote the next day, and the postal quote arrived the day after that. They were incredibly professional, lovely information pack at the time of the visit, Andrew explained all about how to fill in the customs forms, the insurance forms, and as their quote was for groupage, gave me an amended quote the same day by telephone for sole use, the postal quote arrived the next day.
Their quote was for £2,885 for groupage (delivery within 30 miles of Brisbane)
Sole container was £3,645.
These both included all fees, but not insurance. Crown's premium insurance (the one that includes mould/mildrew, electrical failure, sets and pairs) was a little more expensive than DB.

Allied Pickford finally contacted us, and arranged to come out the following week. They completely assumed we would use them, because of the contract. We pointed out several times that we were paying for the move upfront and claiming costs back. I've still had no postal quote, but did have an email from their corporate division a week later. In this, they quoted me for a 40' container(!!) and it was wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more expensive than either of the other two quotes. I can't remember what it was, needless to say we won't be using them.

All three were shown exactly the same furniture, as I'd made a list before hand (we're not taking everything, just stuff that may actually make it to Oz ) Only Crown took dimensions of the larger furniture, and they were the ones who said we had the smallest cubic footage

We're still waiting endlessly for our medicals to be processed, so I still have a while to decide, but it's likely to be Crown, purely because I was so impressed with Andrew, and his immaculate service. We're going out on 457, and he certainly said nothing about any extra charge because of that.

johnpod

Hi Renshen

We have just booked with Doree Bonner. Full 20 ft container (Not reefer as had been warned against these) for 3 bed house - taking everthing including bikes/horse riding gear as as long as is jet washed and clean no problems with taking in. We had quotes from 5 places ranging from £3300 to £4500!! Doree Boneer were not the cheapest but were def most professional and include electrical derangement (if TV doesn't work and no obvios reason insurance still covers it - or any other electrical item, also full set replacement - if 1 item of matching sets is dammage will replace whole set). We are going from Poole Dorset to Gold Coast. The final price was £3600 (we got them down from £3800) and insuracne at 2.4% (got this down from 2.75%) so is worth haggling a bit. They arrive to pack us up on 26th Nov and container arrives on 27th. Have been told will take between 8-12 weeks as customs in Oz will be closed over Christmas so there will be a backlog! They say the minimum transfer time home to home is 60 days but this very rarely happens and some shippers give you short shipping times to try and secure your business.

You can hire a furniture pack once you arrive on a weekly basis (about $70) till your gear arrives - or head for IKEA in Brissy and indulge in some retail therapy.

We arive in Oz on 4th Dec and have holiday let till 22nd Dec - then homeless nevermind furniture less, hoping to sort out a rental in thise first few days or online before we go if possible - looks like a tent on the beach otherwise!

Hope that helps

Good Luck

Ali

johnpod

Sorry forgot to tell you total cost - few quid short of £4900 - including all insurances. Don't forget you will be liable for paying customs in Oz in Oz$ - this is never included in UK quotes. I think it is about $500 but not totaly sure about that figure

Ali

Buzzy--Bee

Insurance is available from Letton Percival at considerably cheaper cost than that offered by any shipper.

Buzzy

woodys

Have heard good things too about Doree Bonner so want to get them to do a quote for us also,good to read about other peoples thoughts and experiences etc,Good Luck with the move

johnpod

We looked into using Letton Percival for our insurance (specialist marine insurers) but watch out for the small print and xcessess. They quoted us 1.6% which on a container worth £50,00 was a considerable saving. However when we looked into it further they charge 1% xcess on any claim (1% of total container cost regardless of size of claim!!) so that would be £500 (more than the potential saving) also they only insure you once in the sealed container - they do not cover packing by you or shipping company or unloadding at other end (it is from closing container to opening container). For these reasons we decided that it was better to use the packers as there insurance was all in from time they arrive at your house in UK to when they leave your house in Oz.

Hope that helps, would hate for anyone to go with the cheaper option and then get stung if anything went wrong!

Ali

ian_s

Hi Renshen

We also had quotes off PSS & Crown, both very informative. We are going from Macclesfield to Adelaide on 2nd January. Crown quoted about £3700 for sole use 20ft container and PSS were about £3300 for a 20ft reefer. We contacted Crown who brought their price down to £3500.

We wanted to go with Crown as it is the same company at both ends and £3500 includes all fees eg. AQIS. Also we were put off using a reefer after reading threads on here. Reefers(refrigeration units) are used for shipping perishable foods so didn't want all our gear smelling of fish or such like!

Good luck

Ian.

sals

I never said before but my quote with Crown was £3700, Lancashire to Townsville, Northern Queensland 20 ft container. I had to move out of my house beginning of July as I had sold it so required storage. When I told Crown that I had been offered free storage for 3 months with other co's they matched it. Their price inc fees etc only exemption was customs cleaning if required on inspection (better not be required I spent hours with a jet wash). I worked out this was cheaper than all the other quotes I'd had when you added on their extra charges. I also like the fact that it's Crown at both ends.