RobDon

Hiya All,

Just looking at some companies for shipping our stuff and wondered if anyone
could give us any recommendations or any companies to steer clear of!
On the net they all make a good impression!

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Donna & Rob
XX

kirstyp

Hi Donna and Rob,

If you do a search for 'removal companies' on the bar at the top of the page you'll find loads of both good and bad reports on a number companies, as has been said many times here though, one man's recommendation is another man's warning, unfortunately no company is perfect so you will hear good and bad stories! But that doesnt really help you does it.....

Things to look out for might, so my advice would be to look firstly for companies with recognised quality accreditation i.e. FIDI FAIM members (and ensure they are only using a FIDI FAIM member as the destination agent in NZ) and the British Association of Removers (BAR) Overseas Group - companies in this group subscribe to the IMMI bonding scheme which means that if the company has financial problems while your shipment is in transit your move will still be completed by another BAR member at no extra cost - a huge peace of mind given the current economy!

Other things to ask are comprehensive insurance (preferably approved by the FSA), are removals staff employed by the company or is the packing subcontracted? Try to look for a specialist international mover who is experienced and dont be afraid to ask questions, a move abroad is a big undertaking and your remover should be happy to answer questions and be knowledgable on the subject - you've got to trust them afterall!

Try to get around 3 quotations and have them all out to do a free no obligation survey - and show them all the same (dont forget the loft / shed / garage) to ensure they are quoting on a like for like basis (ask for the volume they've quoted on if they dont already tell you).

I know that doesnt give you names of who to try who to avoid, but i hope it gives you some useful starting points to narrow down your search!

Good luck!

Kirsty

teebrown

we used Allied Movers through the Mov**** website and got a discount, they weren't the cheapest due to the terrible exchange rate at the time, but they did us a great job, very nice people to deal with , communication was great, very good. We didn't take out their insurance though, we got our own through Letton and Percival, much cheaper and we only insured min.

Wellington Will

In case it helps, we shipped 25 cartons (size A) for £25 each, and we sellotaped some of the cartons together to fit bigger items.

We used pickfords and only a couple of things were damaged, but we suspect that was from the MAFF inspection not the removal.

DTHarrop

We used Removal Group which were the cheapest and were fab.....they couldn't do enough for us and were alot cheaper then most of them......

Proves that expensive is not always the best.......

gozzy

Hi Robdon
We have just received our stuff and can not believe we packed so much rubbish . After living with out all the contents of our house for 15 weeks we now wonder why we need it. If i did it again i would sell everything i could and only pack the irreplaceable . We used britannia they where hopeless at communication but the stuff arrived eventually and only a few things were broken, and some for the plastic items had changed colour.
regards
Gozzy

manchaka

We're using Anglo Pacific - they have bases (bonded) in Manchester and Christchurch NZ, which suits us just fine - we got them down about 10% on the price (there's a huge oversupply of empty containers floating around the world don't forget so be brutal (but thoroughly pleasant & polite of course) on the negotiation - contents of a 3 storey 5bd detached and a mini cooper d total comes to about £6.5k - then there's 'optional' extra (advance Somalian bribes probably!) insurance of 1.5% of that on top - TIP: pay the MAF charges when you get there, don't pay it to your shipper - it'll save you a few quid

Best,
AM x

manchaka

PS - Forgot to mention and to second what gozzy just said - don't ship all your cr*p to the other side of the World - do car boot sales and get as much cash for your superfluous gunk as you can - We've done 6 so far and made about £1200 - you'd be surprised what people will buy - the only slightly demoralising thing is that the stuff is that all of the stuff probably cost about £4k-£5k when we originally bought it, but comme-ci comme-ca - think about your carbon footprint

Best,
AMx

paul090971

Flippin heck how much!!!
I have just arranged a house move from UK to Lyttleton port only for a 20ft container & that was £1650

kirstyp

A full 20ft container? Are you doing all the packing and loading?

LiffyB

Interested in this! All of our stuff is already packed up in shipping boxes (all with shipping lists in) as we moved to a rental just recently - so we could pack the container ourselves.

Liff

manchaka

40ft container - as I said that's for contents of 3 storey 5 bed house and car - there are 5 of us in the family - £6k - which after we battered them down by 10% on their original quote seems fair enough to me - we also got quotes from 2 others which came in one either side - the thing that swung it for us is that Anglo Pacific have depots in Manchester and Chch that we can store the container at for £100 per month before departure AND after arrival, which is really convenient for us

AM x

scrubbedexpat094

TradeMe is your friend, Kiwis will buy anything

MontyMon

Hmmm, cheap they may be, but couldn't see any BAR, FIDI FAIM accreditation on their website

jo_hedge

My stuff is now bobbing around the seas on the back of some huge great ship, through Allied Pickfords. Does anyone know how I can track the ship's progress? And how long it's likely to be with the Somalian pirates for?!