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Shipping things from UK to California

Shipping things from UK to California

Old Jul 8th 2005, 1:34 am
  #16  
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Default Re: Shipping things from UK to California

Originally Posted by sohosid
Hi all,

We are just about to head out to California too. We have booked our shipping with Robinsons. Great customer service, bit pricey.

I'll let you know in a few weeks how good their packing was, and how accurate their shipping estimate was.

Mike.
Hope it all goes well

When do you get here?
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Old Jul 8th 2005, 2:52 am
  #17  
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Default Re: Shipping things from UK to California

Originally Posted by JonMMUK
Apologies if this has been posted before in other threads - new to the forum!

My wife and I are about to relocate from Sheffield (South Yorks, UK) to Ventura County, California. Does anyone have any suggestions/experience/recommendations about how to ship some of our more fragile things out there? By fragile, I mean things like crockery, a few bits of artwork, lots and lots of CDs, a few other odds and ends, the majority of which will be in sealed cardboard boxes.

We had thought about using one of those companies which pick it up from your house, put it inside a crate on a boat and voila! a month later it arrives in San Pedro... but is this the best way? Any input would be much appreciated!

Oh, and we're planning to move sometime at the end of August.

Thanks,
Jon
We shipped from the UK to Southern Utah and it was a very stressful experience!! We used F & N Worldwide and they had to pack everything for us as apparently it is a requirement when shipping to the USA??
Everything was okay until it reached the east coast of the states. The container has to be passed through X ray at the port of entry. customs decided that they wanted to open and inspect our contents (40ft container). When customs want to open you have no choice and you have to pay to have the items repacked - in our case $1500. If they damage anything that they unpack they are not liable so make sure that you have good insurance cover! Every box that they opened they damaged so we had to make a claim on our insurance and after the excess it really was not worth the bother. Look carefully at your Insurance policy as ours did not cover computer equipment and guess what , customs inspected box with computer equipment in and despite it being in working order when it left the UK , it no longer worked when it reached the USA!! When our container got going again it travelled across the country by rail to Long Beach CA to go through customs again! we had to pay 2 days storage charge there . If you want your possessions you have to cough up any charge that they levy. We finally got our container only 4 weeks late! My advice is really question the moving company on the whole process as once it is underway they really do not want to know and if you want the contents of your home you have pay whatever is asked of you. All we kept being told was that Homeland security can do what they like!!
Good Luck
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Old Jul 8th 2005, 2:57 am
  #18  
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Default Re: Shipping things from UK to California

There have been a few threads here on this - we used Crown and were very impressed - they packed everything and filled out all the inventory and most of the customs forms for us - arrived early, great service although some of our hanging clothes were a bit crumpled. We had a whole container - to Dallas - wasn't cheap, i want to say about 4k all told but luckily my company paid. I would recommend them but have no experience of other companies. Worth sorting as soon as possible though!!

Good luck
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Old Jul 8th 2005, 11:52 am
  #19  
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Default Re: Shipping things from UK to California

We are just in the process of getting quotes. The one from Pickfords has come in at about £2,500. I am still waiting for the ones from Robinsons and a local firm. I will post the amounts as soon as I get them. I can not remember the cubic ft. but I do know that they estimate the cost on volume and not weight.

Cheers

Tiny
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Old Jul 8th 2005, 4:12 pm
  #20  
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Default Re: Shipping things from UK to California

We used 'Abels' removals company. They were fantastic. Like a swarm of ants in my house clearing and packing up everything we owned in a couple of days.
I think it depends on where you are going as to who they use at the US end. They don't have US offices and contracted the work to Paramount transportation who sadly, were not as gentle as the UK guys. Having said that, nothing was broken at all, but they left my sofa in the rain!
I would definately use Abels when we move back.
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Old Jul 8th 2005, 4:47 pm
  #21  
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Default Re: Shipping things from UK to California

We used Euro-USA, they were great.

We paid to have the stuff sent from the UK to NC, but we had a change of plan once we arrived here and ended up in WA, on the other coast. EuorUSA just re-routed everything, kept stuff in storage for us for a couple of weeks FOC and still charged us the price of the original quote.
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Old Jul 13th 2005, 10:48 am
  #22  
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Default Re: Shipping things from UK to California

Got the quote from the other 2 firms

Robinsons £2,300
Local firm £1,700

This is for about 320 cubic ft.

Originally Posted by Tinyburst
We are just in the process of getting quotes. The one from Pickfords has come in at about £2,500. I am still waiting for the ones from Robinsons and a local firm. I will post the amounts as soon as I get them. I can not remember the cubic ft. but I do know that they estimate the cost on volume and not weight.

Cheers

Tiny
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Old Jul 13th 2005, 11:02 am
  #23  
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Default Re: Shipping things from UK to California

This is something we will need to be looking into pretty soon as well, so have been interested in the replies. We will be moving from the UK to Virginia.

I see most people here have a whole container and quite a lot of stuff to ship, we will only have about 10 boxes (maybe less) as plan on selling/giving away most things. Can anyone recommend a company who will ship boxes for us?

Thanks.
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Old Jul 13th 2005, 11:07 am
  #24  
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Default Re: Shipping things from UK to California

Originally Posted by Wintersong
Glad to hear you're loving it I've only been here 2 months too, so the honeymoon period is still in full swing (in more ways than one! I got married at the beginning of April).

