fizzybiz

Hi all

I'm soon to be having all my worldly possessions (what's left of them after a massive ebay-fest) shipped 9000 miles, halfway round the world. I'm on my way!! YaY!

Is my stuff likely to get damp? Has anybody else experienced this? Do I need to try to guard against this at all?

The customs form has made me paranoid about shipping some nasty bug that'll wipe out Oz's glorious flora and fauna for good... Has anybody got any experience of getting their belongings through customs? Did they have to chuck much stuff away because it didn't pass through?

many thanks
Biz

LisaD_uk

We had our container delivered a few weeks ago and it took 9-10 weeks to get to us and we have not had anything go mouldy. We put a few sachets of silicone gel in with our clothes just incase but everything was fine.
We cleaned all the soles of our shoes and didn't take any garden furniture. We had six boxes opened by quaritine, the one with the shoes in, one with a wicker picnic basket, one with xmas decs in (I had put all decs in seethrough freezer bags and chucked any with cones on so no problems) and a few others. Its best to take batteries out of remotes and stuff and just put them together in a bag just incase. We had nothing taken out of our shipment and only one thing was damaged, a £10 ikea lamp.
Try not to worry too much as it sounds scarier than it is.

Good luck
And don't bring any bugs there are enough here already

jaca

excuse me for hijacking, but what were your australia port costs...our container is 1600 quid but that only includes getting there...not costs once it arrives !

fizzybiz

I don't know yet - I haven't shipped yet!

Pollyana

Who are you shipping with? Didn't they give you a quote that includes port charges, as most shippers include everything except the AQIS charge. Or are you doing self-shipping?
No-one knows what the AQIS charges will be until after the container has been inspected. There is a standard small fee, then a charge for each item detroyed or treated.

fizzybiz

Shipping with Excess. They did mention something about customs charges, but only that it might be a couple of hundred quid. What specific charges might there be? Is there a thread with this already detailed?

muffinoz

Hiya ... much the same experience as LisaD ... no mould ... customs destroyed some of our Xmas deccies ... never thought about that when we packed ... they insisted on steam cleaning some of our garden tools / furniture / bikes ... did think about that ... but ran out of time when we packed.

They will look very carefully at any wood / natural material ... they opened quite a few of our boxes but with the exception of the above ... no dramas

Take batteries out ... yes ... don't understand why, but Pickfords who did a pretty good job for us, stripped all batteries out and told us not to take them seperately ...

Cheers ... David

Pollyana

Usually a charge of a couple of hundred $ for AQIS inspection. If you do a search for AQIS then you'll find lots of threads with detailed costs. Whern I came out they insepcted about 10 boxes, only had issues with one item - they refused to believe that the seeds on a hat were artificial, so charged me $60 for destruction (or $80 for treating it).

That should eb the only charges, as any customs charges should be coverred by the shipping co in their initial quote. AQIS fees can't be included in the fees you pay up front as they are an unknown quantity until AQIS have looked at the shipment on arrival.

moneypenny20

I've read about silicon gel sachets a few times over the years and each time I wonder what people expect of these packs. Any humidity or condensation that the container attracts is going to be several million times more than a couple of sachets will cope with surely? I've only heard of one container damp problem and that was a huge enormous biggy of a claim.

When you consider how many containers of household items are sailing the worlds oceans on a daily basis, I think you can safely assume that your stuff will be fine.

Phoenix

You might want to read my thread on my shipping experience

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...81#post5104381

fizzybiz

Great - thanks all for responses. OK, I'm far less worried about damp now - many thanks! But I am a bit worried about some stuff getting chucked out. I've packed some power tools that I used for a wooden boat project - a sander, a planer, a router. I took them all apart and cleaned all the sawdust off them, but I'm wondering if they'll take one look at them and bin them! Do you think it's just not worth bothering at all?

muffinoz

If they're quality tools take 'em ... worst that can happen is you might get charged for a steam clean ... and that's unlikely ... and that's not going to be much

Customs opened one of the boxes that Pickfords had packed for us marked "tools and garden equipment" ... as I said previously they steam cleaned my strimmer and mower but didn't bother with the rest ...

Regards from sunny Brissie ... David

Leisa

Our stuff didn't seem to be damp although the removal men suggested we put tea bags in the fridge and freezer to stop them smelling musty -

All our tools etc we washed and wiped over with WD40 and they got through OK. Processed and varnished wood is OK apparently but no pine cones etc Had loads of boxes opened - make sure you clean any boots and shoes as they checked all of them.

Hope this helps

Leisa

troj

We had an absolute nightmare with our shipping. We used a useless company called Anglo Pacific. Our stuff was picked up from our house on Aug 25th '06 - We expected it towards the end of Nov/early Dec... No correspondence so we phoned them only to find out that it was still on the docks in London:curse:

When it finally arrived, in February, three boxes were missing and a number of things were damaged or broken/smashed.

Our TV had found its way into another container(turned up a few weeks later), my jetwasher had been quarantined and the other box was lost all together.

When the jetwasher turned up after apparently being cleaned (at my cost), it still had the same mud/dirt on it as when I sent it

A silver lining perhaps?? On August 23rd, almost a year to the day since being picked up. A beaten up box arrives at my doorstep. Hurrah!! Err, no. The toolbox (wooden engineers toolbox) in side was in 56 pieces, photo albums were damaged and the jewelry, though not expensive (huge sentimental value) - had been stolen.

But nothing was damp...

Paul.

jensteve

Hi
I helped empty the in-laws container yesterday, all was very dry and arrived in one piece (Britania did a fab job of wrapping) the only concern we had is why their dyson hoover has changed colour, the grey bits are now green????
Jenny