Mikeypm

Hi Folks,

So I contacted Foxes, White & Co, Moving Partnership and GB Liners.

Moving Partnership called straight back took details and provided a quote over email, So I am wondering they must be pretty good to get from my description that amount of cubic feet and be able to provide a price?, they also provided a price for Insurance but did not go into exact details of how they had arrived at this figure?

Foxes never got back to me so I m not going to chase a company after all I would be paying them and not the other way around.

GB Liners sent a guy out and have followed up several times to confirm if I have any further questions etc. Not sure if the follow up could be classed as a good thing as its a cut throat business and I am sure they just want to secure the business. GB Liners worked out a bit more than Moving Partnership, but that was without Insurance. GB liners suggested to give an approx value for each box but to specify more expensive items EG if a box has three lamps in and two cost £20 and one costs £100 if you only value the box say £140 in total then if the expensive lamp was broken you would only get a portion of the box value and not the £100 the lamp is worth.

White & Co seem to push a currency exchange company they use and I heard back from the exchange company first after White & Co had visited. Which at first I thought was a little odd as I want to sort the shipping first and foremost. White & Co eventually sent through a quote and have followed up as per GB Liners and again this I suppose is all part and parcel of the sales process. White and Co have quoted 70 cubic feet more than GB Liners which means they are alote than the Moving Partnership and a couple hundred more than GB Liners.

I do like the personal touch of both GB Liners and White & Co coming out and following up even if its part of their sales process. Moving Partnership have made no follow up from their email with the quote however at this stage they are the cheapest.

So I am wondering do I discount the follow up and the fact that GB and Whites came out and go with the cheapest. Do I play them off against each other and go for the cheapest or is shipping like most things you get what you pay for?

I am also wondering why White & Co have quoted for 70 cubic ft more?, after all I advised them of the exact same amount of stuff to ship.

I know ultimately it is my decision to make but I would appreciate some feed back from the folk on the BE forum as to how they made their decision and what i should look out for so as not to get stung.

Thanks

Mike

family_of_4

Hi, we at the last minute changed to whites, I really liked their customer service and I did get the price down by a bit too. The thing I like about whites is ive rang a few times for various things and who ever I have spoken to called me by name, knew where I lived etc.. it felt more personal. Whites & pickfords also priced us on more cubic feet than MP did, gb liner quoted less cb feet but they told us they packed all our drawers with the stuff still in them, whereas whites pack everything seperately. MP did not come out to see us. My advice would be to try getting lower prices from whites and see whether you can get a few more cb feet from mp, last thing you want is to be charged for extra belongings.
I did not take up currency exchange or insurance with the shipping companies, I found my own.

Mikeypm

Thanks for the feedback it is very much appreciated as shipping is a bit of a minefield so to speak

family_of_4

Completely agree, I managed to stress myself out no end over it. You'll hear good and bad regarding all the companies, the best thing is to go with your gut instinct.

Mikeypm

I was kind of wondering if it was a gut instinct thing, after all shipping companies are like most things, in that everything from banking through to estate agents etc all are much of a muchness in that you hear good and bad things. Its always a 50/50 whether you get a good or bad experience

Bucks_Family

Rather than rehash our experience (going with Whites from Manchester to Calgary), there are nearly 200 posts, including some by yourself, on this thread: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=787510 which will give you most people opinions and experiences of MP, Whites, GB liners etc..
I know it's boring, but trawl that thread and then ask specific questions based on what you learn from it, as I think it contains the answers you're looking for in this thread.

Having said that, in a nutshell, we chose Whites based on price. I was perfectly happy with their customer service, as I was with GB Liners and MP. We were concerned with MP because we wouldn't be sure who we were dealing with in the event of a disagreement (MP or the moving company they chose to use, in our case Hamiltons). GB Liners were £1000 more than Whites and they couldn't come down to match Whites' price.

Mikeypm

Thanks I was trying to find that thread and couldn't find it, obliviously not putting the correct key search words in. How would you rate Whites?


Maybe one of the MODs can merge this thread with the existing shipping thread ?

chiefmissile

Hi,

We were quoted by whites £5050 for a 20ft container from Portsmouth to Brandon MB, this includes full pack and unpack. I notice that your price to Calgary was something like £4600, just wondering which route your shipment is going, is it coming east or west to Calgary?

Regards

Andrew

Bucks_Family

Whites have been fine, they answer the phone when I've had to ring them, they've answered any questions I've had, but frankly I could say the same about GB Liners and MP.
As far as I'm concerned, they're a professional moving company, they're providing a service I'm going to pay for, and their price was less than their competitors. They're all professionals, I didn't dislike any of them, so I went with the cheapest. Our thought process was.. "We've got too many other things to get on with to spend time agonising over this" so we've picked them, dates are set, and we can move onto the two million other things we need to sort.

Bucks_Family

Andrew - not sure where you got our quote as being £4600, I think you've mistaken us for someone else. Our quote is £7150 for a 40-footer to Calgary.

Mikeypm

true it does feel like there are lots of things to sort out

chiefmissile

Roger that, my mistake. Have read that many posts over the past months I have confused my self

Did read somewhere about a family moving a 20ft to Calgary for that price. I have just asked John Mason for a quote, they are attached to the BritishExpats forum and post regularly, so we will see.

Regards

Andrew

family_of_4

I agree, I think we are flap way too much over shipping, once youve had a few quotes, make few calls or emails see if you can get them down in price and pick the one who you get the best price/vibe from. There will always be good and bad for every company, its just down to luck.

bcmama

I contacted the same companies as you GBL/Fox/MP nothing much between them in terms of price or customer service. We ended up going with GBL they were the same price as Fox, but got sick of having to be the one calling the Fox guy rather than the other way around. Our stuff gets shipped next week so will let you know how it goes.

Mikeypm

Thanks I had been thinking of going for GBL so old be good to get recent feedback