__TJ__

we have under 600 CUFT of export wrapped goods waiting for us in a storage locker ( that is 600 CUFT, hence i know the max total volume)in Hampshire UK. need to get it to Prince George BC.

anyone recommend anyone? last time we shipped we used pickfords and their packing was rueful! altho thats not an issue this time as it is packed already, im loathe to give them any more of my cash.

last time i looked (nov 2011) White and company had the best reputation, but charged a 1/4 more on our quote. fox's had the worst rep and frankly the guy seemed a bit of a cowboy when he came to evaluate.

who do you recommend? ( conversley who should i avoid like the plague speed is not of the essence, safety of the shipment and cost ( in that order) are my primary concerns.

TYIA

Granma Nessie

I used White and Co to ship about 450 c ft and have nothing but high praise for the 3 packers who came from the Dunfermline depot and expertly wrapped my goods and were so pleasant that it made the whole experience stress free. As it was groupage it took just over 3 months to arrive in Toronto. Brytor was the transporter used at the Canadian end and I have just taken delivery of my goods today . Again the men arrived on time and quickly unloaded and were most helpful. I had requested to do the unpacking myself and have so far unpacked over a dozen boxes and have found everything to be in excellent condition so far.

Tootlepootle

We had Whites move us in July. They were great, and they came down on price to match one of their competitors.

SchnookoLoly

We shipped about 300cft of stuff in August, should be arriving in the next week or so!

We had three companies in for quotes: Robinsons, Whites, and Crown.

Both Robinsons and Crown walked us through the process in quite a lot of detail, explained what would happen at each stage, and had lots of brochures and information packs to look through. They both had iPads that they used to do measure how much stuff we had, and both seemed very professional.

Whites was really disappointing after what I'd read on the forums, so it's possible the guy who came to do our quote wasn't as up to scratch. He kept going on about how old the company was instead of what would happen at each stage, came with no material (we received it in the post about a week later), and scribbled what we wanted to move on a piece of paper.

Now, I'm not one to be like "ooooo iPad, shiny shiny", but it was more how organised and knowledgable the two from Robinsons and Crown came across, and how sort of aloof the guy from Whites did in comparison.

When we got our quotes, both Robinsons and Crown came back around 300cft, which was what we were expecting. Whites came back at about 200cft. So clearly Whites' quote was lower, but when we scaled it up (we could see exactly where he'd massively underestimated in comparison with the other two) it was about the same price as Robinsons and Crown.

In the end we went with Robinsons, but I think we would have been happy with either.

They showed up to pack up our stuff right on time, and were in and out in about 2 hours. The three guys were really efficient, packed our stuff well, and were friendly.

I'll report back once our stuff arrives in the next week or so...

For insurance we went with Letton Percival, as their insurance quote was much lower than the ones provided by both Robinsons and Crown (even after negotiating!).

jaysangha

I found excess baggage co to be pretty good - efficient, easy to work with and knowledgeable

AnneMarieC

I've just shipped 250cuft with GB Liners. Had quotes from Whites, Pickfords, Moving Partnership. All came for a house assessment expect MP. Pickfords & GBL quoted at 250cuft, Whites at 300cuft. I asked MP to quote in the middle at 275cuft.

Pickfords and GBL guys were very personable, very chatty and friendly. Basically very good salesmen hehe.

I too was a bit put off by the guy from Whites - but I gathered from the forum that he was head of the packing guys so not a "salesman" and boy did it show - gruff, no eye contact, no personality. He couldn't answer any of my questions, saying something about how he was in the logistics side, not the office but that I could call the head office and ask. Pfft - why send out someone who can't answer basic quesions? I settled on MP as Matthew is super helpful and kept in contact, and then GBL came in at the last minute with a phone call at the 11th hour, undercut MP when I showed him their quote and promised to price match if we got to 275cuft (what MP quoted at - and yes I got that in writing!). They also reduced their silly high insurance down to 1.4% inline with Letton Percival (GBL requires that you take their insurance so its worth haggling that down!). So we decided to go with them.

