jonstp Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 For those considering shipping personal effects to Oz. Here is our recent experience. I recently bought a 20' shipping container, loaded all my stuff into it, tools, antiques, etc and shipped to Oz. Got a price of £1800 for the shipping cost. All got picked up and off it went. I took a long holiday in Asia over christmas and then arrived at about the same time the boat. Then the nightmare began. All effects into Australia, now have a mandatory unpack in a customs bonded warehouse. Which in itself is not a problem if you know that and had it all palletised before hand. I declared I had timber in the container, please fumigate container on arrival. Ohhhh no. you can't do that, you have to pay for customs inspection, unpack the container, fumigate offending items, repack. Again this would be ok if you could do it yourself. No. you have to watch a bunch of ***** tip your life out onto warehouse floor, kick it about and then in my case, pack heavy tools on top of fragile antiques. About 3 customs and quarantine inspection fees later, torrents of abuse for not having stuff palletised.... I got a bill for $7500 for customs clearance and labour etc etc. and if that wasn't bad enough they then confiscated two antique daggers worth $6000. Anything with a blade longer than 40cm they take, excepting kitchen knives. The fact that one dagger was decorative and had an unsharpened blade was of no consequence. Damage to antiques was high. Not a single piece was undamaged. Fortunately, I know how to repair them so it will be just my time.. but that is not the point All up given the cost of new container, trucking, shipping, fees. Total cost was £12,000. Yes it was worth it but only because I had a few high value items. My advice to anyone thinking about moving would be only ship high value items and palletise everything. You will probably have to do it yourself i.e. load boxes onto pallets and cling wrap the boxes to pallet but totally worth it. If I had known then cost would have been $5000 less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyupnorth Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 I'm sure if you asked PPS, Pickfords, Whites, Britania or any other shipping company it would have saved a fortune and they would have advised what you could have shipped. They don't only charge to pack and shift they also charge for their knowledge too. Should have posted on here too, there's loads of advice on the shipping thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tappers2oz Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 That appalling! Can you not claim for the damaged stuff?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northernbird Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 For those considering shipping personal effects to Oz. Here is our recent experience. I recently bought a 20' shipping container, loaded all my stuff into it, tools, antiques, etc and shipped to Oz. Got a price of £1800 for the shipping cost. All got picked up and off it went. I took a long holiday in Asia over christmas and then arrived at about the same time the boat. Then the nightmare began. All effects into Australia, now have a mandatory unpack in a customs bonded warehouse. Which in itself is not a problem if you know that and had it all palletised before hand. I declared I had timber in the container, please fumigate container on arrival. Ohhhh no. you can't do that, you have to pay for customs inspection, unpack the container, fumigate offending items, repack. Again this would be ok if you could do it yourself. No. you have to watch a bunch of ***** tip your life out onto warehouse floor, kick it about and then in my case, pack heavy tools on top of fragile antiques. About 3 customs and quarantine inspection fees later, torrents of abuse for not having stuff palletised.... I got a bill for $7500 for customs clearance and labour etc etc. and if that wasn't bad enough they then confiscated two antique daggers worth $6000. Anything with a blade longer than 40cm they take, excepting kitchen knives. The fact that one dagger was decorative and had an unsharpened blade was of no consequence. Damage to antiques was high. Not a single piece was undamaged. Fortunately, I know how to repair them so it will be just my time.. but that is not the point All up given the cost of new container, trucking, shipping, fees. Total cost was £12,000. Yes it was worth it but only because I had a few high value items. My advice to anyone thinking about moving would be only ship high value items and palletise everything. You will probably have to do it yourself i.e. load boxes onto pallets and cling wrap the boxes to pallet but totally worth it. If I had known then cost would have been $5000 less. A reputable shipping company would have cost less. Sounds to me like you tried to take the cheap option and it's bitten you right on the arse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rallyman Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 For every bad experience , you will get 2 good ones , sorry to hear of all your problems as they say it's only money, good luck with your new life down under Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fifi69 Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 The mandatory unpack by customs must be a new thing.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 (edited) I'm sorry you've had all this upset. Honestly though, much of what you've written I must admit to knowing about well in advance of choosing our shipping option and we planned accordingly for it all. We did a self pack, self ship only not with our own 20ft container. I'd researched that and ruled it out as an option for a number of reasons. However, we did self pack/load, we did include lots of items that were potential bio concerns (bikes etc) but had cleaned and prepped those items throughly and also treated the wooden item before we shipped it. We listed everything on the inventory. I am not aware of mandatory unpack for every container coming in. It is possible this is now the case but it also may be that they mean only containers that are not packed/shipped with a shipping company perhaps? So if you go the DIY route they want to check more carefully in case things have not be done properly as per their rules and regs (as in this case). I also think if you had delcared timber in the container to be fumigated on arrival, that may also have sent off warning signals or meant a mandatory unpack as they would want to check it perhaps? With so much valuble stuff I'd always say to people to go with a decent shipping company so they have some fall back and also the knowledge of the shippers to as they will tell you what can ship and what can't etc. A shipping company would have worked out less. Self packing tends to be far less common and in the past I've read of some straighforward self shipping but some that had hiccups or problems. Also insurance is harder to come by for self packing as I understand it. A good place for people looking at shipping their belongings in future is this page http://www.daff.gov.au/biosecurity/travel/moving-emigrating And then to research all the costs etc that may go with that and shipping companies and self pack options. For shipping in weapons, an import permit is needed. Of course, some things may still not be allowed, but there is at least a permit that can be applied for in the first instance which could mean the difference between losing something of antique value or being able to sell it before you leave or some such. http://www.customs.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/Import_BladedWeapons.pdf Edited March 9, 2014 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonstp Posted March 9, 2014 Author Share Posted March 9, 2014 No, if self packed you can only insure for total loss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonstp Posted March 9, 2014 Author Share Posted March 9, 2014 As far as I know the mandatory unpack is new, even the shipping agent handling the paperwork did not know about it. I would also add that I have brought in 20' containers full of personal effects before 1987 and 2006 (that included declared timber) and not a drama, open the doors, fumigate, stick on truck, bye. This time was not the case...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest62720 Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Sorry to hear about your experience but could you kindly advise a) if all the goods were all self packed and b) who arranged for the actual shipping and customs clearance - was this a freight forwarding company or a remover belonging to one of the UK national associations. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinkla Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 As others say, the advantaged with getting professional removals are: packing is stress free you get advice on what to take and not take the packers make the most of the space available packers use good quality packing materials the packers fill in the customs paperwork properly stuff will be boxed and/palleted with each container labelled and inventoried you are less likely to get the stuff searched you can get damage insurance everything gets delivered to your door at the far end When I moved, I found the cost of packing was negligible compared to the cost of shipping and insurance. I went to bed the night before the move with everything in place. The day of the move, the removalists did everything whilst I sat and watched. I then handed in my key to the landlord, went to a whisky tasting, spent the night in a hotel and got an early morning flight the next day. Easy peasy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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