The Ross Family

Hi all,

Asking as I know that there will be a wealth of knowledge on this site.
It concerns shipping.
We are hoping to ship most of the good bits of furniture, household stuff over, however OH's new company will be setting us up in furnished rented for a period of time, probably 6 months. In the meantime we will be renting out our UK house, obviously due to downturn in the UK housing market, and will be clearing it out before we go. My question (s) is (are) - can anyone recommend a shipper? Would they pack up and store until we are ready to move into our 'proper' Canadian home? Can I arrange for some small items i.e. extra clothes, kids toys to be shipped over earlier than the bulk of the house? And finally how is this done and has anyone done this?

Sorry for all the questions - the reality of packing up and sorting out is just beginning to hit me

The4BellsLondon

hi

I think most of the big shippers can do the stotage bit but not sure how you split the stuf as then you would end up paying two lots of shipping - maybe get it all shipped over then store the furnititure in Canada til you need it - again the bigger shippers can probably do that for you.

Call em and tell em yr problem - they probably see it all the time

lauder99

Hi There

We are using Clarke & Rose ( local rep of Robinsons ) to ship and I have been quite happy so far but nothing has left the house yet so theres a lot can still go wrong.

We were advised that they would store at this end for free for a few weeks so it might be cheaper overall to store it here. you would need to balance that with being separated from your stuff if anything needs doing. If you want 2 separate loads then that wil be 2 seperate quotes and unless you send it cargo on a flight the small consignment may not necessarily ship that much quicker. It would have to wait for an available container etc.

Good luck

Tom

Moggiemiss

Fox are offering me 4 weeks free storage for a 20' container and then £25 a week after that.

As others on the forum have said, splitting your load will mean more costs.

reddeermojo

We used Fox. I can recommend these.

We had our goods shipped into Calgary, i then had to go to the Alberta governement office in calgary and sign to say these are my goods, then the shipping company delivers them.

Some friends of mine were told by their lawayer that they do not have to go to customs and sign. When there stuff arrived they did.

It took 4 weeks for my stuff to come, we did not need it yet, so we put it in a local storage facitity instead of keeping it with the shipping company. Then we could have access to it when we needed.

Good luck

lauder99

Hey mojo

Was it expensive to store it in Calgary?. We had the option of free storage here but we reckoned it was better to have our in Calgary even if it got there too soon.

Cheers
Tom

susie q

hi lauder
we are using bishops move from newcastle ,service very good so far furniture all packed and gone in to storage ,four weeks for free ,it would be interesting to know how much it is per week in calgary. when are you flying out . i go two weeks today
susie q

lauder99

Hi Susie

This time next week I will be sitting somewhere in Okotoks in total shock

We fly Sunday lunchtime

Cheers
Tom

Biiiiink

I don't know storage costs in Canada but you're not going to get anything bunged in free at the Canada-end because your UK company will be charged for it. We got 6wks free from Bishop's Move without asking. If you've got sole use of a container, it's pretty quick from when you call for it from the UK, to when it's delivered to your door in Canada.

lauder99

Hi Bink

we knew up front we would be charged once it arrived and we had nowhere to get it delivered, but we felt it was preferable to having it sat here and us in Alberta.

cheers
Tom

keefrto

Hi hope you are both well, my other half got her eligibility through so its full steam ahead for her.

As regards shipping I would strongly recommend Bishops move Edinburgh (they are national though) even the Beckhams used them! They were great and not too expensive for shipping and storage

lauder99

Great news i'm glad you got that mess sorted out. How are you getting on? you settling ok?

Tom

keefrto

Good my friend no worries, if you don't already know don't be too surprised when you cannot get things on credit cos you don't have a credit history. I only managed to get a credit card through the CNA website with MBNA cos I was in healthcare. I did bring my experian report and equifax but to no avail, otherwise best move we have made still

lauder99

Well reminded, mortgage broker wants experian report need to order that tomorrow. I think our credit card is waiting for us in Okotoks. We have an account already opened with the local credit union and when we turn up on Monday we will get cards checkbooks etc. hopefully

We have the cash for 2 cars but I think at least one of them will be on some form of credit for that reason.

We will buy some furniture on store credit for the same reason.

Cheers
Tom

keefrto

When we showed people our Experian report they said forget it not worth the paper, they would only look at Equifax. Glad the card is sorted out. We wanted to play the game i.e. get credit etc and we wanted to part fund part credit our cars except the dealers don't play ball and they say they will have no worries but we tried loads of dealers and in the end we had to buy the cars outright. Its not right IMHO especially when they are offering people 72 mths 0% finance and also stating clearly bad credit/no credit no worries we can get you the deal (small print somewhere states unless you are not Canadian and not lived here for more than 1 yr) Our credit history is 99.9% according to our reports but means jackall mate. You must be getting ready to go soon though, this Sunday??