Never let it be said that i do not give credit when due... but, in part to vent a spleen, but also to forewarn (as much as i would have recommended had things turned out differently), do not use the shysters operating under the above company name, claiming to be a firm of removers.

Having completed an exhaustive search of international removal companies, collected recommendations / warnings, and having determined a comparable quote despite diverse and often convoluted pricing systems, we settled on using Simpsons UK.

The price was amoungst the lowest, the duration time for eventual delivery seemed reasonable, they collected on the weekend without charging us extra and they didn't mind that we packed our things ourselves, using our boxes and packing materials.

The salespitch guy was more than helpful and patient. The export clerk seemed a bit boshy but so what?

The broad backed fellas who collected our prize possessions were quick and efficient, without lacking care or courtesy. Our stuff was whisked off and frankly we felt glad to be rid of it.

Aside from being asked to submit the necessary forms and to pay, even though all such things had already been completed a week previously, we were stress free and ready to be patient for our consignment to arrive '8 to 12 weeks' later.

One interesting moment occurred when we were told that our boxes totalled 100 cubic feet (the volume we had received cost estimates for). This is interesting because we carefully measured everything they collected and it totalled only 54 cubic feet! They assurred us that they would re-measure our cargo and sure enough, they offered a refund of 20% the estimated fee (although no explanation nor apology was forthcoming). So be warned and measure it all!

After about 8 weeks, i visited the Simpsons' online tracking facility. I was met with a seemingly generic, 'your stuff has gone no where; it is under consolidation'. Not believing it would take 2 months to find a container into which our boxes could be lobbed, I e-mailed Simpsons. Their answer was not dissimilar to the online generic one.

I have become good at practicing patience and so only once another 2 weeks had passed, did i check the track again. Same answer. Contacting a humanoid, same bolshiness.

Once 12 weeks had gone by, i contacted them via the charming sales pitch chap. Lo-and-behold, the tracking system has seen an update! But the update failed to cheer my spirits.

Our things are in a container. Yay! They are due to be loaded onto a boat. They've not already!!? The boat has just come back from New York and is currently docked in Antwerp! So my stuff is in Belgium now?

Ultimately, i have been told to expect the landing of my stuff in Vancouver, on Boxing Day! Public holidays being as they are, the receiving carrier, not to mention the customs officials and the logistical operators will be doing their own thing and so we shall be very lucky if we receive our possession before mid January.

In summary:
They tried to charge us double the actual volume.
They said total carriage time would be 8 to 12 weeks, but this turned out to be the consolidation time.
Our things were collected on the last weekend of August.
Our things aren't likely to even leave the UK before the first week of December.
When will we ever see it again....????

Kinda annoying that all my ski gear is with them. So much for our Xmas trip to Whistler!

OMG that is such a long time. Our stuff was collected on 22nd June and delivered here on 30th July.
Ok, only half of it got here but they were pretty quick

We had very much the same sort of conversation with Whites as our removal company. It's gonna take six weeks. OK so if we send it 4 weeks before hubby leaves, he will only be two weeks without his tools for being able to work. 8 weeks on the dock + travel time + dockers strike + truckers strike = a blinking long time hubby was without tools and struggling to make himself look like the efficient mechanic his new company was expecting

Only send groupage if you don't need stuff quickly.

Sorry that you had such a bad experience. We used Simpsons to over to the States last year and were very happy. Certainly much better that the American/Canadian (Atlas) movers who brought us to BC, who were generally grumpy and careless. Groupage is slower (we used that too across the Atlantic)

and so it continues.....

apparently the container with our worldly goods within it, was loaded aboard a ship from Thamesport around November 27th. It then spent a few more days in various German ports, before weathering north Atlantic storms, finally arriving in Halifax a week later.

"Yay! No watery grave for our things!" we thought. But perhaps such glee was premature? It seems that the conventional route which we were informed of; our boxes taking a romantic trans-canadian rail journey, was as inaccurate as every other stich of information offered in conjunction with this operation.

It seems that in order to get to Vancouver, our boxes will now have the pleasure of crossing the Carribbean, following the Panama canal and making its way all the way up the western American coast to Vancouver!

