Toon_Nut

That's canny, we've just been quoted £3250 off both PSS and Pickfords today for a 20ft!

They said the container would be at our house for a day and a half by the way, we also have a 3 bed house, no little kids and the son doesn't have much really, no cars either. I think it's the two huge roll top tool chest full of gear thats got them worried, they both stand about 6ft high and I can barely push them, let along lift them.

Good luck guys, you better bring a back support!

Toon_Nut

I thought there was no import tax involved providing the items were in a "used" condition?

We've just bought a load of flat pack bedroom furniture, still in the boxes, the guys told me to build them up and fill them with light clothes, they said MAF would let them straight through.

Hmmmmmm

Mrs Pointer

PSS guy said they don't insure flat pack furniture and that is has to be flat again. So checked that with Anglo Pacific who didn't say that.

AP also include MAF fees up front - so I asked them how they could do that given they won't know what they are.

See what he says.

he was the most helpful though in terms of advising on what MAF will accept with the need for fumigation. Pointer is coming to terms with the fact he may have to drink his single malt collection before he goes

lindam

Anyone tried Transpakship excellent firm 01623 441445

AndyRuth

Took the kids to the locks at Audlem the other day , had a swift half in the shroppie fly to boot

AndyRuth

Interesting about the container being outside the house , sure all of ours including pickfords , said the first day is purely packing up our worldly belongings , the second day is when the container arrives and our stuff is loaded into it , and off it goes that evening to be seen 8-12 weeks later , hopefully

MrsCheeks

what a pub ... my 2 eldest brothers helped to raise that barge from the lock and put it into place in the bar once it was restored!

Him and Me

We boared our 2 cats here (NZ) before we came out because it was basically cheaper then to board them in the UK for the same amount of time!!! (exchange rate) and they were happy as when we took them home..like they've always been here I highly reccommend Ladehaye, Sharon was very helpful and always on the end of the phone/email

Kezzar

I'm rather curious about boarding our cat in NZ instead of here in the UK. Who did you use to board your pets in NZ? Do they pick them up from the airport and just look after them until you get there?

I'm trying to figure out what is the best thing to do with our little cat

moores2525

In my experience, avoid Anglo Pacific like the plague. I posted in another thread, so here is a link:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...=anglo+pacific

Si19761

[QUOTE=dave77;880518

From what I hear on here it is wise to take the white goods with you. The electrical supply and plumbing fittings are the same so they should be good to go! (apart from the electrical plugs being different!)[/QUOTE]


Do take small appliances like toasters, irons etc but I wouldn't bother with whitegoods like fridges, washing machines etc unless you considered them to have a lot of life left in them. You cannot get spare parts in NZ for most UK brands especially the cheaper ranges so if anything goes wrong they are not often able to be repaired....

squarepants

Sorry to jump in slightly off topic, but - make sure you've got your camera when they're unloading at the NZ end.

Movecorp - they were the cheapest so we got what we paid for and it was a big mistake.

My camera battery was flat and it didn't occur to me to to buy a disposable camera. At the moment they opened the doors it looked like the container had been rolled down a hill on it's side - my phone died and although I got pictures of the damaged items later on - I've got nothing to prove that the container had been badly packed and wasn't full.

They basically packed a 40ft high cube container with all of the boxes stacked top to bottom back to front, it meant that once the boxes were in - they only had the odd shaped items and furniture left to fill the front 1/3 of the container. Apparently, they're supposed to stack boxes all along the bottom with the odd stuff on top like a jigsaw. It makes best use of space because they can go right up to the ceiling, and it distributes the weight more evenly inside and you don't have towers of boxes falling and crushing everything else.

The boxes have crushed items of furniture and other things, but worst of all - the whole space across the top of the container smaller than a packing box wasn't used. We had no way of knowing until we reached this end. We ended up having to leave out 11 random packets in total and it's cost us $2000 to replace what we needed and we've written off the rest.

