Morning all,

Our boxes arrived yesterday morning (left outside the flats at 0545, but that's a rant for another day...). The information sheet that they give you after you've paid them the deposit says "If at all possible, please have all boxes on the ground floor prior to collection".

Does anybody know if this is a hard and fast rule (there is a lift, so no stairs to worry about)? I'm loathe to leave my stuff on the ground floor on the day of collection as a) I don't trust people not to walk off with the boxes and b) I have an aversion to doing manual labour when I'm paying somebody to do it for me.

Cheers

Steve

p.s. Could somebody move this to the right forum? I should've had my cornflakes before posting. Thanks.

I'm nt sure whether they have a hard and fast rule but my quote from them also says that collection is to be from th ground floor only!

If you do find out from them could you please post an answer - would be interested to know! My stuff will be going off with then next week -so might even be sitting next to yours in the container!

Although I'm not an expert, I would imagine it would probably have something to do with insurance, in that they are contracted to transport the goods from A to B, and dont' want the extra hassle of lugging everything down 10 flights of stairs (or in your case 2), and risking injury to either themselves or possibly damaging the goods.

Have you thought of ringing the company and asking them?

Oh please. That'd be far too sensible and might give me a definitive answer whereas posting a message on here is guaranteed to provide conjecture or irrelevant speculation

Glad to see you've got into the spirit of the forum so quickly

Ok you have a lift , they will pick up from 2nd floor, if not, you are paying them to do it so "tuff titties" nice try but.............mm

Good night in the pub?

Have just called them and things are now as clear as mud:

1st Person I spoke to: "Everything has to be left on the kerbside".

Funnily enough, I wasn't too happy with that, particularly as I only found out about the 'ground floor thing' after I'd paid the deposit for the boxes. And I'd like to see the person I spoke to leave his belongings out in the street for a random amount of time before they're collected!

2nd Person I spoke to: "If you can take some boxes downstairs, it would help the driver, but it isn't really necessary"

Oh well, I guess I'll find out in a week or so when the boxes get collected...

Cheers

Steve

When you booked, did you ask them about collecting from upstairs?

No, I just presumed that they would. I've never used a removal/shipping company before, and thought that this would be part of the 'service'.

The boxes were collected yesterday, unfortunately I got bored waiting for the collection and took them downstairs...

0805: Call Excess Baggage and ask when somebody will be picking the boxes up. Get told it'll be between 11 and 1.

1200: Get bored and take boxes downstairs myself as I need the excercise

1305: Call excess baggage to find out where driver is. Get told he's been "stuck in lots of traffic" and will be with us by 5. Throw a tantrum because I'd like to get some work done. Am told that there's nothing that can be done and if I don't want to leave the boxes unattended in the lobby I can take them back upstairs. :curse: After more ranting am told that the driver will definitely be with us between 3 and 4.

Couldn't be bothered taking 14 boxes back upstairs, so we decided to use a book carton as a picnic table and play hide 'n' seek in the lobby among the boxes.

1605: Driver turns up and apologises profusely. Apparently he was called at 1305 and told that we were promised a collection between 1100 and 1300. Allegedly much swearing ensued as we were job 19 out of 21. So him turning up late was nothing to do with traffic, and more to do with staff at the call centre either lying or being thick.

The service provided by excess baggage (supply of boxes, packing tape and bubble wrap) is generally OK. It's a shame that some of the call centre staff can't be more sensible and realise that a) People can't organise their lives around Excess Baggage and b) People are generally attached to the contents of the boxes being shifted!

Rant over...

Cheers

Steve

Just hope it goes smoother this end....... just had six boxes shipped over - Bristol-Sydney, 7 weeks, Sydney-Brisbane NINE weeks.

Thanks. Will see what happens in "8-12 weeks"...

I'm the first to complain when something goes wrong, but also like to give praise where it's due.

I've been in contact with somebody senior at excess baggage (they contacted me after reading my initial post) over the initial will they/won't they question as well as the problems we had on collection day. Given that the communication was all in private I wouldn't feel right posting it on a public forum, but I was pleasantly surprised by the positive and constructive responses that I received.

to Excess Baggage.

Cheers

Steve

Well maybe someone senior will respond to me about the total stuff-up with my suitcase and tell me why no-one ever replied to MY emails.

Excess Baggage.com took my money in advance as payment in full for door to door and then added additional freight charges and they also added storage charges and then tried to get out of door-to-door delivery.

Never mind 'ground floor', after paying excess-baggage.com for delivery they tried to dump the suitcase at the airport and give me another bill for 120 dollars to deliver it or take the $100 round fare for the taxi there to collect it myself.

If the agent here in Australia hadn't echoed my email of complaint it would still be there. As it is I still have no response to my final email, simply a delivered suitcase without explanation or apology.

The fact is that their agents do the apologising for them whilst they carry on unaffected.