Steve Lawson

You can pack yourself, you can even load your own container..;;;;;;.....and save about a grand!

andrew4

looking through the site Doree Bonner seem to be worth a try

kins

It depends how many people they send. It took two guys two very long days to pack up and load the contents of our 4 bed house into a 20 foot container. They were supposed to have more staff but another lorry was broken into the previous night. It would've been much quicker with four than two...

Steve Lawson

That is a long day for them - hope you made lots of tea?

kins

I even went out and bought them a Burger King

Jmaster911

Our ordeal is not yet over but here is our story so far and our lessons learned!!!

We used Excess Baggage and I have to say the pre sales guy was very good and he was willing to deal. I played him off against Bishops and in the end went with Excess just because of how good and reactive the sales guy was.

The packers turned up on Dec 27th at toward 1PM and by 6PM the following day they had packed the house and were on thier way - VERY good service.

After that I heard sweet FA, I had to phone them for an ETA of when my property would be loaded and shipped. Once I had that it arrived in Philli on Feb 6th.

Lesson 1: Find out where your goods will be shipped to. We had a shared container and we almost opted for a full container. The partial container shipped to Philli and if we had opted for the full container it would of arrived in Houston (4 hours drive from Dallas which is where we live !!!

The agents in Philli were nothing short of cr*p. The communication has been poor, the agents can't speak proper English (be prepared to hear that eastern block accent again). To cut a very long story short we turned down the initial delivery date as we had no house. Because we are in Texas, they only send a truck down this far every 2-3 weeks meaning they will miss the requested delivery date of March 1st (they never explained this to us and we assumed they would be sending a small truck down here with our gear on it !!). Anyway, after a phone call to the original Sales guy we have got the date moved.

Our goods were inspected by customs which has given us a charge of $250. Excess Baggage has yet to prove that our container was searched!!! , until they do, I won't pay.

Anyway, I will update on March 2nd once everything arrives.

wisewol

What I have just realised is that we probably had an extra day of packing as our house is not kerb side and the nearest place to park is about 150ft from the front door or 140ft and 19 steps from the back, you can just imagine their faces when they saw the walk to the van

Steve Lawson

These are the main seaports the movers use for their part-loads: New York, Baltimore, Jacksonville/Miami, Los Angeles. If you are moving anywhere else, then there is a long journey to your home from the agents warehouse. If you use a shipping company, we usually ship every week to every port (including Houston, Seattle, Frisco, for instance); so it's quicker and less handling. I bet your mover shipped via LA or Miami, hence the 2 or 3 week wait.

nooka

Well I've had four quotes now, and we've made our decision. We are going with Simpsons because a) they were the cheapest (by about £400) and b) I liked the approach of the guy who came the most. Their quote was £2,351.25

The Robinson's chap was a bit of a wide boy, told me Pickfords was going bust, took ages to get the quote back to me (had to be reminded), only offered full load. The quote was £3,000

The Pickford's girl was nice, but it all seemed a bit production line (like taking our stuff off to some depot miles away). She got back the quickest with the quote, but there seemed to be a lot of people involved which made me wonder how personal the service was. The quote was: £2,844

The White's guy was more interested in telling me stories about the people he'd moved and the shows he'd organised. They somehow got the details wrong and quoted me for a move to San Francisco. This obviously cost rather more (£3,800)

The other factor for me was time, where Simpson's anticipated gettign our stuff to us the quickest, at 6-8 weeks, Pickfords and Robinson's both estimated 8-10 weeks.

So all our stuff is getting packed up in eleven days time. Scary stuff!

Steve Lawson

Good luck - interesting that the Robinsons guy said Pickfords were going bust? They are not - what is more, it is unprofessional and probably illegal for the rep to imply they are!

By the way it is a 10 days sailing to NYC and possible to get your stuff door-to-door in about 4-5 weeks in a sole-use container for that price. Nevertheless, Simpsons are a good firm and will take care of you.

Jerseygirl

Yep we used Pickfords...although they quoted 8/10 weeks it arrived at our apartment in 6.

LadyBelle

I'm looking for Pickfords contact info; does anyone happen to have a phone number for them? Cheers.

LadyBelle

[QUOTE=nooka;6038872]Well I've had four quotes now, and we've made our decision. We are going with Simpsons because a) they were the cheapest (by about £400) and b) I liked the approach of the guy who came the most. Their quote was £2,351.25
/QUOTE]
Nooka - Did you get a shared container? Would you mind sharing how big your container is? We are beginning the quotes process too. Thanks!

nooka

I don't know how big the container is, but we were told we'd probably be using about 3/5ths of it (cubit measurement of around about 610-690, depending on the company, although I swear it's the same stuff!).

I got the number for Pickfords of the internet - just googled it. I've thrown thebit of paper away now, or I'd tell you

nooka

Oh, and Pickfords have come back to me saying they'd try and match the Simpson's quote - they are definitely the most business hungry - I got the quote the next day and have had three phone calls and two e-mails since!