They left between 12 and 18 inches across the whole top of the container (40 ft) I've got the report written by the company at this end who said it was the worst packed container they'd ever seen - and they commented on the wasted space. The default line given by the company is: there is always space not used because of the nature of the goods not being flat/square blah blah. There was enough cubic feet to take all of the items left behind according to the team this end.

The report is worthless though without photographs. That small print you sign in your contract acknowledges the weird and wonderful shapes etc.

Just have a camera to hand, I'm usually the admin queen - but it was new years eve, we'd moved 3 times in a month to find this house - OH started work the day after we arrived and didn't take a single day off - so by the time the container arrived I was beyond caring if I'm honest.

We've got an insurance claim in for the damaged goods, but there won't be any compensation for the space not used and the goods we couldn't bring as a direct result.

I have to say at this point, we've moved 14 times always with a 40ft and several across deep sea - this is the first time we've ever had anything like this. A pair of oil paintings on stretched canvas frames my husband gave me for my birthday were just thrown into a box with a yoga mat and in transit the rubber has stuck to the surface of the paints.

Don't buy them chips and be nice to them! The time you spend packing and trying to help is just thrown back in your face when they do things like that. I wish I'd behaved like a bi*ch now instead of working my socks off packing at least 60 boxes for them and making them tea/coffee all bl**dy day.

simonsi

Much of our odd stuff was much heavier than the boxes would take so I´m not sure thats a hard and fast rule, more important to have weight lower (to prevent crushing), and to fill the space to prevent movement, as we overshot the 40ft by 400cu ft that wasn´t a problem for us but the packers used every inch of space....sad to hear, as you say so much can´t be helped even by insurance...

londonescapee

Sorry to reactivate a slightly old thread, but Mrs P just a couple of things.

a) you can get toasters and kettles here for like $11 each at Warehouse and K Mart type stores which imo is hardly breaking the bank and if you don't actually care what they look like so long as they actually make toast and boil water. They look just like the 5 quid stuff in Argos and are perfectly servicable until you sort out yourself longer term. In fact, Countdown had a 4-toaster thing for $19 and I was tempted but then got shot daggers looks by OH and put it back!

Front loading washing machines - EXPENSIVE! Send yours over if you haven't done so already! I cannot wait for mine to arrive, if only there was a bouncy up and down emoticon somewhere 8 days to go......

Just got a tumble dryer for $380 brand new. Not sure what tumble dryer prices are like back home? Never had one so this is a luxury for us You can get cheap fridge/freezers (around $650 or so from memory for a basic thingy) but we ended up spending a bit more because I want something that I can use for many years. Again, never had to buy one in the UK so really no idea I'm afraid.

b) both my bro (haha I am getting into the lingo) and I used Anglo Pacific and no problems so far. Although we have shipped 3 more boxes separately and the guy in the UK we dealt with was not great - but who cares so long as the stuff arrives and as it has most of my wardrobe I'm hoping it does My stuff has yet to arrive though but at the UK end we found them pretty good. I think with most large export companies there will be some people who have had a horrendous time. It's just pot luck as to who you get on the day innit. Remember when that cargo ship got stricken off the coast of Devon and people were looting those containers that is exceptional of course (I hope!).

Hope the move is going well!

oh ps can only reiterate what some other posters have said about collecting hounds from the airport, be prepared for a LONG wait (we had to wait 3 hours! But to be fair they had some difficult cases ahead of us in customs and if we'd managed to get in the queue earlier we probably would have been in and out in 1/2 hour). They take them to the loo and check their water and that though so they at least have that!

Mrs Pointer

cheers for all that.

I love my toaster though, so it's coming. It's got a wee button and the bread goes down electronically .

We've just got a 20ft container and we're taking everything. We don't have kids so the smaller container is cheaper

We will have to move out of our house and into temporary accommodation once our house sales completes so we'll ditch the junk then. If it's not useful, beautiful or seriously sentimental it ain't coming.

It's really it's only stuff though - I'll only be happy once my hairy hooligans arrive.