ducktastic

Yep GB Liners = excellent

Tripitaka

Well, my stuff arrived and I did say that I'd post back here with my views.

We used EVL. We were going to use Pickfords as they just oozed class in every interaction that we had with them and the others just didn't replicate that. They were a little dearer for a common estimate - 160cu ft - but only by 10-15%.

The thing that swung our decision to EVL was that they had a good reputation on here - especially the Canadian arm of EVL, they had the most competitive quote but the clincher was that they told us when we enquired on the 12th November 2010 that they had a shipment going to Vancouver on the 22nd November. It was a mad rush to get stuff sorted as they had to collect by the 16th November to make that container, which we were told would enable us to have our stuff by 13th February in Vancouver Island. We were treated like valued customers and nothing appeared too much trouble. Two guys arrived and packed our stuff and generally, it was a good job that we were happy with.

It came as something of a surprise to get a call from Wanda at EVL on the 7th December telling us that they were finalizing the packing ready for our goods to leave their warehouse in Slough. WTF??? There must be some mistake - our stuff went out on the 22nd November? Errrr...no.

Then, the volume on the manifest, circa 180 cu ft, suddenly became 300cu ft and no-one could explain why. By this time, I'd got to the "We should have used Pickfords" stage but of course, EVL wouldn't release our goods without a hefty charge. I was over a barrel. To add insult to injury, EVL wanted to charge 20% more for per cubic foot for the additional volume that we disputed we had over the original quote. By this time, our calls were going unreturned, Wanda was on holiday or off sick or on another call; you would have thought we had run over their puppy but we certainly were no longer considered valued customers - at least, we were not treated like valued customers.

Eventually, realizing that our stuff was going nowhere unless I paid and unable to get it back or released to another shipper without paying a hefty sum, I agreed to pay a negotiated volume of 270 cu ft at the original rate. Bear in mind that the manifest had circa 180cu ft.

Our stuff left the UK in early January 2011 and arrived Vancouver 5th Feb. There were delays and poor communication between EVL and the Canadian removers who, incidentally, were not EVL but some outfit called World Wide. They in turn seemed to contract to the final movers who were Dowells. We originally got on OK with WorldWide until we discovered that it was their intention to hold our stuff until they could get a full truck to come to the island. They couldn't give us any estimation of when that may be. Again, WTF??? Some calls to EVL seemed to sort that out and our stuff turned up on the 14th Feb with us clearing customs at Nanaimo.

I had the stuff dropped into our garage and piled it into a cube to measure the volume; I measured it, loosely packed, at 250 cu ft. With effort, I could have shaved 10 cu ft off that but I've still paid £130 for volume that I have no idea where it came from.

On unpacking, most things are OK as they were well packed. There were some damages but only one of note that is scratching to a unique wooden platter that was just packed without wrapping next to a picture; the hanging screws have dug into it and caused considerable damage. I shipped a 50" plasma TV that should have been crated, was marked up by the packers for crating, but arrived packed as it left our house, un-crated. Fortunately, no damage.

My lessons learnt and advice to others is:

• If you are choosing according to an expected shipping date, get it in writing. Whilst EVL delivered 1 day late (and the target date was a Sunday anyway), they still had our stuff in the UK from the 16th Nov to early January for no discernible reason, when we could have been using it.
  
• Either get a confirmed shipping volume or expect a hike of up to 50% once they have you over a barrel and you can't do anything about it.
  
• Be meticulous over how stuff is packed. If necessary, pre-wrap anything that is precious or irreplaceable.
  
• Don't assume that your goods arrival at a place close by you means you will have it any time soon.
  
• Be prepared for a lot of long distance phone calls at unsociable hours to sort stuff out.

All in all, I think we got off lightly compared to some horror stories on here. I'm not as frustrated with EVL as I was 2 months ago but in hindsight, I'd use Pickfords if I was doing it all again. They may have had their own issues, who knows, but the customer service from EVL has been dire and I won't easily or quickly forget their attitude or position. I underestimated the load size (as did their packers and the guys at this end that delivered the stuff) but the tape doesn't lie and I'm content that I had 250 cu ft rather than 180 cu ft - but not the 270 cu ft that I paid for. Certainly not the 300 cu ft they originally tried to charge me for. The stuff arrived close enough to the originally anticipated date for me to have no complaints but I wonder what they could have achieved if they had got it onto the 22nd November shipment.

I hope this provides some food for thought to folks deciding who to go with.

