Who do you relocate with and Our recommendation.
Aug 8th 2011, 1:24 pm
#1
Member
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2009
Location: UK-Chippenham, Wilts
Posts: 23
Who do you relocate with and Our recommendation.
Hi,
This is probably one of the most important decisions you need to make when you are emigrating: who do you trust to transport your personal belongings to the other side of the world? This is our story.
We decided to have 5 surveys who we thought were the best of the bunch: Pickfords, John Masons, Dorree-Bonner, PSS and Crown. The surveyors were all professional, friendly and put your mind at ease but these were the key plus/minus points that stood out:
Pickfords: Kelly from Swindon did the survey and verbally said that we didn’t have that much stuff and would get away with sharing a container at a cost of approx £2k. Needless to say, I was horrified when the quotation arrived that ended up being a sole 40’ container at over £6k. I had no confidence in Pickfords whatsoever after that.
John Masons: Can’t remember name of the chap but he basically asked who else we were obtaining surveys from and proceeded to slate every one of them.
PSS: Similar to John Masons. Slated the competitors.
Dorree-Bonner: Nick from Corsham performed the survey, he practically ignored one of my questions and his friend ran a company called Aqua-Sulis who were basically trying to poach one of my pensions.
Crown: As these guys were meant to be the ‘Everest’ of the packing world and were supposedly twice the price of other re-locators I added them as a last minute decision and if I’m honest I didn’t expect much. However, I was extremely impressed with Gerrard Halsey, the Bristol branch manager who was the only surveyor to take his shoes off, the only one who had a tape measure and the only one who told us why we had to have a crate for the tv (it’s heavy, therefore needs to go on bottom, which means that stuff gets put on top of it so unless it’s protected in a wooden crate, is going to get squashed flat). Only PSS said we ‘should’ get a crate for the TV but didn’t explain why, and none of the others said a word.
The price for the quotation from Crown was a little more than the others but when you include the price of 2 crates (one for tv, one for table protecting glass top) and the inclusive AQIS fees, there wasn’t much in it.
We chose Crown without hesitation.
From there on, Mary Hunt, the move manager took over and was a pleasure to deal with, always responding with quick turn-rounds from my numerous questions. She’s been a rock keeping me sane these last few months.
Last Wednesday the packers arrived. These guys were fantastic. Alex, Rich and Rob were the crew from Torquay and with the first five minutes had put me at ease. They were professional, friendly, hard working and super fast. They were all very funny too, telling me numerous witty stories of various incidents over the years; they were a real tonic and after their first day on the job, I had the best nights sleep I’d had in weeks. Nothing was broken and they reassured me from the start that everything would fit onto the container (which it did). Not only did they do a fantastic job packing everything into neat piles of boxes, but as the container was around 40 minutes late, they ran round the house with a vacuum cleaner and fixed the net curtain in my son’s bedroom that had fallen down sometime over the few days they were there. Absolutely fantastic – all I had to do was keep them supplied with tea – easy!
My sister and family are currently in Australia ‘activating’ their visas and I will be recommending Crown, Gerrard, Mary and the Torquay crew when they do their move - It’s a no brainer. All my family will have to do is ensure they clean things properly. The actual packing and loading will be a breeze with these guys. Hopefully we’ll get my mother out and crown can take care of her too.
I would just like to give a hearty Thank You to all at Crown involved in the first stage of our move, Gerrard, Mary, Alex, Rich, Rob and even Derek the friendly and chatty container driver (from Cardiff, but now lives in Barry).
I’m confident that Crown Australia will be just as good, thereby making our move as stress-free as it possibly can be.
Thanks for taking the time to read this essay but I’m so impressed with our experience with Crown, I just had to share it.
Paul (heading to Melbourne in 2 weeks time – Gulp!).
p.s.
To all those people that have made the move and never even offered these hard working packers so much as a glass of water, never-mind a tea or coffee – SHAME ON YOU and I hope I never meet any of you revolting people.
