Hi folks. We are moving To Vancouver and been shopping around for a removal company that would ship our things to Vancouver and we are considering Bishopsmove. I was reading carefully from the leaflets and reading materials they gave us and something caught my attention, and to quote:

'To effect customs clearance the importer must attend a meeting with local customs where he will be required to present his passport and complete customs forms. In order to claim duty free entry, there can be no exception to this rule'

1. To those who have used bishopsmove, did you experience any trouble/inconvinience going through this? Is it only bishopsmove that lets you go through customs?

2. To those who have used other removal companies, did you have to go to the local customs office to clear your things? What removal companies did you use?

3. If you all have to go through a this, is the local customs office in Vancouver located anywhere near the downtown? Can you tell its address please?

4. Did you pay anything when you went to customs office?

5. Any good or bad experience using bishopsmove?

Any thoughts or insight is highly appreciated. Thanks very much.

One word BOLLOCKS our agent sorted EVERYTHING we never even saw customs (well apart from landing ourselves)

I used Bishops Move and cleared the container myself (10min trip to customs office, no hassle whatsoever). TrishB used them too and they cleared it for her. She'll no doubt be along soon and tell you more herself.

I did this this morning in Calgary - we used Whites.

Very simple process - just present goods to follow list that was stamped at point of landing, answer a few questions (are you importing firearms, dangerous goods etc) and 2 mins later I was on my way.

I can't see how an agent can answer these questions for you but I guess they do.

We had nothing further to pay but understand that, if your container arrives and you don't "clear" within 3 working days, they can charge you storage.

HTH

we moved to Ottawa 1999 and did not have to do anything re customs, the movers took care of everything. We used a company out of Glasgow called Anglo-Pacific and they were excellent, only thing that was broken on arrival was one glass Xmas bobble!!

Lik your new name

We too used Whites but I fear I may have a problem as we never had to show any kind of goods to follow list at immigration (Toronto), therefore never got anything stamped. We did state on the white card that there would be goods to follow. I actually never made a separate list - only had the duplicate copy that the guys at Whites handed me as they closed the container door back in Scotland.

We have been told that our cargo should have sailed into Halifax last Friday (3 weeks to get from Aberdeen to Halifax) and I am hoping it will takes several weeks for them to get in touch as we don't need our shipment til March anyway.

Has anyone had a problem clearing their goods (20ft container)?

Thanks

we have the same. no one at vancouver was interested in our goods on landing or to follow lists, as assistant as i was so no stamp either.
Our goods are on the toronto express so that should be due to be in the bottom of the ocean shortly..........well the way our lucks going...........

We shipped a container to Toronto in July last year through Pickfords/Allied - their agent here was v helpful and even provided us with a copy of the inventory list that we had signed off as the doors were closed back in the UK (I knew we had a full inventory somewhere with us, but could I find it...?) This was more than enough for the customs guys - we cleared our container through customs at the office at Pearson airport, even though the actual container was some distance away in a bonded warehouse - who seemed not at all interested and stamped the documents with hardly a glance. We hadn't done anything with a goods to follow list at customs on arrival, either.

And that was despite the fact that in a fit of honesty I ticked the "are you importing alcohol" box and declared that we had the contents of our drinks cupboard somewhere in the container (the usual gin, vodka, whisky etc, but why on earth did we bother packing the opened bottles of Sambuca and Blue Curacao, remnants from a years-ago cocktail evening?) and a couple of dozen bottles of wine. We'd been warned to expect delays and reams of paperwork, so the speed of the process came as a pleasant surprise.

Allied also stored our container for 6 weeks while we were in a serviced apartment looking for a permanent home, for pretty reasonable cost and the ability to give us access to specific numbered boxes when we needed to get stuff out of store. For example, the paper counterpart to my UK driving license that the UK DVLA insist on to sort out the license exchange - the Ontario guys thought this is a quaint and archaic system and couldn't give a stuff about the paper bit, but they need to take a photocopy of it to send to the UK to prove they've seen it.

Thanks for the reassurance Oakvillian. Hopefully ours will be straighforward. Fingers crossed anyway. Had to laugh about your alcohol shipment of open bottles of stuff you'll probably never use. I shipped over unopened vodka and malt whiskey though

Here in NS I bought 1 litre of Smirnoff Red Vodka ($30.51) and a 12-bottle pack of Alexander Keiths India Pale Ale (14.72): HST was $6.33. Also noticed on the receipt that I was charged 10 cents per bottle of beer and 20 cents for vodka bottle 'container deposit'. Do people return bottles here to the store or is it another tax like 'air conditioning' tax on cars?

Yep, people here return their bottles to the beer store/LCBO (in Ontario) yea gets yer money back and if you save up enough empties you can actually get a few free beers!

yes, that's a deposit on the returnable bottles. I recall from previous vacation experiences that NS and Quebec do this, and also that Ontario doesn't (there's been a bit of political rancour here about recycling beer & liquor bottles - can't remember the details but it's all about who gets the revenue from the recycled glass). My better half tells me that when she was a student at McGill in Montreal she & her roommates spent many a happy evening scraping together all the empties to meet the price of a pack of smokes from the depanneur.

LCBO starting to do it on wine bottles as of February................my other half who went to Queens also used the excuse of partying alot purely to help the recycling cause! and to get a few free beers!

No problem clearing our goods - but they weren't all there! A lot were stolen before we even got to the depot

your kidding me?? items were stolen? sh*t i knew we should of had someone watching the bloke upstairs. I would be gutted if things have been stolen.

Nope - we had an insurance claim totalling $16000 (cdn) for 'lost' and or damaged goods. The movers put a metal framed desk on top of our brand new dining table with nothing in-between (we took delivery of it the week before we moved). The table top was ruined after six weeks at sea and had to be professionally re-finished.