Mark.

rich07

Just to update my original post. After 4 1/2 months negotiating with Anglo Pacifics agents, both in the uk and a loss adjuster who is in Georgia (USA) we have given up and have given notice to Anglo Pacific that we are going to sue them for breach of contract. I emailed them on Monday to tell them they had 14 days to pay or we will take legal action. So far they haven't even responded. I will update the situation as it unfolds. If anyone wants to see pictures of how they packed our stuff pm me and I will let you have a look

Cowgirl

This thread is incredibly helpful! We're in the process of deciding on which removal company to go with. We've had 2 out to the house so far to do quotes: John Masons and Abels. I haven't seen anything about either on this thread.

Just wondering if anyone has dealt with either of these companies and what they are like?

I haven't received the quotes yet, but so far I'm really impressed with Abels. The guy spent much more time at the house (well over an hour) and went through everything in much more detail than Masons, who only spent about 1/2 hour with us.

Interestingly, Masons thinks we can squeeze into a 20' container whereas Abels thinks it'll definitely be more like 3/4 of a 40' container. Two very different opinions!

It'll be interesting to see what their quotes are. I have a feeling that Abels will be much more expensive, but maybe it's worth dishing out a bit more for a much better service.

Any feedback on either on these companies would be welcome!

dgagitw

I've used Crown for relocations to and from three different countries and they've been good each time. A particular reason to recommend them is that they have their own employees in most locations (e.g. Toronto) and don't use agents much, if at all.

furries

Hi folks ... this has been an excellent thread to date - although I know its gone a bit quiet recently.

We are favouring Pickfords at the minute - they have been mentioned a few times but has anyone used them?

We like the thought of a single carrier from A to B and they do seem to ooze professionalism (should we be worried?!)

They were very competitive against a number of others mentioned on here who we also had quotes for - a 20' container ... but what has really sealed it is that there are a few of the OH colleagues all moving at the same time and we have asked if they could move two of us at the same time ... so we can move out two households at different times and move in at different times so long as the shipping is the same time, and this saves each of us nearly £1000!!! which beats any other quote we have. Their storage costs are also very competitive - especially in the UK ...

so has anyone got any stories of the pickfords experience??

hamilton1412

I have used pickford and had a very bad experience, they lost 5 of our air shipment boxes, numerous items on our container were damaged and they damaged loads more good when unpacking, wouldnt recommend them at all

wavetossed

Are you sure that it wasn't the sea voyage that caused the damage? Sometimes you just have bad luck with the weather which is why there is insurance.

Also, I've seen a lot of comments about problems with unpacking or packing, but only one person has made it clear whether or not the packers/unpackers were actually company employees, or whether they were a 3rd party team hired in for the occasion. I think it would be interesting to know beforehand which bits of the job are being done by inhouse employees and which not.

I remember an earlier post where someone was upset with company x because the goods did not sail when they said that they would. It seemed that the person thought that the removals company had their own boat, or that there were guaranteed slots on the boat. In fact most of the removals companies just order a slot on the next available ship, and the fact that one company can promise sailings every two weeks, means that all of them can. This is the reason for the orchestration of container loading. They have booked a shipping slot, and factored in the time for the empty container to get to you, get loaded in three hours and get to the port, then get loaded. If you happen to be loading the day before a sailing, and your loading schedule slips or the lorry is stuck in traffic, then the slot is lost and you wait until the next sailing. Better to load a few days in advance if you can.

Some things in container shipping are counter intuitive. We lived in Essex and thought our goods would go to Harwich or Felixstowe. In fact, they went to Liverpool, although the empty container did come from Felixstowe. We thought that being close to London, someone local would come to load. In fact, a team of 4 guys drove down from Hull in Yorkshire to load us. We tracked the ship and discovered that it was hopping from Germany to Holland to France and then to Liverpool before heading North and entering Canada between Newfoundland and Labrador. We thought the container would be put on a CN train in Montreal but it went on a CP train a few days later. And before we actually ordered, we thought that they would send a container to China and transship there onto a Vancouver bound ship.

Bellanova

We used these guys and we thought they were fantastic both in the UK and the agents in Canada
http://www.fox-moving.com/

Bellanova

We used Fox and they were FANTASTIC!!

hamilton1412

The damaged items were damaged as a result of poor packing, over packing boxes, not packing fragile items separately etc. The further damage was upon delivery where items ie chairs were dropped, furniture was damaged when being put back together etc. I totally appreciate why we have insurance but unfortunately it was not the weather that caused the damage.

samjr400

We have just had a shockingly expensive quote from AP !!! I nearly fell over it was nearly £9000 UK to Winnipeg

GC44

Bloody hell! Is that for a 40 foot container?
Our quotes for a 20 foot from Yorkshire to Manitoba average about £4500.
Got GB coming to quote this week.

samjr400

Yes it was for a 40 foot.

We have had another one for £6600 from Masons. GB are coming next week. We are also going to look at the self pack options too. All our prices will be up next week though as Masons told me to ring them next week as freight charges increase after 1st March - bummer!

heading-west

good to know Thanks