This is probably one of the most important decisions you need to make when you are emigrating: who do you trust to transport your personal belongings to the other side of the world? This is our story.
We decided to have 5 surveys who we thought were the best of the bunch: Pickfords, John Masons, Dorree-Bonner, PSS and Crown. The surveyors were all professional, friendly and put your mind at ease but these were the key plus/minus points that stood out:
Pickfords: Kelly from Swindon did the survey and verbally said that we didn’t have that much stuff and would get away with sharing a container at a cost of approx £2k. Needless to say, I was horrified when the quotation arrived that ended up being a sole 40’ container at over £6k. I had no confidence in Pickfords whatsoever after that.
John Masons: Can’t remember name of the chap but he basically asked who else we were obtaining surveys from and proceeded to slate every one of them.
PSS: Similar to John Masons. Slated the competitors.
Dorree-Bonner: Nick from Corsham performed the survey, he practically ignored one of my questions and his friend ran a company called Aqua-Sulis who were basically trying to poach one of my pensions.
Crown: As these guys were meant to be the ‘Everest’ of the packing world and were supposedly twice the price of other re-locators I added them as a last minute decision and if I’m honest I didn’t expect much. However, I was extremely impressed with Gerrard Halsey, the Bristol branch manager who was the only surveyor to take his shoes off, the only one who had a tape measure and the only one who told us why we had to have a crate for the tv (it’s heavy, therefore needs to go on bottom, which means that stuff gets put on top of it so unless it’s protected in a wooden crate, is going to get squashed flat). Only PSS said we ‘should’ get a crate for the TV but didn’t explain why, and none of the others said a word.
The price for the quotation from Crown was a little more than the others but when you include the price of 2 crates (one for tv, one for table protecting glass top) and the inclusive AQIS fees, there wasn’t much in it.
We chose Crown without hesitation.
From there on, Mary Hunt, the move manager took over and was a pleasure to deal with, always responding with quick turn-rounds from my numerous questions. She’s been a rock keeping me sane these last few months.
Last Wednesday the packers arrived. These guys were fantastic. Alex, Rich and Rob were the crew from Torquay and with the first five minutes had put me at ease. They were professional, friendly, hard working and super fast. They were all very funny too, telling me numerous witty stories of various incidents over the years; they were a real tonic and after their first day on the job, I had the best nights sleep I’d had in weeks. Nothing was broken and they reassured me from the start that everything would fit onto the container (which it did). Not only did they do a fantastic job packing everything into neat piles of boxes, but as the container was around 40 minutes late, they ran round the house with a vacuum cleaner and fixed the net curtain in my son’s bedroom that had fallen down sometime over the few days they were there. Absolutely fantastic – all I had to do was keep them supplied with tea – easy!
My sister and family are currently in Australia ‘activating’ their visas and I will be recommending Crown, Gerrard, Mary and the Torquay crew when they do their move - It’s a no brainer. All my family will have to do is ensure they clean things properly. The actual packing and loading will be a breeze with these guys. Hopefully we’ll get my mother out and crown can take care of her too.
I would just like to give a hearty Thank You to all at Crown involved in the first stage of our move, Gerrard, Mary, Alex, Rich, Rob and even Derek the friendly and chatty container driver (from Cardiff, but now lives in Barry).
I’m confident that Crown Australia will be just as good, thereby making our move as stress-free as it possibly can be.
Thanks for taking the time to read this essay but I’m so impressed with our experience with Crown, I just had to share it.
Paul (heading to Melbourne in 2 weeks time – Gulp!).
p.s.
To all those people that have made the move and never even offered these hard working packers so much as a glass of water, never-mind a tea or coffee – SHAME ON YOU and I hope I never meet any of you revolting people.
Aug 8th 2011, 1:28 pm
#2
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2007
Location: Woodvale WA
Posts: 310
Re: Who do you relocate with and Our recommendation.
