There is a lot of info on this forum about what company to use if you are shipping stuff out in a container. Anyone got any advice on posting out your stuff?

We don't have anywhere like enough for a container, but will have too much to take on the plane. It will be things like CD's, DVD's, maybe some clothes and not sure what to do about the computer as that's pretty heavy (it's an iMac so we can't leave the monitor either).

Just wondered if anyone had any experience on who to use, prices, reliability, insurance etc?

Cheers

I have no direct experience (we had enough cr*p to fill a 40ft container...) but there have been good reports on the forum about Excess Baggage - plugging that into the search function pulls up several threads - here's one to get you going:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...Excess+Baggage

Thanks. I never even new companies like that existed.

This isn't a recommendation. :/

We used Mail Boxes Etc. I think they're now the UPS store. We paid £600 or so to ship 25 boxes of varying weights and shapes.

They seemed pretty good to us at the time, and helped out with getting everything packaged up. They assured us that insurance was included and we'd had to declare the value of everything for customs purposes. So no confusion there, you'd think.

We got a sheet full of tracking numbers, and everything was sent on from their office through UPS.

24 boxes showed up. About half our stuff by value, including an iMac, was in one box. You can guess which one.

It turned out that our tracking number sheet only had 24 'real' tracking numbers. The 25th was some kind of a 'master' number and didn't correspond to a box. You guessed it, we didn't have a tracking number for the missing box.

At that point, UPS wouldn't deal with us because we weren't the 'shipper'; Mail Boxes Etc. were. And MBE decided we weren't insured after all. We got a few hundred quid in compensation, eventually, but it was extremely grudging and didn't make up for a missing iMac.

Looking back on it, there are two morals to that story. First, get a lot more in writing than we did. Find out exactly what your insurance covers and make sure what you're told corresponds to what you have written down.

And second, don't use UPS. For anything. Ever. That should be the eleventh commandment or something. Google 'ups brokerage charges' for another reason.

Thanks for the non-recommendation, and sorry about your iMac, we really wouldn't want to 'loose' ours.

Also, I appreciate any advice, all comments are good if it helps come to a decision. I guess the moral is insure your stuff but be prepared never to see it again.

We shipped our stuff, we had no where near enough to fill a container either, but we wanted to bring our cds, photos, some dishes etc.....i think we didnt even fill half of a container but they only charge for what you use.

We came on a recce trip a month or so before we moved here and left all the clothes that we brought....then when we did move we actually had 100kg of luggage coming on the plane, we were lucky in that they only charged us 50 quid for excess baggage!

Its amazing how much your stuff equates too, it doesnt look like much but when you try and put it into cases, boxes etc it all adds up!

I have a Company we use in Haverhill, Suffolk who will ship pallet(s), standard Euro Size, but special wood due to rules, upto about 6' high.

600 UK pounds should cover 2 pallets.

PM me for details if you wish.