unconventional

Hi,

My husband and I are making a move to NYC from London in mid-November. Seeing as tomorrow's his green card interview we figured we'd better start planning the move!

There seem to be a million removal/shipping companies and I was wondering if anyone could recommend one to us, hopefully of reasonable cost.

We're not so worried about the speed of shipping as we will be subletting a small place while we apartment-hunt the first month or so, so it's easier if we don't have all our stuff in that time.

We aren't shipping any furniture other than maybe one chair. Mostly clothing, books, CDs, DVDs, etc.

Thanks!

avanutria

We used First Move International because they were the only ones we found who didn't require we reserve an entire 20' shipping container. They weren't the best at post-collection communication and things took longer than we expected, but everything was very well packed and got there intact.

meshwill

We used Cadogan Tate, they were very good, we shipped furniture and stuff and also had air freight, they packed it all and unpacked this end. No breakages and helpful courteous staff. Can't comment on cost as the company paid. Shipping crate took 4 weeks including clearing customs and air freight was here in 2 weeks.

Bob

If it's small shit like that, box it up and send it sea mail by the post, take about 10-16 weeks.

You don't have that option from the US though which is weird.

Jerseygirl

The thread by Ozzidoc may be of interest to you.

Many removal companies offer part containers...we used Allied Pickfords.

unconventional

Thanks for all your replies.

We did a rough inventory of what we're moving and estimate its probably about 70 boxes of 50cm x 50cm x 50cm - or 9 cubic meters.

Got a quote from 1st Move for £2500. Considering that's almost £40 per box, anybody have feedback on a cheaper company or method?

Thanks!

Bob

That's probably not to bad...

avanutria

We had 11 cubic meters, same company, and it cost us about £4500 in the end - though a fair chunk of that was some extra packing that they did on our bunk bed parts, which hadn't been accounted for in the quote.

But - look at the quality of packing:



This is waterproof black plastic over heavy duty plastic straps over bubble wrap over more bubble wrap over cardboard over TONS of cling film over goods all stacked Tetris-master-style and on top of a wooden pallet. There was absolutely no chance of anything going missing. It may even have put off Customs from making detailed inspections, as all we got was X ray charges. They also paid attention to packages marked as fragile and did not put them at the bottom of piles.

unconventional

Oh wow hadn't seen the last two replies - thanks for the feedback. Got a quote from Pickfords for about £2350 + insurance so considering the impressive way 1st Move handled your move I think we'll go with them. Thanks guys!