wskeen

I'd be very grateful for recommendations and tips on:

a) Reputable International Removal firms (shipping from UK to USA, Idaho) with whom you've had good experiences through the end-to-end process.

b) What the likely costs are for such a move. We've been quoted £10,833.12, £0.00 VAT (excluding Insurance) by one firm (see below for more info on that) which seems excessive given what we will/won't be shipping. NB: We're NOT shipping any furniture or electrical goods (other than our laptops which will go in our hand luggage when we fly) - we'll just be shipping sheet music & books (perhaps 30-40 boxes), clothes, a few pictures and a few 'nik naks' (e.g. some small pottery items and a few other small personal items that we won't be able to fit in our luggage when we fly)

c) Specialist firms who transport pets from UK to USA (we have a cat, Matisse, whom we're hoping to bring with us)

d) Any tips/guidance you may have for managing an international move like this


A little background
We've made initial enquiries with <<<SNIP>>> as regards our International move and did their video survey on 30 Sept to get a quote. We're not at all impressed with their service so far and shocked at the costs they've quoted (£10,833.12, £0.00 VAT), especially given that we'll not be taking any furniture or electrical items and they'd indicated to us in the video survey that our move is a relatively simple and straightforward one (aside from moving our cat, which we'd asked to be quoted for separately).

• Up until yesterday, we heard nothing from them as regards the quote, despite being told on 30 Sept that the quote would be with us 'in 2-3 days'.
• We chased them via email and phone on several occasions since the online survey, each time being promised that the quote would be with us shortly and each time being let down.
• When I phoned them yesterday I was told that the chap who'd been dealing with our quote had 'gone away on holiday last Tuesday'. I was fobbed off with yet another 'we'll look into it and get back to you' with no word of an apology. So I said I'd prefer that they check whether the quote had come in while I was on the phone. Sure enough, the quote was on their system - apparently it came in the day before, but nobody had taken the trouble to contact us about it. So I asked them to email it to me.
• When I picked up the email I was shocked and appalled at the costs and also the fact that it did not match up with what we'd told them about our needs, i.e. they'd quoted for full packing service but we'd said that we only needed 'partial packing' (we can easily pack up all our books & sheet music) so we'd just need help with correctly packing more fragile items (e.g. pictures and breakable 'nik naks'), that we wanted a separate quote for getting our cat transported to the US and also they did not include the correct destination address in the quote. Added to that, there was no proper breakdown of how they arrived at the total figure, which, at £10,833.12 and £0.00 VAT, was far more than we were expecting.

christmasoompa

That does seem crazy expensive. We're currently in negotiations about a move, admittedly our shipping will be paid for by hubby's company, but they've given us an overview of all costs that they'll be paying for, and it says about that amount for a 40' container and packing/unpacking services at each end, we'd be moving all of our furniture etc from a 5 bed house. I don't know which company they normally use I'm afraid, but even so a similar amount for no furniture seems ludicrously overpriced.

If you do a search of the forum you'll find lots of threads on shipping prices and recommended companies to try.

Good luck.

Winston_the_Great_Dane

From Norfolk UK to Ohio was £5k-£6k for a 20ft container (Dec 2018). This included insurance and the handling fees on this side. Full export wrap of my furniture and unloading on US side.

I used Greens of Suffolk and they were excellent.

Shezi59

It's a while now since we shipped (5 years in fact) but we paid $5,000 (about £3,600 at the time) to ship from NW UK to East Tennessee. We got everything into a 20 ft container (including some flat packed furniture - beds, book cases etc.). In total, there were 82 packages, including boxes which were mostly clothes, kitchenware, books, records (vinyl) photos. I don't know if I can post the name of the company - I see snips for names - but will happily share. We were extremely impressed with them, my stuff had been in storage in the UK and I had to be there when they arrived, but once I'd opened up for them, they gave me the option of staying or leaving them to it. For shipping to the US they had to pack everything themselves so they essentially repacked just about everything. Took them about 3 hours, I signed the paperwork and waved goodbye. That was 6th July (2015). The shipment was taken the depot in Deptford where it had to wait for another shipment going in the same direction, to fill the container. It set sail in September (I tracked it to Germany with pickups along the channel on its way back to the Atlantic. It arrived in Philadelphia on19th September but had to wait for clearance in customs and transport so didn't actually arrive at our door until 21st October.