Hope you stick around the forum - we need more of a California contingent
Add me to the list! Been here permanently since Jan 2004. Or I should say there not here as I'm back visiting the UK right now. Weather is amazing here! Feel hotter than Cali!

Welcome to the new arrivals.
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Old Jul 13th 2005, 11:09 am
  #25  
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Default Re: Shipping things from UK to California

Originally Posted by nai_in_av
This is something we will need to be looking into pretty soon as well, so have been interested in the replies. We will be moving from the UK to Virginia.

I see most people here have a whole container and quite a lot of stuff to ship, we will only have about 10 boxes (maybe less) as plan on selling/giving away most things. Can anyone recommend a company who will ship boxes for us?

Thanks.
Check out http://www.shipit.co.uk/ especially good for small shipments. I used them.
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Old Jul 13th 2005, 4:47 pm
  #26  
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Default Re: Shipping things from UK to California

Originally Posted by CaliforniaBride
Add me to the list! Been here permanently since Jan 2004. Or I should say there not here as I'm back visiting the UK right now. Weather is amazing here! Feel hotter than Cali!

Welcome to the new arrivals.
Whereabouts in Cali are you?
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Old Jul 13th 2005, 4:53 pm
  #27  
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Default Re: Shipping things from UK to California

Originally Posted by CaliforniaBride
Check out http://www.shipit.co.uk/ especially good for small shipments. I used them.
I used www.shipit.co.uk too. My wife an I moved from London to Massachsetts 4 months ago. We chose to pack everything ourselves to save money (this is allowed, contrary to an earlier posting).

They charged by the cubic metre once everything was palletised and shrink-wrapped. Ours was about 5 cubic metres and came in at about 1200 quid. Took approx 5 weeks to arrive.

Everything was undamaged, including PC, monitor, printer, scenner etc. hi-fi equipment and a lot of glassware and crockery so I guess I'd have to recommend them.

Feel free to PM me if anyone wants further details.
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Old Jul 13th 2005, 4:58 pm
  #28  
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Default Re: Shipping things from UK to California

Originally Posted by JonMMUK
Apologies if this has been posted before in other threads - new to the forum!

My wife and I are about to relocate from Sheffield (South Yorks, UK) to Ventura County, California. Does anyone have any suggestions/experience/recommendations about how to ship some of our more fragile things out there? By fragile, I mean things like crockery, a few bits of artwork, lots and lots of CDs, a few other odds and ends, the majority of which will be in sealed cardboard boxes.

We had thought about using one of those companies which pick it up from your house, put it inside a crate on a boat and voila! a month later it arrives in San Pedro... but is this the best way? Any input would be much appreciated!

Oh, and we're planning to move sometime at the end of August.

Thanks,
Jon

Hi Jon

I used: http://www.excessbaggage.com/ - door to door from London to Boston. The stuff took a little longer to arrive than they indicated (about 10 weeks by sea, I think they indicated 6) but they pack the fragile items extremely well. My boxes arrived a couple of days ago, so far I have unpacked the 2 which had all the glass & crockery in and NOTHING was broken or damaged!

MB
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Old Jul 18th 2005, 2:01 pm
  #29  
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Default Re: Shipping things from UK to California

I have just checked with all 3 of the shipping firms that I have quotes from. If customs choose your container you (the customer) will have to pay for repacking. If you are sharing a container the repacking cost will be split between all the parties sharing the container.

Originally Posted by brit/usa
We shipped from the UK to Southern Utah and it was a very stressful experience!! We used F & N Worldwide and they had to pack everything for us as apparently it is a requirement when shipping to the USA??
Everything was okay until it reached the east coast of the states. The container has to be passed through X ray at the port of entry. customs decided that they wanted to open and inspect our contents (40ft container). When customs want to open you have no choice and you have to pay to have the items repacked - in our case $1500. If they damage anything that they unpack they are not liable so make sure that you have good insurance cover! Every box that they opened they damaged so we had to make a claim on our insurance and after the excess it really was not worth the bother. Look carefully at your Insurance policy as ours did not cover computer equipment and guess what , customs inspected box with computer equipment in and despite it being in working order when it left the UK , it no longer worked when it reached the USA!! When our container got going again it travelled across the country by rail to Long Beach CA to go through customs again! we had to pay 2 days storage charge there . If you want your possessions you have to cough up any charge that they levy. We finally got our container only 4 weeks late! My advice is really question the moving company on the whole process as once it is underway they really do not want to know and if you want the contents of your home you have pay whatever is asked of you. All we kept being told was that Homeland security can do what they like!!
Good Luck
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Old Jul 18th 2005, 2:16 pm
  #30  
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Default Re: Shipping things from UK to California

Originally Posted by tonrob
I used www.shipit.co.uk too. My wife an I moved from London to Massachsetts 4 months ago. We chose to pack everything ourselves to save money (this is allowed, contrary to an earlier posting).

They charged by the cubic metre once everything was palletised and shrink-wrapped. Ours was about 5 cubic metres and came in at about 1200 quid. Took approx 5 weeks to arrive.

Everything was undamaged, including PC, monitor, printer, scenner etc. hi-fi equipment and a lot of glassware and crockery so I guess I'd have to recommend them.

Feel free to PM me if anyone wants further details.
I also packed my own stuff. All I had to do was make a list of what I had packed and approximate age of items.
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