JBO76 Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 We are now just under 2 months until we fly to Melbourne and currently trying to pick which mover to go with. The dicsion is a tough one and I would really appreciate your thoughts and comments on who you would pick in my situation. We have spoken to Crown, John Mason and Doree Bonner - all agree that we need a 40ft container. Crown- have quoted £7,828 and said that we have 1,850 cubic ft Doree - have quoted £7,236 and said that we have 1,950 cubic ft and that we need 4 days to pack. John Mason - have quoted £6,165 and said that we have just 1,500 cubic ft and will need 3 days to pack Doree are also offering a free pickup from Melbourne airport and 8 weeks free storage on arrival. Crown are not offering any free storage and have the highest handling and rental charge so I am writing them off for now. This leaves Doree and John Mason. The guy from Doree is adamant that we will need 4 days with 3 people to pack and says that John Mason sub contract the packing to a firm in Croydon "who are not international shippers" but just general removal folks. He also says it is highly likely that something will go wrong if John Mason have underestimated the time required to pack and the volume and that this could lead to an additional charge. I am not sure he is right but I certainly dont want to get hit will an additional bill on the day if the move does turn out be more than they initially expected. When I look at the inventories the Doree one is more comprehensive and detailed. The other big difference is the handling charge when the container is unpacked (if you need storage before delivery). John Mason charge £315 and Doree £728. I have negotiated hard with both Doree and John Mason but this has yielded little movement - John Mason droped £125 and Doree say they have nowhere to go and right now are not dropping their price. I am no stranger to making financial decisions but find this one a bit tricky.......... Both Doree and Mason seem to have good feedback on POI and I would love to save £1,000 if I can as I am funding the move myself. I would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been hit with additional charges by John Mason where the volume turned out to be higher than quoted and also whetehr they did outsource the packing (in the South of England) to a 3rd party and whether this was a problem or not. What would you do? Many thanks in advance for your responses. Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 3Pirrets2Oz Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Hi,Just wanted to let you know that I went with Doree Bonner - they picked our stuff up approx 2 weeks ago now. Granted, we were taking a lot less than you, but we found them to be excellent and their cubic feet quote was pretty accurate. In fact when they got our stuff back to their warehouse and measured it, it came up slightly below the quoted volume and I had a phone call from Doree Bonner to let me know I am due a refund! Our shipping experience is certainly not anywhere near complete, however Doree have been great so far.Good luck with whatever you choose! A xP.s. we took our shipping insurance thru letton Percival, which saved us a fair whack - maybe get a quote from them? That might knock a bit off your price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoandJon Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 I'd get in touch with John Mason and query their estimated footage - tell them it's substantially less than the others, and you're concerned about the implications. Maybe get it in writing that they are liable for any costs if they are delayed due to underestimate of time packing, or volume packed. Or explain to them that you're concerned about who's doing the packing - what do they say about it? And definitely keep an eye on the packing regardless of who you go with - and when they arrive, tell them that you're a paranoid git who will be watching them very closely (blame your insurance if you have to) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleabo Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Do any of the quotes include AQIS fees? (Crown have probably included it in their quote). Don't believe anything any of the sales people tell you - you will never see them again. The whole removal business seems to operate on a sub-contract basis. We used Crown, on the first day of packing, three sub-contractors turned up in Anglo-Pacific polo shirts. (They had been sub-contracted by Crown, but mistakenly thought it was Anglo-Pacific). The next day they turned up in Crown T-shirts. But they had Crown boxes in the van from day 1.....they did a good job though. I seem to remember both the Crown and Anglo salesperson both saying they didn't use subbies. The packing is important, but there are many opportunities for accidents to befall your goods and chattles that you or your chosen removalist has much control over. We also had a 40ft container - took our blokes (3 off) 2.5 days to pack, and a couple of hours to load the container (re-enforcements turned up for the loading). Cheers and good luck with your decision! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Its funny because we have heard of so many companies coming around and slating their competitors, to me this isn't good business practise but it seems to happen a lot in the removal industry. I would personally contact Masons and let them know what has been said and double check everything. There are lots of members on here who have used them and been happy so I am sure if they were met by extra charges they would have said on here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millers Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 We came to Australia with John Masons and they were more or less correct with the cubic measurements we needed ( infact they were a little over on the estimate) and provided good hard working people to pack all our stuff in one day...we were happy and would recommend.and all our stuff arrived in one piece. