Gidget29

Need recommendations for door to door or door to storage shipping from the uk. It wouldn't be a large amount as we will not be bringing much in the line of furniture. It's mostly to get a particular mattress over plus personal belongings and children's gear.

Need something reliable and affordable please if anyone can suggest.

dominoman

After looking around I used iMoveIntl to move from UK to UAE. They were good value and the service so far has been very good. Definitely get a few quotes though and ask the usual questions.

Look out for any extras. Insurance will usually cost you 3% of the value of the goods (you declare an itemised list), but some were as high as 6%. That makes a big difference! I paid 2.8% + tax which is approx 3%.

Start by listing out exactly what you are taking from each room. Then use that when you get quotes. You will have to list it all for the insurance form anyway, so you may as well do it now. Don't worry about using their forms and writing into that. If you've listed everything in your own Excel sheet or similar then they will use that.

CeeBee

I've just gone with Anglo Pacific. So far they've been great however our stuff has been sat in London for 2 weeks now so isn't yet on the boat. I understand it can take at least 2 - 3 weeks before items usually leave.

The price was good and everything was properly packed and insured. It's door to door so they provided packers, packing equipment etc and will unpack at the other end.

There's a lot of complaints online for every shippig company but from what I saw the general complaint was damaged items that weren't adequately covered through insurance.

dominoman

2-3 weeks is nothing. Ours was 8 weeks before leaving, but I was fine with that as we had a 2 step move so the delay helped.

If you want it fast, book a whole container. It will leave as soon as a ship does, which is every few days.

If you want is cheaper go for LCL (Less than Container Load) which means you are sharing the container with someone else

If you want it cheapest go for groupage. That means each box is labelled and the container will leave only when it is full up. You could be waiting several weeks.

Don't forget after it leaves you have transit time (a ship takes a month to sail to the middle east), and 1-3 weeks in customs at the destination. Then it needs to be delivered.

When I read the reviews a lot of frustration seems to be caused by people who pay 1500 quid to ship the contents of their studio flat halfway across the world, and then are shocked it hasn't arrived 4 weeks later.