Parfait

Dear All,

I would like to pick your brains on shipping subject (Surrey to KL):

Could you recommend a shipping company, perhaps the ones you have used and found them to be very good, or the ones to avoid?

Prices! I have looked around online but the companies I checked on all seemed to be wanting your contact details etc before they would even give a quote, this can be very time consuming...we are two adults with no children living in a two-bedroom house in Surrey, looking to move personal belongings including essential furniture to KL. Could you advise on the price range (would £4,500 get you far???)

Services - do the shipping companies offer 'door to door' services where they would do the packaging (furniture etc) for you as well?

Time frame - I heard by sea this would take 12 weeks? Is this accurate?

Any other tips would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks everyone!
Parfait

ex reg

There are some threads on shipping already so do a forum search and you should get other opinions and more detail.
But it depends who you speak to.
Some will have had good service from one company others will disparage that view totally.
We used Crown Relocations about 6 months ago for a part shipment of some furniture from UK to Singapore.
The missus got three quotes and although Crown weren't the lowest or highest we went with them as they were easier to talk to.
Happy with the job they did.
The packing was very good, polythene, bubble pack where necessary and cardboard.
10/10 for it.
Shipping time is about 12 weeks, dependent on ships available etc etc.

I think whoever you go with then locally i.e. in KL they might subcontract to a local shipper.
Our local guys weren't great and we had to watch them and they did try to get some extra cash out of us which I didn't let happen.
They weren't keen to unpack and let us confirm no damage and then take the packaging away with them but again I put my foot down and all was OK.

If we had some other stuff to bring out here from the UK then we'd be happy to go with Crown again.

We've used a few other shippers in the past and similarly had good service although some breakages which even though insured you can't really replace some stuff.

About cost I can't remember, but a full container is obviously cheaper per cubic foot if you fill the container.
Many companies will pay for shipping anyway.

bakedbean

As ex Reg said, there's already some threads on this. I'll see if I can find one of them later. But try doing a search.

Cannot really add much to what ER has said quite honestly. The unpackers here in Malaysia are not very good from what we have experienced and other folks have told us. When we moved from Phuket to Penang, we ended up dismissing the local unpackers as they were doing too much damage.

We just did, 4 months ago, a move within Penang, and used Pickfords. We paid extra for their "best team" to come from KL and they actually did a good and careful job unpacking. It cost a bit though but worth it for us, as we have a lot of good furniture that cannot be replaced.

bakedbean

Okay.... try this thread for a start-off. Lots of info on there. You might like to tag on to that one too as it's more or less current.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...light=pickford

Parfait

Many thanks for this ex reg and bakedbean.

Sounds like there are a few companies to investigate.

Upon reading the information on the other link:

180 cu ft (enough for all personal belongings, loads of books, kitchen equipment, some audio hifi, mountain bike, paintings): £1,500

580 cu ft (above plus three piece suite, dining table, bed and other furniture): £3,700

20 ft container: £5,500

This gave some indication on price range, but I just find it hard to visualise how many cu ft our things will add up to.

Researching...

Thanks!
Parfait

Familyonthemove

Here's my quick review on three companies in Asia:

My family and I have moved several times within Asia and to/from the UK and so we've had some experience of three of the main relocation businesses. I hope the following notes will help other families to decide on who to use, and more importantly who NOT to use.

Pickfords:

Their sales person was an enthusiastic, if slightly eccentric ex-pat who seemed to prefer chatting and coffee to business, but he got the job done with his own style.

On moving day the truck was late (stuck in traffic, in Bangkok, who's have thought that would happen?), but they sent two guys on a motorbike to start the packing in advance of the full team arriving by truck. A nice touch and it meant we were not really delayed.

Packing was efficient and the team created the most amazing 'origami' packing cases from the card boxes and they managed to mirror the shape of the item being packed, so we had carboard sculptures of TV's, coat stands and chairs sitting in the apartment awaiting the arrival of the truck.

Everything was delivered to the new place on time and undamaged. The only breakage was when the local Manager tried to help and he dropped a picture frame and broke the glass .... no big deal and not even worth an insurance claim. However, the unpacking seemed to be done without any logic, with items placed in cupboards at random. We were still finding odd socks, bags and shoes in strange places weeks later. It would have been much quicker to unpack ourselves and we learnt from this.

9/10 but better to unpack yourself


Asian Tigers

Efficent inital contact, good packing, although their artistic skills with card and parcel tape did not match the creative skills of the Pickfords team. Delivery on time, a few small items missing but nothing serious. We unpacked ourselves. Asian Tigers were very competitive on price and they seem to use contractors for the shipping and delivery so it is not all under thei direct control, but in practice this made little difference to us. After the move they took all the old packing cases and paper away and swept the apartment. Lowest quote for this move.

8/10, but be aware that they may contract out some of the work


Crown Relocation

Initial contact was OK but we were left to do much of the paperwork and customs admin ourselves. It was a dual move for Crown from India and UK to Bangkok and their rules on what we were alloed to ship and what would not be allowed by local Customs (in their view) were petty compared to the other companies (no household cleaning chemicals, computer equipment, wine) At the UK end they arrived late and caused some damage to the house whilst moving out. In India they were on time, but failed to pack 10% of the items as they stacked the cartons in from of cupboards that still contained items to be shipped then left without checking. Unpacking was haphazard and there was significant damage to electrical items and they left all the old boxes and tape behind (this may sound petty, but it was a huge heap and this servcie is not cheap).

Unfortunately Crown were the prefered servcie provider for my company, and they were used again for a shipment back to the UK. We asked for quotes from all three companies and Crown matched Asian Tigers on price with Pickfords being much more expensive. Asian Tigers was a half container and Crown was 'Groupage'. I was concerned about Groupage as you can't get a guaranteed shipping date, but Crown promised to ship within two months. The shipment finally arrvied one and half years later! Mould had destroyed all the clothing and several vital items were missing (TV stand, screws and connectors) so in effect the shipment was a total loss. Insurance cover did not cover most of the loss due to small print and limitations and the attitude of Crown was that we should have paid more for insurance and a container so it was in no way their responsibility.

0/10 Avoid at all costs