I am only wanting to take a small amount of boxes and furniture back to the UK with me, but have doubts and worries on taking only part of a container full.

Have any of you done this, and was everything ok when it finally arrived.

Any other useful tips would be gratefully received.

Whisky

Whisky

See below copied from the OSSworldwidemovers.com.au website. Your stuff will be packed into a container with other peoples stuff therefore it will be packed in well.


GROUPAGE (Allows you to share the cost of a container with other people moving personal effects to the same destination which is in a high volume area).


Hope this makes sense

Jo

On the downside, it goes through a lot of handling: loaded onto a van at your house, unloaded into a warehouse, loaded into a container for shipping, unloaded into a warehouse at destination, loaded onto a van and delivered to your house.

We had about AUD$7000 damage to our furniture/belongings thru groupage on our way to Australia. Much of this was down to poor (or complete lack of) packing by the removal company, but the fact it was loaded/unloaded so many times obviously didn't help. Going back to UK, we had acquired a lot more furniture anyway so took a 20ft container.

Perosnally I would never do groupage again, but if you only have a small amount of stuff you may not have much choice. Just choose your packers carefully and make sure everything is packed to "export packing" standards. Good luck.

We only used part of a container...everything arrived in the US OK.

Hi there! Are you still there?

To be honest we had a full container and things still got battered!! It was well packed but I suppose it gets banged around to much? Insurance is a con too!
Good luck, how are things?
Jane x

Did it coming here, doing it going back. Its fine.

we had the shippers come round for our stuff last week. 16 boxes in all, some big, some small, including some furniture (babies cot) that we dismantled and then wrapped in cardboard etc.....just under three square metres all together. packed it all ourselves to cut down on costs, though the shippers gave us plenty of advice, tips and wrapping paper, so we could wrap all the crockery etc. once the shippers had taken the boxes they wrapped them all up in huge amounts of cellophane to keep everything tight and together ...will let you know in a few weeks how it all went!

Thanks to everyone for your advice.
I have packed it all myself. Very experienced from all the years of moving.

I suppose it is just a risk I will have to take.

Janeyray:
Yes still here.
Restaurant was to go through on 16th October, but as usual there is a delay. Hopefully only a few days.
We are using the agent we used when we bought it. I think you used to help her with her horses.
I should be back middle to end of November.
Whisky

You'll be glad of the rest when you get back!

Yes I looked after Heidis horses!! She has some beauties! Shes a slacker when it comes to replying to emails...tell her when you see her!! lol

This thread is interesting.. we have just been told that we need a 40ft. Not sure if we wish to throw enough stuff to make the 20ft. I am hoping to get costs down a bit though. Do you save much by packing it yourself? I understand that insurance is more if you DIY!

We are going to be looking at the best part of $20K

We were told that if we packed ourselves then we couldn't get insurance? Not that the insurance was worth anything though, so I would pack myself. We tried to make claims but because when it arrived in the UK it stayed at the place it arrived for about 2 months they said it wasnt insured!?

I understand that it requires an extended insurance period for storage...
oss will insure your goods that you pack for the same price but they insist that they do the breakables which is fair enough.
who can recommend a cheap removal company if there is such a thing out there?

OSS insurance is expensive though we used Letton Percival (if you do a search you will get the number and email address) same cover for 1.53% paid in £ but still way cheaper than the 3% in AU$

Jo

I guess I was the only one who had packers who used penknives for screwdrivers (until we lent them said tool) and asked us if we had old dustsheets that could be used to pad out boxes!!!

omg

who did you use?