AOMH

Sounds like you had a good experience however we were bringing everything and paid almost AUS$12,000 for a full house pack of a 40ft container. When you pay a significant amount like that you expect a top class service. This was far from what Grace delivered. We ended up with a list of broken, damaged & missing items (which were never located) and were told by Grace - we are sorry you've had this experience however insurance will cover it and we hope you allow us the chance to prove we can do better sometime in the future. No way would I ever use them again. I'm still sorting things out through insurance over 2mths later. We have a 2year old LG American style fridge freezer which was damaged in the move. So badly that water floods our kitchen daily and we've had to turn off the ice and water making functions which were the main reason we bought the fridge in the first place. The LG service men here in Ireland cannot locate the part as it is an Australian model and it now looks as if we have to have an entire new door shipped from Australia. The daily phone calls & emails, hours on the phone and at the computer when I should be unpacking boxes and settling into our new life does not match the image Grace portray in their shiny brochures. And to make matters worse the agent they use in Belfast, Irish Relocations, were just awful. When the truck arrived the driver ploughed into our neighbours garden and tore their front garden to pieces - what a way to make a new start in a new place. They laughed when I stood there almost in tears and said - accidents happen, we didn't do it on purpose. Nobody called head office until I asked them to. They then proceeded to use our garden tools to try repair (slightly) what they had done. As the owner of the house involved had already left for work they never had to face them - they simply slipped a note through their letter box. I was left to face them when they returned from work that evening. To top the disastrous day of delivery off - the driver of the truck then used our kitchen knives to open boxes as he hadn't bought any tools of his own. The level of amateurishness of this company was laughable if I hadn't actually been so upset. I believe Grace used the cheapest option they could this side. Overall I also felt that their packing of our possessions was substandard compared to what we had experienced on previous moves. I won't bore you with the list of broken and missing items but believe me when I say they were many and lets just say my children currently do not have their swing set that they spent many of their early years playing on. If a friend or family member was moving tomorrow I would say - do not use Grace and use someone who has an office in the country you are moving too. You may still have problems with your shipment & it's delivery, but at least you could talk to them during local office hours and visit them face to face if necessary. My last email from the Brisbane Branch manager on the 3rd of October said - leave it with me and I'll try to find out exactly what went wrong. To date I've never heard anything back. I honestly feel like it was a pat on the head saying - go away and be a good girl - but really they were saying she's thousands of miles away, what can she do. And I'm the one left sorting out the mess.

Definitely not Grace. Anyone but Grace I would say. We relocated from Brisbane to Ireland recently and used Grace -it is my biggest regret in the entire move. If I was doing it again I would use a company that has an office in the country you are moving to. Grace uses local agents and the company they used in our instance was a nightmare to deal with. So much so I had to try to communicate with them via Grace in Australia. Even then Grace would tell me that they had heard nothing back due to time difference issues. This was our 3rd international move and I thought I knew what I was doing. In our previous moves we had never had to make an insurance claim or chase up missing items. However we had both on this occasion. It made what was a stressful time even more stressful.

Hi Emmalouise Tried to send you private message the other day but it bounced back as system said you weren't set up to receive private messages. I'm not on Facebook so can't add you there. You can't post e-mail addresses or phone numbers on the general forums. Maybe try changing your membership settings on here so you can receive messages. Olivia

Hi Emmalouise We moved here from Ireland about 14 months ago. We have 2 daughters, 6 & 3 years old and live in North Lakes. If you want to meet up for a tea or coffee some day just send me a private message? Olivia

Hi Martina Have just sent you a private message re playdate. Olivia

Hi Martina We moved to North Lakes from Ireland at the beginning of the year with our 2 daughters, youngest the same age as yours. Have met lots of nice people since we came over but always keen to meet some more. I'm helping out with school swimming for my oldest daughters class this week but would would love to meet up sometime soon for a playdate or coffee. Olivia