They came this morning, 2 very nice blokes, were in and out in 3hrs flat - asked questions where they weren't sure and were all in all very professional. Will write a full assessment when we get through it at the other end.

Oh, and they said I was definitely within the 250cuft quoted. Interesting that the "head of packer" dude quoted at 50cuft over that!

With the "top 5" movers I'd say its all much of a muchness. Good and bad reviews. Nobody's perfect. My advice would be to get a bunch of quotes and just follow your gut instinct.

__TJ__

Thanks all. Have called gb liners, white and co and pickfords (although they messed up the quite big time and I wasn't happy with them last time so their quote will probably only be used to price match other companies down!

russellg

Wish I had gone with GB Liners. They quoted about £500 more than Robinsons so I went with them. Turned into a mess - the estimate of 6-8 weeks shipping turned into 3 weeks, which you would imagine would be a good thing, apart from the company Robinsons used in Canada (Tippetts) then threatened us with dumping our stuff in their warehouse in Toronto. I reminded them that I had paid for "door to door" service. I was then extorted out of another $600 for them to unload the container (I was over a barrel at that point). When they finally delivered our stuff the guys they used were a bunch of muppets - one of them appeared to have some sort of breakdown and started throwing out items around. He damaged my TV by slashing at the box like Zorro. He then went off and sulked in the cab of the truck for the remainder of the day. All the screws/bolts from the furniture that had been dismantled had "disappeared". Robinsons just blamed whoever unpacked the furniture but i'm not convinced that their guys didn't forget to pack the bits in the UK. I've spent ages going round hardware stores to buy various screws to sort out the mess they left me. Honestly, do yourself a favour and use someone competent.

SchnookoLoly

russelg, your experience is interesting. We also shipped with Robinsons, and had Tippetts on this end as well. We just had our stuff delivered this morning.

Overall we had no issues with the delivery of our stuff. It arrived on time, everything was in good condition, no complaints. Took them less than an hour to load off our 300cuft of stuff. I've gone through about 90% of the boxes, but everything looks fine and in tact. Tippetts sent two guys who were quick and efficient. No complaints overall, I'd say our experience end-to-end with Robinsons was pretty good.

(I called GB Liners for a quote, but they never called me back!)

withabix

UK removal companies appear to assume the long sea route (via Panama Canal etc...) when quoting, however if there is capacity on the short sea route to Montreal and then CP Rail onwards, it will go that way instead, as it currently appears to be cheaper due to recent rise in value of GBP vs $CAD making the CP Rail leg viable (or that's the reason I was given).

Our stuff arrived in Montreal after 2 weeks and we are currently waiting for it to come across on CP Rail.

Tippets office in Vancouver have been very helpful so far...

russellg

I don't have a good word to say about Tippets to be honest. They are completely unprofessional - I certainly didn't expect to have to put up with one of their crew having some kind of mental breakdown whilst damaging my property. I would have thrown him out of the house by the scruff of his neck if he hadn't gone off to sulk in the cab.

withabix

What happened when you sent them a bill?

Actually, your contract was with your British shipper, so you should have sent them a bill for the damage..

Did you?

russellg

I raised the issues with Robinsons - as yet i've got nothing.

Tippets haven't even acknowledged or apologised that one of their guys went "Apocalypse Now". All i've got is some condescending response. I intend to raise thie issues with their accreditation body, as Tippets don't appear to give a damn to be honest.

Miss Clinique

Incorrect. That route is very expensive and would not be used. UK shipment typically go to Montreal or Halifax.

My guess is the shipment arrived quicker that the estimated time because it was a groupage shipment, the container got filled up, so it was sent.

Zoe Bell

a long while back but allied pickford's guys stole some dvds
packed the empty boxes

Tippetts at this end utterly useless. At one point couldn't actually tell us where our stuff was