KatCzeks

Does anyone have any recommendations for good overseas removals? I'm looking to get a few estimations - quotes I'm being given range from £2,500 to £4,000. I wasn't expecting it to be so much moving from a modest 3 bedroom house in Cardiff to Toulouse.

We do have a small family though so I would need it sent direct within 2/3 days as opposed to a part load, 2/3 week wait.

Any suggestions would be gratefully welcome!

dennerlymum

given that price you'd be cheaper furnishing the rented house from ikea when you arrive

KatCzeks

We did think that but we'd have to put all our stuff in storage and that will add up over 2/3 years plus the cost of buying new, then what do we do with it all when we move back. I'm in a right pickle!

bigglesworth

Bishops are supposed to be good. I used them n the UK, and they were excellent.

Whatever you do, do NOT use the ones on the TV series. They cost me more in damage than the cost of the removal (all the way to Spain). They employ casual labour wherever they stop.

jvc

....or the opposite to Black's They tried to rip us off big time! Luckily we saw them coming

petitefrancaise

Langdons in Bristol do all the airbus relocations and have a lorry that comes down once a week to Toulouse. I would suggest you give them a call.

Or, there is Ian Simpson of Burg Removals - he is based in the Gers near Toulouse and makes regular trips back to the UK. He comes highly recommended! http://www.burgeuropeanremovals.com/

fesuvious

To help you understand the quotations;

A slightly smaller than average move, from Cardiff, to Toulouse effected in a direct fashion may well go like this;

Day 1 - AM - Move you out of your current home, and travel to the dock.

Day 2 , arrive in France, drive direct to Toulouse, and possibly unload for you, or if not the following morning.

Day 3, back to port

Day 4, back to base.

Ferry costs are likely to be £900, and fuel, more than likely up to £750.

Tolls, misc and crew expenses can easily add £400.

4 days, at a lower than normal charge out rate of £500 per day means that we have a net charge to the customer of @4050, with the vat, @£4800.

And the above figures are conservative. Moreover, absolutely not in any way 'profiteering'.

Indeed local work would be way way more profitable across the 4 days and with none of the risk.

So, hopefully that might change the way you are viewing the costs.

For what you are looking at paying it is impossible that you would get a proper 'dedicated' service where you have your own crew working solely for you.

That is not to say the service would be bad, not at all. But it is worth understanding where your money goes.

mentalist

Has anybody living in France moved there from anywhere other than the UK? If so, which removal company did they use and were they okay? We are moving from Dubai in the summer.

TheGrocer

I e-mailed and phoned Bishops over two weeks ago and they can't be bothered to reply. I would worry if they would turn up on the day !

jvc

Not worthy of your business then. I did question a quote once which really was ridiculousy, seriously overpriced, and I had firm evidence to prove this was the case. I never heard back from them again, so always good to get many quotes, and don't necessariy rely on the big names. We always found Pickfords great. There are organisations who regulate these bodies. Have you thought of trying them? They will often come up with less well known companies, but they may well still have a great review, but not be so expensive?

bigglesworth

Sorry

It was ten years ago though.

Pickfords were not cheap when we used them to Spain. The damage they caused was treble the fee. They were totally uninterested in their failure. It took nearly a month to get anyone to respond to a complaint and his attitude was complete indifference.
Our only recourse (as they had deposited into a store that was not theirs) would have been to sue.

I think you were lucky JVC as if you check online the complaints about Pickfords five years ago were myriad. How they are now I could not say, but they reached levels of dishonesty rarely achieved in a modern business.

As you can tell, I am still angry.

jvc

Well my experience of them was a few years back too! However, like everything in life, you remember good services you receive, as the bad far outweighs things these days! As with all companies, once they have your money they don't give a toss! I review pretty much everything I use of buy, so maybe their reputation has gone to pot? Talking of which, that was all they did break...a plant pot

bigglesworth

kirstyp

try the British Association of Removers Trusted Mover website (www.trustedmover.org) to find a member in your local area, they also have lots of reviews from previous customers too.

Megadyne

Katczeks: Hope it's not too late for you, but I can wholeheartedly recommend Hunts International in Redditch. We moved from Watford to Toulouse last autumn and everything went super-efficiently and smoothly. They were a delight to deal with. Everything was on time, communications were easy. The price came in at the bottom of the range you quote and was the lowest quote of the 6 different ones we asked.

Some details though:
- Same size house as yours, I guess, but we didn't take a lot of our bigger furniture. We ended up with about 800 cu ft.;
- we asked for a part-load (shared-load) which meant there is a delay between collection and delivery while they find the rest of the load. This suited us fine because it gave us a few weeks to finish off repairs, cleaning of the old house, a slowish journey south and time to prepare the new one (a bit).