lindaf

Hi

I'm still in the UK packing - or rather trying to pack. I only want to send 5 boxes to Italy - 2 bicycles and 3 boxes of clothes, games and household things.

As it's quite a small amount I was wondering about packing it into boxes myself and sending it through UPS or possibly www.excessbaggage.com.

Has anyone had any good or bad experiences with these, or any other removal company that you can share with me so I feel a bit more informed?

Thanks

Linda

TestaRossa

For a small amount it is worth checking with some of the big boys like Pickfords as they ship here every 2 weeks and will take stuff to make up a load. I packed nearly a house full and paid about £2500, so you can see it might be worth contacting them. If you do make sure there aren't any add on like transhipping or permits need - this added £600 to the above for us, but we were expecting it being in Florence where they just don't like traffic!! GB liners operate the same policy but it would take nearly 6 weeks to arrive.

You don't fancy hiring a van and driving it over yourself then?

Just a thought though, depending on who you are flying with you might be better bringing it over yourself. I've seen quite a few bikes being loaded into the oversize luggage areas at Gatwick. But you might have to pick the right airline. Not sure Ryan would be worth it for example. But check out the cost of doing it like this against paying someone to ship it for you and it might be worth it.

Kenny and Moe

Hi,
Pickfords come through Italy every week doing moves for the military, could be worth giving them a call, they may be able to fit you in as your load is so small. Why pay for bikes when you can buy them out here??
Regards Kenny

Mr Posh

I hired a van cost me £300 for the week + petrol and two nights stop over (one night for return) you could fit it in a Ford Galaxy or something like that...The only thing is that depends where you live you may need permission from the vigili so you can unload. its was great fun...

ONE thing BRING receipt if you are going through Switzerland as you still have to show passaport at border control and they may ask to see receipts for the goods, as they think you bought them in Switzerland

lindaf

Hi

Thanks for your help. My boxes are now packed and ready to go. I phoned my local branch of Pickfords last week but they quoted me a delivery time of 6 to 8 week (re the military moves - I should maybes contact the main Pickfords office to see if they can give me a better delivery date). That's why I was wondering about going with UPS as they seem to offer delivery times of a couple of days. I'll double check that all custom payments are included in my price as well.

For more than a week we've been discussing whether it's worth taking our things to Padova or buying new again there. Still discussing but I think our 2 bikes and the drum kit are coming with us

TestaRossa - I wouldn't have minded driving a (small) van over to Italy if we'd organised it all in advance but now I'm just ready to hand the boxes over to someone else and fly over to see my husband and Padova again.

Linda

TestaRossa

That explains why they are here so often!! But doesn't explain the 6-8 Linda has been given? Interesting. Linda our load was stored at their Middlesex depot - wonder if everything goes there or not - you can also take stuff direct to the depot, I just don't know how inconvenient this is going to make it! This also reduces the cost as you don't have a van coming out especially to pick your stuff up. They will still wrap for shipment in the warehouse. But it all depends now on which is more important - time or money I guess! Good luck!

fransarda

For what it's worth, I posted, yes posted 14 large boxes with all our wordly good in them one day before we left the UK.We arrived on the Tuesday, our wordly goods arrived on the Friday with only one breakage. It cost a lot, about £300, and was mostly books, videos, pictures etc.

Mitzyboy

Why dont you send it by groupage trailer if its packed well.
I was involved in a company called Transmec who have offices in Italy and in the UK

http://www.transmecgroup.it/contatti...e=1&map=europa

Call the Birmingham office and ask for Phil Thomas .... tell him JJ from Spain sent you

It'll by far be the cheapest way to get your stuff over there. If you ask them they will palletise it for you and shrink wrap.

TestaRossa

Was this just through parcel post? £21 a box sounds about right through the post - means they were over 2kg each and you had to do documents for each one? With only one breakage, that is not bad.

lindaf

Hi

Thank you for all your help - I'm now ready to send my things over to Italy

Kenny - I contacted Pickfords again re the military moves but they said it was for army use only.

Every day since I got back to the UK I've been measuring boxes, learning all about volumetric weights, even learning how to take pedals off pushbikes and getting quotes and finally yesterday I made my choice.

Yesterday I spoke to UPS who told me they didn't ship personal items but Mailboxes Etc (part of UPS) did. The advantage for me is that Mailboxes Etc have a fairly local office, are not too expensive compared to the other quotes I have and will deliver (via UPS!!) within a couple of days to Italy.

My plan is to hand the boxes over either today or tomorrow morning, fly out on Sunday and wait for my boxes to arrive on Monday or Tuesday.

Fingers crossed and thanks again for your help.

Linda

TestaRossa

Interesting - I have a new Mailboxes etc. opened just across the road - I'll bear that in mind for future use. Will have to bring all my son's stuff home from school in the summer, might be worth a look.

fransarda

Yes, I just took them to the local post office. I didn't realise I had to do a doc for each one, the staff had got locked out of the PO that morning so there was a massive Q ( the main PO in Bath) but everyone rallied around with the old Dunkirk spirit and helped us. Then when it was all done, I found I had to pay by cash as at that time PO counters didn't accept anything else, so that's how I know it was about £300 because that was the daily withdrawal limit on my bank card and I just scraped in. I was impressed by how fast they got here too.

bricwood

My lorry of furniture and computers and stuff is coming over soon, would I get away with tubs of paint? someone told me you cant buy good paint in italy

Lorna at Vicenza

I know somebody who brought paint over in her own car. Duluxe satin gloss or something like that in colours that didn't exist here or are hard to find.

I thought paint was just illegal on planes as it could explode - I think.

Most of the paint here for indoor walls is kind of like white wash and you can get it coloured or colour your own by buying little bottles of colour liquid. One if its most important aspects though is that it "breathes" so you might want to think about what kind of paint you want to bring here.

Hope that helps.

bricwood

I could go on, I would like to bring a few bags of peat too the ground looks very poor to me, but I will probably stick to marmite and things like that