However, it is not all plain sailing (geddit?) as the container will be off loaded in Los Angeles, before being reloaded onto another (as of yet, undetermined) vessel. This will incur a period of 'lay over', the duration of which your guess is as good as mine, is as good as anyone else involved in this logistical nightmare.

But it gets better! It would appear that today, my container of interest has completely fallen off of the 'tracking radar'. Last seen chugging along the cost of the Carolinas, it has since fallen into the hands of US customs. The reason being, 'efforts in light of 9-11'. But of course!

Interesting then, that our items leave the UK more or less on the date they were due to arrive in Canada;

Interesting that they will go via Central America to get to us;

Interesting that they have been intercepted by an authority guarding a nation it didn't need to pass through and even if it did, such authorities allow their time consuming will to be felt long before my things were due to come even close to being on their soil.

I am starting to draw the conclusion that life will be easier if we disregard our possessions and the costs involved in attempting to relocate them, all as write offs.

On the off chance that such needed to be clarified; DO NOT USE SIMPSONS.

Or, as others above have stated, DO NOT SEND GROUPAGE IF YOU WISH TO RECEIVE YOUR GOODS QUICKLY

the originally stated transit time estimate of 8 to 12 weeks door to door, was not in my mind considered to be 'quick'.

however, this guesstimate of 3 months fails to justify an actual transit time of 5 months!

is it unreasonable of me to expect a company to offer an accurate quote and information?

a precise science it may not be, but a consolidation period of an additional 10 weeks and a total transit of an additional 2 months?

not to mention zero information being provided until B.A.R. becomes involved....... i expect more from those charging me fees for moving my possessions.

Plain and simple: if i was aware of the Simpsons standard of service, i would have used one of their competitors instead. It is called 'fair trading'.

we used Simpsons and we could not have got a better service at all. they was fantastic. we had the full package service 20' container and was here in less than 2 weeks, fully unpacked furniture put back together and everything.

When you go for the part container service. You have to rely on someone else sending their stuff to the same place as you leaving enough room to fit your items in with theirs filling the container. That can not really be blamed on a removal company as it is out of their control. But im sure they did what they could to get it here the best way the freight allowed.

I understand this and that is why i was happy to receive their estimated time frames, even though the variance was up to a month.

However, when their stated consolidation period of 2 weeks, becomes 12 and total transit is likely to be doubled.... i conclude that they have been less forthcoming with the true nature of their operations, whether within their control or not.

For sure, i signed up for the shared container option but how am i suposed to appreciate the volume of traffic between the UK and west coast Canada anymore than i am supposed to know i cannot trust what the 'experts' are telling me?

It seems to me that people are arguing that as Paolo decided to use shared container this is all his own fault. But they appear to be missing that if he was told that it takes 2 weeks by sole container and 8 to 12 weeks by shared container, he may have based his decision on the latter time being a reasonable estimate. If they had said 52 weeks then he might have opted for his own container and paid the extra or used an alternative shipper.

Having working in an industry that normally has fixed completion dates and then incurs penalties when they are not achieved unless a relevant event allows an extension of time, it would carry little weight if I failed to hit the date and then blamed the client for his decision to use the cheapest price.

I think that the only thing that Paola can be held accountable for is believing what he was told and (I assume this to be the case) not having a penalty clause for the shipper's failure to achieve that (it is a fair assumption that no shipping company would accept this but I will try and get it included when we ship early next year - I won't hold my breathe to see if they will agree this).

Yelkcub

Ah groupage. What can I say. You get what you pay for.

Good luck with that - I think you have more chance of finding rocking horse sh*t

It doesn't change the fact that they didn't do what they said does it?

Agreed but why should someone say that they will do something and then fail so miserably? If we raise it , it will be worth seeing how they react.

I think that you will find that most shippers will give no guarantee on a delivery date at all when one ships groupage. I would imagine that the conversation went something like:

"How long will the process take"

"It is difficult to say, but, usually it takes somewhere in the region of 8-12 weeks, however, it could be shorter or longer depending upon a number of variables"

8-12 weeks stuck in the OP's mind. I doubt very much that there is anything in the contract that stipulates 8-12 weeks.

I am, of course, probably wrong