:Hi Folks just want to share our misery !!
Having paid our £6000 to a major well recommended shipping company in the UK we haave been infformed today that we have excess charges to pay
$788 for quarantine inspection we were uner the impresion we had paid for a door to door service complete (however that is well hiddden in the contract) BUT !!!! they are also trying to charge us $588 for claaeaning the outsside of the container
Our things arrived on August 19 and we only just got this request today
we are not paying for the cleaning of a container that we had no control over

so over to you
has any one else been in this position
did you pay
what do you think we should do
Apart from the screaming and crying we are already doing very well

Rant over thanks for reading

Mary and Stu

Who are they?

We should be told!

DHL or FEDEX?

how can you control what goes on the outside of the container????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????
WHO IS THE SHIPPING COMPANY??
PM ME IF YOU DONT WANT IT PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE

Small print in both the removal and insurance contracts are not necessarily what you are told by the "salesmen".

The clearance / inspection is a norm but your figure is a lot higher tahn what we paid - about AUD 390 for a 20' container.

Cleaning the outside of the container ? Absolute travesty even if covered in small print. Give em shite. Give em what for.
The most powerful weapon in sales is advocacy. Threaten to tell the tale to the expat communities. It should be possible to get the message over without slandering them.

Really sorry for the shite time this has brought you.

The shipping company have said it is nothing to do with them
quarentine have said pay up or no stuff
the Australian agents have said its nothing to do with them we have to pay
there is nothing in our contract that says you will pay ffor anything outside of your control eg the container
do I pay for the ship to be cleaned too
and go to prison alongside anyone who may have been carrying drugs in
where does accountability rest

The UK company did not warn of this possibility but say they have known it happen occasionally and we are "very unlucky"

incidently no one has said and we are sorry you have been waiting so long for us to actually process your container
cleared today but still cant deliver until sometime next week (thats if we pay) !!!!!

It all sounded so easy in the UK and I think £6000 is a lot of money for what is essentially a mess !!
Pretty Sickening Stuff really !!

Glad we're not using them and hope we dont have any problems with Masons.

Sending you some k - hope it helps a bit

It's quite normal to have to pay AQIS outside of the door to door service, I think we paid $500 to have 10 tea chest sized boxes inspected. We had also paid for door to door service, only difference was our shippers were upfront about the charges.
Regarding paying for the cleaning of the container if it was dropped onto your garden or the verge outside your house and is contaminated with soil deposits then you will most certainly have to pay to have it cleaned before it's released. Australia is very conscious of importing soil borne contaminants. Your shippers should have explained all this to you and it will certainly be in the small print of your contract, the one you should have read before you signed.
Sorry to sound sanctimonious but the long and short of it is before you get your worldly goods you'll have to pay up the £500 quid extra. If you don't you'll end up having to pay to have the whole lot destroyed.
Win win for AQIS every time unfortunately

Hi Mary and Stu,

Just looking through the documentation in our contract (with Crown) ....it states ....included within the above cost, is the sum of £140.00, relating to AQIS fee and £30.0 relating to the external cleaning of shipping containers as they arrive at Australian ports, part of a new policy imposed by AQIS. These costs are applicable to all shipments entering Australia.

Your costs seem v.high compared to these figures, however, we are shipping just slightly less than hald a 20foot container, so others will be paying for their share.

Hope this helps somewhat.
BB

Take a look here:

http://www.affa.gov.au/content/outpu...200060A1B01663

and here:

http://www.affa.gov.au/content/outpu...200060A1B01680

$588 to clean the outside of the container!!! They're having a laugh aren't they, the list of fees and charges above says $15.

First was the container unloaded at your place in the UK and if so was it dumped on grass/soil. If not then I'd say it's the removal company's responsibility to make sure the container supplied is suitable for import.

I'd say contact AQIS to find out how much they charge to clean the outside of a container, from the first link above it has to be pretty well covered in soil for them to clean it. Will they let you go and see the container to confirm the problem?

Secondly ask the removal firm for written confirmation if the charges. If there is no specific clause in your contract regarding cleaning of containers then I'd say if the removal company won't accept responsibility get in touch with BAR or whichever trade association they are bonded with.

Unfortunately with quarantine they usually won't budge and they make the rules so us 'bloody moigrants' don't have a lot of choice in coughing up what they ask for.

Hope you get some joy out of the removal company, I'd definitely tell them to bugger off if they expect you to pay £200+ for someone to spend two minutes jetwashing a big metal box!

I think thats absolutely discusting, how do they justify those charges. surely the shipping company who are going to use the container next to fill it up and ship off to the next destination should be the ones who pay the charges and Im sure if would be a fraction of what you have been quoted,

we had to fork out one hundred and fifty dollars for our christmas decorations to be treated I gave away a lot of decorations because they had pine cones attached, the agents this end could not tell us the items they were concerned about so we paid the fee or we had a choice of 50 dollars to destroy them, when they arrived with the rest of our stuff there was nothing in the christmas items that were organic they were all synthetic, I should have done something about it but I didnt but do feel someones pocket is being lined quite nicely thank you very much,

you fight it guys

This is absolutley disgusting. Name and shame them thats what I say.

Guy's just a thought, drop Mr Mover a PM he posts on here and has been moving people in and out of Aust. for years he'll know the ins and outs of AQIS costs intimately

I know I know nothing but if the container was put on the ground in the UK surely that is down to the shippers. Normally they stay off the ground don't they

What company are we talking about?