Hardly anything arrived broken (a couple glasses) and everything was very well packed. The company that transported to our house were a third party company, they arrived at 7am, unloaded everything into the space we'd provided and was gone by 8.30am, We're looking to move back to the UK next summer and I'll be contacting these guys again.

retzie

I can't help with the OP's question, but I do know the pandemic has caused extreme disruption to international freight, with both time and costs going through the roof. At least that's what my company's logistics people have been telling me. So you probably need to adjust expectations accordingly

Pulaski

The transatlantic shipping of a container is close to fixed price for everyone, either to east coast, or higher to the west coast, and is relatively cheap. Getting the container from the port, which is by road, is a relatively high proportion of the total cost, so schlepping the container from, say Seattle to Idaho on a truck may cost nearly as much as shipping the container from say Felixtow to Baltimore. .... Shipping to Seattle is a lot more than to Baltimore, so there are two reasons already why your move to Idaho is more expensive than those of us moving to/ from the East Coast.

Then there is the fact that you're looking for a "reputable mover", when, based on what you said, IMO what you need is a freight forwarder, who will take boxes you have packed and ship them to the address you designate in Idaho. I have used a freight forwarder a couple of times for shipping boxes and trunks that I have packed, to the US, and would recommend using a freight forwarder for "less than whole house" shipments.

To find a freight forwarder, Google <Your town freight forwarder> then look for one that does smaller shipments and, most importantly, will pick up the things from your address.

Smartyy

I cannot advise on the moving side but I can advise on Idaho. Welcome to an amazing state! We're happy you're coming here!

Floridablues

I used Greens 17 years ago, moving me from Suffolk to Florida. I've sure I recommended the company on here a few years ago, maybe to 'Winston the Great Dane'. Back then I paid around 3k for a couple of furniture items and the rest mainly boxes. I agree with Smarty that Idaho is an amazing state. My relatives live close to Twin Falls.

sarasota chic

We used Pickfords to move from Oxfordshire to Texas with 1 months storage that cost around £3500. £10833 sounds excessive are you using airfreight or by sea?

Siouxie

Perhaps this would work, if you only have boxes and nic-nacks? https://upakweship.uk.com/rate-calcu...land-to-idaho/
https://upakweship.uk.com/shipping-s...akweship-plus/ if you need them to pack a few things.
helpful info https://upakweship.eu.com/blog/categ...ng-to-america/

nikkif99uk

I have a quote for pickfords seafreight for 30 boxes for £650 door to door to Orlando plus £198 for them to collect the boxes from my house. Waiting on my K1 visa before I can pursue as they don't ship without a copy of your visa.

wskeen

Thank you! We thought the quote we'd been given was excessive so are getting some other quotes. Pickfords was one of the companies we were thinking of approaching, so it's good to hear about your experience, even though you're much further East than we'll be going! Thanks very much for responding :-)

wskeen

Thanks very much indeed for sharing this... it definitely looks interesting!

Have you used them yourself?

wskeen

Bless you... thanks! I fell off my chair when I opened the document with the quote we'd been sent!!!

We're not shipping any furniture at all (except for a couple of piano stools)... we've mainly got books and sheet music, albeit quite a bit of each. And we're now thinking of just buying extra luggage allowance for our flight and taking most of our clothes in suitcases with us, so that we'll have it straight away at the other end.

Good luck with your move :-)

Pulaski

If you look over the the bottom right corner of the post you are responding to, you will see a button marked "Quote" - if you click on that then the post you are replying to will appear above your reply, so then we will all know who you are addressing your reply to.

For advanced quoting, use the multi-quote button to stack several quotes in one reply.