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whatsitallabout Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 we used Doree & they were fantastic, nothing broken, nothing missing, no hiden costs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest62720 Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 I have checked around with a number of removers and it seems it is standard practise for many removers to use ‘permanent sub-contractors’. The packing crews are all very experienced but one day could be packing for Remover A and the next for Remover B, as it all depends upon the work load at the time. Most packers tend to be employed by a packing company (rather than a remover) who are then contracted to the remover on a job by job basis as no remover can really afford to have their own employees hanging around during the more quieter periods. As for over or under estimating the volume of a shipment then this is primarily down to the Estimator who visits your house. If there is a big variance in volume being quoted by the removers then bring it to all of their attentions. I suspect most of the main removers are pretty good in getting the volume more or less right but it is important to know up front what happens if, at the packing stage, the actual volume is significantly higher or lower than first estimated and for what you are being charged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ali Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 It would put me off right away if a company slagged off their competitor - i'd think it unproffessional and they'd be well off my list. Can only comment about John Mason who moved us, they were accurate in their estimate because they gave us a very detailed quote (one company quoted us for 6 bikes ... there were 2), the guy from John Mason was the only one who went into our loft and said "tell me what you're taking". The packers worked like trojens and had everything done and on the container in 2.5 days (as they said they would), they were there from 7am in the morning and left at 5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBO76 Posted July 12, 2012 Author Share Posted July 12, 2012 A big thanks to everyone who replied to this thread, your views and thoughts are much appreciated. I have approached John mason and asked them to clarify the position if volume has been underestimated. I have also asked them to provide revised storage and handling costs based on a larger volume so that I can be sure to compare like with like. i have also asked both parties to specify how many man days they have allowed to pack the container. Was hoping to get this all locked down this week but suspect it might take a little longer.........once movers are locked in, it's on to selling the car, getting the house ready for rent, sell unwanted stuff on eBay, get addresses changed and brace myself for a lot of goodbyes! Moving to the other side of the world sure takes some effort! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sudzy Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 we used Doree & they were fantastic, nothing broken, nothing missing, no hiden costs! WE used Doree Bonner and had damaged and missing items. Also very poor, in fact terrible communication from the office. At one stage I didn't know if our stuff had been shipped or not right when we had decided to leave it in storage if it wasn't. (if you follow me!!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DR Moving to Oz Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Me personally, Will sell everything before i go and start again. If most people are like me over the years i have horded a lot of junk that i hardly ever see or use. so if i can get a couple of grand for my belongings and save between £6-8 grand that to me would be a good fresh start and i would have got rid of a lot of hastle. obviously there will be a a few personal items i could not live without which i can ship for a huge saving. Thats my view Good luck with your move Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Geodyne Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 This leaves Doree and John Mason. The guy from Doree is adamant that we will need 4 days with 3 people to pack and says that John Mason sub contract the packing to a firm in Croydon "who are not international shippers" but just general removal folks. He also says it is highly likely that something will go wrong if John Mason have underestimated the time required to pack and the volume and that this could lead to an additional charge. I am not sure he is right but I certainly dont want to get hit will an additional bill on the day if the move does turn out be more than they initially expected. I'm not sure where you are but it sounds like you've been dealing with the DB agent I dealt with when moving from Cambridge to Tasmania in 2010. His sheer negativity and bad-mouthing of the competitors guaranteed that DB didn't get my business in addition to, like you've found, the more competitive quote JM gave. The other thing that swayed me was the JM assured me they could pack the container at my house in a narrow laneway, whereas the others wanted to pack a van and tranship later. I wanted to see my container locked in front of me. Remember if you watch the container being packed you can make decision about whether to leave anything out if you do run out of space. I ended up going with JM and had the contractors out of Croydon turn up in a JM van to pack my house. They did almost all of the packing in a single 6-hour day (20-foot container and a house full of antiques) and had the container packed in 3 hours the following day. I can't see a problem with a 3-day pack, especially if you've prepared to make things easy for them. My container went through Melbourne and I had excellent comminication both at the UK and Australian ends (albeit dealing with the Hobart Office). Of the whole container, I lost a single, 6-for-£5 champagne flute to a crack, one of a sacrificial set I'd bought for parties. I've moved a lot and I'd recommend JM again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Geodyne Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I didn't address the extra charges query. Like you I was worried about extra charges but didn't have a problem with JM. You'd be surprised what will fit in a container. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millers Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 A big thanks to everyone who replied to this thread, your views and thoughts are much appreciated. I have approached John mason and asked them to clarify the position if volume has been underestimated. I have also asked them to provide revised storage and handling costs based on a larger volume so that I can be sure to compare like with like. i have also asked both parties to specify how many man days they have allowed to pack the container. Was hoping to get this all locked down this week but suspect it might take a little longer.........once movers are locked in, it's on to selling the car, getting the house ready for rent, sell unwanted stuff on eBay, get addresses changed and brace myself for a lot of goodbyes! Moving to the other side of the world sure takes some effort! Good luck with everything, everything you are about to do car, house rented, ebay etc....i can relate to all that as we did it in jan this year and it is stressfull but bloodywell worth it. One tip about your car is when you are selling it dont tell the potential buyers that you are emigrating as they know you are desperate to sell and will offer you peanuts...but if you do slip up and tell them just say that if it doesnt sell you are leaving it with a family member to sell for you after you have gone. All the best, Millers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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