HAHA we bought our removal guys good old Cornish pasties the look on the Polish fellas face was worth the DB fee alone 
Happy Moving and welcome aboard the good ship Oz
Happy Moving and welcome aboard the good ship Oz
Hi,
This is probably one of the most important decisions you need to make when you are emigrating: who do you trust to transport your personal belongings to the other side of the world? This is our story.
We decided to have 5 surveys who we thought were the best of the bunch: Pickfords, John Masons, Dorree-Bonner, PSS and Crown. The surveyors were all professional, friendly and put your mind at ease but these were the key plus/minus points that stood out:
Pickfords: Kelly from Swindon did the survey and verbally said that we didn’t have that much stuff and would get away with sharing a container at a cost of approx £2k. Needless to say, I was horrified when the quotation arrived that ended up being a sole 40’ container at over £6k. I had no confidence in Pickfords whatsoever after that.
John Masons: Can’t remember name of the chap but he basically asked who else we were obtaining surveys from and proceeded to slate every one of them.
PSS: Similar to John Masons. Slated the competitors.
Dorree-Bonner: Nick from Corsham performed the survey, he practically ignored one of my questions and his friend ran a company called Aqua-Sulis who were basically trying to poach one of my pensions.
Crown: As these guys were meant to be the ‘Everest’ of the packing world and were supposedly twice the price of other re-locators I added them as a last minute decision and if I’m honest I didn’t expect much. However, I was extremely impressed with Gerrard Halsey, the Bristol branch manager who was the only surveyor to take his shoes off, the only one who had a tape measure and the only one who told us why we had to have a crate for the tv (it’s heavy, therefore needs to go on bottom, which means that stuff gets put on top of it so unless it’s protected in a wooden crate, is going to get squashed flat). Only PSS said we ‘should’ get a crate for the TV but didn’t explain why, and none of the others said a word.
The price for the quotation from Crown was a little more than the others but when you include the price of 2 crates (one for tv, one for table protecting glass top) and the inclusive AQIS fees, there wasn’t much in it.
We chose Crown without hesitation.
From there on, Mary Hunt, the move manager took over and was a pleasure to deal with, always responding with quick turn-rounds from my numerous questions. She’s been a rock keeping me sane these last few months.
Last Wednesday the packers arrived. These guys were fantastic. Alex, Rich and Rob were the crew from Torquay and with the first five minutes had put me at ease. They were professional, friendly, hard working and super fast. They were all very funny too, telling me numerous witty stories of various incidents over the years; they were a real tonic and after their first day on the job, I had the best nights sleep I’d had in weeks. Nothing was broken and they reassured me from the start that everything would fit onto the container (which it did). Not only did they do a fantastic job packing everything into neat piles of boxes, but as the container was around 40 minutes late, they ran round the house with a vacuum cleaner and fixed the net curtain in my son’s bedroom that had fallen down sometime over the few days they were there. Absolutely fantastic – all I had to do was keep them supplied with tea – easy!
My sister and family are currently in Australia ‘activating’ their visas and I will be recommending Crown, Gerrard, Mary and the Torquay crew when they do their move - It’s a no brainer. All my family will have to do is ensure they clean things properly. The actual packing and loading will be a breeze with these guys. Hopefully we’ll get my mother out and crown can take care of her too.
I would just like to give a hearty Thank You to all at Crown involved in the first stage of our move, Gerrard, Mary, Alex, Rich, Rob and even Derek the friendly and chatty container driver (from Cardiff, but now lives in Barry).
I’m confident that Crown Australia will be just as good, thereby making our move as stress-free as it possibly can be.
Thanks for taking the time to read this essay but I’m so impressed with our experience with Crown, I just had to share it.
Paul (heading to Melbourne in 2 weeks time – Gulp!).
p.s.
To all those people that have made the move and never even offered these hard working packers so much as a glass of water, never-mind a tea or coffee – SHAME ON YOU and I hope I never meet any of you revolting people.
