Shipping Stuff to USA
 

Please don't shout at me - I did try the search engine on this but there was no recent/current stuff!
I just wondered if any recent immigrants had good/bad experiences with shipping companies over the last few months. Our move is imminent now and I need to appoint a removal firm.
Best recommendations, please??? ;)
Thanks.

Re: Shipping Stuff to USA
 

I posted this a while back, its my personal experience of just one company. My belongings arrived here Dec 2005, so its a recent experience. My opinion on this is very strong, Pickfords/Allied Group stink.

I used Pickfords to move four 7' containers, a semi arrived with just my belongings in it. In my case the whole process was a nightmare! I chose the company after the sales rep told me they had a parent group here in the US. They do, except they don't integrate too well. Pickfords UK didn't know what Allied (the US parent) were doing. I would get letters from Allied informing me of the transportation status, with information 3 or 4 weeks out of date.
Goods were packed in a very bad way, a few items were damaged. I had a Stetson in its original box and one of the removal guys must have got bored and doodled all over it! Not very professional.
My goods had been in storage, with Pickfords, in the UK, so they had to repack them for export. They had some delay (there fault) of 3 weeks and continued ot charge me for storage. They repacked my goods in no particular order. Items had been packed by room, but when they arrived I would find boxes with items from the bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, garage etc all in the same box. Huge packing boxes were labelled 'Lamp' and would have many other items in them, so unloading them was impossible. I ended up just having the delivery guys leave everything in my garage and unpack it myself (even though I had paid for the unpacking service). I tried complaining to Pickfords and Allied but it falls on deaf ears.
I'm not sure who an alternative would be, but my advise is expect the worst. DONT pay to have your goods unpacked, the delivery guys want to be in and out in 10 minutes. Expect some things to be damaged. Good luck!


You didn't mention how much stuff you were shipping.

Dave
http://britishexpats.com/photopost/u...5/IMG_0278.jpg

http://britishexpats.com/photopost/u...5/IMG_0275.jpg

Re: Shipping Stuff to USA
 

FYI:
Damaged items included:
an antique wood chair - leg broken in the middle (took some force to do)
an antique drop leaf desk - leg broken at joint, simple repair
a few plates and wine glasses broken - to be expected
Stetson box - defaced for no reason
leather sofa scuffed

Remarkably a very old stained glass and hand painted door that belonged to my deceased grandmother made the trip intact, even though they had only covered it in some bubblewrap.

Re: Shipping Stuff to USA
 

You might want to post your experience on the site, www.movingscam.com if there's a section for feedback on moving companies.


NC Penguin

Re: Shipping Stuff to USA
 

10 yrs ago we used Allied Pickfords. An expensive broach that I had left pinned to a coat was stolen. Apart from a large TV and a grandfather clock we didn't bring any furniture to the US. Our belongings arrived about 4 weeks after they left our house in the UK with no breakages.

Re: Shipping Stuff to USA
 

great site that....Van Lines is a dodgy scam outfit, though not all movers part of them are, there's one in Portland that had good reviews, but most were dodgy.

Allen's Mayflower generally had good reviews over here, and there's a fair few that do international moves, so they might be worth having a look out for...

avoid any one that uses' movers based out of florida though ...

Re: Shipping Stuff to USA
 

We used Allfrieght International They are based somewhere near Weybridge, and cover London inside M25, and I guess some other places SW off London.

We had about 1,100cuft of stuff (just under half a 40' frieght container) and Allfrieght we great. We did some of the packing ahead of time, but everything arrive in the US, and I don't recall that anything was broken .... oh one door hinge on a wardrobe was torn out, but it only took a little glue and a couple of clamps to fix it.

Re: Shipping Stuff to USA
 

I used Excess International Movers to move my stuff and was very pleased not only with the move but also with the cost - around 700GBP. Everythings went very smoothly at both ends and the paperwork was straight forward. I would recommend them.

www.overseasremovals.com

Re: Shipping Stuff to USA
 

BTW Pickfords/Allied charged £3,500, this included removing my goods from their storage and export packing them prior to shipping. Total time took almost 2 months from storgae in UK to delivery in Texas.

Re: Shipping Stuff to USA
 

I am moving back to the US in a couple of weeks and have used Simpsons (www.simpsons-uk.com). Don't know what the state of my stuff will be but will report back! I found them by doing a search on this forum. Guys were friendly. 325 cuft cost £1785 +insurance at 2.5% (they normally charge 2.95 but told them I had a better quote and they matched it!). It includes 4 weeks of storage and door-to-door service.

Previously I went with interdean interconnex who were superb, but I suspect very expensive - company paid and they are the company they used.

Although my company is paying again I had a budget of $5K and they seem to have come in well under that!

Re: Shipping Stuff to USA
 

They had me over a barrel, all my stuff was in their storage in the UK, it wasn't like I could get anybody other than them to deliver it. I had initially been told it would be 'about £2,500' when I initially put my stuff in storage with them. When I pressed for a written quote I was told that their system couldn't quote for a date more than 3 months ahead.
I truly felt like this was the first international move Pickfords had done and were on a learning curve. When I was finally ready to move I got the quote to move my stuff here and as the destination it said:
within a 100 mile radius of Texas !!!
Thats a big old area, the high quote seemed to cover every eventuality, for them.
There billing address was just as funny, they had the address as:

1234 MyStreet (my street address was here)
United States of America

That was it! No city, state or zip. Then I would get calls asking why I hadn't paid the bill, from the UK, at 3am and 4am. :zzz:

Re: Shipping Stuff to USA
 

We used Robinsons. Had 1080 cu ft of goods and it cost £1000 door to door with them packing and unpacking. Insurance was an extra £200 or so to cover damages and replacement if the boat went down.