ronnieuk

Having searched this form for a ton of ideas on how to ship my personal belongings back home thought I would post a review of my experience with excess-baggage.com.

We are moving from Winnipeg, MB back to the Isle of Wight just off the south coast of England and have been having a rough time finding reasonable quotes. Most transportation companies shipping by sea have been unable to provide us with a quote and most have ignored the request all together! We did consider using a U-Haul container but could only get that shipped to Southampton and the quote took nearly 6 weeks to prepare - wasn't going to risk shipping my possessions to someone who never wanted to respond to our emails and another transportation company that couldn't even find the Isle of Wight on a map - google it!!!

So after scouring this board we decided to go with excess-baggage.com - we decided only to take a minimal amount of items - clothes, photos a few of our kids favourite toys, our ice-skates! We received a very quick quote from excess-baggage, phoned them in the UK to get some details on how to pack up our stuff, went to U-Haul and bought some cardboard boxes and printed out the number of documents we had to fill in. After a few hours of packing we had 10 boxes filled with all our stuff weighing a total of 179kgs and keeping a detailed inventory list we emailed excess-baggage again with copies of all the documentation. This was on a Sunday evening, on Tuesday we received an email saying DHL would pick up the parcels between 10am and 12pm on Thursday which they did. We filled out the pcik-up confirmation slip and DHL took the boxes away. By that evening we could log onto DHL's website and track the parcels. They have already arrived on the Isle of Wight - Tuesday and 2pm they were signed for by my family, all 10 boxes were on the same delivery truck and one carton had a minor split in the side. We're extremely happy the boxes arrived especially as we're still in Canada and not getting there ourselves until next Wednesday.

Anyway, if anyone has any questions I'll be happy to answer them.

charleygirl

Brilliant and my question is how much did it cost, thanks, been wondering what to do, I went into UPS haha they wanted $530 for a 20x20x20 box weighing 25 pounds

ronnieuk

Cost us $1200 CDN altogether including insurance - we had 4 x boxes at 1.5 cubic feet each, 5 x boxes at 3 cubic feet each and 1 x box at 4.5 cubic feet and got a hell of a lot of stuff in them!!!

charleygirl

Thank you very much! Must look at that then. Is there a minimum amount they will take. Like if I had just 4 boxes would they do that?

ronnieuk

Not sure if there's a minimum or not.

Bluegrass Lass

Do you know if your price was based on your cubic feet or your weight?

We've been looking to ship back about 100cu.ft. Just got a quote back today, and was told it would be $2050 for 100cuft and we would be limited to 500lbs...comes out to rougly $4/lb. Seem quite a bit more than we wanted to pay unfortunately. We've whittled it down to art prints, some collectibles, and other arty items, books, and I'm still concerned it will be more than 500lb/100cuft. And here I thought we were being brutal about getting rid of stuff!

anishq

Do you know if Excess could provide storage in UK? I would not have anybody to receive shipment. Would need storage until I could rent accommodation and give them a delivery address in UK.

dave99

I just used excess baggage to ship 9 boxes from the uk to australia.

I did have some trouble with them.
A few days after they picked up the boxes I called to check everything was ok. They told me there was a problem.

They said the boxes were a different size to what I had told them and I would have to pay them more money or they would hold onto them. I couldnt beleive that the boxes had changed shape in the truck, I confirmed the same measurements as I was quoted for. I had to insist they check the boxes in their warehouse which they were reluctant to do. After a few more days they confirmed that they had remeasured the boxes and I was correct.

They never apologised for the hassle and the fact that they were in the wrong and were simply trying to get more money out of me. Perhaps it was down to lazy warehouse people, I dont know.

Their lack of comunication was also bad, I had to chase them constantly.

The boxes eventually arrived in perth in tact and I then had to pay an additional fee for customs to release them for some reason. I got them a few days ago.

It was all a bit of a pain, I would not recomend excess baggage at all

ronnieuk

I think the quote was based on the cubic feet as long as none of the boxes were over the maximum of 30kgs. They did warn me that if the weight ended up being too high there may be an additional charge and I know when DHL picked them up the measured the space the boxes were going to take rather than there weight.

ronnieuk

Not sure about the storage option - just phone them and ask, they answered all my crazy questions when I phoned.

anishq

Thanks, I'll ring them.

stevebenaulim

Probably.

dave99

I am starting to think there is something very dodgey about this company. I just asked them for a quote to go Perth to UK. It took them 3 days to respond and they sent me a quote for air freight.

I explained I would like sea instead as it should be cheaper and not weight concerned.
The guy has now come back and said, they dont do sea shipments for less than 150cuft.
What a load of rubbish!!. I had them send over 7 boxes by sea 4 months ago just fine so I know they bloody well do it!.

I have sent him my previous invoice showing the previous shipment to see what he requotes.

They sure are cheaper than everyone but theres something dodgey going on at this company

dave99

Ah ha got an email from the rep saying the boats can only go one way from UK to Perth not Perth to UK.

Wow we must have a surplus of boats here in perth by now then!

Mummy in the foothills

That too funny. What do they do send back empty ships?