Shipping things from UK to California
 

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

Re: Shipping things from UK to California
 

Hello to a fellow Yorkshire person, we moved from Huddersfield to LA last year and used Allied Pickfords, they were fantastic, they packed everything, took it away and unpacked it when it arrived here, we were fortunate enough to have the company pay for our move as I think they are quite expensive but having been so pleased with how they looked after everything I'd quite happily pay if we had to do it again..Only thing was it did take longer than expected, I think we waited about 10 weeks. Photos, CD's, some books and other things we wanted to arrive earlier we had sent by air, again Allied Pickfords dealt with it all and these all arrived about 2 weeks after we arrived.
Good luck with the move. :)

Re: Shipping things from UK to California
 

Just to add, if you're planning to move in a few weeks time I'd try and make a decision fairly quickly, you have to fill out customs forms and insurance forms and this can take a while as you have to document everything, down to the last pair of socks.

Re: Shipping things from UK to California
 

Huh? :confused: :confused:

That's not you. Where're the tits?!

Re: Shipping things from UK to California
 

alright my gorgeous friend :D I'm not feeling like a 'tit' person at the moment so I thought I'd have a change, its a reminder of how bad I'll look if I don't give up smoking soon.. :eek:

Re: Shipping things from UK to California
 

P.S. Sorry, Jon - didn't mean to hijack your thread :o

I would say it probably is the best way, but I would certainly recommend asking on here about the company you plan to use and getting an idea from people who have used them what their service was like.

If you get them to do the packing for you, you're better off in terms of insurance as well.

Re: Shipping things from UK to California
 

Egads! Why is everyone around me quitting? It's a conspiracy to make me feel guilty about still smoking.

My hubby gave up 12 days ago. I feel like such a mean bitch, smoking in the car. Doesn't stop me doing it though :D

Re: Shipping things from UK to California
 

Having just moved to California from Scotland we are in the process of shipping our things at the moment - although we have shipped almost the entire contents of our house!

My main bit of advice is to keep on top of the shipment. Our things are currently about 5 weeks overdue because of a mistake by the shipping company - we asked for them to be stored in LA when they arrived until we had our apartment ready, and the company messed up and stored them in London! So make sure you make regular calls to check on the status of your shipment. We are now in week 15 waiting for our things to arrive.

We looked at all the ways to ship things and this way seemed the least amount of hassle and the cheapest.

Good luck with the move!

Re: Shipping things from UK to California
 

Whereabouts in California are you? Welcome to the forum :)

Re: Shipping things from UK to California
 

We're in Irvine, Orange County. We moved over 2 months ago when my husband's company won a contract over here. Loving it so far!

Thanks for the welcome!

Re: Shipping things from UK to California
 

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 ;)

Re: Shipping things from UK to California
 

I used Allied Pickfords to ship some things after my dad died in february.They were very good.It was about 450lbs in weight and I paid 1000 pound.Took about 8weeks to get here.
Welcome to the forum.

Re: Shipping things from UK to California
 

welcome from me too :) sorry to hear about the bad luck you're having with your stuff, I remember its pretty crap waiting for things to arrive, its like Christmas though when it does arrive, it feels so nice to have all your familiar things around you, we're not far from you in east LA, if you get stuck with anything and need any advice on where to go etc etc send me a PM, I'm only too happy to help, same goes to you JonMMUK, we've just celebrated our first year of being here and I know how hard it is trying to settle in and find your feet.

Re: Shipping things from UK to California
 

Thanks - must admit I'm looking forward to everything arriving. We're living with a TV, futon and balcony furniture at the moment! To be fair we should have checked on it earlier, my husband's company had arranged it all and I just assumed they were on top of it!

Thanks for the offer of advice, I've found the topics on the forum a lifeline already so I'm sure I'll take you up on it!

Re: Shipping things from UK to California
 

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.