This is probably one of the most important decisions you need to make when you are emigrating: who do you trust to transport your personal belongings to the other side of the world? This is our story.
We decided to have 5 surveys who we thought were the best of the bunch: Pickfords, John Masons, Dorree-Bonner, PSS and Crown. The surveyors were all professional, friendly and put your mind at ease but these were the key plus/minus points that stood out:
Pickfords: Kelly from Swindon did the survey and verbally said that we didn’t have that much stuff and would get away with sharing a container at a cost of approx £2k. Needless to say, I was horrified when the quotation arrived that ended up being a sole 40’ container at over £6k. I had no confidence in Pickfords whatsoever after that.
John Masons: Can’t remember name of the chap but he basically asked who else we were obtaining surveys from and proceeded to slate every one of them.
PSS: Similar to John Masons. Slated the competitors.
Dorree-Bonner: Nick from Corsham performed the survey, he practically ignored one of my questions and his friend ran a company called Aqua-Sulis who were basically trying to poach one of my pensions.
Crown: As these guys were meant to be the ‘Everest’ of the packing world and were supposedly twice the price of other re-locators I added them as a last minute decision and if I’m honest I didn’t expect much. However, I was extremely impressed with Gerrard Halsey, the Bristol branch manager who was the only surveyor to take his shoes off, the only one who had a tape measure and the only one who told us why we had to have a crate for the tv (it’s heavy, therefore needs to go on bottom, which means that stuff gets put on top of it so unless it’s protected in a wooden crate, is going to get squashed flat). Only PSS said we ‘should’ get a crate for the TV but didn’t explain why, and none of the others said a word.
The price for the quotation from Crown was a little more than the others but when you include the price of 2 crates (one for tv, one for table protecting glass top) and the inclusive AQIS fees, there wasn’t much in it.
We chose Crown without hesitation.
From there on, Mary Hunt, the move manager took over and was a pleasure to deal with, always responding with quick turn-rounds from my numerous questions. She’s been a rock keeping me sane these last few months.
Last Wednesday the packers arrived. These guys were fantastic. Alex, Rich and Rob were the crew from Torquay and with the first five minutes had put me at ease. They were professional, friendly, hard working and super fast. They were all very funny too, telling me numerous witty stories of various incidents over the years; they were a real tonic and after their first day on the job, I had the best nights sleep I’d had in weeks. Nothing was broken and they reassured me from the start that everything would fit onto the container (which it did). Not only did they do a fantastic job packing everything into neat piles of boxes, but as the container was around 40 minutes late, they ran round the house with a vacuum cleaner and fixed the net curtain in my son’s bedroom that had fallen down sometime over the few days they were there. Absolutely fantastic – all I had to do was keep them supplied with tea – easy!
My sister and family are currently in Australia ‘activating’ their visas and I will be recommending Crown, Gerrard, Mary and the Torquay crew when they do their move - It’s a no brainer. All my family will have to do is ensure they clean things properly. The actual packing and loading will be a breeze with these guys. Hopefully we’ll get my mother out and crown can take care of her too.
I would just like to give a hearty Thank You to all at Crown involved in the first stage of our move, Gerrard, Mary, Alex, Rich, Rob and even Derek the friendly and chatty container driver (from Cardiff, but now lives in Barry).
I’m confident that Crown Australia will be just as good, thereby making our move as stress-free as it possibly can be.
Thanks for taking the time to read this essay but I’m so impressed with our experience with Crown, I just had to share it.
Paul (heading to Melbourne in 2 weeks time – Gulp!).
p.s.
To all those people that have made the move and never even offered these hard working packers so much as a glass of water, never-mind a tea or coffee – SHAME ON YOU and I hope I never meet any of you revolting people.
Aug 9th 2011, 7:39 am
#3
Member
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2009
Location: UK-Chippenham, Wilts
Posts: 23
