Kaye5

Best bring my 1930s oak dining table, then.

99problems

I guess you have more expensive furniture than me. In any case the guy who bought my flat gave me a sensible price for my furniture and I would not have had anywhere to store it safely.

I have emailed Air Transat Cargo to see what the score is with them - website is quite unwieldy and hard to use, but comment re insurance was interesting.

How did your son get his goods to and from the plane? Courier? We'll need to have parents facilitate part of this as goods will follow us as we don't know our eventual address.

Siouxie

I would ~ I wish I had bought a lot of items that I sold before leaving, I would have made a killing!

Siouxie

Not at all, my furniture was all bought at auctions over a period of about 20 years and I paid no more than £50 for any item. The value here though is considerably different, English furniture - particularly solid wood older pieces - are sought after and people will pay a premium to get them.

As to the Air Transat Cargo, you have to have the items at the airport about 4 hours before the flight, if I remember correctly; my son had a friend take him to the airport with his van, then went and got breakfast before getting on the flight. All paperwork up until that point was done by email and payment was made by visa.

It was slightly more complex on arrival in Canada, he had to wait an hour before he could go to the Cargo division at Toronto, then went to the Customs department (separate area) to have the paperwork stamped and then back to the Cargo division to collect the goods. He got a friend with a truck (as in dodge ram) to collect him from the airport and it took an extra couple of hours more than normal.

It's certainly a cheaper option to look at anyway.

Air Transat Cargo were very helpful, I have sent you their UK handlers email in a pm for you.

Kaye5

Oh, I'm cringing at the furniture we have sold, given away, junked over the years. The old oak table is the only thing left!

I will take it.

Siouxie

I know, me too. I had the matching sideboard too, even had the keys and the hanging original drawpulls etc., I couldn't give it away in the UK. Look what it would have sold for!

If I had the money I would go to the UK and buy a load up and bring them!

Kaye5

About 5 years ago, we chopped up an oak sideboard - with keys - to get it in the car to take it to the tip. Failed to sell it, couldn't give it away (tried Freecycle, etc)...

Most of the other stuff just didn't fit in when we moved house - gave the rest away on Freecycle. Most people wanted the stuff for their shed, to make into bird houses etc. Everyone wants new stuff these days, just no call for it here. Strikes of mend and make do, I guess. Ah well.

In my dad's house, there's a load of mahogany furniture that no-one here will want when he's gone - I will have the task of getting rid of it. We've also got oak furniture in another house which we will sell at some point. I'm thinking I will stick it all on my GTF list and import when the time comes...

izzi81

I've had the notion for a while now to get a couple of extra bits of antique furniture to take with us. It's exactly right that no one wants antique looking stuff here - esp. dark wood - whereas I love it and I know I won't be able to get it in Canada!

snowhugs

We used Whites from Chelmsford Uk to Parry Sound (2 hours north of Toronto).
4 months ago.

I cannot fault them, they were friendly and helpful both packers and people on the phone , they reassured me when I needed it , I felt they were moving with me !!

Everything arrived totally intact, I self packed boxes but guys came round a few weeks before to show me how.. best way for plates etc..

If we ever go back will go straight with them.. no hesitation !

Melsa

We used GB Liners and everything was very well packed and landed in one piece with the exception of one broken plate so we were very happy. The downside was not everything fit into the 20ft container so GB Liners retained some of our goods until we paid an extra 400 pounds. We very displeased about this as we signed a contract and had already paid the original price quoted. We contacted BAR for their support and advice who were as much use as a chocolate fire guard which is why we ending up paying the 400 pounds to get our goods.

Also we lived in a 3 storey house and our large settees had to be removed through the first floor balcony doors as they wouldn't fit down the stairs. We pointed this out to GB Liners at the time of their assessment and GB Liners agreed to remove the settees out of the house through the first floor patio doors. On the day of the move GB Liners had made no provision for this, so my partner and I had to organise a fork lift truck to help get the settees out. We never even complained to GB Liners about this at the time so couldn't believe it when we were forced to pay the extra 400 pounds for our goods.

Would I recommend GB Liners to anyone else? No.

family_of_4

We have had several quotes all since the March 1st price rise. These are our feelings so far. Everyone has told us we will fill just over 2/3 of a 20ft container so prices are all based on sole use of container, including packing, vans to be loaded and moved to container due to our small street. insurance not included in the quotes
Fox - £4500 very good customer service,
Moving partnership - £4400
Pickfords - too much, lol
gb liners - $4450 like them but not as much as the whites rep
Whites - last one due to come in by Friday

Our favourite so far has been Whittles, they're a smaller company in the north west who actually do the packing/removals for one of the larger companies. They dont advertise it however, but one of the larger companies asked them to contact us to do a home visit, but we had already rang whittles privately, customer service was brilliant and our quote is $3700 which is a big difference. sometime its better to go straight to the smaller firm!!

Our final decision is still to be made but whittles is our front runner at the mo.

As for insurance, our quote from Letton Percival & Co Ltd is at 1.40% so again we make a good saving.

Choices, choices

chiefmissile

Hi,

First congrats on your COPR, that's a record time on this forum, I hope the trend continues?

Some of your quotes have a $ instead of a £, was that a typo?

Whites have quoted us £5050 to Manitoba, apparently the in line shipping from ON to MB is expensive (Long way on the Trans Canada)

Again big congrats, your timeline is giving me some hope that we might have COPR by Aug if all goes without a hitch

Regards

Andrew

family_of_4

Thanks Andrew and yes the $ sign was a typo, i'm practising ready for june

izzi81

Argh this process must be taking years off my life lol. All our quotes are in, I thought I had a favourite until I did some googling and found a fair few bad reviews! Too hard to choose...

Kaye5

Same as us. In the end we went for Moving Partnership - no real reason other than I was fed up of going round in circles and they were available when I needed them to be to make the booking. Have to move on from this and deal with something else.

They ALL have bad reviews. And good ones too. I feel it is human nature to magnify the bad reviews and ignore the good ones!

We start the move 29 May. Will post a review once all completed - hopefully mid July (of course will be too late for you as you'll have already chosen)!

Good luck to us all!